By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com
Congressional candidate Lou Barletta’s campaign reported Tuesday it had raised more than $300,000 since the Republican announced in December he would once again challenge Democrat Paul Kanjorski for the 11th District seat.
The total includes money raised in early April, meaning the number will be higher than what the campaign will show on first quarter campaign finance reports due Thursday. The first quarter includes fundraising from Jan. 1 to the end of March.
Campaign manager Vince Galko, in an e-mail to PoliticsPA, said Barletta will report about $205,000 cash on hand. The total amount he has raised thus far is ahead of the pace he set in 2008, Galko said, when Barletta narrowly lost to Kanjorski in a race he had seemed poised to win.
He reported $52,000 on hand to start the year.
The Hazleton mayor caught a break earlier this year when his GOP primary foe, Chris Paige, unexpectedly ended his campaign. Kanjorski, meanwhile, faces a spirited inter-party challenge from Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien.
