Aided by strong momentum and support from organized labor over the finals days before the election, Rep. Mark Critz has won the Democratic primary over fellow incumbent Jason Altmire in the redrawn 12th Congressional District.

In a statement announcing his concession, Altmire said, “Congratulations to my colleague Congressman Mark Critz on his hard-fought and well-deserved victory in the primary.  He has my full support as his campaign moves on to the fall.”

With 88% of precincts reporting, Critz was up 52%-48%.  Altmire was expected to come out victorious for much of the campaign, as he cumrrently represents nearly two-thirds of the new district.  All polls had Altmire up by double digits, except for the most recent one last week that showed a four-point advantage for Altmire.

Before any precincts started reporting, the Critz campaign said, “We had a steep mountain to climb. In the last few days, we saw the peak. We’ll see if we reached the mountain top once all of the votes are counted.” It appears they are proudly standing atop that mountain.

Critz carried almost all of Cambria County, where he is based and which he currently represents, along with Somerset County; the campaign was counting on very strong numbers in those two counties to have a chance at beating Altmire.

Altmire carried a good portion of Allegheny and Beaver Counties, where he had won the endorsements of their Democratic Committees, as well as Lawrence County, which did not endorse.  However, it wasn’t enough to hold off Critz’s strong showing.

“The Critz-labor organization had a better ground game and just out-muscled the Altmire campaign,” said Ray Wrabley, a political scientist at the University of Pittsburgh (Johnstown). “Altmire was too complacent about the geography edge. The effectiveness of the Critz operation bodes well for him in the fall race against Keith Rothfus.”

Critz had huge help from the backing of numerous labor groups throughout the district.  Labor’s ground effort “overcame monumental geographics designed by state Republicans to get rid of Critz,” said Tim Waters, national political director for the United Steel Workers. “United Steel Workers activists made 32,345 calls in the last 36 hours and knocked on 5,211 doors in Allegheny, Beaver and Cambria counties. We always said this would be the biggest upset in two decades in the House, and it is.”

Kirk Holman, former Republican official in southwestern Pennsylvania said,

“The fact that Critz could absolutely kill in his area while Altmire was doing well in his area validates the idea that Western Pennsylvania cares very much about geography.”

“The big winner for the evening is organized labor. You had Altmire with the endorsements of the various sclerotic county committees and you had Critz with the significant endorsements of organized labor. The fact is that organized labor could actually get out the vote while county committees could only control their vote which was totally insufficient to be meaningful.”

The Republican nominee for November’s general election is Keith Rothfus, an attorney from Allegheny County.  He is part of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” program and has been endorsed by Sen. Pat Toomey. Rothfus narrowly lost to Altmire in 2010, and the NRCC will make a strong play to take the district that now leans slightly more Republican.

In a statement after primary results were announced, the NRCC said, “In a district where the President is deeply unpopular, Mark Critz will have to defend his tax and spend record of supporting President Obama’s job destroying economic agenda.  In the 111th Congress Critz voted with Nancy Pelosi 95% of the time and in the 112th Congress he’s voted with Democrat leaders more than 75% of the time. If we learned anything in the primary it was that Critz is more interested in protecting his political career than pursuing a pro-growth agenda that puts Southwestern Pennsylvania first.”

The Pa. AFL-CIO released the following statement:

“The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO would like to congratulate all of the candidates on their hard fought victories today,” said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Richard Bloomingdale.  “It’s now time to look towards the November election and redouble our efforts to ensure candidates who support working families in Pennsylvania are elected.”

“Everyone is surprised but us in organized labor, and those who know Mark Critz!”  said Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder.

Pennsylvania unions contributed over 600 volunteers, who knocked on over 10,000 doors, made over 64,000 phone calls and sent over 36,000 pieces of mail.

Keith Rothfus released the following statement:

“I’d like to congratulate Representative Critz on his victory tonight in the Democratic primary, as well as Representative Altmire for his hard-fought race.  I look forward to a spirited discussion in the coming months regarding the direction this country is headed.

