StopLouBarletta.com

While Mayor Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign continues to do a whole lot of nothing, Chris Paige is continuing to try and take the fight to Barletta.  From today until Sunday, Chris Paige and volunteers from his campaign will be staffing booths at the Columbia and Steamtown Malls.  They’ll be there, collecting signatures to get Paige on the ballot, answering voter questions, and (hopefully) talking poorly about Mayor Barletta.

As a Republican, I can’t think of a worse candidate to represent the Party than Lou Barletta.  He has proven, in multiple campaigns, unable to raise campaign money or to run a competitive operation.  As a mayor, he has ruined the city of Hazleton, bringing it to the point of financial collapse.  The thought of this man representing anyone in any higher office is a frightening thought, indeed.  This is why I feel that having Chris Paige as a challenger to Lou Barletta in the Republican Primary is such a good thing.

The Republican voters deserve to have a choice.  Barletta has walked into the Republican nomination twice before, and watching his campaign was like watching a toddler beat his toys on the floor.  His fund raising operation was a joke.  He failed to articulate any clear positions on important issues.  His campaign manager, Vince Galko, has screwed up every election he’s ever been a part of.  And now on his third attempt at running for Congress, Lou Barletta shows no signs of learning from his past mistakes.

So at some point this week, stop by either the Columbia or Steamtown Malls and learn more about Chris Paige and his campaign.  If you’re so inclined, sign his petition to get him on the ballot.  Both the Republican Party and the voters of the 11th Congressional District deserve to have competitive political candidates.  Lou Barletta is not one of those candidates.  He never was and it appears he never will be.  It’s time to move on.  Lou Barletta does not deserve to be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

In 2001, the town of Coatsville sold its water and sewer system to a private buyer.  That sale generated $40 million.  Today, only $14 million remains.  In less than 10 years, the town burned through well over half of that money.  They invested it in things that were supposed to generate steady income to the town.  Those investments have failed to generate anything.  In short, Coatsville did exactly what Lou Barletta wants to do with Hazleton.  And it didn’t work.

But, hey, maybe Lou Barletta could make this work.  Right?  Probably not.  Barletta has made bad decision after bad decision, bringing Hazleton to her knees and on the verge of bankruptcy.  He wasted millions in trying to defend his mindless “Illegal Immigration Relief Act” in Federal Court.  He illegally used the city’s pension fund for purpose it wasn’t intended for, and needed the State to come to the rescue of the city.  Honestly, if Hazleton was granted the authority to print money, Barletta would find a way to screw it up.  He’s just not very good with money.

For more proof, just look at the half-dead, sad looking thing that is his Congressional Campaign.  Already, Barletta has built up more debt than all of the other candidates, Democrat and Republican, combined.  Before he even launched his Congressional Campaign, he had to send out letters begging people to give him money because his debt was so massive.  And this is Barletta’s third consecutive attempt at running for Congress.  Every time he runs, he loses and accumulates more debt.  Most people get better at things with practice.  Not Lou Barletta.  He gets markedly worse.

The punchline in this un-funny joke is that Lou Barletta wants to take this brand of leadership to the Federal Government.  Why in the name of everything that is Holy would anyone cast a vote for Lou Barletta?  He’s not good at anything.  Unless you count ruining cities and embarrassing his own political party as a skill.  Because, I guess, Lou is pretty good at doing that.   Lou Barletta’s plan to sell the Hazleton Water Authority and save Hazleton will probably fail.  Not only because it’s a bad idea, but also because Lou Barletta is behind it.  Clearly, the voters of the 11th Congressional District simply can not afford to have Mayor Barletta represent them in the halls of the United States Congress.

As an elected official, Lou Barletta is a failure.  The city of Hazleton is worse off, not better, as a result of having Barletta serve as its mayor.  The city’s economy is in shambles.  His plan to sell-off the Hazleton Water Authority is reckless and stupid.  Before he is finished, Barletta will have made Hazleton’s economy one of the worst in the nation.  And while the damage is already done for Hazleton, it’s not too late to keep Lou Barletta from wreaking the same havoc on the 11th Congressional District.  At all costs, Lou Barletta must be kept out of the United States Congress.

