Published: August 09, 2008 11:39 pm            

Russell team takes aim at Murtha’s House seat

While Republican congressional candidate William Russell gave a television interview in an Upper Yoder Township backyard, campaign manager Peg Luksik worked a crowd of about 15 on a nearby porch.

Her high-energy pitch included showing off several varieties of Russell T-shirts and urging supporters to each take two bumper stickers to better advertise the candidate while driving.

“This really is a little-guy campaign,” she said. “Anything you can do, we certainly appreciate it. It does make a difference.”

The campaign event last week, complete with a table covered with snacks and kids playing in the grass, showed that Russell intends to play hardball in a small-ball way as he tries to unseat powerful U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown.

Even while reaching out to small gatherings of voters on their porches, he will attempt to tap into a still-strong current of anti-Murtha sentiment on a national level – the same conservative-based ire that helped fuel Republican Diana Irey’s campaign two years ago.

Thus, Luksik ended her presentation on a decidedly more grand, sweeping note.

“What happens here is going to echo across the country,” she said. “Because this is a national election.”

While Irey’s 2006 campaign and Russell’s 2008 effort share a political affiliation, there are few similarities between the candidates.

Irey was an experienced politician and Washington County commissioner when she ran against Murtha; Russell never before has sought political office. She was an established resident of the 12th Congressional District; he is a career military man who moved to Johnstown last year in order to challenge Murtha.

And Russell would hope there is another big difference: Irey, despite campaigning hard, still lost to Murtha by more than 20 percentage points in November 2006.

That year may have represented a golden moment for Republicans hoping to unseat Murtha, as the congressman had in late 2005 become a national lightning rod because of his vehement opposition to the war in Iraq.

But it ended up not having much of an impact on local voters. Murtha won every county in the 12th district including Washington, Irey’s home turf.

Nevertheless, Russell has made Iraq a central issue in his campaign, arguing that Murtha is encouraging America’s enemies and discouraging its soldiers by advocating a troop withdrawal from that war-torn country.

He is quick to criticize Murtha – as Irey did – for alleging that U.S. Marines murdered innocent Iraqis in 2005.

And Russell contends the congressman is a “Washington insider” who has taken an increasingly liberal approach on key social issues.

“Somewhere along the line, it seems that Mr. Murtha has lost touch,” Russell told his Upper Yoder audience last week.

Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey fired back.

“It’s mind-boggling that someone who has never lived in western Pennsylvania has the gall to accuse anyone who lives here as being ‘out of touch,’ ” Mazonkey said.

So Russell is trying to take his message directly to those who do, in fact, “live here.”

After serving 90 days on active military duty, the veteran of both Iraq wars kicked off his general-election campaign just after midnight on Aug. 1 – rolling into Uniontown, Fayette County, on a motorcycle.

He later served corn on the cob at the Fayette County Fair and plans similar interactions at other community events.

“I’ll be scooping a lot of ice cream,” he said.

The candidate also is staging “running with Russell” jogs and various “front porch” rallies such as last week’s.

“It’s a great way to get out and meet people,” he said. “It’s just sort of a neighborhood networking kind of thing.”

In naming Luksik as his campaign manager, Russell chose someone who knows a thing or two about grass-roots political efforts.

The Westmont resident gained fame in the 1990s by making three runs for governor.

In 1990, having entered the Republican primary in March, she won 46 percent of the vote in May but lost to GOP-backed Barbara Hafer.

Two later runs as a Constitutional Party candidate netted her a combined 776,000 votes.

Republican Tom Ridge won both of those elections.

“I know how to do things outside the box,” Luksik said, adding that she is encouraged by the Russell campaign’s early momentum.

That includes more than 20,000 donors to the Russell cause so far, with the candidate’s Web site and general Internet buzz contributing to that total.

“We’re all working 27 hours a day at this point,” Luksik said.

Much work remains, however.

Murtha still is an immensely popular politician in a sprawling district that favors Democratic candidates.

And then there is the congressman’s economic clout, including his power as ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

While Russell shook hands with potential voters last week, Murtha was driving a prototype military vehicle in Johnstown, touring Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center (named for his wife) in Windber and announcing $1.93 million in funding for Somerset County’s Quemahoning Pipeline.

Mazonkey said Murtha has worked “tirelessly” for his district for 34 years.

“We are proud of our region’s success,” Mazonkey said, “and Congressman Murtha has a legacy of working with local officials to attract jobs, better health care, and new roads and bridges.”

Convincing voters to look past those contributions and take a more ideological stance on the longtime congressman is Russell’s primary task – one he is trying to undertake one porch gathering at a time.

“By and large, we want to be as grass-roots as we can be,” he said.

        

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