Shuster wins 9th Congressional District
The race in the 9th Congressional District, a sprawling district stretching from almost Waynesburg in Greene County to Waynesboro in Franklin County, appeared to be on track to meet earlier predictions favoring incumbent Republican Bill Shuster.
Shuster of Hollidaysburg, Blair County, who has represented the district since 2001, was well ahead of challenger, Democrat Alanna Hartzok of Fayetteville, Franklin County as of press time.
Partial results posted on the state Department of State’s website for the 12 counties included in the 9th District at 10:30 p.m., showed Shuster with 94,984 votes to Hartzok’s 54,776 votes.
The district covers all of Bedford, Blair, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton and Indiana counties and parts of Cambria, Greene, Huntington, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Though she didn’t fare well in counties to the east, Hartzok was the winner in Greene County, receiving 2,123 votes to Shuster’s 1,893 votes, according to unofficial results for all 22 precincts in the county included in the district. The district covers the eastern part of the county.
In Washington County, where the 9th District includes 55 precincts primarily in the Monongahela Valley, Hartzog was leading with 5,101 votes to Shuster’s 4,648 votes, according to partial unofficial results. Of the 184 precincts in the county, 161 reported results at press time.
The 9th congressional district was a relatively safe seat for Republicans. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, in 2010, the district was the most Republican district in the state; however, redistricting increased the number of Democrats with the addition of majority-Democratic Fayette County.
A recent Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call rated the district “Safe Republican.”
Shuster, 53, was elected in the 9th District in 2001 after his father, Bud Shuster, stepped down following a 28-year tenure in Congress.
He has espoused mainstream GOP positions, saying he wants to lower taxes for small businesses, reduce regulations and eliminate what he claims are unnecessary regulations on the coal and natural gas industries.
“I’m working each day to reduce the tax burden on our small businesses, protect our farmers and coal miners from wasteful regulations and allow for growth in the private sector,” he said, in an e-mail response to questions for an election story.
Hartzok, a 65-year-old activist and psychotherapist, served as a director of the Earth Rights Institute, an environmental advocacy group, and has published assorted essays in a book, “The Earth Belongs to Everyone.”
Hartzok, who is considered a progressive Democrat, said one of the issues that must be addressed is the inequality in wealth.
“We need to build an economy that is both free and fair, one that maximizes the return to individuals for their labor and entrepreneurial activity, while also addressing the need for an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few,” she said in an interview.
Asked what they thought were significant issues facing Washington and Greene counties, Shuster spoke of the increase in health care costs from Obamacare, the administration’s “war on coal” and out-of-control spending and its impact on future generations.
Hartzok cited the need to address the growing problem of heroin addiction and to investigate issues surrounding the use of hydraulic fracturing at natural gas wells. She also said she would work to ensure jobs that provide a good living wage.
The district has remained loyal to the GOP. The only time a Democrat has won the seat over the last century was when Oliver Frey was elected in a special election in 1933, at the depths of the Depression, one year after Franklin Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress were swept into office.