Sherwood-Carney race draws special interest money

Pivotal contest called a ‘toss up’

By FRITZ MAYER

WAYNE and PIKE COUNTY, PA — The congressional race between Representative Don Sherwood and challenger Chris Carney is one of 30 that will determine the control of the house of representatives in Washington, D.C. in January. The contest in the PA 10th Congressional District, which includes Wayne and Pike counties, has been called a toss up by such leading political publications as the “Rothenberg Political Report,” and that status has brought in money from national groups backing one candidate or the other.

The United States Chamber of Commerce spent almost $100,000 to help Sherwood in this campaign so far. Sherwood has positioned himself as a supporter of small business, and has taken positions that many small business owners agree with, such as caps on pain and suffering damage awards in medical malpractice suits.

The Association of Trial Lawyers of America, however, strongly opposes caps and has spent some $40,000 so far on ads targeting Sherwood. The group has not attacked his position on award caps, but has, instead, attacked his support for the Medicare Part D plan.

According to Wilkes University political science professor Thomas Baldino, the two groups jumped into the fray after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) decided to contribute very heavily to Carney. According to the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, the DCCC has pledged $250,000 to support his campaign effort and an additional $750,000 targeted specifically to television advertising.

The DCCC counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, is supporting Sherwood with television spots, but a spokesman declined to reveal spending plans.

Baldino said the district is heavily Republican due, in part, to redistricting in 2002, which removed the Democratic population centers of Scranton and Carbondale. Therefore, it should have been a safe district for a Republican incumbent, but a couple of factors have made the race competitive.

In the summer of 2005, 29-year-old Cynthia Ore filed a lawsuit against Sherwood, claiming that he had abused her during an extra-marital affair they’d been having for several years. Sherwood admitted to the affair, and a settlement was reached in November 2005. The settlement details were released to the public.

That scandal, coupled with President Bush’s sagging poll numbers, led to a narrow victory in the Republican primary in May 2006, in which Sherwood, a four-term incumbent bested unknown newcomer Kathy Scott by 56 to 44 percent, despite spending $300,000 compared to Scott’s $5,000.

An independent poll conducted in late August by Majority Watch showed Carney ahead of Sherwood by 50 percent to 43 percent. In the same poll, 54 percent of respondents identified themselves as Republican, 32 percent as Democrats, and 14 percent as Independents.

Sherwood’s camp said because the poll was conducted with automated calls, its conclusions were not accurate, and Baldino agreed that the methodology is questionable.

He said that for Carney to win, he would need the vote of every Democrat and Independent, plus a lot of Republicans would have to stay home.

In the current round of television ads, Sherwood has charged that Carney would raise taxes because he doesn’t support making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent. In his ad, Carney responded that he is in favor of tax cuts, but not for those that benefit the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

The matter of the Iraq War is likely to become an issue. Baldino said that Sherwood would try to paint Carney as a “cut and run” democrat. After 9/11, Carney served as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, and has been critical of the conduct of the war, but has not advocated an immediate withdrawal.

On the other hand, said Baldino, Carney would likely try to tie Sherwood to Bush and his increasingly unpopular stay-the-course strategy in Iraq.