Breaking: Trump Taps Marino for Drug Czar

Rep. Tom Marino will have a new job and Northeast Pa. will have a special congressional election – if the Senate confirms him as President Trump’s pick for director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The White House announced the President’s intent to nominate Marino along with 41 other positions in a late Friday announcement. In the position Marino would oversee federal anti-drug efforts, both domestic and international.

Marino’s name was first floated for the post in April. He took himself out of consideration in May, citing an illness in the family.

A former U.S. Attorney and four-term Congressman, Marino was the first Pa. federal official to endorse Trump in the GOP primary in 2016. During his confirmation hearing, he is likely to face questions about his support for the pharmaceutical industry and his past association with businessman and convicted felon Louis DeNaples.

When Marino’s name first surfaced in the spring, several GOP officials expressed an interest in seeking the open seat in a district Trump won by 36 points. Names on the Republican side included State Representative Fred Keller (R-Snyder), Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko, Lycoming County Commissioner Tony Mussare, State Senator Mario Scavello, and State Representative Jeff Wheeland (R-Lycoming). Marino’s District Director Dave Weber was also discussed.

PoliticsPA recapped the process for selecting the GOP nominee in a special election.

21 Responses

  1. • I clicked to your website and it’s quite interesting. I see so many things that I haven’t known before. Thank you for submitted your website.
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  2. These policies as well as political move of Mr. Trump’s is still my very interested. And it is also my job. Please update more information so that I can add to the library of their information.
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  3. Tom “Crazy Tommy” Marino has found the perfect job. As Drug Czar, now he can get the medication he so desperately needs.

  4. I live in the tenth. No Democrat will win election here in the lifetime of anyone reading these words. Democrats and liberals are detested here with vehemence. In my county last November there was an all-time record turnout; and the people turning out did so in order to vote for Trump.

    Predominantly rural regions of Pa like the tenth are the reason Trump won this Commonwealth by 20,000 votes . . . . and will again.

  5. The PA GOP can replace a white man with another white man! Hooray. Not that it matters who they nominate/pick in their primary, the PA GOP has rigged the map with the line they’ve drawn.

  6. Plenty of qualified Democrats with track records of cross-party support in this district. But of course the new PoliticsPA won’t discuss them, even in light of how close normally deep-red special elections have been this year.

    1. Because they have a better chance of running for governor than winning in this district. A republican will win this seat, just like trump did by 36 points. If I had to guess, I would say Scavello takes it. He is super personable and the people in the district absolutely love him.

  7. And the process for selecting the Democratic (or other) opponent in the special election would be……???? And please don’t say “a waste of time.” You are showing your political slant by “recapping” the process for one side only.

  8. Marino “took himself out of consideration” not because of a sick family member, but because of what is in his background, which will come out in the senate hearings. Stay tuned…

  9. Does Dan Meuser also lives in this congressional District or put in under consideration for this district.

  10. This is the district Meuser ran in last time isn’t it? There a reason he isn’t talking about running in this district again?

    1. District moved so far into the west in 2012 that it’s no longer where he lives.

      1. True, but when has that ever stopped a congressional candidate. Less quality competition here than there is for Barletta’s seat.

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