WILKES BARRE, Penn. – Thousands of voters in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District were receiving mailings up until yesterday endorsing Rep. Paul Kanjorski, courtesy of the Pennsylvania CU Association, while dozens of credit union workers were calling households and knocking on doors in a final effort to boost the beleaguered incumbent to a 13th term on election day.
"We’re still phone-banking right up to the end, and still canvassing, both credit unions and the Association," Mike Wishnow, chief spokesman for the league told The Credit Union Journal yesterday. Other credit union groups were working to boost the 12-term incumbent. "We had people knocking on doors for Kanjorski over the weekend," said Brad Thaler, senior lobbyist for NAFCU.
Kanjorski, chief backer of several key credit union bills, also got last-minute help yesterday from former President Bill Clinton, who attended a rally at Wilkes University with the congressman.
Kanjorski is in one of the toughest races of his career against Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who has emerged as a national figure in the fight against illegal immigration, even though Kanjorski trounced Barletta in a 2004 match-up.
Kanjorski, the chief sponsor of HR 1151, the CU Membership Access Act and the CU Regulatory Improvements Act, CURIA, has benefitted from the support of credit unions all across the country, as well as dozens of financial groups with business before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, which Kanjorski chairs.
Credit union executives and political action committee raised more than $100,000 for Kanjorski’s campaign, and the Pennsylvania league spent $57,000 on five mailings independent of the Kanjorski campaign, to help boost the CU champion.
The Republican Barletta, who shepherded a city ordinance barring jobs and rentals to illegal immigrants, has emerged as a national figure for groups opposed to illegal immigration.
