25 February 2008

Rematch Under Way in Pennsylvania 4th Congressional District

2006 rivals Jason Altmire and Melissa Hart to face off in 2008

Jason Altmire, right, meets a voter while campaigning for Congress in 2006. He will face the same opponent in 2008. (© AP Images)

Washington -- In the 2006 midterm elections, Americans voiced their dissatisfaction with Congress and the war in Iraq by voting more than 20 Republicans out of office and giving the Democrats the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in 12 years.

But with the approval rating of Congress still low under Democrat control, some of those Republicans ousted in the Democratic sweep have decided to give it another try in 2008.

Among those fighting again for their former congressional seats is Melissa Hart, who lost her re-election bid after the opposing campaign stressed her ties to unpopular Republican leaders. Neither Hart nor the current congressman, Jason Altmire, will face competition in the April state primary and already have begun their general election campaigns.

Both Hart and Altmire are familiar faces to Pennsylvania 4th voters.

Hart, the first Republican in 20 years to win the Pennsylvania 4th, served the district from 2000 to 2007 and quickly rose through the Republican congressional ranks. Prior to that, she served in the Pennsylvania state Senate.

Altmire grew up in Pennsylvania and worked as a health care executive before seeking office. In Congress, he serves on the Education and Labor Committee and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

More than half of the 42 Democratic freshmen, many from districts that traditionally favor Republicans, will face tough fights for re-election this fall. Both national parties have their eyes on the Pennsylvania 4th. Democrats see the seat as an important one to keep, while Republicans see an opportunity to win it back.

Hart faces an uphill battle. Not only do incumbents rarely lose -- more than 90 percent are re-elected in an average election year -- she is running in a district that has more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Melissa Hart was one of a few Republicans who lost 2006 congressional re-election bids. She will run again in 2008. (© AP Images)

THE CAMPAIGNING BEGINS

Hart won re-election in 2002 and 2004 with little trouble, but the changing political landscape transformed what initially was expected to be another easy win into a close race and, ultimately, a defeat.

In 2006, Hart did not run attack ads against Altmire -- arguing that by doing so, she would provide the relatively unknown candidate with more name recognition. Many political analysts say that was her fatal error. Attack ads denigrate the opponent’s platform (and sometimes character) by pointing out faults or contradictions.

Hart apparently has learned from that mistake. Residents in the Pennsylvania 4th watching Super Tuesday results come in on cable news channels February 5 may have caught her first ad of the 2008 election season.

"Jason Altmire has been in Congress just 12 short months, but that's all it has taken to learn what a big tax and spender he really is," says the narrator.

The narrator also says that during his time in office, Altmire has co-sponsored more than $37 billion in government spending and voted for hundreds of billions of dollars in higher taxes. "Now we know how liberal he really is," the narrator says.

The ad tries to appeal to the Pennsylvania 4th's moderate voters. While there are more registered Democrats in the district, many consider themselves conservative Democrats. Even though Pennsylvania voted for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, voters in this district in the western part of the state favored President Bush.

"It is the cookie-cutter Republican attack on any Democrat: that all Democrats are going to be 'tax and spend,'" Altmire told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review newspaper. Altmire countered the attack, saying that in Hart's six years in Congress, she voted for $3.5 trillion in additional national debt.

Expecting a hard-fought campaign ahead, both candidates have been raising funds, some of which will be used to run more attack ads.

Currently, Hart has about $330,000 to spend on her campaign and has received fundraising help from other Republicans.

Altmire has more than $911,000 to spend at this time. Of those funds, $2,500 came from a political action committee headed by presidential candidate Barack Obama. Although he has talked with Obama in recent months, Altmire has not yet endorsed a candidate. Pennsylvania holds its presidential primaries April 22.