StopLouBarletta.com

The latest campaign finance numbers have been released, and as expected, Lou Barletta continues to under perform.  The latest report by the FEC shows that the Barletta Campaign is operating with a massive debt and has more debt than cash on hand.  This shouldn’t be news to anyone, though, because Lou Barletta has always been a horrible fund raiser and his previous Congressional campaigns (all of which ended in loss) all amassed huge debt.  If these numbers are a sign of things to come for Barletta, he’s in trouble.

According to the FEC, Mayor Barletta has $236,807 in cash on hand.  He’s already spent $340,748 and now has a debt of $263,170.  If you are Lou Barletta, or one of his supporters, these numbers should really concern you.  What these numbers show is that 1.) Barletta is burning through cash at a rate that he simply can’t maintain and 2.) The Barletta Campaign cash/debt ratio is bad and getting worse.  But wait, it gets worse.  Once you factor in the finances of Barletta’s opponent, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, it becomes clear that Barletta has big problems.

For his part, Congressman Kanjorski has $1,058,311 in cash on hand.  He’s spent $638,923 already and his campaign has $0 in debt.  Simply put, Kanjorski is burying Barletta in terms of cash.  Clearly, Kanjorski has a massive competitive advantage.  He can afford to run more ads and keep them up longer than Barletta.  Barletta, on the other hand, has to keep his spending tightly controlled.  If he spends too much too fast, he will run out of money before November.  Also, he will struggle to respond to any negative advertising that Kanjorski can, and probably will, throw his way.  Forget remaining competitive, against these numbers, and with the limited resources he has available, Mayor Barletta and his Congressional Campaign will struggle to remain relevant.

With this in mind, I find it mind boggling that Lou Barletta is actually trying to spin these numbers, trying to imply he has some sort of financial edge over Paul Kanjorski.  In a press release, which can be found on Barletta’s website, Mayor Lou brags about the fact that his fund raising “out paced” Kanjorski’s this past quarter.  The obvious response to this is that Kanjorski doesn’t really need to spend much time on fund raising.  He already has over a million dollars in cash and zero campaign debt.  Barletta then tries to further spin the numbers, again trying to imply that he has Kanjorski against the ropes, by pointing out that Kanjorski is “$1 million behind where he was in 2008.”  Um, so what?  Considering what he’s up against, I’d say that Kanjorski is in great shape.  As the saying goes, he could buy and sell Barletta’s Campaign multiple times over.  Barletta will be lucky to get his cash on hand up to what Kanjorski has already spent.

Mayor Barletta can release all the press releases he wants, spinning the numbers however he likes.  The truth of the matter is, however, that the Barletta Campaign is operating with a huge and growing debt and is burning through money faster than they can raise it.  This isn’t spin.  This is what the numbers, as reported by the Barletta Campaign to the FEC, indicate.  Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign, like the city that he has run for over a decade, is in serious financial trouble and no amount of wishful thinking or rose-colored press releases can fix that.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.  We can’t afford it and, apparently, neither can he.

See also: Barletta Accepts Money from Extremist Groups and Why Does Barletta Still Support BP?

-Dan Cheek
StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

According to the FEC’s Campaign Finance website, Lou Barletta has accepted multiple donations and thousands of dollars from the Eagle Forum PAC.  For those that don’t know, the Eagle Forum is one of the most extremist political action groups in the nation.  The belief system that they champion is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous in US politics.  It’s interesting, then, that Mayor Lou Barletta is so cozy with this group of crazies.

The Eagle Forum is a political action committee that was established in 1967 by Phyllis Schlafly, a life-long opponent to the equal rights movement.  I mentioned that the Eagle Forum is one of the most extremist groups in American politics, and I wasn’t exaggerating.  Among other things, the group believes that it should not be illegal for a man to rape his wife, opposes sex education in public schools, believe women should be relegated to “full time homemakers,” as opposed to pursuing careers, and is strongly opposed to vaccinations for infants.  The Eagle Forum has been a long time supporter of Mayor Barletta, donating thousands of dollars to his various political campaigns.

Since December 17th, the Eagle Forum has donated $2,000 to Lou Barletta’s campaign for Congress.  Considering what this group of scary people believe in, I find it troubling that Lou Barletta has not only accepted money from them, but has also accepted multiple donations from the group.  Groups like the Eagle Forum don’t donate money to candidates at random.  They donate money to individuals who they believe will further their cause in the halls of government.  And by continuing to accept their money, Lou Barletta is sending the message that, “Yes, I will support your beliefs in Congress.  You can count on me, guys!”

