Hart Must Raise Money for Congressional Bid

Beaver County Times ^ | July 16, 2007 | J.D. Prose

[MurryMom]

Former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart's entry into the 4th Congressional District race raised plenty of eyebrows over the weekend, but she'll have to raise a lot more money if she hopes to have a chance at winning the Republican primary and beating U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire in November 2008.

According to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Altmire, D-4, McCandless Township, has $514,000 in cash available, while Hart, of Bradford Woods, has only $3,674.

Not only does Hart trail Altmire by more than $500,000, but she also lags behind the only other announced Republican candidate for the seat, former Allegheny County Councilman Ron Francis Jr.

Francis, of Ben Avon, reported having $63,700 in cash available as of June 30. Francis said financial support for his campaign has been growing and he expects that to continue.

[MurryMom]

No wonder poor Missy can't raise any money. In addition to running a loser campaign the last time, she refuses to even mention the I-word in interviews with Pgh area media outlets.

[Siobhan]

She will raise the money just fine thank you. Now that I know she’s running I’ll be adding my more than 2 cents to her campaign fund.

Pinging Catholics...

[wideawake]

What is the background to this?

[Maeve]

What I know is that Altmire says he is pro-life but he is for embryonic cell research and more. Melissa Hart — she’s Italian-American and in the past really appealed to blue collar Reagan Democrats. She lost her seat to Altmire in a surprise upset in the last election. But many felt she lost simply because of anti-Bush, anti-Iraq sentiment in her district. She herself remained popular.