See also: Barletta: Question Me and You’re All Screwed and Lou Barletta’s Vision of America

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

You know that guy that stands outside the liquor store and asks you for money?  He says he needs it to get a hot meal.  You, however, suspect that he’s probably going to use the money for something else.  And the fact that he’s drunk, has a needle sticking out of his arm, and smells of day-old urine doesn’t help his sales pitch.  You know that guy?  Lou Barletta is that guy.

I say this because while Barletta isn’t the slobbering drug-addled bum outside the liquor store, he does have one thing in common with the bum.  They are both bad investments.  Giving ten dollars to the guy who’s going to either buy cheap vodka or a hit of meth with it is a bad investment.  You, as the investor get nothing out of it and the bum gets the means to stay or get high or drunk for a few more hours.  And by giving that same ten dollars to Lou Barletta, you are giving it to a guy who’s up to his eyeballs in campaign debt and has a history of making bad decisions with money, both his own and tax payer money.

Lou Barletta, as far as political candidates go, is a joke.  His campaign is running a massive deficit.  In fact, he has more campaign debt than all of the other candidates in this race…combined.  When Lou Barletta gets campaign donations, that money isn’t going to be used to fight the good fight.  Most of the money that he raises isn’t going to be used for printing campaign signs or putting up billboards or airing television commercials.  No, most of the that money is going to be used to pay off existing debt.  And a good portion of that debt is owed to Lou Barletta himself.

A few months back, Mayor Barletta sent out a letter to potential campaign donors.  This cost him $8,000.  The letter asked people to give “as generously as possible.”  The letter explained that Barletta really might want to run for Congress again, but had to pay down some of his existing personal debt before he could do that.  If he could raise $150,000, that would be enough for him to pay his bills and take a third stab at running for Congress.  Barletta didn’t get $150,000 and the money that he did receive as a result of that letter hasn’t been used to pay down anything, so far.

Lou Barletta knew he was going to run for Congress long before he sent out that letter.  His personal debt wasn’t an issue.  The letter was just a slick way to scare some money out of people that he might not have otherwise gotten.  If paying down his campaign debt was so important to Barletta, he would have already applied the money that people sent him to that purpose.  In a sense, Barletta, with that letter, became the bum.  He plead poverty and promised that if you just sent him a few bucks, he could get his whole campaign back on track and become your next Congressman.  Just give me a few dollars, man.

So with this in mind: Don’t give money to Lou Barletta’s campaign.  He’s going to take your check, cash it, and then write out a check to himself.  Because most of the “campaign debt” that he has on the books is owed to himself.  In the end, not one penny of what you just gave Lou Barletta went to help make his campaign any more competitive.  It either went into the Barlettas’ personal checking account or to other people whom are owed money.  No, money given to Lou Barletta isn’t going to be used to finance his 2010 run for Congress.  It’s going to be used to pay for the last two elections that he’s already lost.

Your money has better uses than financing past failures.  If you want to give money to a Republican candidate, give it to Chris Paige.  If you don’t want to do that, but still want to donate your money, give it to a charity that services the Hazleton area.  But please, do not give money to Lou Barletta.  If you do, the joke’s on you.  Lou Barletta doesn’t deserve your charity and he certainly doesn’t deserve your vote.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta Tries to Re-Write History and Chris Paige on “Lou Barletta’s Hazleton”

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Mayor Lou Barletta wants to sell the Hazleton Water Authority to the highest bidder and if anyone tries to stop him, murder, rape, and anarchy will ensue.  Barletta claims that if he can’t sell the Water Authority for a quick buck, Hazleton will collapse into a heap of rubbish.  Worse, the residents of Hazleton, now drug addicted serial killers, will spill into the surrounding towns and cities.  What will ensue will be nothing short of a Biblical plague of pain, suffering, and horror.  Or something like that.

