Posted on 01/15/2006 9:18:39 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican
Marrone Considering Congressional Run
PoliticsPA has learned that Republican Christian Marrone is considering a run for the GOP nomination in the 13th Congressional District. Marrone, who previously served under Montgomery District Attorney Bruce Castor, now works in Washington as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense. He briefly considered a run for congress in 2004. Marrone would be forced to resign his job before announcing his candidacy. With deep ties in the district to both Republicans and Democrats, Marrone would be a threat to current frontrunner Raj Bhakta.
Christian Marrone is a pro-life Catholic and conservative Republican who grew up in Northeast Philly, became Assistant DA in Montgomery County just to the north, and now works for the Department of Defense in DC. Marrone is well connected not only with Republicans (including state Attorney General Tom Corbett, whom Marrone supported in 2004 over primary opponent Montco DA Bruce Castor; Castor fired Marrone as Assistant DA the day after Corbett beat him in the AG primary http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11451475&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466404&rfi=6
), but with area Democrats (his father-in-law is Democrat state senator and Philly political powerhouse Vincent Fumo http://www.fumo.com/biography/default.htm
).
The 13th Congressional District is half in Montco and half in Northeast Philly, with the Montco half being economically conservative and socially liberal-to-moderate, while the NE Philly half is economically liberal-to-moderate and socially conservative. Christian Marrone, a pro-life Catholic with ties to both NE Philly and Montco, has the perfect profile for this neither-fish-nor-fowl district, which gave President Bush 42% in both 2000 and 2004 but which usually votes Republican in local races. Running social liberal Melissa Brown in 2002 and 2004 was not enough to win against either former Congressman Joe Hoeffel or current Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, so it's time that a conservative gave it a try. I don't know much about the other Republican in the race, Raj Bhakta, who apparently gained some fame by being on The Apprentice a couple of years ago (I don't watch reality shows, so I'd never heard of Raj until recently), but from the picture on his website it's pretty clear that he's a dweeb who seems to be wearing Tucker Carlson's hand-me-downs and would be lucky to get 30% of the vote in Northeast Philly. See http://www.rajforcongress.com/
Hey, dweebs need Congressional representation, too !! ;-)
LOL! Your description made me click on the link, and I'm sorry to report that... I concur!
This is my old congressional district I was born and raised 36 years in. I moved to Florida 20 years ago and would have NEVER thought Montgomery County would have turned Democrat. A 42% vote for Bush in 2000 & 2004 elections is sad. They may as well annex to Philly and become part of that joke of a city.
BTW, the Montco portion of the 13th district is almost as Democrat as the NE Philly portion. And the parts of Montco outside the district are even more Democrat than the portion within the district. And to think that Montco gave President Reagan way over 60%.
I hope he has a good credit rating.
Yeah ... 60% for Reagan or any Republican back then was expected from that area. What happened to all the Irish Catholics there? Good size Italian population also. They move elsewhere or they voting for DemonRats?
ping
Chuck Schumer only goes through *Senate* candidates credit reports, not House candidates, so Christian might be safe.
Thanks, TR!!
The NE Philly part would be even more Republican had the legislature not excised the best parts of Wards 58 and 66 for District 8 (Bucks County), and thrown in some Dem-loser areas of Ward 62 (Frankford) and 56 (Rhawnhurst).
Yeah, they wanted to make the Bucks-based 8th CD more Republican to protect the RINO incumbent; hopefully it will be Republican enough to reelect conservative Congressman Fitzpatrick.
Same thing could have been accomplished by giving CD 8 some of the peripherary of Montgomery County near Lansdale or Hatboro or Hatfield. CD 13 needed those NE Philly precincts.
However, the Legislature was trying to draw up a seat Melissa Brown could win, but Eastern PA's biggest loser is just that, and couldn't handle even Awful Joe Hoeffel before his career self-destruction running against Specter.
Does Melissa Brown have pictures of John Perzel dancing naked or something? What did she ever do for the Republican Party to merit favoring her over loyal son Al Taubenberger?
I don't know if the GOP legislature was thinking specifically of Melissa Brown, but it wanted a 13th CD that (i) had more Democrat primary voters in Philly than in Montco (so that a Philly Democrat, presumably Bob Borski, would be nominated), and (ii) had more general-election voters in Montco than in Philly, so that a Montco Republican would be favored in the general. I think it was an atrocious idea, since creating a 13th CD in which Bush got 42% meant that the 6th, 7th, 8th and 15th CDs all lean Democrat in presidential elections. They should have ceded the 13th to the RATs and removed from GOP districts the Democrat strongholds of Lower Bucks, Lower Merion, and certain other Democrat parts of Montco and Delco, thereby making the 6th, 7th, 8th and 15th CDs more comfortably Republican.
This Republican greed also hurt us when they drew a district for Kanjorski that gave Bush 43% (taking GOP votes away from Gekas's, Sherwood's and Toomey's CD) and a district for Murtha that gave Bush 44% (taking votes away from Hart's, Murphy's and---believe it or not---English's CDs). One would think that drawing 13 safely Republican CDs (and 6 overwhelmingly RAT CDs) would have been the best course of action for the GOP legislature, but they tried to go for up to 16 CDs and instead are down to 12 while hanging on by a strand in a few others.
Melissa Hart insisted that her district stay intact, because she prides herself on representing socially conservative Democrats. When I look at the lines, I doubt that Murphy's district could be any more Republican than it is, if only because the district is particularly erose as drawn.
I've always been skeptical about this map. It amazes me how the Republicans in Michigan were able to do such a perfect job with cleaner lines and essentially the same demographics.
I know Hart "insisted," but frankly it wasn't her call. And if you don't think that Murphy's CD could have been made more Republican, think about all the Democrat precincts in Washington County that were placed in his CD to try to convince Frank Mascara not to challenge Murtha in the RAT primary. Bush got something like 51%-52% in 2000 in both Murphy's and Hart's CDs, and it could have easily been 53%-54% instead, a HUGE difference.
Marrone is the best we can hope for in the district. And who knows? Perhaps he can catch Allyson Schwartz off guard.
Chucky Schumer did the credit check on Michael Steele because he is afraid of intelligent black men.
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