On his website, Lou Barletta has just released a video claiming that he “stand with you.”  Unless you oppose equal rights for women and feel that infants have no right receiving life-saving vaccinations, I would cast serious doubt on that statement.  The Eagle Forum, one of Barletta’s strongest backers, is working very hard to get Lou Barletta elected to Congress.  Considering the horrific, Taliban-like beliefs that the Eagle Forum endorses, I would be strongly opposed to any candidate that this group thinks is a good idea.  The fact that the Eagle Forum supports Lou Barletta is reason enough for sane people everywhere not to.  Clearly, Lou Barletta does not belong in the United States Congress.

See also: Barletta Palling Around with White Supremacists and Racists

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

The latest campaign finance numbers have been released and, to no one’s surprise, Lou Barletta’s finances are by far the most abysmal in the race for the 11th Congressional District.  Mayor Barletta’s debt continues to grow, putting him at an increasing disadvantage to whomever he faces in the general election.  This is nothing new for Barletta, who has always struggled to raise funds and has always operated at a huge disadvantage to his campaign rivals.

According to the latest FEC filing, Barletta is lagging in almost every way possible to the other candidates.  Consider the following:

• Barletta raised $281,913 in campaign donations.  Compare this to Paul Kanjorski who raised $1,123,937 in donations.  Even Corey O’Brien, the Democratic challenger, raised $320,271 in donations.  This means that no matter who Barletta faces off against in the general election, he will be at a competitive disadvantage.
• Lou Barletta continues to build up debt.  To date, Barletta has more debt that any of the other candidates in the race…combined.  Barletta has managed to accrue a staggering $136,100 in debt.  Paul Kanjorski has $0 in debt and Corey O’Brien has only built up $4,367 in debt thus far.  This is notable because O’Brien is running against a powerful incumbent in the Democratic primary.  Barletta is running unopposed in the Republican primary, but has over 30 times as much campaign debt as Corey O’Brien.

No matter how you look at it, Lou Barletta continues to run his campaign on life support.  His campaign finances are a mess.  No matter who Barletta faces in the general election, he will be up against a huge financial disadvantage.  No doubt, the Democrats will spend early and spend heavily.  This will force Barletta to burn through his limited supply of cash early in the race just to keep up.  This is exactly what Paul Kanjorski did during the last election, when he faced Lou Barletta.  In the end, this all-out blitz proved too much for Barletta and his small pile of cash to overcome.

If not being very good at raising campaign cash was Barletta’s only sin, it would be easy to overlook.  However, Barletta’s inept handling of his own campaign finances mirrors his handling of the city he was elected to lead, Hazleton, PA.  Like his Congressional campaigns (all three of them), Lou Barletta has shown a shocking inability to make intelligent financial decisions.  The city is damn near bankrupt and Barletta’s only response to this crisis, which has been ongoing for years, is to raise taxes (even going to court to get permission to raise them beyond the legal limit) and slash city payrolls.  All this has accomplished is to drive businesses out of Hazleton, raise property taxes to horrifying levels, and make Hazleton one of the worst economies in the state.

Around the nation, Republican candidates are enjoying an incredibly favorable political environment.  Donations to Republican candidates are surging and many once-safe Democratic candidates are now in competitive races with their challengers.  Despite all of this, Lou Barletta has still found a way to under perform.  I receive emails, on a daily basis, telling me how popular Lou Barletta is and how much the people love him.  That may be true (I don’t think it is), but if all of these people are so infatuated with Mayor Lou, why does he continue to struggle, year after year, to raise campaign cash?  The saying goes that something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.  In the case of Mayor Lou Barletta, he doesn’t appear to be worth very much at all.  The Republican Party needs to leave Lou Barletta for dead and find a serious candidate who can actually run a competitive political campaign.  Lou Barletta should not, and will not, be elected to the US Congress.

See also: Mayor Barletta Disrespects US Military and Barletta Accepts Money from Drug Dealers

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

If you read the “Issues” section on Lou Barletta’s web page, you would notice that Mayor Barletta talks about Spending as his first “issue.”  Barletta budgets more space to the issue of spending than on any other issue on the page.  This is ironic, because as Mayor of Hazleton, Barletta has treated the issue of spending and budgeting as an afterthought.  A reasonable person must ask, if fiscal responsibility is so important to Lou Barletta, why is Hazleton in such financial disrepair?

The obvious answer is that despite what is claimed on Barletta’s website, responsible spending isn’t really all that important to Mayor Barletta.  On his website, Barletta makes the following statements…

“I’m tired of this blank-check attitude of Washington politicians.  We need to send people to Washington who will add real checks to our nation’s bank balance.”