Barletta appeared this week on the Sam Lesante Show and spoke about why he needs to sell the Hazleton Water Authority and what would happen if he wasn’t allowed to do so.  As reported in the Standard Speaker…

He said the 13 municipalities in addition to Hazleton where the authority sells water have a stake in the city’s well-being.

“If the City of Hazleton crumbles, we would lose our police department, our fire department … The crime and decay will reach out,” Barletta said.

And if that weren’t enough to scare the living crap out of all of you, keep this in mind.  Without the money from the Water Authority Sale, Barletta will have no choice but to raise everyone’s taxes to the point where people will have to begin selling off their children just to afford food.  Again, as reported by the Standard Speaker…

If the city doesn’t make the sale, however, Barletta said he expects taxes on a home assessed at $100,000 would increase by $3,057 during those five years. He said he does not think most taxpayers could afford the increase, nor does he think the city could continue to maintain roads or provide the current level of police and fire service.

Get that?  Higher taxes.  Widespread crime and decay.  No police or firefighters.  This is what will happen if Mayor Lou isn’t able to sell off the Hazleton Water Authority.  Yes, Barletta admits that the sale will probably result in higher water bills for Hazleton and all the surrounding areas currently being serviced by the Water Authority.  However, as Lou himself points out, that fee hike is nothing compared to the tax hike he will unleash if his grand-plan is thwarted.  Besides, think of all the money that the city will raise if it sells the Water Authority.  Right?

Not so fast, according to Chris Paige.  Paige, who is running against Barletta in the 11th Congressional District Republican Primary, says that the profits promised by Barletta are the stuff of pipe dreams and fiction.  According to Paige, who held a Townhall Meeting last night in Hazleton, Barletta’s numbers are a bit off.  As reported by the Standard Speaker…

According to the mayor’s presentation, the city stands to generate $1.5 million annually by investing proceeds from the sale of the water company into an irrevocable trust and in a solar power generation facility to be constructed on city land near the municipal airport.

Paige said Barletta’s investments would have to yield 14 percent in order for the projected profits to become a reality.

“Fourteen percent per year with no risk? Even Bernie Madoff only promised 10 percent,” Paige said.

Paige termed Barletta’s plan a “get rich quick scheme” and said, “Hazleton’s problems weren’t created overnight and they won’t be solved overnight.”

So now the plot thickens!  Not only will Barletta’s planned sale of the Water Authority probably result in higher water fees for the fine people of the greater Hazleton area, but the profits promised from such a sale may not ever materialize.  If true, selling the Water Authority will make things worse, not better, for Hazleton.  The city will still be near financial collapse, police and firefighters will still have to be laid off, taxes will still have to be jacked up, up, and away, and on top of all that, the cost of clean drinking water will be increased, as well.  But despite all of this, Lou Barletta still wants all of us to just go along with his plan and trust him.

Trusting in Lou Barletta is the real source of this whole mess.  The people of Hazleton trusted in Barletta and elected him, multiple times, to the rank of mayor.  And what did they get in return?  One of the worst economies in the state.  Businesses are closing, homes and store fronts are sitting vacant, and the city’s finances have been thrown into the toilet.  Lou Barletta would like all of us to believe that everything is fine and that he’s got everything under control.  Hell, he even says as much on his website.  And what’s even scarier is that this man, who’s already ruined a city, now wants a shot at playing Congressman.

Lou Barletta must not be allowed to become a US Congressman.  He has shown, repeatedly, that if given the opportunity to make things worse, he will.  In fact, even when you think that there’s no possible way that he can make things worse than they already are, he will surprise you.  Lou Barletta has screwed the city and the people of Hazleton so far into the dirt that it will, if they’re lucky, take a generation for them to see daylight again.  And as the country slowly eeks its way out of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, we simply can not afford to put a man like Barletta in Congress.  Because he will find a way at screwing all of us.  It’s what he does.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to Congress.

