StopLouBarletta.com

Recently, Mayor Lou Barletta threw a temper tantrum because he claimed a poll being conducted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) was full of “false statements” and was being used to give people the wrong impression about him.  According to Barletta, this poll was a dirty political trick and was based on lies and not fact.  Um….not really.

Barletta claims that the questions being asked in this poll, which was conducted over the telephone and administered to several people, asked questions that implied unflattering things about Barletta.  According to Mayor Barletta’s Campaign…

“The campaign blames the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for a “push poll” that attacks Barletta’s Italian heritage, Hazleton business owners and economic development leaders, and insults the city police department.”

Vince Galko, Mayor Barletta’s campaign manager, went on to explain…

“The poll included questions that implied Barletta has ties to organized crime, half of Hazleton’s storefronts are empty and the city went through a crime wave because the mayor laid off police officers — none of which is true, he said.”

The part of that quote that I’d like to focus on is the part where Mr. Galko says, “..none of which is true.”  Obviously, Vince Galko is in the dark about a few things.  That, or he’s just a bold faced liar.  Allow me to explain.

First, let’s take the “accusation” that Barletta has ties to organized crime.  No, Mayor Barletta has never been convicted of anything and he’s probably not smart enough to be the leader of some secret crime syndicate.  However, some of Barletta’s friends and campaign supporters do have ties to organized crime.

• Paul DeAngelo was, in 1994, sentenced to 18 months in prison for being a part of the Empire Drug Ring, a New York City based drug ring that was distributing cocaine all accross Luzerne County.  Paul DeAngelo, along with his brother, bought Lou Barletta’s line painting business in 2000.  He also just recently donated $1000 to Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign.  Barletta is refusing to give the money back and has defended Mr. DeAngelo.
• Neal DeAngelo was also involved in the Empire Drug Ring, however, unlike his brother, he was able to avoid jail time because he snitched on other members of the ring.  He also just recently gave $1000 to Lou Barletta’s Congressional Campaign.
• Francis Scarcella was, for a long time, a close political ally of Lou Barletta.  In 2006, he was indicted, and later convicted, of being involved in a stolen travelers check scheme.  Scarcella served in various positions in Lou Barletta’s administration and also served as a Hazleton School Board member.

So, as you can see, the “accusation” that Mayor Lou Barletta has ties to organized crime has nothing to do with his “Italian heritage”, but rather, the fact that several of his friends were, at one time, directly involved with organized crime.  So the statement that “Lou Barletta has ties to organized crime” is actually spot on and very much accurate.

Next, let’s consider the “accusation” that Mayor Lou Barletta’s cuts in the police force had nothing to do with crime in Hazleton exploding.  Here are the facts: One of Mayor Barletta’s first acts as mayor was to cut the Hazleton police force in half.  Shortly after, crime in Hazleton began to rise.  To say that reducing, by half, the number of Hazleton police officers had nothing to do with the increase in crime is just stupid.  It did.

Finally, let’s look at the “accusation” that businesses in Hazleton are leaving.  Um, they are.  Are all businesses closing?  No, but several businesses, especially smaller family owned businesses, are on the decline.  For proof of this, just drive around Hazleton.  You can see all the empty store fronts.  So, again, this “accusation” is less of an accusation and more of a fact.

Mayor Lou Barletta would like you to believe that the DCCC has no idea what they are talking about and all of the “accusations” they brought up were nothing more than desperate fantasies.  However, as I just pointed out, all of these accusations are at least backed by more than a few facts.  As a candidate for the United States Congress, Lou Barletta needs to come clean on all of these issues and stop hiding from them.  For all of these reasons and more, Lou Barletta does not deserve to be elected to the United States Congress.

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

Lou Barletta, often referred to as “Sweet Lou” by his groupies for reasons that I am too horrified to imagine, is sounding a bit sour as of late.  He and his campaign have sent letters to every local television station, demanding that they stop airing one of his opponent’s, Paul Kanjorski, campaign commercials.  This is after he and his campaign manager were bragging about how Kanjorski putting up television commercials this early in the campaign was a good thing.  Make up your mind, Lou.

Barletta and his people want the TV stations to stop airing the commercial because they say it is “false”.  In the ad, which was paid for and produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Barletta is portrayed as being in support of privatizing Social Security.  This is because in the 2002 Congressional election, in which Barletta ran against Kanjorski and lost, Barletta was in support of privatizing Social Security.  Barletta says that this isn’t true (it is) and that the commercial must go away.

