June 5, 2008 - Hart is older, wiser in time for a rematch
By Dennis B. Roddy
June 05, 2008
Two years out of Congress and looking for a way back in, former Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, says she now wishes she'd cast a few budget votes differently, but believes a head-to-head comparison with the man who ousted her now works in her favor.
"I think we'll now have an opportunity with a record and a record to actually see two very different people," Ms. Hart said. "This is a choice election, not a change election."
Ms. Hart's comments came yesterday during a sometimes-contentious meeting with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board.
Two years ago, Ms. Hart, a rising star in her party and a member of the powerful
The 2006 election saw Republican incumbents lose nationwide amid voter disenchantment with a slowing economy and a perceived quagmire in
"I think the Republican Congress has learned a lesson. I know I have," she said.
Chief among votes she would change, she said, were ones cast for national budgets she says spent too lavishly and grew both the deficit and the national debt.
"We really needed to have a war over spending and I could have contributed to making us just more accountable," she said in an interview after the editorial board meeting.
But she argued, too, that Mr. Altmire's current record is out of step with his district on such issues as energy -- he voted for an energy bill she says ignores coal-to-liquid alternative fuels as well as increased domestic oil drilling.
In a 4th Congressional District that spreads out across the state's southwest, a coal-laden region Mr. Altmire calls "the
Mr. Altmire said in a separate interview he believes increased domestic drilling will not produce full benefits for another 20 years -- time when the country could be developing non-oil fuel sources. He also said he was disappointed at the absence of a coal-to-liquid provision in the bill.
Health care was a signal issue in the 2006 race and Ms. Hart yesterday put forth a new proposal to take the regulation of health insurance companies from the states and put it under federal jurisdiction. She said this would widen the pool of insurers available to families and drive down costs by widening competition.
"I don't think it's right for the states to throw roadblocks in front of people who are trying to buy health insurance policies," she said.
Mr. Altmire said he has advocated a four-point plan that would pay medical providers based on the quality of care, allow people under 65 to buy into the Medicare program, set insurance rates on the basis of regional health ratings and make patient records electronically available to any hospital to which a person is taken.
While Ms. Hart said she sees a far more local race than the one two years ago, one of the major issues of 2006 still hangs in the air around the 4th District: the Iraq War.
Once an ardent supporter of American military intervention there, she yesterday said she believed the country entered the conflict based in part on bad intelligence information.
She suggested that
Mr. Altmire yesterday said he favors a clear deadline for
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