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Labor head Shea considers run against Altmire
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Race
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Mar 22, 2010 11:07pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | James O'Toole |
| Media | Newspaper - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
| News Date | Tuesday, March 23, 2010 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | "Irate at Rep. Jason Altmire's vote against the health care bill, Jack Shea, the president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, said he is considering a challenge to the McCandless Democrat in either the primary or general elections.
Mr. Shea, who's led the local labor group since 1998, said he was being urged by some colleagues to mount a write-in campaign for the May 18 Democratic primary. But he said that he was concerned that it might be too late to organize a realistic challenge for the nomination, given the difficulty of convincing voters to write in a name against a candidate with the considerable advantage of having his name listed on the ballot.
Mr. Shea said he might have a better chance of ousting the second-term incumbent by gathering enough signatures to run as an independent on the November ballot. He said that his consideration of a challenge was a response not just to Mr. Altmire's health care vote itself but also to his belief that Mr. Altmire had misled him and other labor leaders on his plans on the legislation.
"He didn't keep his word," Mr. Shea said. "I'm not the only one that he committed to. He told [Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President] Bill George the same thing. He told [USW President] Leo Gerard. . . . What he said very plainly was, at the end, the final bill, he would be there."
Referring to the failed health care push during the Clinton administration, when Mr. Altmire worked with the administration's health care task force as a congressional staffer, Mr. Shea claimed that the congressman had assured him that "he was around [when] they walked away empty-handed he wasn't going to do that again."
In response to a question, Mr. Shea said he was not concerned that an independent candidacy might tip the seat to a Republican." |
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