Politico's Altmire/Critz Redistricting Scenario

Well, not surprisingly, the guy in D.C. got it wrong.

As any reader of the blog knows, I am a big fan of Congressman Altmire and keep up on news about him. Today's article was from a guy named Dan Hirschhorn in D.C. After reading the article, you can tell that there is no way that he lives in Pittsburgh. The summary of his article was this: Critz and Altmire will face each other in a 2012 primary because of redistricting. This is a favorable scenario for Critz as no one likes Altmire - including the party and labor. He then gets a quote from a guy that, upon looking him up, doesn't live anywhere near Pittsburgh. Mr. Hanna is someone that almost ran against Critz in the Special Election to fill Rep. Murtha's seat. He also gets a quote from a guy named Jack Shea who just doesn't like Altmire and tried to mount a run against Altmire in 2010. No quotes from the countless elected officials in Beaver and Lawrence Counties that stand behind Congressman Altmire.

There are lots of problems with Hirschhorn's assessment, though, and it was probably one of the worst articles I've read about the redistricting concepts so far. Not because of any damning news, but it was poorly written, poorly research, and just really far-fetched. First, Hirschhorn doesn't mention that this map was drawn up by someone who doesn't work for either party or the legislature. It was a random drawing by some kid who doesn't even live in Pennsylvania. While it's possible (and I guess somewhat likely) that this could occur, there are lots of situations that could play out. Writing an article that is bad news for anyone based on a color-by-number map is reckless and irresponsible. However, freedom of the press... write whatever you want, Dan.

Second, Hirschhorn writes that the geography would be favorable towards Critz. My first thought is, what is he smoking? So, I'm not sure what map Dan is looking at, but it appears that the current 4th Congressional District will get rid of northern Lawrence (all Republican), southern Butler/Cranberry (all Republican), and keep the areas where Congressman Altmire does really well - southern Lawrence, Beaver County, northern Allegheny County, and the AK Valley. The district would then go into Westmoreland County (where Altmire grew up) and reach out to Johnstown. Johnstown would be one of the smaller towns of the district. Congressman Altmire actually helped Critz in the AK Valley last year because of how well known Altmire is in his hometown. I'm not sure how this is map is a disadvantage to Altmire. Roughly 85% of his current district would remain the same and actually be stronger Democratically.

Third, the party and labor supported Arlen Specter. As much as I thought Arlen Specter would be our best candidate to win in November my question is: What is Mr. Specter doing now? He's retired. There is no big labor vote the distinguishes a difference between Critz and Altmire so why would the labor base of Beaver and Lawrence County abandon Altmire now?

Fourth, one of Dan's big points is that Altmire voted against the health care bill. Dan pulled a Tea Party line and claimed that 'Altmire infuriated many Democrats by publicly agonizing over his vote.' He didn't infuriated me, and I am glad that he waited until the actual bill was printed before he just blindly listened to Party leadership. Second, there is no mention of Critz's stance of being against the health care bill.

Overall, bad journalism. Bad research. I'm a progressive that understands Western Pennsylvania, and I think that Altmire is the only Democrat who could win in this district in the general election.

In full disclosure, you can read the article here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52167.html

Another 60 Plus Mailing for Rothfus

The other day I was told by a Keith Rothfus supporter that my first post about the Anti-Altmire 60 Plus Association direct mailing was "difficult to read the fine print on your blog, but it seems to be primarily an anti-tax ad, not anti-Altmire." and "In fairness, that ad doesn't even mention Rothfus OR voting against Altmire. It says "Call" him & ask him to vote."

If you can't see that this is a shady attack attempting to convince you that Congressman Altmire is behind the 'claims' of these mailers that are not true and talking points from Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh, then enjoy your far right world.

If Conservatives want to close their eyes and pretend they don't care where the money comes from for organziations like Americans for Job Security and the 60 Plus Association that will influence their Elections so be it. However, I don't want to see these same conservatives complain about candidate funding and attempt to make it a campaign issue. So I was surprised to see after I was told that there was nothing wrong with these anti-tax mailers, that this same blogger wrote a post about Congressman Altmire outfundraising Keith Rothfus. She tried to highlight money that Altmire received from groups with addresses outside of Pennsylvania as an campaign issue. It will be completely ignored by those that are blindly fowling the Republicans and Tea Party that at least $650,000 has been spent on TV and direct mail against Congressman Altmire. We will never know where that money has come from.

So once again, will Mr. Rothfus denounce these ads? It doesn't matter now, these ads have already accomplished what was needed. They have allowed Mr. Rothfus cover, while these organizations put out attacks on Congressman Altmire based on lies and innuendos.

Let the political ads begin

I have to say I enjoy political ads during the news this time of year. The positive ads are 60% spin and the negative ads are 75% scare tactics. I have seen mostly positive ads, except for some negative ads in the Special Election to fill Murtha's Congressional seat.

The great invention of the Internet (Thanks Al Gore! Even if the joke is based on a misinterpretation) allows candidates to post their ads on their websites and YouTube. While I question how much posting a commercial on YouTube helps reach undecided voters, it sure is fun for political geeks like me.

My favorite negative ad I've seen this year is by Keith Rothfus who is running in the Republican Primary against my favorite former US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan for Congress. While I don't agree with most of Keith Rothfus's platform, I do believe he is the better candidate for the Republican Primary. Sadly, his campaign has barely been mentioned thanks to Mary Beth Buchanan's superior name recognition.

Mr. Rothfus, you have my vote for best negative ad of this year's Primary season so far:

Mary Beth Buchanan and Corrupt Politicans

You may think that this post will be about Mary Beth's 'proud' record of going after 'corrupt politicians.' I wouldn't be proud of spending millions of our dollars to prove nothing, but Buchanan has been telling everyone that will listen about her fight against public corruption as she runs for Congress.

When one starts to throw stones, they better not live in a glass house. So will Mary Beth Buchanan answer any questions about her connection to corrupt staffers from State Senator Jane Orie's office? Mary Beth Buchanan's campaign manager is Kurt Acker. He is mentioned as a staffer aware of the illegal activities that were going on in Orie's office:

"During her testimony, Ms. Rioja quoted staff member Kurt Acker as once saying, "if the Attorney General's Office knew what was occurring in [Sen.] Orie's office, that 'they all would be in handcuffs.'"

Mary Beth Buchanan touts her job as a federal prosecutor going after politicians like Jane Orie, but she looks the other way when hiring these corrupt staffers for her own staff.

Update: Mr. Acker has since changed his twitter page since this blog was posted. Here is the screen shot from this morning:

Mary Beth Buchanan can't take the blogosphere's pressure

Earlier this week, I posted about Mary Beth Buchanan’s Amish problem. Thanks to some insightful information from a reader, I also found out about her stance as US Attorney against the religious rights of the Amish people.

Just as Candidate Buchanan couldn’t take the heat on Marty Griffin last month, she couldn’t take the heat from the blogs either. I checked her Facebook page today and she has removed the picture of her and an Amish man. While I’m glad that she has decided to respect the Amish people, I still feel it was wrong to take the picture and try to use for political gain.

As someone that believes strongly in the Constitution, I don’t want to see any religious rights stepped on. Our country is based on freedom of religion and separation of church and state. These freedoms are what our founders intended and I want politicians that will continue to fight for our Constitutional Rights.