See also: Hazleton for Sale…Maybe and Chris Paige to Challenge Barletta in Hazleton

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Chris Paige, who is the Republican challenger to Mayor Barletta in the 11th Congressional District Primary, has announced on his blog that he is taking the fight right to Barletta’s power base of Hazleton, PA.  Paige is holding a Townhall style meeting at the Hazleton Elks Lodge this Thursday at 6pm.  At the event, Paige plans on discussing Mayor Barletta’s plan to sell-off the Hazleton Water Authority.  Paige says he will also take questions from the audience.  If Paige’s plan was to fire a shot across Barletta’s bow, this should accomplish that nicely.

Adding to the drama, Paige acknowledges that he has heard that Lou Barletta is less than pleased with this event, due to both the location and the topic.  As a response, Paige, in a follow up blog post, invites the mayor to join him at the event.  If Barletta took Chris Paige up on the offer, what results could be an impromptu debate.  Or an amateur cage fight.  More than likely, though, Barletta will keep his distance.  I doubt that he would risk having to defend his positions in front of a live audience of voters, even if it is on his home turf.  And even if Barletta was willing to risk it, his political advisers would probably talk him out of it.

Personally, I think this is a good idea on the part of Chris Paige.  Whomever wins the Republican nomination will be (potentially) taking on one of the most senior incumbent Democrats, in Rep. Paul Kanjorski.  This will be a daunting task, as Kanjorski is well armed with cash and isn’t afraid to spend early and often, as he proved in his last election when he began running television ads in the Summer, months before the election.  Republican voters need to send someone who isn’t afraid to engage in open political warfare with an opponent, and with this Townhall Meeting in Hazleton and the challenge to Lou Barletta, Chris Paige is starting to prove that he is willing to do that.

Lou Barletta has ran against Paul Kanjorski twice before and has come up short both times.  Additionally, Barletta has built up huge amounts of campaign debt, has run the city of Hazlton into the dirt and to the brink of bankruptcy.  Lou Barletta has proven, repeatedly, that he is not up to the task of carrying the Republican banner to the halls of the US Congress.  It is time to move on and find someone else who is up to the challenge.  Chris Paige may very well be that candidate.

See also: Chris Paige on “Lou Barletta’s Hazleton” and Who is Chris Paige?

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

I’ve been saying for quite a while now that Mayor Lou Barletta is not a serious candidate for Congress.  The latest fund raising numbers support that claim.  According to FEC filings, Barletta raised about $68,000 in cash.  That number might seem not all that bad, until you consider that $48,000 of that is Barletta’s own money.  Additionally, he now only has about $6,000 of cash on hand and has an accumulated debt of $110,000.  Lou Barletta’s campaign finances are about as troubled as those of the city that he runs.

A key indicator of a candidate’s popularity, and political viability, is his or her ability to raise funds.  Lou Barletta and his people love to walk around and claim that he is the darling of the Republican Party and that he’s the next political superstar and blah blah blah.  However, if Lou Barletta is such a political powerhouse, why is he struggling to raise cash?  If people love Lou Barletta so much, why aren’t they donating to his campaign?  If it’s true that numbers don’t lie, then Lou Barletta is much less popular and enjoys far less support than he’d like to admit.

Also, keep in mind that struggling to raise campaign cash has always been a problem for Barletta’s Congressional campaigns.  This is due in large part to the fact that while he is more popular than Jesus in his hometown of Hazleton, Barletta’s popularity begin to fall off rapidly the farther away he moves from the city.  So while Barletta’s congressional opponents (especially Paul Kanjorski) raise cash from all across the district, Barletta’s money comes from three major sources: 1. Himself 2. Citizens of Hazleton and 3. Loans.  This small cash base goes a long way toward putting Barletta at a strategic disadvantage with almost everyone else in this race.

Finally, Barletta is probably also struggling to raise funds due to potential donors not wanting to throw more money at a dead horse.  In two consecutive Congressional elections, against the same opponent, Barletta has come up short.  And now that he’s making a third attempt at it, many people who are looking to donate to a candidate have to be wondering if Lou Barletta has become a bad investment.  Republicans, and even quite a few Democrats, are eager to get Paul Kanjorski out of office.  However, there is serious doubt about whether Lou Barletta is the candidate capable of accomplishing that.

