PA-12: Democrat Jack Murtha In Trouble?

by: Matt Stoller

Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 18:23

After calling some of his constituents racist, Jack Murtha is only four points ahead of his opponent William Russell (with other Republican internal polls I don't particularly trust showing Murtha down significantly).

Matt Stoller :: PA-12: Democrat Jack Murtha In Trouble?

Democratic Rep. John Murtha leads retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell by a little more than 4 percentage points, within the Susquehanna Poll's 4.9-point margin of error. The poll of 400 likely voters was conducted for the Tribune-Review on Tuesday, amid uproar over Murtha's statement that some of his constituents are racist.

Murtha's reelect numbers are bad, with 54% of voters "saying it's time for someone else to represent them in Congress" and "35 percent saying Murtha deserves to be re-elected." Russell moved into the district a year ago to take out Murtha based on the Haditha controversy. He's funded by far right money and going for the conservative military vote. Here's the ad he's running against Murtha.

Russell is not from the district, he's a carpetbagger with the standard wingnut positions on social issues. He can be taken down, but right now, it's an unexpectedly tough race.

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PA-12: Democrat Jack Murtha In Trouble? | 7 comments

Isn't Murtha (4.00 / 1)

the Earmarks Man? Is it really that big of a loss?

by: Reframing the Debate @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 17:34:54 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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I'm not rooting against him (4.00 / 1)

but it wouldn't be the biggest loss. Certainly he'd be on my top 50 list of Dems to be primaried.

by: The Animal @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 17:56:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Murtha's caused more trouble than he's worth (4.00 / 1)

Don't mind sacrificing the creepy old racist.

by: distantshore @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 17:35:18 PM CDT

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Murtha did add credibility to the anti-war movement (4.00 / 2)

at a critical time.

If it weren't for Murtha, the right-wing charges that those of us who oppose the war are "anti-American" would bite more.

I thank him for that.

But he is a dinoasour. So I hope he wins and gracefully retires in 2010.

by: tietack @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 19:11:29 PM CDT

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It was his coming out against the war... (0.00 / 0)

....that allowed Democrats to campaign on an anti war platform. Prior to his war opposition announcement, Rahm Emmanuel was planning on democrats running a pro-Iraq campaign, which would have most assuredly guaranteed us defeat in 2006.

So, we have Murtha to thank for that...

by: lord_mike @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 20:00:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Probably not the most (0.00 / 0)

credible poll in the world: the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review isn't the 'real' paper in Pittsburgh (that's the Post-Gazette); it's the in-house propaganda machine for the Mellon Scaife folks. And Susquehanna is a Republican pollster who've been doing Lou Barletta's internals.

And Russell is one of those fabricated candidates from the BMW Direct scam that Josh Marshall exposed a while back.

by: Crisitunity @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 20:19:36 PM CDT

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We can't fight every battle (0.00 / 0)

And if it's a question of directing my energy towards defending longterm incumbents like Murtha and Kanjorski versus electing younger, more progressive Dems like Darcy Burner and Mark Begich, my priority's the latter.

by: Adam B. @ Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 23:11:27 PM CDT

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PA-12: Democrat Jack Murtha In Trouble? | 7 comments