(JOHNSTOWN, PA) – Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. William Russell, Republican candidate for the nomination for Representative in the 12th PA Congressional district has announced that he is also a candidate in the Special Election to fill the vacancy left by the untimely death of Rep. John Murtha.
“Since the Governor has announced that the Special Election will be held on Primary day, May 18th,” said Russell, “it makes perfect sense to also be a candidate in the special election. It’s a move that makes sense for the voters and will simplify the process for the thousands of my supporters.”
Russell responded immediately upon hearing of the death of Rep. Murtha by suspending all campaign activity and urging all citizens, Republicans, Democrats and Independents to come together and pray for Murtha family. “Regardless of your political position, you always knew Jack had an immense love and loyalty to his family and the residents of the 12th Congressional District,” Russell said in an earlier release.
Showing posts with label Bill Russell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bill Russell. Show all posts
Feb 24, 2010
Republican Candidate Bill Russell Announces His Candidacy In Upcoming Special Election To Replace John Murtha
Feb 16, 2010
Two Roads Diverged in Penn's Woods
Will PA-12 be NY-23 or Massachusetts?
By Lowman S. Henry
Will the special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Congressman John P. Murtha be a re-run of New York 23, or a Republican coup like the election of U.S. Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts?
The direction of the race now lies in the hands of the nine county Republican committees who will select conferees to a convention that will choose the GOP nominee in the special election likely to be held in conjunction with the upcoming May Primary.
New York 23, you may recall, was won by the Democrat Bill Owens after a Republican civil war erupted when the party establishment selected a nominee who held views to the left of President Obama. This spawned the third party candidacy of Doug Hoffman who quickly became a cause célèbre for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Ultimately GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race; then plunged the knife in Hoffman by endorsing Owens.
In Massachusetts the scenario unfolded very differently. The establishment GOP early on wrote off Scott Brown. But, the Bay state's TEA party movement ignited a grassroots brushfire for Brown which lifted his candidacy putting it back on the national Republican radar screen. The GOP establishment engaged in the race; forged a common bond with the TEA partiers and Brown scored an upset victory that literally changed the political landscape in Washington, D.C.
The PA-12 special election could go either way.
Bill Russell was the party's 2008 nominee against Murtha and he gave the incumbent a run for his money. Murtha and the Democrats went into panic mode the last weeks of the campaign and then rode the national Democratic wave to victory.
Russell has never stopped running. He has been engaged fore square in the TEA party movement that burns bright throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. It is likely Russell will be the choice of a majority of the grassroots, TEA party types and certainly has emerged as a favorite of the GOP's conservative wing.
But the TEA party activists will have no voice in the party selection process. Under the rules of the Republican State Committee each of the nine counties which have territory in the 12th Congressional District will select conferees who will meet in convention to select the nominee. Typically conferees are tried and true party activists. Thus, the establishment GOP will pick the candidate.
What makes the picture both more complicated and more hopeful is the fact that southwestern Pennsylvania Republican party leaders tend to be more conservative than those in some other parts of the state. They also tend to be fiercely independent. Thus, the establishment party in Murtha's district is more in tune with the grassroots back-to-our-principles movement sweeping the region, the state and the nation.
Left to their own devices, Republican leaders in PA-12 likely will arrive at a party-uniting consensus. But, this is a special election and that means outside interests - including the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee will try and bring about the selection of a cookie cutter candidate who fits Washington's poll and focus group driven view of the world.
Also complicating matters is that Republican State Committee Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. hails from Cambria County, which will send one of the biggest delegations of conferees to the convention. Under Gleason, the Republican State Committee has recruited candidates in congressional districts around the state to oppose grassroots conservatives, and even tried to gin up competition to Pat Toomey in the U.S. Senate race.
Gleason has also had an unholy alliance with Murtha over the years. Thus, he will want a candidate beholden to him. But he is also pragmatic, and with the eyes of the nation on PA-12 Gleason will want, above all, to win. This means the considerable influence of the Gleason organization will, for the first time in decades, be deployed on behalf of the Republican candidate. And that dramatically improves chances for a Republican victory.
The upcoming special election in PA-12 will be a gut check for the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. All the crosscurrents and rip tides that currently roil both the state and national Republican parties will be at play in this selection process.
