Dems win special Pa. election, retain Murtha seat

An aide to the late Democratic Rep. John Murtha won a special election to fill the final months of his boss's term — a nationally watched contest considered a potential bellwether for this fall's midterm election.

In a tight race to the end, Mark Critz brushed back a strong challenge from Tim Burns, a Republican businessman. The GOP had hoped to capture the seat Murtha held for 36 years by playing off growing opposition to congressional Democrats, tea party-driven discontent and unhappiness with President Barack Obama's health care law.

The two national parties made the race about more than simply who fills the last seven months of Murtha's term, auditioning themes that might sway voters in the fall. Each poured more than $1 million into the campaign, most of it negative.

For Democrats, the test was whether they could hold on to a blue-collar district where they have a 2-to-1 registration advantage but that voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. The GOP used the race to gauge the effectiveness of portraying Obama's health care overhaul as a disaster and his energy-climate change bill as a jobs destroyer.

Critz, a longtime district aide, played up his ties to his old boss while fending off GOP criticism that he was a career bureaucrat who would blindly follow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and liberal Democrats in Congress.

He stressed he was "pro-life, pro-gun" and determined to help a region hard-hit by job losses — Pennsylvania's statewide unemployment rate is 9 percent — policy positions that mirrored Murtha's. Democrats had a 2-to-1 edge over Republicans in voter registration in the socially conservative district.

"For all of their bluster about building a national wave this year ... Republican policies were once again rejected when it came time to face the voters," Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Tuesday night in a statement.

Murtha, who was the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, died in February at age 77 of complications from gallbladder surgery, setting off a dash to the special election.

Critz had 53 percent of the vote compared with nearly 45 percent for Burns with 70 percent of precincts reporting, dealing an early blow to GOP hopes of taking control of Congress this fall.

Both candidates will meet again in the fall after easily winning their respective parties' primary elections.

Burns spokesman Kent Gates said the GOP nominee hoped he had "raised the conversation of fixing the problems in Washington, including health care reform and out-of-control spending."

The race was considered so close and so important that Democrats called on former President Bill Clinton to campaign for Critz, while Republicans turned to U.S. Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts to boost Burns.

But Burns, 42, of Eighty Four, could not follow the script Brown wrote earlier this year in Massachusetts. Brown won a special election for the Senate seat held by another high-profile Democrat, the late Edward M. Kennedy.

A tea party supporter, Burns disagreed with Critz's camp painting the Republican as an "out-of-touch millionaire" more concerned with tax loopholes for corporations and the rich.

Critz, 48, capitalized on a key endorsement from Murtha's widow, Joyce Murtha, and his ties to his hometown of Johnstown, a Murtha stronghold.