Paul E. Kanjorski
Encyclopedia
Paul E. Kanjorski is the former U.S. Representative
for , serving from 1985 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party
.
The district includes the cities of Scranton
, Wilkes-Barre
, and Hazleton
, as well as most of the Poconos.
Before his election to Congress, Kanjorski was a trial attorney, city solicitor, and administrative law judge for workers' compensation
. He also served in the United States Army Reserves.
, near Wilkes-Barre. He attended public schools before enrolling at Wyoming Seminary
, a private college preparatory school in Kingston
. He finished his high school education at the Capitol Page School in Washington, D.C.
He became a congressional page
at age 15, first appointed by Republicans
but ending up working on the Democratic
side of the House. He witnessed the 1954 U.S. Capitol shooting incident, helping to bring stretchers into the chamber for the wounded.
Kanjorski attended Temple University
in Philadelphia from 1957 to 1961, and briefly served in the United States Army Reserves from 1960 to 1961. He then attended Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle
. He passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in 1966. Kanjorski completed his studies despite suffering from dyslexia
, once saying, "I always thought it was a blessing. It forced me to develop my memory."
Before entering politics, Kanjorski practiced law in Wilkes-Barre often helping coal miners and their widows obtain black lung benefits. Kanjorski also volunteered to advocate on behalf of victims of Hurricane Agnes which devastated the Wyoming valley in 1972. Kanjorski served as a worker's compensation administrative law judge for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Assistant Solicitor for the City of Nanticoke and served as assistant solicitor to several other communities.
, and has spoken out against the Iraq War. He has served on the Financial Services Committee
since he entered Congress in 1985 and is now the second-ranking Democrat on that committee. He usually plays behind-the-scenes roles in the advocacy or defeat of legislation and steers appropriations money toward improving the infrastructure and economic needs of his district. He is popularly known as "Kanjo."
On May 10, 2007, the usually moderate Kanjorski voted with fellow Democrats to begin the redeployment of all forces from Iraq
, however the bill was defeated. As of the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks
, Kanjorski's position on the war in Iraq appeared to be that he would vote for redeployment, but not as a condition of continued funding for the war until and unless the expected presidential veto of such a bill would be overridden.
After the August 1, 2007 collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota
, Kanjorski said he believed the $
250,000,000 bill passed by Congress to rebuild the bridge was a ripoff because it exceeded the normal $100,000,000 limit for emergency relief projects. He added in saying that Minnesotans "discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get" and that they took the opportunity "to screw us." In March 2010, Kanjorski supported and voted for the federal health care reform legislation.
s up to $250,000 was an emergency measure to stave off a massive money market "electronic run
" on the banks that removed $550 billion from the system in a matter of hours on the morning of September 18. He further asserted that, if not stopped, the run would not only have caused the American economy to crash immediately, within 24 hours it would have brought down the world economy as well.
On February 10, 2009 the financial writer Daniel Gross
subsequently confirmed some elements of the story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann
, but he prefaced his remarks by saying “I don‘t know if his numbers are 100 percent correct”. Felix Salmon
of Condé Nast Portfolio
also questioned why Kanjorski's account had not been stated before.
, who had represented the 11th District for most of the time since 1945, resigned. Kanjorski ran in the crowded special election as an independent, finishing behind State Representative Ray Musto. He ran against Musto in the Democratic primary later that year, but finished third. Musto lost to Republican
James L. Nelligan
in the general election. In 1984, after sitting out the 1982 campaign, Kanjorski defeated incumbent Frank G. Harrison
, who had defeated Nelligan in 1982, in the primary
. He won the general election by a solid 17-point margin, even as Ronald Reagan
carried the district in his landslide reelection bid.
In 1986, Kanjorski faced a younger, well-financed Republican opponent in Marc Holtzman
. The race was initially seen as one of the hottest in the country. However, Kanjorski won by 41 points, his largest margin of victory in a contested election. He was unopposed in 1988 and 1990 and did not face another credible opponent until 2002, when he faced Lou Barletta
, the mayor of Hazleton
. Kanjorski defeated Barletta by 13 points. The margin would have likely been closer had the state legislature not shifted heavily Democratic Scranton and most of surrounding Lackawanna County from the nearby 10th District to the 11th. It appeared that the Republican-controlled legislature wanted to protect the 10th's then-incumbent Republican, Don Sherwood
by packing the already heavily Democratic 11th with as many Democrats as possible. Scranton had anchored the 10th and its predecessors for almost a century.
