StopLouBarletta.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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 7:31 am and is filed under Fundraising, The 2010 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.