StopLouBarletta.com

Lou Barletta might run for Congress.  Or maybe he won’t.  He probably won’t run for Lt. Governor.  And he might stay on as Mayor of Hazleton.  Barletta, it seems, is keeping all of his options open.  In the meantime, however, all we can do is speculate about Barletta’s aspirations for higher office.

Local blogger Gort42 recently caught up with Mayor Barletta and asked him a few questions about his political future….

The last time I talked to you, I got the impression you were running for Lt. Governor.  What happened to that?

“I want to be in a position to affect change and that is not an office that would let me do that.”

Are you going to run for Congress again?

“I haven’t ruled it out and I’m very seriously looking at the race.”

Has your Congressional campaign committee raised any money this quarter?

“Very little, just trying to retire the debt.”

When I talked to you in your office last January it was obvious that you love being the Mayor of Hazelton.

“Staying Mayor is not out of the question.”

So, it would seem that Mayor Barletta hasn’t made up his mind yet.  Or perhaps he has and just isn’t ready to announce it, yet.  The fact that Barletta says that he has done “very little” fund raising so far and is only looking to get rid of existing debt, I think, is very telling.  If Barletta were seriously considering running for Congress, wouldn’t he be actively raising funds?  Also, Barletta has always had a hard time raising money, so it’s not like he can just go out and raise a few hundred thousand dollars at the drop of a hat.  If Barletta doesn’t begin actively raising campaign funds soon, it can probably be assumed that he will not be running for Congress.

What’s worse for Barletta is that if he does decide to run, he will have an opponent in the GOP Primary.  Chris Paige, a Republican out of Skytop, PA, has announced that he will be running in the election and has already come out firing against Barletta.  This means, unlike last year, Barletta will have to not only fight (and spend money) in the General Election, but also in the Primary.  Considering Barletta’s ineptness at fund raising and his existing debt from his previous campaigns, Barletta will surely face an uphill battle if he does decide to run for Congress.

And that, in my opinion, is as it should be.  Barletta has proven, repeatedly, that he is unfit to serve in the US Congress.  He has drilled the city of Hazleton into the dirt.  He has been endorsed by convicted drug dealers and members of the KKK.  And he has used his stump issue of illegal immigration to mask the fact that he has no positions on any other major issue.  Lou Barletta is undeserving to represent the Republican Party or the people of the 11th Congressional District.  He would be well advised to keep his current job in Hazleton.

See also: Who is Chris Paige?

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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 8:51 am and is filed under Fundraising, The Election . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.