In the end we are going to get either NY-23 or a Pennsylvania version of Scott Brown. It will be interesting to see what happens.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
By Lowman S. Henry
Will the special election to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Congressman John P. Murtha be a re-run of New York 23, or a Republican coup like the election of U.S. Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts?
The direction of the race now lies in the hands of the nine county Republican committees who will select conferees to a convention that will choose the GOP nominee in the special election likely to be held in conjunction with the upcoming May Primary.
New York 23, you may recall, was won by the Democrat Bill Owens after a Republican civil war erupted when the party establishment selected a nominee who held views to the left of President Obama. This spawned the third party candidacy of Doug Hoffman who quickly became a cause célèbre for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Ultimately GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race; then plunged the knife in Hoffman by endorsing Owens.
In Massachusetts the scenario unfolded very differently. The establishment GOP early on wrote off Scott Brown. But, the Bay state's TEA party movement ignited a grassroots brushfire for Brown which lifted his candidacy putting it back on the national Republican radar screen. The GOP establishment engaged in the race; forged a common bond with the TEA partiers and Brown scored an upset victory that literally changed the political landscape in Washington, D.C.
The PA-12 special election could go either way.
Bill Russell was the party's 2008 nominee against Murtha and he gave the incumbent a run for his money. Murtha and the Democrats went into panic mode the last weeks of the campaign and then rode the national Democratic wave to victory.
Russell has never stopped running. He has been engaged fore square in the TEA party movement that burns bright throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. It is likely Russell will be the choice of a majority of the grassroots, TEA party types and certainly has emerged as a favorite of the GOP's conservative wing.
But the TEA party activists will have no voice in the party selection process. Under the rules of the Republican State Committee each of the nine counties which have territory in the 12th Congressional District will select conferees who will meet in convention to select the nominee. Typically conferees are tried and true party activists. Thus, the establishment GOP will pick the candidate.
What makes the picture both more complicated and more hopeful is the fact that southwestern Pennsylvania Republican party leaders tend to be more conservative than those in some other parts of the state. They also tend to be fiercely independent. Thus, the establishment party in Murtha's district is more in tune with the grassroots back-to-our-principles movement sweeping the region, the state and the nation.
Left to their own devices, Republican leaders in PA-12 likely will arrive at a party-uniting consensus. But, this is a special election and that means outside interests - including the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee will try and bring about the selection of a cookie cutter candidate who fits Washington's poll and focus group driven view of the world.
Also complicating matters is that Republican State Committee Chairman Robert A. Gleason, Jr. hails from Cambria County, which will send one of the biggest delegations of conferees to the convention. Under Gleason, the Republican State Committee has recruited candidates in congressional districts around the state to oppose grassroots conservatives, and even tried to gin up competition to Pat Toomey in the U.S. Senate race.
Gleason has also had an unholy alliance with Murtha over the years. Thus, he will want a candidate beholden to him. But he is also pragmatic, and with the eyes of the nation on PA-12 Gleason will want, above all, to win. This means the considerable influence of the Gleason organization will, for the first time in decades, be deployed on behalf of the Republican candidate. And that dramatically improves chances for a Republican victory.
The upcoming special election in PA-12 will be a gut check for the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. All the crosscurrents and rip tides that currently roil both the state and national Republican parties will be at play in this selection process.
In the end we are going to get either NY-23 or a Pennsylvania version of Scott Brown. It will be interesting to see what happens.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)
Feb 15, 2010
Endorsement
Why endorse? These are the answers I got from the State Committee and the County chairmen:
If we do not endorse, why bother having a state committee?
I worked hard, and deserve to choose the candidate.
These committee folks were elected by the local citizens.
The citizens of the Commonwealth are not smart enough to make the decision. We need to help them.
True, we did elect them. True, in the past, we were too trusting, allowing them to give us such foxes as Gov Spendell and Sen Specter.
I think we could have done better if we had randomly chosen from the phone book. The Republican/Democrat habit of endorsement has given us the mess we are in. If you like the way your elected employees are running the government, vote for another candidate endorsed by the Republocrat Machine.
If not, look at the Rohrer for Governor, and Luksik for Senator. Two God fearing leaders who have been fighting the Machine (in both the Democrat and Republican flavors) for the last two decades.
