Eight of the nine members of the Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation supported Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bid to lead the House for the new session, but a GOP super PAC is singling out one Pennsylvania Democrat in a new ad campaign.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC endorsed by House Republican leadership, launched a five-figure advertising campaign criticizing 21 Democrats, including Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna) over Pelosi being awarded the speakership again.
“Every lawmaker who supported Nancy Pelosi either by name or by cowardly hiding behind a vote of ‘present,’ is directly responsible for enabling Pelosi and all of her dangerous agenda,” said CLF President Dan Conston. “Democrats will spend the next 24 months of their short-lived majority explaining why they sold out to Nancy Pelosi and the socialist left who want to defund their police departments, raise taxes and take away their freedoms.”
Cartwright’s campaign fired back pointing to his recent victory as proof that the ad campaign will not be effective for the voters in the 8th Congressional District.
“Matt Cartwright was just re-elected with his highest vote total ever, and that’s because Northeastern Pennsylvanians know his record of promoting better jobs, safety and health care,” said Colleen Gerrity, Campaign Manager to PoliticsPA. “They aren’t buying what the hacks at this D.C. Republican super PAC are selling.”
The targeted search ads say that Pelosi was elected Speaker and Cartwright “made it happen.”
The link to the ad leads to a page from “WinRed” that urges people to sign a petition sending a message that they oppose his vote for Pelosi as Speaker.
Cartwright was sworn-in for his fifth term representing Northeast Pennsylvania earlier this month. In 2020, he bested Republican Jim Bognet, a former Trump administration appointee, by 3.6 points.
Cartwright’s most recent victory is his closest race he’s had since winning a seat in Congress in 2012. The Lackawanna County Democrat is also the lone Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation in 2020 to win boundaries that President Donald Trump also won.
This wasn’t the first time that Cartwright backed Pelosi for Speaker and the first time he won a Trump district. In 2016, Cartwright won reelection over Republican Matt Connolly by a 7.6 point margin, while Trump carried the district. After the Democrats flipped the House in 2018, Cartwright voted for Pelosi to be Speaker of the House.
During the previous campaign, Cartwright was one of three Pennsylvania Democrats that the super PAC announced as targets on their initial 2020 list.
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3 Responses
GOP has always been a band of rightwing nuts.
Wow. They are spending five-figures (so $10,000?) to piss and moan about Dems that voted for Pelosi… 21 months before the next election, that will have new districts anyway.
The PA GOP is complicit in the sedition, and under the 14th Amendment, Perry and the others that tried to disenfranchise 7 million PA voters, shouldn’t even be allowed in Congress.
Major corporations are cutting their payments to GOP PACs, but these idiots are pissing away money that will have no effect.
Talk about clueless and tone deaf the ultra power hungry and self centered Republicans are focused on a vote for Speaker right after the horrors of the Capitol riot. They should listen to Gov Arnold’s post on being an American and getting past partisanship during these times.