04/28/2008
Fiscal Restraint, Immigration Among Barletta's Top Priorities
By: Bradley Vasoli , The Bulletin

Harrisburg - Lou Barletta faces what observers widely consider an uphill battle to unseat U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D), but the Republican Hazleton mayor is used to braving the odds.

First elected mayor in 2000 in a city where Democrats enjoy a two-to-one registration advantage over Republicans, Mr. Barletta's administration inherited a $1.2 million in deficit. In two years, the city found its budget in surplus. He recently won re-election to the seat with roughly 90 percent of the vote.

"He did a phenomenal job with [the budget]," said Kathryn English, executive director of the Pennsylvania Club for Growth, who opined that Mr. Barletta's famous efforts to strictly enforce immigration laws have made him popular but may overshadow some of his other achievements.

"You cannot be the mayor of Hazleton for eight years and be a single-issue person," she said, introducing him on Saturday at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg. "It doesn't happen."

Mr. Barletta addressed the conservative audience as one of its faithful. He was optimistic but cautiously so, given the inability of conservatives to pull off high-profile electoral wins at the federal level in recent years. The solution to that problem, he said, is a return to the party's conservative roots.

"The last two years have really shown me that leadership is something that is sorely lacking in many of our elected leaders today," he said. "Too many of our current leaders will not lead."

Mr. Barletta has much reason to lament the current political climate, given that he invited presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to come to Hazleton to discuss the immigration issue and none of the three agreed to do so.

But, noting the deep divisions the presidential race has exposed in the Democratic Party between the Clinton and Obama factions, the mayor sees reason for hope.

"We can and we must put this party back together," he said.

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