2010 Pennsylvania House Race is Barletta's Best Chance to Unseat Kanjorski

The Pennsylvania primary is in May, but incumbent Rep. Paul Kanjorski, who has been in the House since 1985, will likely be the Democrats' candidate in November. Republican Lou Barletta became his party's de facto Pennsylvania primary victor when another Republican candidate, Chris Paige, dropped out of the competition in March. The only thing that could prevent a third head-on meeting between Barletta and Kanjorski is an act of God. But then again, God did intervene when David met Goliath, so don't be surprised to see Barletta wielding a slingshot.

Lou Barletta and Paul Kanjorski are "local boys" each in their respective enclaves. Kanjorski was born in Nanticoke, a mining town with a population that declined to 11,000 (2000 census) from its height of 27,000 in its heyday (the 30s). Barletta was born in Hazleton, a city of about 23,000 according to the 2000 Census.

Lou Barletta was born in Hazleton, the son of Italian immigrants, Angeline and Rocco Barletta. After graduating from a state college, Barletta tried out for the baseball Cincinnati Reds but didn't make the team. The family business was construction, and Barletta worked in the family business until setting out on his own-a pavement marking business which he sold in 2000. He began his political career on the Hazleton Town Council and was elected mayor in 1999.

Barletta made a surprisingly strong run against Kanjorski in 2002, though redistricting had put Scranton and its heavily Democrat population into Kanjorski's win column. Barletta came even closer to winning in his 2008 challenge to Kanjorski. Such a strong 11^th district showing for Barletta, in an area traditionally wedded to Democrats and public sector spending projects, shocked many political observers and kept alive Barletta's determined campaign to unseat Kanjorski.

Incumbent Rep. Paul Kanjorski is a lawyer. After prep school, he went to Temple University and then to Dickinson Law School. Kanjorski became a trial lawyer, a city solicitor and an administrative law judge for worker's compensation cases before he was elected to Congress in 1985. His gravelly voice belies his patrician background.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski has capitalized on the advantages of incumbency. It's a rare thing to drive the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area without bumping into a Kanjorski infrastructure project. He is known for getting federal money into his district, which pleases some contractors but angers others. Kanjorski has been criticized in the past for steering lucrative contracts to relatives, an accusation he denies.

Political pundits like to talk about "tough Chicago politics," but Pennsylvania politics can make Chicago look tame. If there is a fitting metaphor for the harshness of Northeastern Pennsylvania politics, it is the extreme cruelty of its anthracite mining disasters. The Twin-Shaft disaster of 1896 killed 58 miners and the better-known 1959 Knox Mine Disaster killed 12. When the Susquehanna River flooded the mines, the only thing that could stop the disaster from spreading was dumping silt-filled boxcars into the mines to plug up the holes.

Historical memories of hardship run deep, even three generations removed. Organized crime, river flooding, houses and streets fallen into sink holes, mining cave-ins, Black Mariah's, Molly Macguires, and underground coal fires are all part of the bad old days of Northeast Pennsylvania's political and cultural history.

The mines and related industries were operated by a workforce of an immigrant population of Eastern Europeans, Italians, Irish and other ethnic groups. Ironically, it is these earlier immigrants who perhaps most resent the influx of newcomers, some with vastly different values and expectations of social services which earlier immigrants never had. There are racial tensions, but the larger issues may be cultural and sociological-or as some would say-- pathological and criminal.

Nanticoke has its own helpful metaphor. The abandoned section of Nanticoke, the "Hanover section," harbors the Concrete City, an unusual abandoned coal company built town of prefab houses made of concrete. Created as a kind of Potemkin Village for miner's families, the site was used for military weapons testing before it was put on the Pennsylvania historic register.

Paul Kanjorski has one thing in common with rival Lou Barletta; both men live in troubled Lackawanna and Luzerne counties where federal agents have in the past two years arrested 30 people on charges of public corruption. The highest ranking officials arrested were judges Conahan and Civiarello of the Court of Common Pleas in the Luzerne County courthouse. Their arrest led to a chain of arrests and investigations.