The problem is, however, that the television stations don’t really care what Barletta wants or doesn’t want.  As reported by the Scranton Times….

“Local television stations are under no obligation to stop airing a television commercial that attacks Republican congressional candidate Lou Barletta’s stance on Social Security, unless he can prove it defames him, an expert said Tuesday.

“To prove defamation is a pretty tall order,” said Kathleen Kirby, counsel for the Radio-Television News Directors Association, which advises stations on political advertising.”

It goes on to say…

“Dan Mecca, WOLF’s national sales director, said the station has aired the second ad for about a week and will continue to do so pending a review by its lawyer.

Ms. Kirby said decisions to stop airing political commercials are rare because federal law requires stations to air candidate-paid commercials and gives them immunity from lawsuits over the ads’ content. Stations will sometimes argue that immunity applies to non-candidate political committees, he said.”

So, simply put, the television stations have told Barletta and his minions to go pound sand.  Perhaps Barletta and his joke-of-a-campaign-manager, Vince Galko, are beginning to understand what everyone else on the planet already knows: If your political opponent can afford to run television ads, and you can’t, that is a BAD thing.  Not a good thing.

And Barletta’s response to these commercials is also very telling.  Asking the television stations to stop airing them?  Very mature, Lou.  Maybe the next thing “Sweet Lou” can try is asking Paul Kanjorski to drop out of the race.  Or ask the election officials to remove Kanjorski’s name from the ballat.  Or something.

This is just another example of how bad of a candidate Lou Barletta really is and why he’s such an embarrassment to the Republican Party.  He has shown a complete inability to raise money, thus killing his ability to compete with Kanjorski in any serious capacity.  His campaign is being run by Vince Galko, who has a whole lot of experience in losing elections, but none at actually winning them.  While Lou Barletta has managed to build up a fair amount of hype surrounding his candadicy, he hasn’t actually figured out how to live up to that hype.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

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

So Lou Barletta was recently named as “Mayor of the Year”.  I find that amusing, for many reasons.  Besides being a complete idiot, with a long and well documented record of failure, Barletta also has a history of mismanaging finances, both his own and the City of Hazleton’s.  And while I’ve covered, in some detail, the scandal surrounding a questionable personal loan made to Barletta, I’ve yet to talk about how the city of Hazleton, under Lou Barletta’s leadership, severely mismanaged and misused city money.

The following links are to State Auditor General Reports, conducted in 2006.  The reports detail how Barletta and the Hazleton City Council repeatedly acted in violation of State law in terms of how they used the City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund and the Nonuniformed Pension Plan,  funds used for the city’s police, firemen, and other city employees pension plans.  Here are the reports….

city-of-hazleton-aggregate-pension-fund-audit-report
city-of-hazleton-nonuniformed-pension-plan-audit-report

Now, as you can imagine, the reports are long and wordy.  They are not very thrilling reads, although I do suggest you at least skim through the reports.  Now, here are some highlights from the reports, quoted exactly as they appear…

• “During the years 2003, 2004, and 2005, the city improperly used proceeds from this special municipal penison tax, in the total amount of $1,426,656, to fund post-retirement health care benefits for police officers and firefighters who retired after January 1, 1999.” -City of Hazleton Aggregeate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 12).
• “As a result of the improper expenditure of special municipal taxing authority funds for post-retirement health care benefits and unused leave buy-backs, the funds were not available to pay authorized pension plan expenses or for investment purposes in accordance with Act 205.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 13)
• “In March of 2003, two police officers with less than 20 years of service were improperly granted pension benefits in violation of the Third Class City Code and a collective bargaining settlement agreement dated March 28, 2000.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 14)
• “Benefits in excess of the Third Class City Code are still being provided to certain retired and active nonuniformed employees.” -City of Hazleton Nonuniformed Pension Plan Audit Report (page 11)

Now, is this the type of leadership that Lou Barletta intends to bring to the United States Congress?  And while I understand that the City Council shares in the responsibility for these blunders, Lou Barletta, as Mayor of Hazleton, is also responsible.  And if he can’t properly manage a city’s finances, how in God’s name is he expecting to bring more money to the district than a 12 year incumbent?

