Meet the candidate:
Another Democratic candidate had announced he was running for the seat last year, but he recently bowed out. No other regional Democrats have expressed serious interest in running for this seat, so Kristy is going to be the candidate.
Before I go any further, let me provide links to her campaign webpage and her twitter feed. If she’s going to win, she’s going to need a lot of money, due to having an opponent with deep pockets and a substantial war chest. (More on that later.) Kristy is a public school teacher, a single mother of two, and a cancer surviver. She’s a progressive Democrat who faces an uphill fight to win this district.
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Kristy’s Opposition, The Incumbent: Mike Kelly (R)
So, did you happen to see or read about the debate that occurred before the vote to approve the articles of impeachment against Donald J. Trump? Do you remember the guy who compared Trump’s proposed impeachment to Pearl Harbor? That guy? He’s my Congressman. He combines the intellectual prowess of Louie Gohmert with the racism of Lee Atwater and the mendacity of Donald Trump himself. With these sorts of personality traits, you’d think he’d have a higher profile in Congress than he does. Instead, he’s mostly a back-bencher that nobody much notices until he makes one of his truly outrageous statements (such as Trump impeachment = Pearl Harbor). It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Kelly is one of Trump’s favorite Congressmen, and there is no Congressman more loyal to Trump than Kelly.
Like Trump, Kelly is all about using his office to enrich himself. While in Congress, Kelly still runs car dealerships in Butler County, PA, in the outer suburbs north of Pittsburgh. As a typical example, Our own intrepid David Nir posted stories of how Kelly opposed a law requiring used car dealers selling cars with recall notices to perform the recall repairs before they sell such cars, because "There is not a single person in our business that would ever put one of our owners in a defective car or a car with a recall." Then reporter Paul Van Osdol of Pittsburgh did the obvious thing—investigated Kelly’s dealership, and discovered that 17 cars for sale in Kelly’s lot that were due for recall repair. Then he did it again in November, and there were still cars for sale on the lot requiring recall work. By the way, this violates Pennsylvania state law.
As another example, there was his dust-up with Congresswoman Maxine Waters back in 2018. The topic was repeal of an Obama-era rule prohibiting discrimination in terms for car loans on the basis or race. Then this happened:
God, I love Maxine Waters!
I could go on, but you get the picture. Kelly is a person with no scruples and should definitely not be in Congress. The problem: This district has been trending red over the past decade, and Kelly has a $2 million war chest. Kristy, being a public school teacher (juggling a couple other jobs on the side), is at a huge disadvantage to Kelly. In particular, in the southern part of the district, TV ads in the Pittsburgh market are extremely expensive. However, Kristy is dedicated to running a true grassroots campaign without any corporate PAC money.
You might wonder if she has any hope at all. However, two years ago, at Netroots, I spoke to a consultant who looked at the demographics of the district in detail, and she said “This is a winnable district.” It’s possible, but it requires the right candidate and sufficient support. Let’s give it to her! Again, here’s the link to her campaign webpage.
Top Comments (January 9, 2020):
No nominations tonight.
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Top Photos (January 8, 2020):
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