The latest and most shocking development was on April 9, when FBI agents swarmed the home of longtime Pennsylvania assembly member Raphael Musto. Musto, who has not been accused of any crimes, served briefly in the U.S. Congress during the eighties. The 80-year-old Musto announced his retirement from the Pennsylvania state house in January after serving in the state house for 27 years. According to the Hazleton Standard Speaker, FBI agents removed items from Musto's home and from one of his cars.

Meanwhile, challenger Lou Barletta attracted national attention when, as Hazleton's mayor, he was vocal in complaining of additional burdens imposed on cities large and small by illegal immigration. In July of 2006, the Hazleton City Council passed an ordinance making it illegal for landlords and employers to knowingly hire or rent to illegals.

Federal district court Judge James M. Munley later struck down the ordinance as a violation of federal law on two counts:

According to a New York Times story of July 27, 2007, Munley's ruling was that the town ordinance interfered with federal authority to regulate immigration and violated due process laws of employers, landlords, and illegal immigrants. The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union Defense and Education Fund and Cozen O'Connor, a private law firm.

In his ruling, Judge Munley assumed an activist role in interpreting the intent of the ordinance:

"Hazleton, in its zeal to control the presence of a group deemed undesirable, violated the rights of such people, as well as others within the community," Munley wrote in his decision.

Controlling "the presence of a group deemed undesirable" was probably not in the minds of the Town Council, which passed similar ordinances around the country. It is not often reported that many legal immigrants are angry at lax enforcement of federal U.S. immigration laws. Typical of the opinions of Pennsylvania legal immigrants is that of Aleks Hadjiev, a Bulgarian sworn in as an American citizen in October 2009.

"It's hard to understand why, when it costs us much money, so much time, and so much studying to become (an)American citizen, how the U.S. lets people have same thing just by sneaking across (the) border," says Hajiev.

A similar opinion was expressed by a Russian legal immigrant Alex Vorobyov, who violated immigration laws by failing to meet reporting requirements, and was subsequently deported. Vorobyov, who currently lives in Latvia, turned himself in to immigration authorities in late 2008 in a renewed effort to continue a path toward American citizenship.

"I have always been working. I don't ask for nothing. I would have been better to walk across border," he says.

At an immigration hearing in Boston, Vorobyov was allowed to delay his deportation four months so that he could organize foreign travel and living arrangements for his wife and 3-month-old son. He is barred for 10 years from immigrating to the U.S. but hopes one day to do so.

For Lou Barletta, the third time may be the charm. He resists the labels of being anti-immigrant that Democrats are trying to attach to him. Coming from a background of Italian immigrants, Barletta says he is a strong proponent of legal immigrants who have been such a large part of the vitality of the U.S.

The national headlines have unfairly encapsulated only a small part of the Barletta message. Barletta has been a strong critic of federal government overreach, particularly in spending areas, and failure to uphold existing immigration law.

Kanjorski has been increasingly sensitive to the spending criticism and delayed announcements of support of the budget-busting Obama health care bill until it became clear that Democrats had enough votes to force it through. Kanjorski's support of President Obama's health care bill and economic issues has left him vulnerable, according to an April 6 PoliticsPA projections, which counts Kanjorski as one of several Pennsylvania Democrats most likely to lose his seat.

Meanwhile, Temple University Adjunct Professor Lori Zett has capitalized on the immigration debate by developing a course entitled ""War in Hazleton: Main Street Meets the Global Village." According to Zett's Facebook pages, Barletta visited her forum at Temple University and took issue with what he felt was an unfair portrayal of his beliefs.

Editor's Note: Biographical information on both candidates is from their respective websites:

Mayor Lou Barletta http://loubarletta.com/

Rep. Paul Kanjorski: http://kanjorski.house.gov/

Sources:

Knox Mine Disaster Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Mine_disaster

Twin Shaft Disaster Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Shaft_Disaster

http://standardspeaker.com/news/fbi-searches-musto-s-home-1.724030

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1428015/luzerne_county_penn_judges_mark_ciavarella.html?cat=17

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/us/27hazelton.html?_r=3

http://www.politicspa.com/politicspas-house-race-rankings-46-edition/9055/

http://www.facebook.com/lori.zett