Free Republic

NANTICOKE - In his first and only major post-election interview, U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski contended his tenure was better than one of the region's legendary congressmen, partially credited himself with two decades of improvement in the local economy, defended his role in his nephews' failed technology company and said he "deserved to lose." "The fact of the matter is, I probably did more public works in this congressional district than any other member of Congress," Kanjorski said while seated in the living room of his home during an almost two-hour interview just before his 13th and final term officially...

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — These could be the final days of Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski’s political career. But the longtime Pennsylvania incumbent is hardly running toward the finish line with a blitz of retail campaigning. Facing Republican Lou Barletta for the third time in eight years, Kanjorski has in many ways run the classic incumbent-style campaign: Hype your accomplishments with franked mail, blanket the airwaves with TV ads, bring federal dollars home to the district and avoid unscripted situations. It's also the type of campaign that's proved difficult to pull off this year, one laced with populist unrest and anti-incumbent rage....

NANTICOKE - Former President Bill Clinton argued for re-electing U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski on Tuesday, contending the congressman helped reverse a Republican tide of red ink when he was president and delivered a flood control project that avoided major damage in the Wyoming Valley. "I'm crazy about Paul Kanjorski," Clinton told more than 600 people gathered in the gymnasium at Greater Nanticoke Area High School in the congressman's hometown. In a 38-minute speech, Clinton said Democrats have the nation on the path to recovery, but need more than 21 months to fix an economy that eight years of Republican...

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski sometimes talks now as if he's free to say anything. The Nanticoke Democrat has finally achieved a certain stature as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee's capital markets subcommittee, having written key parts of the Wall Street reform bill. He apparently chats fairly regularly with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden or their staffs. He's good friends with former President Bill Clinton, who will campaign locally for him again Tuesday. Mr. Kanjorski is either confident or comfortable - confident voters will understand the power of his seniority or what he really means...

Dear Congressman Kanjorski: I am so disappointed with you. The country is beset by record unemployment and a deep economic downturn. People — your people — are truly suffering. Pocono voters will choose their leaders in November. Your constituents. In your 11th Congressional District. Yet you refuse to appear before them. You've scheduled only one debate with your opponent, Hazelton Mayor Lou Barletta, to take place less than a week before Election Day. And that's it. The Pocono Record asked you to meet with its editorial board. To sit across the table from your challenger, to stake your positions on...

In dueling press releases from the Barletta and Kanjorski campaigns, each tout their support and endorsements from Second Amendment groups. Each of their press releases are posted below in their entirety and without comment in the order received by the Examiner. Lou Barletta receives highest rating from NRA, endorsements by Gun Owners of America, Firearms Owners Against Crime Congressional candidate Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta received the highest rating possible from the National Rifle Association and the endorsements of two other leading national pro-Second Amendment groups. Firearms Owners Against Crime and Gun Owners of America both strongly endorsed Mayor Barletta in...

Poll results that show Lou Barletta with a decisive lead in the 11th Congressional District race did not come as a surprise to one local political analyst. The second Times Leader 2010 Election poll, conducted by Critical Insights of Portland, Maine, shows that 43 percent of the 221 people polled favor Barletta, the Republican mayor of Hazleton, compared to 32 percent for 13-term Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski and 25 percent undecided. At the 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error for the 11th District was plus/minus 6.58 percent. Jeff Brauer, 39, political science associate professor at Keystone College in...

The third time may well be the proverbial charm for Lou Barletta and his quixotic bid to unseat veteran Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski. Kanjorski, the influential senior Financial Services Committee member and frequent “Squawk Box” guest on CNBC, is fighting nothing less than a legacy-challenging battle to keep his seat. Kanjorski was instrumental in putting together this year’s financial reform legislation, particularly the areas that addressed the too-big-to-fail institutions that triggered the credit crisis. So his seat is a biggie in terms of the Washington governmental structure. As a 13-term incumbent representing northeastern Pennsylvania, Kanjorski had been breezing through election...

As he sought re-election two years ago, Democratic U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski acted as if he had two opponents. One was the Republican on the ballot, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. The other was President George W. Bush, who had turned as unpopular among voters as any president ever. Many television commercials aired by the Nanticoke Democrat and a national Democratic committee strapped Barletta to Bush. "They're like two peas in a pod, Lou Barletta and George Bush," speakers in a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attack commercial said. This year, the unpopular leader of the free world is President Barack...

HAZLETON – Responding to criticism from his political opponent, U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski on Tuesday said his focus is on jobs and the economy, not “politicizing football.” Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, responded to Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s criticism for not supporting Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s nomination for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest national award that can be given to a civilian. Paterno, 83, was nominated by 5th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, a Republican who represents Centre County including State College, and 17 other members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation. The nomination letter was sent to...

