U.S. GOVERNMENT | A resilient balance of institutions
30 July 2008
Pennsylvania 4th Candidates Stress Gun Owners’ Rights
Congressional contenders Altmire, Hart tout support for alternative energy
Washington -- Last spring, Democratic candidate Barack Obama was criticized for saying some small-town Pennsylvanians who face tough economic times “get bitter” and “cling to guns or religion.”
Residents of the Pennsylvania 4th Congressional District might have thought that comment referred to them. Many citizens of the region -- dotted with small towns and fraught with economic troubles -- enjoy hunting and recreational shooting.
Obama, his party’s presumed nominee, did apologize for his remarks, but Democratic voters in the Pennsylvania 4th still favored Hillary Clinton in the state’s April primary.
American gun owners typically are considered politically conservative. So it might surprise some that the Pennsylvania 4th congressional candidate endorsed by the largest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), is the Democrat.
The NRA says that Congressman Jason Altmire supports “the Constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen.” Altmire, a first-term congressman, is competing again against the Republican congresswoman he defeated in 2006, Melissa Hart.
The district has more registered Democrats than Republicans, but tends to be a conservative one. Both candidates say they are strong believers in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates the government cannot infringe on the right of U.S. citizens to keep and bear arms. (See “Highest U.S. Court Examines, Interprets Constitutional Right.”)
Altmire says he opposes new gun control laws because the government “must do a better job of enforcing existing gun laws before considering new ones.”
Hart says it is typical for the NRA to endorse the incumbent. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review says Hart’s 2000 endorsement from the NRA helped her win her first election.
“Unfortunately, since this Congress hasn’t done much work, there have not been many votes for the NRA to get a clear picture of the incumbent’s views,” she said in a press statement. Hart said during her term in Congress, she co-sponsored legislation that limited lawsuits against gun manufacturers.
In a district where both candidates share certain conservative values, Hart has tried to tie Altmire to a Democrat known for her liberal views: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Jason Altmire may claim back home in western [Pennsylvania] that he supports our Second Amendment rights, but in reality he has ‘gone Washington’ and one of the first votes he ever cast … was to elect anti-gun Nancy Pelosi to Speaker of the House,” Hart said in a June press release. “As long as Speaker Pelosi controls the agenda in the House, she will ensure that pro-Second Amendment legislation never sees the light of day.”
On a national level, Second Amendment issues have not received a lot of attention this election season, although both presidential candidates commented on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the District of Columbia’s handgun ban. (See “Candidates weigh in on the Second Amendment.”)
Presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain opposes certain gun control measures, such as an assault-rifle ban, but favors safety measures requiring gun manufacturers to include devices such as trigger locks. Obama generally has supported gun-control efforts, but says he will “protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.”
A July Quinnipiac University poll found 54 percent of Americans support stricter gun control laws and 17 percent support amending the Constitution to ban individual gun ownership.
OIL PRICES HIGH CONCERN AMONG AREA VOTERS
Like voters in many congressional districts across the country, voters in the Pennsylvania 4th are concerned about the rising cost of oil, which has triggered increases in gas and food prices. Both congressional candidates are touting energy proposals they say will improve the environment and reduce reliance on oil.
Altmire says, “Our dependence on foreign oil is at the heart of our nation’s energy problem.” He highlights his support of legislation to promote domestic drilling on 68 million acres of U.S. lands currently leased by oil companies.
The Democratic candidate also has said he supports McCain’s proposal to construct 45 nuclear reactors by 2030 and spend $2 billion a year on clean-coal technologies. Altmire says investing in these industries will provide economic growth for western Pennsylvania’s coal industry and enable the United States to be more energy independent.
Hart also supports oil drilling in the United States and further development of nuclear power, wind power and other sources of energy. She says Altmire’s support of “Speaker Pelosi talking points” on allowing drilling only on land currently leased by oil companies overlooks what she says is a lack of significant resources on those lands.
Hart might have a tougher time than Altmire in purchasing ads and television air time to get her message out: She has raised $824,000 this year; Altmire has received $2.1 million.
This article is part of America.gov’s continuing coverage of seven of the 435 U.S. congressional districts during the 2008 campaign. Each offers a different prism though which to view U.S. politics. For more information, see U.S Elections - State and Local.