The people of Southwestern Pennsylvania will have the opportunity to decide if they believe a top-down, centralized, one-size-fits-all approach with the answers coming from Washington is the direction we want, or if we should empower the people of Southwestern PA – the job creators, the doctors, the mineworkers, the hard-working men and women – to decide what is best for themselves and their families.  I took a six-county tour of the new PA-12 today and will be doing the same tomorrow.  The greatest part of this race for Congress is having the opportunity to meet the people in the PA-12, getting to know them, hearing their stories, and I look forward to continuing that effort in the months to come.”

Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.

Democratic Congressional candidate Matt Cartwright and PA-17 challenger released his final campaign ad Thursday, all positive.

Coming on the heels of several attack ads against PA-17 incumbent Tim Holden released by PACs, such as The Campaign for Primary Accountability and The League of Conservation Voters, this upbeat, positive TV spot emphasizes the notion that Cartwright hasn’t had to resort to mudslinging. Arguably, Cartwright has lucked out as outside organizations have done his dirty work.

In the commercial, the narrator says that Cartwright will fight corporate greed and oppose tax cuts established by the Bush Administration.

“Matt can work to make childcare and elderly care completely tax deductable,” says the narrator. “And Matt will work with Senator Casey to close the Halliburton Loophole.”

It is also interesting to note that, perhaps as a method of neutralizing the fact that Sen. Casey has already endorsed Holden, the video’s producers featured a still image of Casey and Cartwright.

The ad is bookended by staged interviews of Cartwright and his wife.

“Matt is a hard worker. He’s very dedicated,” Cartwright’s wife says. “He’s passionate…good looking.”

While the “politician-at-home” style interview has been used in campaigns for years, the playful banter echoes the Cartwright camp’s positive, cheery campaign strategy —taking advantage of PAC and other organizations negative commercials.

In fact, the barrage of negative ads lead Rep. Holden to call for a ceasefire on Thursday.

Unfortunately for Holden, however, the slew of attack ads that he’s already sustained may have already made a damaging impact.

In their continued effort to influence the 2012 primary season, the Planned Parenthood political action fund “Women are Watching” released a list of their “toxic ten” members of congress who have ardently supported legislature to cut federal family planning grants.

On the list is Bucks County representative Mike Fitzpatrick who voted for the Pence Amendment to slash funding to Planned Parenthood by $363 million, which passed through the House before dying in the Senate back in 2011.

This well aimed jab at Fitzpatrick from Planned Parenthood, hits on one of the most polarizing social issues of the campaign season and is already proving to be a particularly contentious point between Fitzpatrick and Democratic challenger Kathy Boockvar.

The Fitzpatrick campaign calls this the work of a “the liberal smear machine,” bent on refocusing the voters attention away from more pressing economic issues.

“Liberals and their hacks are hopelessly trying every hackneyed trick in the book to misdirect voters from their failed policies which have stalled our recovery and put America’s future at risk,” said Fitzpatrick campaign representative, Faith Bender. “The real issue for women is putting our country back on the right track.”

However, Fitzpatrick’s opponent Kathy Boockvar sees things differently. Calling herself a “tireless and vocal advocate for women,” she hammered Fitzpatrick for being disconnected from his constituents’ priorities.

“Congressman Fitzpatrick has voted repeatedly with the Tea Party to deny critical healthcare services for the millions of American women and men who rely on those services, said Kathy Boockvar.  “These votes, and his votes against women, seniors, and middle class Americans are unconscionable and callous, and represent everything that is wrong with Congress’s priorities, and with Washington.”

The timely reminder of Fitzpatrick’s voting record from Planned Parenthood is part of the organizations recent concentrated push to swing their political weight on women’s health issues. They also just announced that they will be pouring $100,000 into running an advertisement campaign charging Republican state House hopeful Ryan Mackenzie with supporting the controversial, and currently flagging, ultrasound bill.