Critz seeks to keep Murtha seat in Dem. hands

Associated Press

WASHINGTON, Pa.

All the hype before the spring special election race to replace the late Rep. John Murtha focused on how the outcome might be a predictor for the fall’s congressional midterm election.

Some bellwether. Democrat Mark Critz beat Republican Tim Burns by a surprisingly comfortable seven-point margin, but his party appears to be in trouble anyway trying to hang onto control of Congress.

Ardent GOP supporters hope for a different outcome in the general election rematch in this blue-collar western Pennsylvania district on Nov. 2.

“Everybody was kind of looking to see what Democrats would do when they controlled the Congress and the White House,” William Beitler, 68, a semiretired warehouse and trucking business owner from East Washington, said at a recent meet-and-greet for Burns. “After two years, people are looking at it and saying they don’t seem to have the American people and their interests paramount.”

But national Democrats have hailed Critz’s victory in the May 18 special House election to fill the rest of Murtha’s term as a blueprint for success. Polls in the weeks leading up to that election showed a tight race in the socially conservative district in which Democrats held a nearly 2-to-1 edge in voter registration.

Critz, a former district aide to Murtha, still won. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the Democrats’ House campaign arm, has said voters rejected Burns’ tactic of making the election a referendum on President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while accepting the message from Critz highlighting job creation and his deep ties to the district.

“You’re not going to get those middle-ground voters who are so prevalent in this area, you’re not going to get that without a strong candidate,” Shannon Meredith, 35, said at a Critz rally in Johnstown. “There were a lot of middle people who could have gone Republican, and the fight wasn’t there.”

The fervor around this rematch hasn’t come close to the tense spring campaign that drew national attention, when political stars like former President Bill Clinton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich flew in for appearances.

Johnstown was a stronghold in the eastern part of the district for Murtha, the powerful congressman who died in February at age 77 from complications of gallbladder surgery. Known for funneling federal dollars back home, Murtha had his name emblazoned on numerous projects in the region, from the airport to a highway.

His backers switched their allegiance to Critz, 48, a Johnstown native. Murtha’s widow, Joyce Murtha, endorsed him, too.

Critz’s ads in the spring made frequent mention of his ties to Murtha, but one of Critz’s first spots this cycle did not mention his former boss. The ad ends with Critz saying he’s focusing on job growth and that he’s “never forgotten where I came from.”

“Now I do have a record, and we are transitioning that the 12th Congressional District’s congressman is Mark Critz, it’s not Jack Murtha’s guy,” Critz said in an interview at his Johnstown re-election office.