PoliticsPA Reports: Barletta eyeing late Nov. decision on campaign

By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

There’s about a 50 percent chance Republican Lou Barletta will once again run against Democrat incumbent Paul Kanjorski in the 11th Congressional District, a Republican source familiar with his thinking told PoliticsPA.

Expect a decision by the end of the month, the Republican official said, after Barletta has made an unrelated announcement earlier in November.

Other sources close to Barletta have said he is “very likely” to enter the race.

Barlett lost to Kanjorski last year by 3.2 percentage points, a narrow defeat that was nonetheless deeply disappointing to some Republicans because of the Hazelton mayor’s early lead in many polls.

If Barletta decides to enter the race, he would likely run in a more politically favorable year for Republicans than 2008, when Democrats swept past Republicans state and nationwide. But he would also face opposition in a primary from Monroe County attorney Christopher Howard Paige, and might not even face Kanjorski in a rematch if the incumbent loses to Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien.

Barletta also is far behind in fundraising, something the unnamed Barletta ally said the mayor knows he needs to rectify, and soon.

“The longer you wait the longer you’re not raising money,” he said.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 9:54 pm and is filed under PA Reports, PoliticsPA Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “PoliticsPA Reports: Barletta eyeing late Nov. decision on campaign”

  1. The Pennsylvania Guardian says:
    November 6, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Kanjorski is going to be voting on the Pelosi health care bill this weekend, it should give Barletta some ammo in Pro-Life Scranton.

  2. PoliticsPA’s Weekly Primer | Politics PA says:
    November 30, 2009 at 10:12 am

    [...] he? A source close to Lou Barletta told PoliticsPA earlier this month the Hazelton mayor would decide on a congressional run in late November, but the former candidate has yet to announce anything official. We know Barletta [...]

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