Barletta can serve two years in the House and then run for either the open governorship or open Senate seat in 2010. I think he would be “wasted” more by serving as mayor from 2009-2011 instead of in Congress.
I think it would be difficult for Barletta to get the GOP gubernatorial or Senate nomination in 2010 from the mayorship of Hazleton, whereas being in Congress would give him greater exposure.
Well, he’s getting a lot of attention now where he is. If he runs for Congress and then goes for the Governorship, he’ll have to start running for the latter almost from day #1 after being elected to the former, and will not be able to give his full attention to the job. A quickie stepping stone approach looks bad. The last person to pull off such a stunt was Bill Scranton. After knocking off a weak freshman rodent in 1960 who won in a fluke in 1958, he had to run almost at once for the open Governorship in 1962.