Mayor Lou Barletta is a failed, weak leader.  He claims that he will bring change to Washington DC.  However, looking at his track record, I find that claim nothing more than a pipe dream.  Time and again, Barletta has failed as a leader.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

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

As I’ve said many times, I am a Republican.  I have been registered as such since 1999 and still carry my registration card proudly.  That said, however, I simply can not support Lou Barletta for Congress.  I would rather see Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat, keep his seat than see Barletta take it.

And that’s not because I think that Paul Kanjorski is such a great guy or an awesome politician.  Clearly, the guy has some issues.  However, name for me any politician who is perfect or who comes with no flaws.  No, I would rather see Kanjorski stay on because Barletta is a much, much worse option, in my opinion.  The Republican Party needs candidates and politicians of quality.  Lou Barletta is a joke of candidate.

For starters, the man has already run this same election against the same opponent in 2002.  He lost that election.  Now, six years later, I see no reason to believe that Barletta can achieve any greater success.  Bareletta still can’t raise any money.  Just look at the latest FEC numbers.  An inability to raise money is a sign of weakness.

I also have a problem with Barletta’s tactics.  He leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  When he first took office as Mayor of Hazleton, one of his first acts was to slash the size of the Hazleton police force in half.  Then, predictably, crime began to rise.  Barletta tried to shift the blame for all of this on an “illegal immigrant crime wave.”  However, crime statistics released by the Hazleton Police, made public during the trial that ended with Barletta’s “Illegal Immigration Relief Act” being deemed unconstitutional, show that of all crime committed in Hazleton since 2002, less than 1% the crime was committed by illegal immigrants.  Simply put, Lou Barletta is a coward who has a record of looking for scapegoats to blame for his own failings, both as a man and as a leader.

Then there’s the fact that Barletta has teamed up with Vince “I Can’t Win an Election to Save My Life” Galko.  Mr. Galko is Barletta’s campaign manager.  A look at Galko’s resume shows a record that is a complete flop.  He worked on Bob Dole’s 1996 Presidential Campaign.  Dole lost that election by a landslide to Bill Clinton.  He then worked on George W. Bush’s campaign as Deputy Executive Director of Pennsylvania operations.  While Bush won the election, he lost Pennsylvania.  Galko then worked as Senator Rick Santorum’s campaign manger.  Guess what happened there?  Yup.  Santorum, an incumbant, lost to Bob Casey Jr.

Most recently, Galko worked on Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential Campaign.  That campaign ended up being the laughing stock of the Republican Party and represented one of the worst run and most disastrous campaigns in modern politics.  And this is the guy that will be leading the Barletta Campaign?  Galko is a complete idiot and has the track record to prove it.

Combine Lou Barletta’s complete inability to raise money, his history of screwing things up and then blaming it on other people, and the fact that his campaign manager couldn’t win a high school student council election, and you are left with a very, very unelectable politician.  Lou Barletta is a loser who surrounds himself with losers.  I, as a Republican, want more from people representing my party.  Maybe some people can lower their standards (if they have any…) to support Lou Barletta, but I won’t.  I want a leader, not a habitual loser.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

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

As the economy in our country continues to slow down, and as gas and heating oil prices continue to rise, Mayor Lou Barletta is still refusing to explain how he would address these problems, were he to be elected to the US Congress.  Considering that Barletta’s campaign slogan is “Courage and Leadership for America”, one would think that Lou Barletta would be all over these very serious issues.  However, Mayor Barletta has, for whatever reason, chosen to ignore these problems completely.

I find Lou Barletta’s silence on the economy and gas prices to be shocking, to say the least.  The state of the economy is one of the single biggest issues concerning American voters in this upcoming election.  Unemployment is at 5.5% and has recently increased at the highest rate since 1986.  The national average for gasoline is now at $4 and climbing.  For someone looking to gain entry into the United States Congress, against an incumbent who’s been serving since 1984, addressing these concerns, in detail, should be of the highest priorities.

However, Lou Barletta’s priorities differ vastly from the priorities of the people he is seeking to represent.  Lou Barletta believes the most important thing he can do for the people of North Eastern Pennsylvania is to rant, endlessly, about illegal immigration.  Read his press releases.  Almost every single one of them talks about his stance on illegal immigration.  Even the press release that was supposedly meant to wish Ted Kennedy well, after the discovery of his brain tumor, talks mostly about Lou Barletta and his illegal immigration policies.  This despite the fact that a Federal Court shot down Mayor Lou’s policies as being unconstitutional.

