When I lived in Stroudsburg, it was part of PA-11 and the congressman was a crooked old Wall Street Democrat, Paul Kanjorski. Back then the PVI was D+5 and Bush only managed to win 43% against Gore in 2000 and 47% against Kerry 4 years later. When Pennsylvania's avatar of xenophobia and racism, Lou Barletta first ran against Kanjorski in 2002, Kanjorski beat him 56-42%. Barletta was back in 2008 and made it much closer-- 52-48%. And then the Republican legislature did a major gerrymandering routine with giving Barletta, then the KKK hero mayor of Hazelton, a safe perch from which to preach his anti-Hispanic claptrap. The district didn't just lose my hometown of Stroudsburg, but also lost the heavily Democratic precincts in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, replacing them with conservative suburbs way to the southwest around Harrisburg. Suddenly a D+5 district was an R+6 district. This time, the bigot beat the crook 54.7% to 45.3%."Ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, the execrable clod Pelosi reappointed to chair the DCCC, even after his grotesque failures in 2012, has been trying to recruit fellow Blue Dog Chris Carney, an anti-Choice and viciously anti-gay conservative ex-congressman from neighboring PA-10. Carney is exactly the kind of garbage Steve Israel is trying to populate the Democratic House caucus with.When Carney first ran for Congress, he sought Blue America's endorsement. Despite a warning from Markos that he was a sleazy and untrustworthy warmonger, we interviewed him and took him at his word that he was a progressive Democrat. He told us, for example, that, if elected, he would vote for the hate crimes bill then wending its way through Congress. We endorsed him and raised money for him and he was elected. He immediately joined the Blue Dogs and started voting consistently with the Republicans on crucial issues. The exact Hate Crimes bill we discussed at some length on the phone came up and he voted against it, one of only 14 homophobic Democrats to do so. 25 Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats. Years later, one of Carney's staffers told me he was laughing at me and making obscene gestures at the phone during the interview. Blue America was forced to spend over $100,000 helping to defeat him when he refused to return the contributions we had raised for him. When I asked him to, he said, "Fuck you!" What a guy! Just the kind of politician Steve Israel adores.Now there's a fly in Israel's ointment. On Friday prominent civil rights attorney Andy Ostrowski announced his own candidacy against Barletta. We'll find out more about his stand on issues, although it's worth noting that last year Romney beat Obama in this district 54-45% and that Barletta beat his little-known Democratic opponent 58-42%, garnering more votes than Romney. Barletta won every one of the district's 9 counties, even blue-leaning Dauphin which a Democrat needs to win big in order to take the district.
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