Lou Barletta has called on U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski to return campaign donations from embattled U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Barletta, the Republican mayor of Hazleton, is challenging the 13-term Democrat in the race for the 11th Congressional District seat. Rangel, 80, a 40-year House veteran and dean of the New York congressional delegation, may face serious charges from a House ethics panel. The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that Rangel broke unspecified congressional rules. The Associated Press reported that the secretive ethics panel did not disclose the specific violations Rangel may have committed. The AP report said...

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta is among a group of national dignitaries who will attend a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Wednesday supporting Arizona's illegal immigration law. The Big Talker 1210 AM radio will run a live remote broadcast of the fundraiser at Geno's Steaks from 6 to 10 p.m. Barletta; Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer; Arizona state Sen. Russel Pearce, who authored the state's controversial immigration bill; Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, who supports a similar law for Pennsylvania, are scheduled to participate. Barletta, who's running against Paul Kanjorski for the 11th Congressional District seat, has...

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski is being criticized again for comments he made, this time on a local radio show, but his campaign fired back on Thursday. Last week the 13-term Democrat from Nanticoke was criticized and attacked for his statements about minorities and “defective” people. On Thursday, while appearing as a guest on WILK Radio’s “Webster and Nancy Show,” Kanjorski was asked if he was going to hold any public town hall meetings with his constituents. “We will do everything we can to meet with people, but I’m not going to set myself up for, you know, nuts to hit...

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski's signature legislative accomplishment — financial regulatory reform — has been overshadowed by his controversial comments Wednesday about "defective" people. His 11th District Republican opponent, Hazleton Mayor and anti-illegal-immigrant activist Lou Barletta, seized on Kanjorski's remarks as an insult to minorities and demanded an apology. Kanjorski says he merely explained how opponents of a reform provision to help unemployed people make mortgage payments falsely characterized Pennsylvanians the program helped in the past. "We're giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now, unfortunately, that because of the longevity of this recession, these...

GOP candidate for Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional district Lou Barletta claims that Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski is afraid to meet with his constituents. He did so in a press release which is published in its entirety below. Kanjorski responded saying that Barletta should stick to the real issues of the campaign, such as job creation. Barletta is seeking to oust Paul Kanjorski, who is seeking election to a fourteenth term in Congress from Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional district. The 11th contains all of Carbon, Columbia, and Monroe Counties. It also encompasses parts of Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, including the cities of Scranton,...

A candidate who on Tuesday lost a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 11th Congressional District seat says he is now supporting the Republican nominee, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. Brian Kelly of Wilkes-Barre, who despite accepting no financial contributions to his low-key campaign garnered 17 percent of the Democratic vote in Tuesday's primary election, announced his endorsement of Barletta on Friday. Kelly urged his supporters to follow suit. "A Barletta victory in November is as close to a Kelly victory as we can get," Kelly said. He said he would lend his support to the Republican because, "My father...

Staffers for Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Penn.) tapped an list of Congressional interns to recruit campaign volunteers – a possible violation of House ethics rules barring the use of official files for electioneering. In August 2008, Kanjorski Legislative Director Kate McMahon used her official house email account to send a campaign staffer a Word document containing a list of interns who had worked for the congressman’s office. The list came with the message “volunteer potential,” according to a copy of the email obtained by POLITICO. The missive, which a Democratic source obtained legally as part of an e-mail chain, appears to...

BUTLER TWP. – Saying he “has had it” with defending the recently passed health care reform bill against false allegations, U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski Wednesday told the Hazleton Chamber of Commerce that he is determined to “debunk the myths” and “refute the criticisms” of the legislation. Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, who will turn 73 on Friday, said the health care reform law that was enacted last week will not slash Medicare as many critics have claimed and it will help small businesses afford health coverage for all of their employees. Kanjorski spoke at a breakfast hosted by the Keystone Job Corps Center....

They will not say so publicly, but U.S. Reps. Chris Carney and Paul E. Kanjorski are not on speaking terms. Carney, D-Dimock Township, wanted to be the next Pennsylvania member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee that controls federal spending. As senior member of the state's Democratic congressional delegation, Kanjorski could have helped him get that appointment to a vacant committee seat. Instead, the delegation last week voted to recommend a suburban Philadelphia congressman to congressional leaders who will fill the vacancy. The two congressmen refuse to say much about their spat, but their silence and veiled swipes at each...

Event held at GOP office in Wilkes-Barre. Kanjorski spokesman issues response. WILKES-BARRE – The Republican Party rolled out a college student, a small business man, a physician and its candidate for Congress Thursday to blast Democratic U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski for voting for the national health care bill. Barletta, 54, is unopposed in the May 18 Republican primary. Kanjorski, 72, is serving his 13th term in Congress. He is opposed in May by Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien. Barletta spoke next to a stack of papers – the 2,308-page health care bill in the local GOP headquarters. “We already...