PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Lamb, Saccone both hope for blue-collar support in special congressional election :: 12/26/2017
It’s not easy to hold together a congressional district that sprawls across four counties, linking industrial towns with farmland and affluent suburbs. In suburban Pittsburgh’s 18th District, former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy did so by espousing conservative social and economic views while occasionally backing organized labor on key concerns.
The two men hoping to replace him, Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone, seem poised to divide that legacy, each hoping for the larger share in a special election March 13.
The contest won’t be in full swing until after the holidays. But Mr. Saccone, a decidedly conservative state representative from Elizabeth Township, has already won the backing of two national advocacy groups: the conservative business organization Club for Growth, and CatholicVote.org.
Mr. Saccone “established himself as strong on pro-life issues,” said Joshua Mercer, the political director of CatholicVote.org. The group spent more than $400,000 on digital ads in Pennsylvania supporting President Donald Trump in 2016. Mr. Mercer said it would be active in the 18th District race, too.
“The district is right in the middle of what you might call Trump Country,” he said. “It has a lot of historically blue-collar Democratic voters who decided to take a chance on Donald Trump.”
For Mr. Lamb, a 33-year-old former federal prosecutor from Mt. Lebanon, winning back those voters may well depend on a strong economic message — and on unions to help get it out.
The race “will be a true litmus test not just for unions but for America,” said Darrin Kelly, the incoming head of the Allegheny County Labor Council.
By labor’s count, the 18th District contains more than 87,000 union voters and relatives, including 17,000 Steelworkers alone. “We’re excited to make our mark,” said Mr. Kelly. On Friday, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the state, announced it was endorsing Mr. Lamb.
Despite Mr. Trump’s union-pleasing promises to cut steel imports, he noted, industry statistics show imports up by nearly 20 percent this year. Mr. Saccone, meanwhile, “represents the extreme right and walks hand-in-hand with a corporate agenda that is out of touch with the mainstream.”
Mr. Saccone said rank-and-file union workers “have voted for me because I’m for reducing regulations and taxes, and many of the jobs that attracts are union jobs.” But he’s also backed union-opposed measures such as a law to make paying union dues voluntary, even for workers represented by unions.
While Mr. Saccone touts his support for Mr. Trump and his conservative stance on issues including abortion, Mr. Lamb downplays such issues. “I’m not running against the president,” he said. And while he identifies as a pro-life Catholic, he says he backs laws that support abortion choice.
On issues such as the Trump-backed Republican tax bill Congress passed this week, however, he figures to be a strident voice.
“I don’t see how it addresses any of the real problems that we have in this district,” Mr. Lamb said, citing the need to address crumbling infrastructure and opioid addiction. “The tax bill makes it harder to solve them by adding a trillion dollars in debt.” While most middle-class families may expect a tax cut in the bill’s early years, he said, “most of it goes to corporations and the wealthy.”
Polls suggest voters are wary of the bill, and Mr. Saccone’s campaign issued a statement focused solely on one provision: ending a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance.
In an interview, Mr. Saccone said the bill included “many good things” in addition to the repeal. “There are a lot of people who will feel that extra money in their pocket.”
Estimates are that the bill will increase the federal debt by well over $1 trillion, prompting fears that programs such as Medicare or Social Security could face future cuts. But Mr. Saccone dismissed such fears, saying they were “nonsense talking points Democrats have been using all along … I would not support cuts to Medicare and Social Security.”
While Republicans contend the tax cuts will increase economic activity and thus future revenue, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and others have discussed possible benefit reductions.
Such concerns may occupy voters in the 18th, which has the state’s second-oldest electorate. Mr. Trump won it by 20 points in 2016, but this year, “Democrats are fired up and Republicans are not,” said David Wasserman, who handicaps House races for the Cook Political Report.
Mr. Wasserman said Republicans still have the edge, but ordinarily, “The onus would be on Democrats to prove they have a chance. In this case, it’s more on Republicans to show why they don’t.”
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2533.