The saying of, “Something is only as valuable as someone is willing to pay for it,” comes to mind, here.  If the candidates in this race were items in a store, Lou Barletta would be on the clearance rack, right alongside the VHS cassettes and Christmas decorations.  His inability to raise cash combined with his huge (and growing) debt make him extremely unattractive to potential donors.  This, in turn, makes Lou Barletta a weak candidate and a poor choice for voters looking for someone with the ability to mount a serious challenge to Paul Kanjorski.  Lou Barletta has wasted enough voter money.  It’s time to leave him by the wayside and move along to bigger and better things.

See also: For $250,000, Lou Barletta Might Run for Congress and Barletta Accepts Money from Drug Dealers

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

So what do you do if you’re the mayor of a city in financial distress?  Have a fire sale!  After years of bad decisions, chasing businesses out of town, wasting tax payer money, and illegal use of funds, Hazleton is now on the verge of financial collapse.  Indeed, under the “leadership” of Mayor Lou Barletta, the city of Hazleton has suffered mightily.  Now, running out of options, Barletta is planning to try and sell the Hazleton Water Authority to try and keep the city afloat.

So this is what it has come down to?  Selling off Hazleton piece by piece?  True, selling the Water Authority may raise funds in the short-term.  However, the Water Authority isn’t the source of the problem.  A shrinking tax base and the financial consequences of Barletta’s inept leadership are the reasons Hazleton is on life support.  So what happens two years down the road when the city is still on the verge of financial collapse?  Sell some more stuff?  Anybody wanna buy a bridge?  Or a school, perhaps?

Also, if the Water Authority is privatized, it’s a safe bet that rates for Hazleton residents, as well as residents of other cities serviced by the Water Authority, will shoot up.  This will only add to the financial hardship faced by the residents of Hazleton.  Mayor Barletta is pushing ahead with brutal tax increases and city service cut backs.  All of this will have the effect of further harming the long-term health of the Hazleton economy.  Seriously, why would anyone want to live in Hazleton at this point?  Well, I guess if you like being financially raped, maybe…

And with all of this going on, Mayor Barletta is still pushing ahead with his campaign for the US Congress.  As our nation inches out of one of the worst financial meltdowns of our time, can we really afford (literally) to have people like Lou Barletta making decisions about our economy?  We’ve already seen Barletta’s version of a financial stimulus plan: Tax the hell out of everyone and sell off everything you can get a quick buck for.  Clearly, this is not the type of representation we need in Washington and we can do better than Lou Barletta.

Mayor Lou Barletta has already demonstrated, time after time and year after year, that he has the God gifted ability to take a bad situation and make it worse than anyone could have possibily imagined.  The city of Hazleton stands as a brutalized monument in tribute to Barletta’s failed leadership.  The city is teetering on the brink of financial collapse, her businesses are closing and/or relocating out of the area, and her assets are being put up for auction by the man responsible for it all.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta Tries to Re-Write History and Barletta Makes More Excuses for His Failures

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, all!  I hope this season finds you and your family safe, loved, and healthy.  During the holidays, I really haven’t posted to the site, but rest assured I intend to keep StopLouBarletta.com very active in the coming days, weeks, and months.  I believe, as I believed when I started this site, that this website serves as an important voice of opposition to Mayor Lou Barletta and his leadership.  This is why I have remained, and will remain, very active and vocal in my opposition to his candidacy for higher office.

I would like to take a moment to wish Mayor Barletta and his family a happy holiday, as well.  When blogging or talking about politics, it’s very easy to forget that there are people and families involved.  And while I am adamantly opposed to Mr. Barletta serving in the United States Congress, I hold nothing against him as a person.  In the heat of the moment, the distinction between the two can, and often does, get blurred.  Mayor Barletta is a career politician and I’m sure has a thick skin and is well experienced in brushing off my criticisms of his leadership and political aspirations, if he is even aware of this blog at all.  Regardless of how this election turns out, I wish nothing but the best for Mayor Barletta and his family.  I just hope that the best doesn’t involve him being elected to higher office.

