REPUBLICAN PARTY Rep. Hart to chair convention panel

Hart is expected to easily win re-election in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, a conservative who could face a future election challenge from Democrat John Kerry's stepson, was tapped to chair the GOP's platform committee at the party's convention in August.
The high-profile post will give the junior lawmaker a large say in determining what issues the Republican Party will rally around through Election Day.
Hart, a second-term House member from Bradford Woods, a Pittsburgh suburb, will chair the committee with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. Her district includes all of Lawrence County and portions of Mercer County.
The three were selected to "bring their leadership skills to the committee responsible for articulating the values and views of the Republican Party," Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
The 100-plus platform committee is composed of two delegates -- a man and a woman -- from each state and territory in the country. It will shape the party's message on the economy, health care, education and national security as President Bush and lawmakers from across the country head into the Nov. 2 election.
A balance
Hart, who represents a Democratic-leaning district, was selected in part to balance moderates on the committee, aides said.
While she is expected to easily win re-election this fall, Hart could face a daunting challenge in 2006 from Chris Heinz, the 31-year-old heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune and stepson of Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Heinz has not committed to the race in Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, but will not rule it out.
Hart said she is honored to chair the committee and "build a platform that reflects, as the priorities of the Republican Party, the priorities of the majority of Americans."