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[PA Rep] Carney Hopes His Bipartisan Approach Will Pay Off in the 10th District
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jan 06, 2007 01:28pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, January 5, 2007 07:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By CQ Staff | 4:47 PM; Jan. 05, 2007 | Email This Article
By Colby Itkowitz, CQ Staff
Chris Carney, a Pennsylvania Democrat, took a leave from his job as a political science professor to pursue a challenge to Republican Rep. Don Sherwood. What began as a longshot bid in northeastern Pennsylvania’s strongly GOP-leaning 10th District ended with Carney — a first-time candidate for public office — winning by 53 percent to 47 percent.
Had he returned to his classroom at the Scranton campus of Pennsylvania State University after the election, Carney says, he would have told students that he attributed his upset victory to three factors: the national tide of public opinion running against the Republican Party; the centrist posture he struck as the Democratic nominee; and the efforts he and his supporters put into their grass-roots campaign.
“The overall mood of the country was certainly reflective in our district,” Carney said during an interview last week with CQPolitics.com. “We were very moderate in our message. We worked very, very hard and had a very energetic staff.”
But missing from this list is what virtually all analysts would agree was the central reason for incumbent Sherwood’s political downfall: a tawdry sex scandal.
In fact, Sherwood’s defeat would provide a textbook example for any class of poli sci students of how an elected official can throw away what appeared to be lifetime job security through personal misbehavior.
Sherwood, who had survived competitive House races in his 1998 debut and 2000 contest, received a gift from the Republican-controlled state legislature in a redistricting plan enacted prior to the 2002 election. His redrawn district had such a built-in Republican advantage that Democrats didn’t even bother to field challengers to Sherwood in 2002 and 2004; President Bush, in the latter year, took 60 percent of the 10th District’s votes. |
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