Bernie O’Hare conducted a great interview with congressional candidate Sam Bennett, who’s challenging Charlie Dent in the 15th. I think he’s splitting it up into parts, but here’s my favorite piece of Part 1:
Question: How are you qualified to represent us in the U.S. House of Reps., having never served as an elected official before? (Bennett has never won a primary in which she ran opposed by another Democrat.)[Answer:]“This makes me uniquely qualified to represent us. The folks in Washington, including Charlie Dent, have shown a unique inability to collaborate and come up with curative solutions to solve our nation’s problems. I have that ability through my status as a community leader. After an election is over, we need to lay down our partisan weapons.”
Dent/Bennett
For KPers in the 15th: is Bennett making any headway at all against Dent? I understand that she isn’t the strongest candidate, but one would think she could at least keep it interesting in a swing seat like the 15th, no? Any thoughts?
It Depends
I’ve lived in the 15th for a while now and I think it depends. A traditionally run campaign (ie, DNCC comes in and does exactly what it was trained to do) cannot beat Charlie. He’s well-liked, well-funded, and entrenched.
But I think that seeing that Charles Dertinger get 43.5% of the vote (with only $70,000!!) and Greta Brown (Green candidate) get 2.5% of the vote means that the district can swing toward Democrats. But it won’t be with traditional messaging, etc. Not sure yet what type of campaign Sam is running…
I see...
Gotcha. I know Dent has retained his popularity in the 15th, but I thought it might be a little more of a race. Bennett still has some time, but from what I understand, even a lot of the Dems in the 15th aren’t that thrilled with her? Kind of unrelated question: has the Kanjorski/Barletta race gotten underway yet? I know the NRCC committed a lot to Lou’s campaign and I wonder if any ads have started in the 11th yet? Appreciate the update, Greg.
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