WASHINGTON Pa. legislator seeks leading House role

An observer says the race will be 'hard fought.'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once again, the odds are stacked again U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart as she runs for a legislative leadership post.
But this time around, she might win.
Hart, R-4th, a second-term congresswoman from Bradford Woods, is one of two lawmakers vying for vice chair of the House Republican conference when the GOP selects its leaders Wednesday. The post, albeit a "junior" leadership role, would rank Hart fifth in the House GOP power structure.
Hart is facing five-term Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia -- an affable, media-savvy member of the powerful Appropriations Committee who already helps run the GOP message center -- for the job.
But Hart, 40, is used to being the underdog, and has turned the internal party jockeying into a highly competitive contest, officials said.
"It'll be hard fought," said Tripp Baird, congressional scholar with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. "What makes her attractive to leadership is that she's a conservative female who's very well spoken; she's very telegenic. And that resonates with leadership. I think it'd be a good pick."
A familiar place
Running as the dark horse is a familiar place for Hart, who left the Pennsylvania state Senate to run for Congress after she was denied a spot in the all-male leadership there in 1998.
Immediately after winning the House berth in 2000, Hart was singled out by the Republican Party as a rising star: Four days after her election in the Democratic-dominated 4th District, for example, she was tapped to give the GOP response to then-President Clinton's weekly radio address.
The duties of a vice conference chair are somewhat ambiguous. The vice chair helps organize House floor debates and members' "One Minutes" -- the short speeches that lawmakers can give on any topic. Other than that, the vice chairs carve out their jobs.
Hart said she would turn the post into a public relations machine for the House GOP agenda.
"It's important to make sure we leave no stone unturned as far as seeking support for our agenda," Hart said in an interview last week. "I would like to have our message resonate more broadly and deeply across America, and coming from a very heavily Democratic district, I think I'm uniquely qualified to do that."
Hart said she has spent the last year amassing support from her colleagues. To that end, she contributed funds to 65 House candidates in 36 states, and traveled across the country to personally campaign for several.
But Hart's short House tenure may ultimately be her downfall, said aides to top GOP leaders. And Kingston is sure to remind colleagues of the time he's already clocked on the job.