I’m also planning to participate in Project 52.  For those that don’t know, Project 52 is a collection of bloggers, of all sorts, who have pledged to write at least one blog post per week, every week, in 2010.  It’s free to join and if you have a blog, it might be worth checking out.  The whole concept is to provide incentive and motivation to keep your blog updated and current, something many (most?) bloggers fail to do.

And while I’m at it, I’d also like to invite all of you to follow StopLouBarletta on Twitter (@StopLouBarletta) and on Facebook.  I’ve also set up a YouTube channel, where I hope to post several StopLouBarletta related videos over the coming weeks and months.  I’ve set all of this up because I sincerely want StopLouBarletta to be as interactive as possible.  I also want it, obviously, to have the biggest reach as possible.  Hopefully, with a strong presence across all of these platforms, both of those goals can be achieved.

So, as I said at the opening of this post, I hope all of you have a great holiday and a safe 2010.  We’ll have lots of time to scream, yell, hurl insults and accusations, and do as much as possible to hurt feelings and grind the opposition into the dirt.  However, for the next couple of hours at least, let’s just try to get along and enjoy our time of this spinning blue rock.  See you next year, all!

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

As I’m sure all of you know by now, Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has announced that he will make a third run at Congress.  Why this man keeps beating his head against a wall is beyond me.  He has lost in two consecutive elections, against the same opponent, and has wracked up massive personal debt that he has yet to pay off.  Additionally, for the first time Barletta has a challenger in the Republican primary, as Chris Paige has also entered the race (months before Barletta) and this will only force Barletta to spend more money that he doesn’t have.  Despite all of this, Lou Barletta apparently thinks that this third time will prove to be the charm.

Let’s hope not.  As mayor of Hazleton, Barletta has buried the city in debt.  The city is facing a widely reported financial crisis and the current city budget being put forth by Barletta is chock full of tax hikes and city layoffs.  I mention this because, according to Lou Barletta’s official website, everything is just peachy in Hazleton.  Financial crisis?  What financial crisis?  To quote from his site…

“Lou Barletta was elected to Hazleton City Council in 1998, and became mayor in 2000. He inherited a massive budget shortfall, and was able to turn the city of Hazleton around with tough prudent financial decisions, earning statewide praise and recognition. He now leads Hazleton through one of the most impressive revitalizations in regional history.”

REALLY?!?!  Aside from the dates that he was elected to office, everything else in that paragraph is a pipe dream.  Perhaps by “statewide praise and recognition”, Barletta (or whatever coked-up moron wrote that) is referring to him having to beg the State to change the laws for him so as not to have to pay back city pension money that he used illegally.  And “most impressive revitalization in regional history” is obviously in reference to the fact that the city of Hazleton now has some of the highest taxes in the entire state and is on the verge of going bankrupt.

I’m eagerly awaiting the next press release from the Barletta camp, which will probably credit Barletta with drafting the Constitution and inventing sliced bread.  There is a difference between putting a positive spin on something and simply making stuff up.  The Lou Barletta campaign has not only crossed that line, they pole vaulted over it.  To claim that the financial affairs of Hazleton are anything but a disaster is a slap in the face not only to the people of Hazleton (who are being taxed to the legal limit), but also to all of the people who support Barletta in his bid for Congress.  It’s bad enough these people are gulible enough to support Barletta, and now he’s just outright lying to them.

This is the type of person that Lou Barletta really is.  When reality doesn’t reflect kindly on him and his decisions (as it often doesn’t), he tells lies.  This is what Lou Barletta will bring to the United States Congress.  Barletta can not be trusted.  As mayor of Hazleton, he has accomplished nothing, except for raising debt and brutally taxing the citizens of the city.  It’s no wonder Barletta has such a hard time trying to find financing for his campaign.  No one is Hazleton has any left to give him.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the US Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta to Run for Congress Again and Barletta and Hazleton Might Get a Bailout

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com