This is an interesting choice of words coming from the mayor who illegally used the Hazleton Pension Fund for purposes other than what it was intended for.  That costly decision nearly bankrupt the city and required the State of Pennsylvania to intervene and fix Barletta’s screw-up.  Also, consider the fact that the city of Hazleton is now so strapped for cash that Mayor Barletta is looking to sell off the Hazleton Water Authority to the highest bidder.  Do these sound like the actions of a man who is really serious about fiscal responsibility?

Want further proof of Lou Barletta’s financial ineptitude?  Okay.  Just take a peek at his campaign finances.  Barletta has wracked up more debt than all other candidates, both Democrat and Republican, combined.  Things are so bad for Barletta’s campaign, in fact, that before he even announced his decision to run for Congress again, he sent out a letter begging people to donate money to him so he could pay off some of his existing campaign debt from his previous two failed Congressional campaigns.  Yes, Lou Barletta is the candidate who was asking for money for his campaign before he was a candidate.  Financial integrity at its finest, eh?

When allowed to play with money, Lou Barletta has a history of doing horribly stupid things.  He can write whatever he wants on his website about how serious he is about responsible spending.  However, despite his best efforts, Mayor Barletta can not re-write the facts.  As Mayor of Hazleton, Barletta has left the city in shambles.  As a political candidate, Barletta has burned through money like it was some sort of fossile fuel.  If Lou Barletta is serious about keeping people out of Washington who are going to waste and mismanage money, he should not be running for Congress.  Because Lou Barletta has a long history of wasting and mismanaging money.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta is a Bad Investment and Barletta Struggling to Raise Funds

-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

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

Deciding whether or not to run for Congress is a hard decision.  Mayor Lou Barletta has been on the fence about his to decision to make a third attempt to win a seat in the US House of Representatives.  For weeks, he has speculated that he might run, or, y’know, he might not.  Recently, however, Barletta sent out a donation letter to supporters, explaining to them that if they sent him lots and lots of money, he would be more likely than not to run.

According to the letter (a copy of which can be found HERE), Lou Barletta needs to pay off his existing debt from his previous two campaigns before he is willing to make a third try at Congress.  The best part of all of this is that most of this debt is owed to Lou Barletta.  See, Barletta “loaned” himself money to go to his Congressional campaigns.  And while the fund raising letter doesn’t specifically say which debts are to be paid, it can be safely assumed that most of it will be used to re-fill Lou Barletta’s personal checking account.  If this is legal…it shouldn’t be.

As the letter explains…

“I need your help now.

Last year, you and I battled one of the most liberal pro-amnesty Congressmen and almost won.  Even with President Obama’s tremendous margin of victory, our race was one of the closest in the nation.

However, I need your help once again – to retire the debt of the last campaign.  If you’d be so kind to consider giving your most generous contribution possible, my family would really appreciate it.

For your convenience, I’ve enclosed an envelope or you can go to www.loubarletta.com and contribute online.

I’m hoping you’re still as concerned as I am about the continuing problems that illegal aliens are bringing to our communities.”

So let me get this straight.  By sending Barletta and “his family” as much money “as possible”, we are somehow helping him make our communities a better place?  Keep in mind, he doesn’t say whether he will actually run or not, regardless of how much money he raises.  Essentially, Barletta is begging for money and hinting that if all of us send him enough of our hard earned money (earned in one of the worst economic environments in US history), he would be more likely to run for Congress again.  And probably fail, again.

At this point, Lou Barletta has become a life-sucking leech.  He complains about how much money is being wasted on supporting illegal immigrants.  But how much money is being wasted supporting Barletta’s bumbling ass?  This letter makes it sound like Lou Barletta is the savior that the American people have been waiting for and, for the low low price of $250,000, this savior might actually run for Congress again.  If anything, this letter makes it painfully clear that Lou Barletta doesn’t have a shot in hell at winning any election (except maybe another term as Hazleton’s mayor, as they seem to enjoy getting screwed by him) anytime soon.

Lou Barletta is not a serious candidate.  He is, by now, a political joke.  Why should people pay a man to consider a run at political office?  If Lou Barletta was really serious about making our communities better, as he claims, then he would eat that debt, most of which is owed to himself, and run.  And if running for political office is putting such a burden on his finances and on his family, then he shouldn’t run.  The voters have said, twice and in consecutive elections, that they do not want Lou Barletta to represent them in Congress.  Barletta is obviously too stupid to know when he’s not wanted and that is his problem, although he’d like all of us to finance it.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to US Congress.

See also: Lou Barletta Still in the Hole and Barletta Accepts Money from Drug Dealers

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

It is a fact of political life in US politics: If you can’t raise money, you can’t win the election.  Now, people can debate the fairness of this, but when it comes right down to it, it is what it is.  Yes, there have been a handful of cases where the candidate with little campaign cash has defeated a much better financed opponent.  However, those cases are clearly the exception to the rule.  I mention this only because, once again, Mayor Lou Barletta is considering running for the US House of Representatives and, once again, he is struggling to raise campaign money.

