Posted on 07/14/2007 10:09:01 AM PDT by LdSentinal
Former Congresswoman Melissa Hart says she is planning a comeback bid to regain the seat she lost a year ago to Democrat Jason Altmire.
"Obviously, I still have a commitment to public service, despite the elections of last year," Ms. Hart said last night. "I've watched the Congress in action over the last six months and they haven't gotten a thing done and the issues that need to be addressed haven't been addressed."
Ms. Hart has not yet officially announced but has informed the National Republican Congressional Committee as well as the lone announced rival for the GOP nomination, Ron Francis, about her plans.
On Monday she telephoned former Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann and informed him of her plans. Mr. Swann was being courted by national Republican leaders to challenge Mr. Altmire but notified NRCC officials later this week that he had decided against making the bid.
Ms. Hart's political career began in 1990 with a surprise upset in a contest for the Pennsylvania Senate seat in the 40th District against incumbent Democrat John Regoli. That win came in a year when the head of the ticket, then-Auditor General Barbara Hafer, was swamped at the polls by incumbent Democratic Gov. Robert P. Casey Sr.
She quickly rose through the ranks in the state Senate before seeking the seat in the 4th Congressional District that was being vacated by Democrat Ron Klink. After her election, House Republican leaders moved her into a key assignment on the Ways and Means Committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Melissa was out conservatived by Altmire last time around and if she refuese to go back to conservatism she wont get the votes again.
Pretty Boy Altmire let the Soros front groups blanket the entire Pittsburgh market (5 congressional districts) with wall-to-wall negative television advertising, ACORN type door-to-door workers dressed up as regular people and more s*** than anyone who didn't live near her district could possibly comprehend.
I doubt that she could have pulled it out even if she had gone negative. There just wasn't enough time and resouces in the district to counter the Pretty Boy.
Now Altmire has lobbying conflicts of his own. I'm watching his voting record and he's still trying to shore up his moderate credentials in a fairly conservative district. I think Melissa has a real shot in a rematch.
This is also Lynn Swann's district and he has expressed interest in the race. I like Lynn a lot-- volunteered for his Quixotic quest against Rendell last time. But he didn't have to earn the nomination, it was handed to him based on his celebrity status. The RINO leadership managed to sandbag him big time even though he carried most of SW Pennsylvania. Lynn has a good future in politics, but he needs to learn how to bypass the RINO party leadership who will sandbag him again. He also needs to get that "fire in the belly" campaign style if he's going to win. All things considered, I think Melissa Hart has a better chance of taking this district back in a rematch.
I suppose this is good news, although IMHO Hart should not have lost in the first place.
spellcheck: R-E-F-U-S-E-S
I’m thinking about running against her in the primary.
One of the nicest RINO's around. Very weak on life issues, IIRC.
And she voted quite conservative on other issues as well, garnering a career ACU rating of 89.7, a higher lifetime sore than that of 10 of the 13 PA Republicans in the House and Senate last year (including Santorum, Murphy and Sherwood). http://www.acuratings.org/2006all.htm#PA
I’ve heard several stories about Altmire doing things as a youth that PETA (and most other people) would find very disturbing.
"One of the nicest RINO's around. Very weak on life issues, IIRC."
You must have Melissa Hart confused with someone else. She had a perfect 100% pro-life voting record in her 6 years in Congress: http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/bio/keyvotes/?id=7594&lvl=C&congress=1081
And she voted quite conservative on other issues as well, garnering a career ACU rating of 89.7, a higher lifetime sore than that of 10 of the 13 PA Republicans in the House and Senate last year (including Santorum, Murphy and Sherwood). http://www.acuratings.org/2006all.htm#PA
isn’t melissa hart some type of child actress on TV???
She's not a child any more.
This photo doesn't look much like her, but the rest were Melissa child, Melissa ugly or Melissa sexy.
Do they have a Melissa Not Guilty?
We shouldn’t have lost a lot of what we did last year. I just hope a Hart-Swann primary isn’t so messy that we blow it taking the seat back.
I just... wouldn’t hit that. I never found Melissa Joan Hart attractive. She has no upper lip. Blech.
She lost by 4 percentage points. In addition to running a lackluster campaign she alientated the senior voters by have the police break up a demonstration outside her office. Do you really think she is the person to get the seat back? Maybe Lynn Swann deserves a shot?
I don’t know if she is the person to take this seat back,the fact that last years losers are popping back up is good news. The ratmedia won’t say it, but I will: The fact that this congress has a 24% approval rating is significant.
They won’t write about how the last congress with a 24% approval rating in the odd year’s June poll, lost 30 seats.
Of course things could change but 24% IS 24% after all, and that aint good no matter how you spin it.
As I recall, the article said that Swann had opted against running. Or did I read that wrong?
I must’ve overlooked that point in the piece, you are quite correct, Swann appears to have taken himself out of the running. I hadn’t read anywhere else that he had done so.
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