William T. Russell: Thinking "Outside of the Box"

The 12th Congressional District's Favorite Sourpuss, John Murtha

William T. Russell is running for Congress in the 12th District, which is south and west of Pittsburgh. So why should William look to the 14th District -- centered in the city of Pittsburgh and represented by Democrat Mike Doyle, who always runs unopposed for support?

A little background: The 14th congressional District is a classically Democrat area. It includes all of Pittsburgh and several mostly working class suburbs to the east, south, and west. There's some green-lawn suburbia here, but much of the district is in the Monongahela Valley, where the steel industry once (but no longer) belched flames and provided jobs.

There aren't many Republicans or moderate Independents in such a place, right? Wrong!

Consider the 2004 presidential election, in which John Kerry won the 14th by 69% to 30% over George W. Bush. Perhaps Kerry's win constitutes a real skunking, but it hides an important truth.

In 2004, GWB's vote total in the 14th was 88,0000-plus votes. In other words, there are a lot of voters mostly unrepresented by Mike Doyle, a predictable tax-and-grab Democrat.

So, where does William Russell fit into this equation? Frankly, he needs to go into what many regard as enemy territory -- the 14th -- and seek contributions and campaign support from those 88,000 people.

If he spent a few days in the 14th in targeted meetings with Republicans, he could raise funds and find people willing to help in the 12th District race against Murtha. The 88,000 voters who cast ballots are not going to be friendly to Murtha. They can't vote for William, but they can help him in many other ways.

Of course, one of the important groups supporting Russell consists of veterans. In the 14th, there are more than 85,000 veterans, most of whom will not be fans of anti-military John Murtha.

I'm suggesting something almost unheard of in congressional races. Candidates just don't do that kind of thing -- going into "someone else's" district. Well, in this case, it's time to break with precedent.

Yes, Mike Doyle will take decent care of the Democrats in the 14th. However, William Russell should assure his supporters there that he'll take care of their interests -- especially keeping their taxes down -- when he's elected to Congress.

In the recent Pittsburgh mayoral election, Republican candidate Mark DeSantis received 35% of the vote. He also raised more than $300,000. Based on DeSantis' success, it should be possible for William to raise over time more than $100,000 in Pittsburgh.

Of course, William will need a significant amount of money to conduct a winning campaign, but his main emphasis will be on using volunteers wisely and generally conducting an effort relying on "outside-of-the-box" thinking.

Because of so many years of Democrat misrule, the 14th District is losing population at a rapid rate. A lot of people have given up hope on living there. William Russell can "keep hope alive" in Pittsburgh, while also benefitting his campaign for Congress.

(See the column below this one regarding declining population in Democratic districts, including Doyle's.)

Go for it, William!


Note: I'll cross-post this at some point on my main blog. If you'd like to contribute to Russell's campaign, you can do so by clicking on the link at the start of this column.