As reported on the always informative Gort42 Blog…

“Paul Kanjorski (D) has better than $600,000 in the bank with a big chunk of his latest take coming from banks, insurance companies and labor unions. His prospective opponent is Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta who reports $4,000 cash on hand and $263,000 in debt from his last 2 failed campaigns to become the Congressman from the 11th CD. Barletta only raised about $3500 and loaned his campaign $48,500.”

Aside from the basic financial importance of campaign fundraising, a candidates ability to raise money is also an indication that candidate’s political strength.  The fact that Lou Barletta is still unable to pay off the debt from his previous two congressional campaigns doesn’t really speak well to his chances of being able to unseat a very well financed incumbent.  The Republican Party, if it is serious about picking off Paul Kanjorski, needs to move past Lou Barletta and find a candidate who can actually raise campaign money and run a competitive race.  The simple fact of the matter is that while Lou Barletta may be very popular in certain political circles, he has proven incapable of leveraging that popularity into actual campaign cash or, for that matter, a political victory at the polls.

And aside from Barletta’s political financial woes, he has also shown an inability to keep the city he was elected to govern, Hazleton, in the black.  In 2006, the city of Hazleton ran a deficit of $158,867.  In 2007, that deficit ballooned to $655,347.  And while the official numbers for FY 2008 have yet to be released, it’s safe to assume that the deficit has, once again, gone up.  Also, please keep in mind that these deficits don’t take into account the whole Pension Fund debacle, so if that is taken into account, these deficit numbers only get bigger.  And, as admitted by Mayor Lou Barletta, Hazleton is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Considering all of this, I find it mind boggling as to why 1.) Lou Barletta continues to entertain the prospect of running, again, for the US Congress and 2.) Why anyone (aside from Paul Kanjorski and other Democrats) would want Lou Barletta to run for the US Congress.  Financially, Barletta is a train wreck.  His political campaign is running on fumes and his city is on life support.  The Republican Party must field a candidate who, you know, can actually raise campaign money and win a race.  And while it would be mildly entertaining to see Barletta flop around on the political stage, once again, and make an ass out of himself, once again, I would much rather see a strong Republican candidate actually run a successful campaign and get elected to office.  Lou Barletta should read the tealeaves, the writing on the wall, and the numbers on his campaign’s bank account statements and NOT run for the US House of Representatives.  He can’t afford it (literally) and neither can the Republican Party.

See also: For $250,000, Barletta Might Run for Congress

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

What do you do if you’re a Congressional candidate and honest, law abiding citizens won’t give you any money to help fund your campaign?  Take it from dirty, sleazy criminals and former criminals!  That’s exactly what Lou Barletta is doing.  In addition to accepting $2,000 from two men who were involved in a cocaine distribution ring, Mayor Barletta has also accepted campaign donations from Senator Ted Stevens (R – Alaska).

Senator Stevens, for those that don’t know, was recently indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for accepting gifts and kickbacks from lobbyists.  Stevens is the first US Senator to be indicted, for anything, since 1993.  Senator Stevens is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from oil lobbyists.  He is also under investigation for sponsoring fishing legislation that may have been used to help his son, who is also a lobbyist.

To quote CBS News…

“From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the 84-year-old senator concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”

The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the items included: home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing, electrical wiring; as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools. He also was accused of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover to be driven by one of his children.

Prosecutors said Stevens received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO Corp., a powerful oil services contractor, and its executives.”

Mayor Lou Barletta has accepted $1000 from the Northern Lights Political Action Committee (PAC), a PAC that is run by Senator Ted Stevens.  Naturally, Representative Paul Kanjorski, Barletta’s opponent, has called on Barletta to give the money back.  And, predictably, the Barletta camp has so far refused.  Just like they’ve refused to give back the $2,000 that they’ve accepted from the DiAngelo brothers, who were both involved, extensively, with the Empire Drug Ring.

And why won’t Mayor Barletta give this dirty money back?  Well, I think it comes down to two reasons.  First, Lou Barletta is perfectly comfortable with accepting money from criminals.  Otherwise, you know, he would give the money back.  But he hasn’t.  Second, Mayor Barletta can’t afford to give the money back.  His campaign is hurting for money and he needs every single penny he can get his hands on.  Desperate people will do desperate things, I suppose.

All of this leads to one conclusion: Lou Barletta has no business being elected to the United States Congress.  He has shown a total disregard for anything resembling ethical behavior and his campaign is already tainted with dirty money from people who have been indicted, and in some cases, convicted of major criminal offenses.  With all of his ties to criminals, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

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