Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II, a handful of state congressmen and former rival Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) all plan to turn out for Rep. Mark Critz (D-Johnstown) at a June 4 fundraiser in Pittsburgh.
With more than 40 hosts listed for the event (including big-name Democratic party, labor and business leaders) it seems that Critz is looking to catch up to Keith Rothfus in a big way.
Tickets to the event, which will take place at Le Mont Restaurant in Mt. Washington, cost between $250 and $2,500.
Campaign spokesman Mike Mikus said the fundraising effort is just another way of building upon Critz’ primary success.
“Our fundraising efforts have been strong. We’ve been working every day, Mark has been working every day.”
Fratricidal races were the norm this primary season, with many fellow-party incumbents facing off in newly redrawn districts; but with all of those races decided many, including those from PA-12, have put the past behind them in order to play catch-up for the general election.
Despite building momentum from the win, Rothfus entered the race with not only more cash on hand than Critz, whose resources were depleted after the battle with Altmire, but high name recognition in the new district.
In fact, voters nearly handed Rothfus a victory over Altmire in 2010, where he came less than 5,000 votes (or 2 percentage points) shy of ousting the McCandless Democrat in the 4th district race.
Cook Political Report also lists PA-12 as “R+1,” meaning the district is conservative-leaning, and PoliticsPA has categorized it as the most vulnerable seat in Pa.
But looking forward, Critz is counting on organized labor for help. That, along with a heavy repeat turnout in his home Cambria and Somerset counties, could help him win.
Mikus added that despite what look like weaknesses on paper, the campaign isn’t too worried about Rothfus’ name recognition or fundraising.
“We feel good. We believe, in the end, voters are gonna look at Mark as someone who is fighting to create jobs for Western Pennsylvania and Keith Rothfus is an extremist who supports a Republican budget that would turn Medicare into a voucher system. And he supports unfair trade deals that shift jobs to foreign countries like China and India.”
Rothfus Campaign Manager Jon Raso said his candidate, “will be spending time with working families in his district on how best to help them work, live and raise a family.
“We’re not going to comment on Congressman Critz hobnobbing with Democrat insiders and union elites that support President Obama.”
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6 Responses
Ironic how Gleason can’t seem to deliver his own county/Congressional district
Thanks for catching the typos.
Two errors..the quarter ends at the end of June and your Cook link states PA-12 is R+1.
Y’all need to shape up.
Hey Rooney, we live in a politically divided country which means that half of the Steelers fans/patrons don’t agree with the politics your promoting of ever bigger government. It is so funny that you want bigger government in all of our lives, except your own, since the NFL enjoys an antitrust exemption from government interference in their business operations. The rest of private industry does not enjoy the same special privilege. You also profit immensely from government using it’s obscene power to take money from private citizens in the form of taxes to pay for your stadium. You threatened to move the team if you did not get a stadium paid for on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. Because of the effectiveness of you threats, you also will handsomely profit from the sweetheart deal you extorted from the people of Pittsburgh by you being given the development rights for the Northshore area. If you want to stand up for the little guy, then pay for your own damn stadium, oppose the NFL antitrust exemption, lower your ticket prices, and return the rights to development on the Northshore to the taxpaying people of Pittsburgh. I expect you to do none of these things because you are a blowhard hypocrite exploiting people’s love of football for your own government assisted financial gain. Now you play the man of the people, and I guess the people are stupid enough to buy your elitist garbage.
If we could only get better poltician’s who care about us average Pennsylvanian’s and not just their rich friends.
http://www.theusmarinesrape.com
Notice how regular people aren’t coming out for Critz, just people with money. But im guessing that the Rooney’s are probably who got Critz and other Pittsburgh politicians and Casey to write letters to the secretary of state and attorney general for boston college saying their “constituents” had an interest in IRA documents. Critz did more for archives at BC than he did a rape victim.
http://www.theusmarinesrape.com