You own a business, called government. Your children need you to manage it. If you lack understanding, ask God to lead you, and visit the www.pfa-pa.org web site.
If we do not endorse, why bother having a state committee?
I worked hard, and deserve to choose the candidate.
These committee folks were elected by the local citizens.
The citizens of the Commonwealth are not smart enough to make the decision. We need to help them.
True, we did elect them. True, in the past, we were too trusting, allowing them to give us such foxes as Gov Spendell and Sen Specter.
I think we could have done better if we had randomly chosen from the phone book. The Republican/Democrat habit of endorsement has given us the mess we are in. If you like the way your elected employees are running the government, vote for another candidate endorsed by the Republocrat Machine.
If not, look at the Rohrer for Governor, and Luksik for Senator. Two God fearing leaders who have been fighting the Machine (in both the Democrat and Republican flavors) for the last two decades.
You own a business, called government. Your children need you to manage it. If you lack understanding, ask God to lead you, and visit the www.pfa-pa.org web site.
Feb 11, 2010
Special Election For Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional Seat Favors GOP Candidate Bill Russell
Left vacant by the unexpected death of Rep. John Murtha, the race for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District is sure to heat up real soon. Most of the election rating sites like CQ Politics and the Cooks Political Report have already moved the election status to a tossup. Primarily because an open seat election is quite unpredictable.By law Governor Ed Rendell has until February 18th to make a decision on the timing of the special election. After that Rendell has 60 days to hold a special election. Pennsylvania's regular primary is already scheduled for May 18, and Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to set the twelfth district’s special election for that date as well. Rendell, however, withheld the right to change his mind pending what leaders in Washington, D.C. desire.
Because of the abbreviated schedule, there will be no primary for the special election; each state party will simply choose a candidate to run in the special election. However both parties have different methods to choose a candidate so it will be interesting how it plays out.
50 members of the state Democratic Party's central committee will pick the Democratic candidate to run in the special election. State Sen. John Wozniak is the most commonly mentioned Democratic name at the moment. However former Lt. Gov. Mark Singel (D) has also been mentioned as a potential candidate. Both candidates have some challenges to overcome if chosen. Wozniak is tied to a very unpopular pay raise vote and Singel has been a Harrisburg lobbyist for over a decade.
On the Republican side local county committees will choose their candidate. Right now the favorite would have to be Bill Russell. A former Iraq War veteran who was defeated by Murtha in 2008. Other names have been floated around such as state Rep. Dave Reed, state Sen. Kim Ward, state Rep. Jeff Pyle and the 2006 GOP nominee and former Washington County Commissioner Diana L. Irey. All of which would have to quickly make a power play to wrestle the nomination away from Russell.
There is no doubt that Russell is sitting in the drivers seat. He has already announced his candidacy and has been raising money for his campaign. In fact, Russell was out raising Murtha. Russell reported an impressive total of $2,865,593 raised through Dec. 31, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
That dollar amount alone makes Russell the front runner. GOP county committee members who are even thinking about choosing another candidate over Russell to run in the special election risk losing this race for the GOP.
Russell is the right kind of candidate to serve the constituents of the 12 District. Even going head to head with Murtha last time he held Murtha to 58 percent of the vote. The lowest total since Murtha first ran in 1974. Like Murtha, Russell is a military veteran. The 12th District has a high number of WW II and Vietnam veterans that will most likely vote for him.
The national mood right now favor's a candidate like Russell. Russel is an outsider. He is not viewed as a political party insider or government crony. If Russell aligns him with national and local Tea Party groups there is no doubt he will win this election. In fact, I don't understand when you seriously look at the direction of this race why this seat isn't rated leaning Republican.
Feb 8, 2010
John Murtha's Republican Opponent, Bill Russell, Issues Statement On Congressman's Death
Monday, February 8, 2010On behalf of Kasia and our entire family, I want to express our deepest sympathy on the passing of Congressman John Murtha. Today’s news will be met with profound sadness by the hundreds of thousands of constituents he served in Johnstown and throughout the 12th Congressional District.
To Joyce, their children and grandchildren, we extend our heartfelt respect as you honor Mr. Murtha’s memory and reflect on his legacy in the upcoming days and months.
Sincerely,
Bill Russell
Lt. Colonel USAR (ret)
http://www.russellbrigade.com/
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