Posted on 11/01/2010 6:00:17 PM PDT by Born Conservative
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.
"He's in serious trouble," longtime Franklin & Marshall College pollster G. Terry Madonna said. "He hasn't positioned himself as apart from Washington enough."
This is the second time in as many cycles that political insiders in both parties expect Kanjorski to lose. He managed to fend off Barletta in 2008, thanks in large part to a surge of Democratic support for Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. But 2010 is a different year for Democrats, and while the party's House campaign committee hasn't given up on Kanjorski, many Democratic insiders consider him a goner.
"His back’s up against the wall," one local party hand told POLITICO. "A large number of us in the party had real concerns that he couldn't win this race a third time."
Kanjorski's campaign did not answer numerous requests seeking time with the candidate while a reporter was in the northeastern Pennsylvania district. With the exception of a rally with former President Bill Clinton this week, the campaign has rarely shared a public schedule with reporters. Kanjorski initially didn't come to an NAACP forum here Saturday afternoon, sending a state representative on his behalf (his campaign said he showed up later).
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Things are looking up....
Kanjorski/Barletta debate: http://wvia.org/television/ondemand
He’s keeping his “campaign” funds for retirement.
Paul Kanjorski 2010 Election Cycle
Rep. Kanjorski: $550 Billion Disappeared in "Electronic Run On the Banks"
Federal Dollars are “free money”
Kanjorski: $2 Trillion really isn’t a lot of money
Representative Kanjorski Lies About The Surge
Kanjorski doesn’t apologize to anyone
Kanjorski Sneaks Through Backdoor at Rangel Fundraiser
Paul Kanjorski on Universal Health Care
Rep. Kanjorski on Congressional Pay Raises
He is a MEAN JERK.
His arrogance is what turns me off. I voted for him before because of his 2nd Amendment stance (back in the 80s and part of the 90s) when he was more of a Blue Dog.
Kanjo is a corrupt bully and a punk. He never was a blue dog, but voted against the left strategically on occasion b/c ours is a conservative Democrat district. Yes, we have many dummies who don’t get it, but maybe tomorrow we can call Lou Barletta Congressman Barletta! Bob
ping
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