Candidate will run against Shuster
June 15, 2006Public Opinion
Tonybarr2006.comBy Vicky Taylor Staff writer
CHAMBERSBURG -- Over four dozen area Democrats crowded the party's Franklin County headquarters in Chambersburg Wednesday to hear Tony Barr formally announce he will seek 9th District congressional seat, held by Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Hollidaysburg, this fall.
A rainstorm that started about an hour before the Bedford County special education teacher was to have made his announcement from the downtown courthouse steps didn't deter the crowd that turned out to chant "Tony, Tony, Tony."
Gotta hand it to the Barr campaign folks, they are everywhere on the 'net. :) Seriously, this will be a race to watch for indications of a Democratic tidal wave.
The Barr campaign had intended to use the courthouse as a backdrop for its announcement, tying it into Flag Day, but made the decision to move it to Democratic headquarters a block away when the rain began.
Barr's name was placed on November's general election ballot after he garnered more than 1,000 write-in votes across the district in the May primary. The official write-in count has not been announced by the various counties in the district, but Barr's campaign estimates he got at least 1,776 votes in the primary. He needed 1,000 to get on the ballot. Of those, 837 were cast in Franklin County.
Barr said he decided to run a write-in campaign when he realized his party did not have a candidate on the ballot in the primary for the 9th district seat.
"I was all ready to work hard to elect the Democrat nominee running against Shuster," he said, citing his decision in early May to try to run the write-in campaign. "I thought this can't be. Shuster can't get a free ride back to Washington."
He called the success of his write-in campaign in May "a small miracle," but acknowledged it would take more than that to win in November.
After blasting Shuster for backing Bush administration policies he says have caused high energy prices, the health care crisis and most of the other problems the nation faces, he told his audience he is counting on their support to win the election for him.
"This race is not about me," he said. "It is about you, the people of south-central Pennsylvania."
He said he would depend on the grass-roots support of volunteers in his campaign, volunteers like those who turned out as he opened his campaign Wednesday.
"We will probably be outspent at least 10 to 1," he told supporters, saying he and his campaign were taking on what he called the "Shuster family dynasty" that has held the 9th district congressional seat since 1972.
He said he believes he can win the fall election with the help of volunteers like those who attended Wednesday's rally, in spite of the fact that his campaign does not have the funding Shuster's will have. He will depend on those volunteers to help him campaign, to man telephones and write checks to help fund his campaign, he said.
"The American people have had enough, and it's time for a change," he said as his Franklin County supporters cheered.
Barr's Web site can be seen at www.tonybarr2006.com.
Re: Momentum starting to roll in the PA-09
Yeah…too bad my district (the 10th) is so conservative that Sherwood’s approval rating is still in the 50’s…If his challenger, Chris Carney, can pull this one off, then I’m confident that the Dems can retake the House…if you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere.
Re: Momentum starting to roll in the PA-09
Tsunami is what this is all about. I stood all day outside a polling place in Shippensburg with my wife to get those 837 write-in votes on the Democratic ballotl We asked those who weren’t Democrats if they were happy with Shuster. Most were not, many were incredibly outspoken in their dissent. One guy grabbed the card out of my hand and stomped off to write in TONY BARR on the blank space under Shuster’s name on the republican ballot. Tony Barr does pretty good as a republican.
Re: Momentum starting to roll in the PA-09
I don’t have any special insight into the 9th, but my sense is Shuster fils might be suffering from the same
problem as Lisa Murkowski when she was appointed by her father to finish his US Senate term. I don’t know what to call it, inheritence, I guess, but it seemed to bother voters a lot.
Re: Momentum starting to roll in the PA-09
There is a democratic wave and then tidal wave. winning this seat will require a tsunami. i give barr credit for raising issues and doing the hard work of changing minds in the belly of the “T”.
Re: Momentum starting to roll in the PA-09
No doubt this will be a very tough seat to win, but there may be some underlying resentment from voters
over the Shuster “dynasty”. Didn’t Shuster have a pretty contentious primary last year? Also, IIRC, Shuster is at least tangentially involved in the Sherwood affair. I seem to recall Shuster either knew the woman involved or introduced her to Sherwood or something like that.
pd
Post new comment