Paul E. Kanjorski
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Paul Kanjorski
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1985 |
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| Preceded by | Frank G. Harrison |
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| Born | April 2, 1937 Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Nancy Kanjorski |
| Residence | Nanticoke, Pennsylvania |
| Alma mater | Temple University Dickinson College |
| Occupation | attorney |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1960-1961 |
| Unit | Reserves |
Paul E. Kanjorski (born April 2, 1937) is an American Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, currently representing Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district (map) in the United States House of Representatives. His district includes the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton as well as most of the The Poconos. He has served in the House since 1985.
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[edit] Early life and career
Kanjorski was born in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, near Wilkes-Barre, and is a lifelong resident of the town; however, he lives in northern Virginia for most of the year. He attended Wyoming Seminary, Temple University and the Dickinson School of Law and spent some time in the United States Army Reserve. Before entering politics, he served as a worker's compensation administrative law judge and served as assistant solicitor to several communities.
[edit] Congressional career
In 1980, Dan Flood, who had represented the 11th District for most of the time since 1945, resigned due to being censured for bribery. Kanjorski ran in the special election as an independent, finishing a distant fourth behind State Representative Ray Musto. He ran against Musto in the Democratic primary later that year, but finished third. Musto lost to Republican James L. Nelligan in the general election. In 1984, after sitting out the 1982 campaign, Kanjorski defeated incumbent Frank G. Harrison, who had defeated Nelligan in 1982, in the primary. He won the general election by a solid 17-point margin, even as Ronald Reagan carried the district in his landslide reelection bid.
In 1986, Kanjorski faced a younger, well-financed Republican opponent in Marc Holtzman. The race was initially seen as one of the hottest in the country. However, Kanjorski won by 41 points, his largest margin of victory in a contested election. He was unopposed in 1988 and 1990 and didn't face another credible opponent until 2002, when he faced Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. At the time, Kanjorski was under federal investigation for improperly using his influence to funnel millions of dollars in federal funds into companies owned by his family. However, Kanjorski had gotten an inadvertent assist from the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly two years earlier. 10th District Congressman Don Sherwood, a Republican, had barely won the seat in 1998, and faced another close race in 2000. The legislature shifted heavily Democratic Scranton--which had been the heart of the 10th for over a century--to the already heavily Democratic 11th District. The legislature also shifted some rural, Republican-leaning areas near Wilkes-Barre to the 11th. It appeared that the state legislature wanted to protect Sherwood by packing as many Democrats into the 11th as possible. Kanjorski defeated Barletta by 13 points, helped by a massive 34-point win in Lackawanna County, home to Scranton; he only won the area he'd previously represented by 9,000 votes.
Like many Pennsylvania Democrats from outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Kanjorski opposes gun control and is moderately conservative on abortion. However, he is strongly pro-labor, and has spoken out against the Iraq War. He has served on the Financial Services Committee since he entered Congress in 1985 and is now the second-ranking Democrat on that committee. He usually plays behind-the-scenes roles in the advocacy or defeat of legislation and steers appropriations money toward improving the infrastructure and economic needs of his district. He is popularly known as "Kanjo."
On May 10, 2007, the usually moderate Kanjorski voted with fellow Democrats to begin the redeployment of all forces from Iraq, however the bill was defeated. As of the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Kanjorski's position on the war in Iraq appears to be that he will vote for redeployment, but not as a condition of continued funding for the war until and unless the expected presidential veto of such a bill would be overridden.
After the August 1, 2007 collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kanjorski said he believed the $250,000,000 bill passed by Congress to rebuild the bridge was a ripoff because it exceeded the normal $100,000,000 limit for emergency relief projects. He added in saying that Minnesotans "discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get" and that they took the opportunity "to screw us." [1]
[edit] Committee assignments
[edit] 2008 election
After facing no major-party opposition in 2004 and a nominal Republican challenger in 2006, Kanjorski faced Barletta again in 2008. Since the 2002 race, Barletta had become a well-known mayor for his strong opposition to illegal immigration.
Multiple polls had shown Kanjorski trailing by as many as five percentage points,[3] and the race was pegged as one of the nation's most competitive leading into the 2008 elections. Kanjorski was one of the few House Democrats in the Northeast in any danger of being unseated.
However, Kanjorski won in a much more competitive race than his first matchup with Barletta, taking 52 percent of the vote to Barletta's 48 percent,[4] even as Barack Obama easily carried the district. Kanjorski lost three of the district's five counties, including Luzerne County, where both he and Barletta live. However, as in 2002, Kanjorski swamped Barletta in Lackawanna County, winning by 12,500 votes (20 percent); he lost the area he had represented prior to the 2000 redistricting by almost 4,000 votes.
[edit] 2008 US Financial Crisis
In an interview on CSPAN on January 27, 2009, Kanjorski defended the original emergency actions by the U.S. government to halt the 2008 financial crisis in September 2008. Kanjorski stated that the move to raise the guarantee money funds up to $250,000 was an emergency measure to stave off a massive money market "electronic run" on the banks that removed $550 billion from the system in a matter of hours on that day.
He then claimed that the run not only would have caused the U.S. economy to crash immediately, and would have brought down the world economy as well within 24 hours. [5] [6] Felix Salmon of Condé Nast Portfolio has questioned why Kanjorski's account has not been stated before.[7] Financial writer Daniel Gross confirmed some elements of the story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on February 10, 2009, but prefaced his remarks by saying “I don‘t know if his numbers are 100 percent correct”.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ Lynott, Jerry (2007-08-09). "Kanjo: Public angry with government". TimesLeader. http://www.timesleader.com/news/20070808_08_FHL_SUMMIT_JL_BIZ_ART.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
- ^ a b Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski - Committee Assignments
- ^ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/latestpolls/house.html
- ^ http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=15&ElectionID=28&OfficeID=11&DistrictID=11
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMu1mFao3w&e
- ^ http://cspan.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-14757 start about 22:45 into the video.
- ^ Felix Salmon (February 10, 2009). "The Kanjorski Meme". http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/10/the-kanjorski-meme.
- ^ "'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Tuesday, February 10". February 10, 2009. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29137822/.
[edit] External links
- Representative Paul E. Kanjorski official U.S. House site
- Pennsylvanians for Kanjorski official campaign site
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
- Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
- Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
- Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
- Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
- Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
- A twisted tale of congressional earmarking Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, September 5, 2007
- YouTube: Rep. Kanjorski admits the Democrats Over-Promised on Iraq Posted May 22, 2008
| United States House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by Frank G. Harrison |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 11th congressional district January 3, 1985 – |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
