Murtha seat looks like outpost resisting impending GOP onslaught

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — In the hard-fought rematch for the late Rep. John
Murtha’s (D) House seat, the candidates are the same, but the dynamics have
changed considerably.

This working-class western Pennsylvania
district was once considered a must-win for Republicans looking to win
back the House. Now, however, the Democratic seat may become the rare
centrist district that resists an even broader GOP sweep, the exception
rather than the bellwether.

Rep. Mark Critz (D) is defending the seat he won by a surprising
eight points in a May special election following the death of Murtha,
his former boss. He again faces Tim Burns, a self-made millionaire who
has run a largely boilerplate GOP campaign, hammering the Democratic
agenda in Washington and tying Critz to unpopular Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

An underdog five months ago, Critz, 48, now has an edge, according to political analysts. The reason, in his view, is simple.

“I’ve
gone to Congress and done exactly what I said I was going to do,” he
said during an interview in his bustling Johnstown campaign office.

While Burns has run ads targeting Critz’s 94 percent voting record with
Pelosi, the reality is a bit different. On the relatively few
consequential votes the House has taken since May, Critz voted mostly
against the Democratic leadership. He opposed the final version of the
Wall Street regulatory overhaul, the Disclose Act tightening campaign
finance rules and a repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays
in the military.

Critz has also run against the healthcare law (though he doesn’t
favor full repeal) and the cap-and-trade energy bill, and he said in a
debate here Friday that he would have opposed the stimulus package that
passed in February 2009. The Democrat has dodged questions about
whether he would support Pelosi for Speaker, most recently in an
interview Friday and then in the debate that night.

“I’m not concerned about leadership at this point. I’m concerned about winning my race,” Critz told The Hill.

The
GOP’s targeting of this district stems from its demographics and the
fact that it was the only one in the nation to flip from supporting
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008.
The 12th district is one of the oldest in the nation, and its white,
working-class, socially conservative voters are the kind who never
warmed to Obama and have turned decisively against him in the last year.

“If you think this administration is taking this country in the
right direction, then Mark Critz is your guy, because he votes with the
administration 94 percent of the time,” Burns said during his closing
statement at Friday’s debate. “If you want to make sure that this
administration does not take away more of our freedoms and our
liberties, then I ask for your vote.”

Both parties invested heavily in the special election, hoping to
win not just a single House seat but a shot of momentum heading into
the fall campaign. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and
the National Republican Congressional Committee each poured more than
$1 million into the race. Now that the campaign is just one in 435, the
national parties are still spending, but not as much.

While Burns has released polling showing himself ahead, Democrats note
that it comes from the same firm, Public Opinion Strategies, that in
May had the Republican leading a race he went on to lose by eight
points. Democratic polls and an independent survey have given Critz a
lead in the single digits.

Burns, 42, built a pharmaceutical technology company from the
basement of his house. It grew to more than 400 employees before he
sold it in 2003.

“I’m the only candidate in this race that has ever created a job — and not only a job, but over 400 jobs,” he said.

Burns has pushed for smaller government and lower taxes, signing a
pledge to oppose any tax increases. In a steel-producing district that has
been hit hard by the decline in manufacturing, Democrats have hit him
for supporting tax policies that encourage outsourcing. Burns, in turn,
has argued that the nation’s high corporate tax rates, along with the
new healthcare law, are policies that “ship jobs overseas.”

Yet this race is still shaped, in part, by Murtha’s complicated
legacy. A Vietnam veteran first elected in 1974, Murtha brought
millions in defense contracts — and with them, jobs — to the district
over the years, and the local airport and a medical center are named
after him. When Burns ran an ad before the special election that
suggested Critz, Murtha’s former district director, was under federal
investigation, Critz ran a response accusing Burns of “attacking John
Murtha’s memory.”

During the debate, Critz mentioned Murtha repeatedly and touted his
experience as his aide, while Burns never uttered the late
congressman’s name and warned against a reliance on federal support.

By
the end of his life, many voters had soured on Murtha. Criticized as
one of the House’s biggest pork-barrel spenders, he alienated some
conservatives in the district by turning sharply against the Iraq war
and aligning himself more closely with the Democratic Party’s more
liberal leadership. Several Burns supporters said they had regularly
backed Murtha until the last few years, but that when he ran for House
majority leader in 2006 with Pelosi’s backing, it showed, as one voter
put it, that “he lost touch with the district.”

Nearly nine months after Murtha’s death, Critz remains linked to
his former boss, for better or worse. “I don’t want to say Mark was his
errand boy, but that’s what he did,” said Charlie Grigg, 75, who drove
67 miles to attend Friday’s debate and said he was leaning toward Burns.

Burns is hoping that a greater GOP turnout will make the
difference, but he will also have to persuade voters who supported
Critz the last time around. He found few undecided voters at Friday’s
debate, where the crowd was divided between supporters of the
candidates. Two voters who hadn’t finalized their pick were Meade and
Mari Meyers, who said they backed Critz in May but wanted to hear both
contenders one last time. After the hourlong event, they had settled on
Critz, with Mari Meyers saying Burns left her “uneasy.” “He’ll make a
good, honest attempt to serve,” Meade Meyers said of Critz.