Mayor Lou Barletta is a weak, ineffectual leader.  He has no plan, or even a broad idea, regarding what should be done about the American economy.  Essentially, he wants to get to Congress so he can continue to rant about illegal immigration and get paid a higher salary for doing so.  If elected, Lou Barletta would do nothing to help the people he would be representing.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the Unites States Congress.

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

Yesterday, Mayor Lou Barletta released a statement detailing a meeting he had with the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association.  Apparently, Mayor Barletta is attempting to convince the State Police, and the general public, that he is both a friend to police and serious about fighting crime.  It’s a shame that Lou Barletta’s record indicates otherwise.

When he first took office as mayor of Hazleton, one of the very first things Mr. Barletta did was to cut the police force in half.  It surprised no one then, except for Lou Barletta, when Hazleton’s crime rate began to increase.  Not man enough to take ownership for the problem he helped create, Mr. Barletta decided instead to create a scapegoat.  He blamed the increased crime on illegal immigrants, calling it a “crime wave” that was “destroying Hazleton’s quality of life, draining the city budget, and jeopardizing the safety of city police officers.”

Again, all of this was a lie.  According to data produced by Hazleton’s own police department, illegal immigrants accounted for less than one percent of all crimes committed in Hazleton during Mr. Barletta’s term as mayor.  Additionally, when Mr. Barletta is referring to the drain on Hazleton’s budget, he is probably referring to the several thousands of dollars of city money he spent trying to defend his Illegal Immigration Relief Act in Federal court after it was challenged.  Mr. Barletta failed in that effort, miserably, and his beloved law was deemed unconstitutional.

Finally, as for the safety of Hazleton’s police force, if Mayor Barletta was actually serious about helping them do their jobs, he wouldn’t have cut their numbers in half.  The fact of the matter is, however, that Mayor Lou Barletta could care less about police officers or their safety.  His record proves it.  Time and again, Lou Barletta has shown that he can not be trusted, that he is a habitual liar, and that he is a failed and ineffectual leader.  Lou Barletta does not deserve to be elected to the United States Congress.

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

If Lou Barletta wants to get elected to Congress, he needs to find a new group of friends. The crowd that is backing Barletta now is, believe me, not the crowd that Barletta wants to have backing him. Recently, the Eagle Forum Political Action Committee came out and publicly endorsed Barletta. For those that don’t know, the Eagle Forum is so far to the Right, that they practically fall off the map. These are not the friends that Barletta needs, right now.

The Eagle Forum is all kinds of crazy. At its core, the Eagle Forum is a group of insanely conservative women who promote all sorts of bad ideas. Among other things, the Eagle Forum has came out and said that 1.) Married women can not, ever, claim that they were raped by their husbands because by agreeing to be married, the woman consented to a lifetime of sex 2.) Sexual education should not be made available in schools and 3.)They are firmly against Federal funding for Family Leave or Daycare. Oh, but they do think that having Lou Barletta in Congress is a good idea.

Combine this with the fact that uber-racist David Duke (of the KKK) has supported Lou Barletta and you begin to wonder about just what kind of candidate (or person, for that matter) Lou Barletta really is. Yes, he’s come out and distanced himself from David Duke. However, the fact remains that The Eagle Forum and a former KKK leader have come out on Barletta’s side, while the mainstream Republican leadership has done its best to pretend Barletta doesn’t exist.

This situation is simply untenable for Barletta. He needs to build support from people and organizations that represent the values of the people he is attempting to represent. So far, Barletta has only managed to build support from the darkest and scariest parts of the extreme Right Wing of society. As most Americans, Democrats and Republicans, are more moderate, Barletta is in a bad spot. If he can not gain the support of the electorate, he will not be elected to the United States Congress.

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

Vince Galko is Lou Barletta’s campaign manager. Galko has a long history of helping run campaigns in Pennsylvania for various Republican candidates. However, unfortunately for Lou Barletta, Galko also has a long record of running losing campaigns for various Republican candidates. Considering this, it is no wonder why (as I’ve documented in previous posts on this blog) the Barletta campaign has made so many major missteps.

One of the first campaigns Vince Galko worked on was Bob Dole’s 1996 Presidential Campaign. That, as everyone knows, ended with Dole being handily defeated by Bill Clinton. Then, in 1997, Galko served for a time as a staff member for Senator Arlen Specter, the senior senator from Pennsylvania. In 2004, Galko served as Deputy Executive Director for George W. Bush’s Pennsylvania campaign. While George Bush went on to win that election, Bush ended up loosing the state of Pennsylvania to John Kerry.

More recently, Vince Galko served as Senator Rick Santorum’s campain manager. Santorum ended up loosing that election to Bob Casey, Jr. Then, in 2007, Galko was selected to work as one of Rudy Giuliani’s regional campaign directors. That campaign ended up being one of the most disastrous and ill-managed campaigns ever waged in recent history. And now, Vince Galko is serving as the campaign manager for Lou Barletta.

While I didn’t think it possible for anyone in politics to have a more unimpressive, failure laced resume than Lou Barletta, Vince Galko has proven me wrong. Vince Galko, simply put, is the kiss of death for almost every politician who makes the horrible mistake of hiring him. While he does have a large amount of experience, sadly, most of it is only experience in failure. It is not surprising that Lou Barletta, who is armed with his own large bag of failures, would be attracted to Galko. The two were made for eachother.

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

Lou Barletta is, apparently, having a tough time finding friends.  He can hardly find anyone willing to donate money to his campaign.  Every major presidential candidate refuses to come and visit with him, even though he personally invited all of them.  The only person, it would seem, who is willing to go on record in support of Mr. Barletta is David Duke, one of the most infamous racist leaders in the United States.  It would appear that the only endorsements that Barletta can get are from people that he’d rather not have them from.

This is a major problem for Barletta.  By definition, being a successful politician mean being popular.  And while Mr. Barletta is extremely popular in his home city of Hazleton, PA (where he is currently mayor), the rest of the 11th Congressional District (which he is running to represent) doesn’t seem to think as highly of him.  He ran against Paul Kanjorski in 2002 and lost that election.  And all signs point to Barletta being doomed to the same fate once again.

So why is Lou Barletta having such a tough time drumming up support for his campaign?  Well, the obvious answer is that not too many people want him representing them in Congress.  Considering that Barletta has refused to address almost any of the major issues facing Pennsylvania and that he tried and failed to enforce the harshest and most unfair immigration policy in the country, it’s no wonder.  Simply put, Lou Barletta is incredibly out of touch with Pennsylvania’s 11th District and with the rest of America.

This much we know, if the election were held today, Lou Barletta would probably lose.  He’s behind in money, in endorsements, and in popularity.  David Duke would probably vote for Barletta, but since Duke thankfully doesn’t live in the state, Barletta won’t even get that vote.  Lou Barletta, despite all his TV appearances, is a failed politician and should not (and probably will not) be elected to the United States Congress.

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

One of Lou Barletta’s favorite tactics is to blame everyone else for his mistakes.  As a bumbling, incompetent, failure of a leader, Lou Barletta makes lots of mistakes.  One of his biggest took place during the first few years of his first term as mayor of Hazleton.  In an effort to save the city money, Barletta cut the Hazleton Police Force in half.  As a result, crime began to rise.

Now, rather than be a man and stand up and say, “Perhaps cutting the police force in half wasn’t a brilliant idea.  I’m sorry,” Barletta decided to take a different route.  Blame illegal immigrants.  He traveled far and wide, appearing on several national television programs, ranting and raving about how his city was suffering from an “illegal immigrant crime wave”.

However, when Barletta’s extremist immigration policies were challenged in court, Barletta was forced to admit that, essentially, he made the whole “immigrant crime wave” thing up.  Oops.  According to Barletta, over a five year time period, about 8,000 crimes were committed in Hazleton.  Of those 8,000 crimes, about 20 were committed by illegal aliens.  That means that .25%, less than one percent, of the crime in Hazleton is a result of illegal immigration.  That has got to be the smallest crime wave in the history of the universe.

Lou Barletta is a failed leader.  He has a record of cutting police protection for his own city, attempting to pass extremist legislation (which was later struck down as being unconstitutional), and refusing to take a stand on any other major issue facing this nation, even as he runs for Congress.  This record of failed leadership is why Lou Barletta lost the last time he ran for Congress (in 2002) and it’s why he will loose this time around, as well.  Lou Barletta does not deserve to be elected to the US Congress.

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