. In 2008, Fox News broadcast a segment accusing Kanjorski of obtaining $10 million in earmarks for a company run by his family.
Multiple polls had shown Kanjorski trailing by as many as five percentage points, and the race was pegged as one of the nation's most competitive leading into the 2008 elections. Kanjorski was one of the few House Democrats in the Northeast in any danger of being unseated. However, Kanjorski won in a much more competitive race than his first matchup with Barletta, taking 52 percent of the vote to Barletta's 48 percent, even as Barack Obama
easily carried the district. Kanjorski lost three of the district's five counties, including Luzerne County, where both he and Barletta live. However, as in 2002, Kanjorski swamped Barletta in Lackawanna County, winning by 12,500 votes (20 percent); he lost the area he had represented prior to the 2000 redistricting by almost 4,000 votes.
and Brian Kelly in the May 2010 Democratic primary with 49.3% of the vote.
Barletta challenged Kanjorski again in 2010. This time, Barletta managed to defeat Kanjorski with 55 percent of the vote, largely due to winning Luzerne County by almost 10,000 votes. Kanjorski was dogged by some of the more incendiary comments he made during the campaign, such as his comments about Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott: "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him."
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for , serving from 1985 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
The district includes the cities of Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
, Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
, and Hazleton
Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, an increase of 8.6% from the 2000 census count .-Greater Hazleton:...
, as well as most of the Poconos.
Before his election to Congress, Kanjorski was a trial attorney, city solicitor, and administrative law judge for workers' compensation
Workers' compensation
Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence...
. He also served in the United States Army Reserves.
Early life, education and career
Kanjorski was born in NanticokeNanticoke, Pennsylvania
Nanticoke is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,465 at the 2010 census.-History:The name Nanticoke was derived from Nantego, the Indian tidewater people who moved here when their Maryland lands were spoiled for hunting by the colonial settlement in...
, near Wilkes-Barre. He attended public schools before enrolling at Wyoming Seminary
Wyoming Seminary
Wyoming Seminary, founded in 1844 and currently led by President Kip P. Nygren, is a private college preparatory school located in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania, in Kingston and Forty Fort It is near the Susquehanna River and the city of Wilkes-Barre...
, a private college preparatory school in Kingston
Kingston, Pennsylvania
Kingston is a municipality located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the Susquehanna River opposite Wilkes Barre. Kingston was incorporated as a borough in 1857. Kingston has adopted a home rule charter which became effective in January 1976. It is part of the greater metropolitan...
. He finished his high school education at the Capitol Page School in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
He became a congressional page
United States House of Representatives Page
United States House of Representatives Page Program was a program run by the United States House of Representatives, under the office of the Clerk of the House, in which appointed high school juniors acted as non-partisan federal employees in the House of Representatives, providing supplemental...
at age 15, first appointed by Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
but ending up working on the Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
side of the House. He witnessed the 1954 U.S. Capitol shooting incident, helping to bring stretchers into the chamber for the wounded.
Kanjorski attended Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in Philadelphia from 1957 to 1961, and briefly served in the United States Army Reserves from 1960 to 1961. He then attended Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...
. He passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in 1966. Kanjorski completed his studies despite suffering from dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, once saying, "I always thought it was a blessing. It forced me to develop my memory."
Before entering politics, Kanjorski practiced law in Wilkes-Barre often helping coal miners and their widows obtain black lung benefits. Kanjorski also volunteered to advocate on behalf of victims of Hurricane Agnes which devastated the Wyoming valley in 1972. Kanjorski served as a worker's compensation administrative law judge for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Assistant Solicitor for the City of Nanticoke and served as assistant solicitor to several other communities.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Financial ServicesUnited States House Committee on Financial ServicesThe United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises (Chairman)
- Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer CreditUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer CreditThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.-Jurisdiction:...
- Subcommittee on Housing and Community OpportunityUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community OpportunityThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.-Jurisdiction:...
- Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization, and Procurement
- Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives
Political positions
Like many Pennsylvania Democrats from outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Kanjorski opposes gun control. He is also moderately conservative on abortion. However, he is strongly pro-laborLabor unions in the United States
Labor unions in the United States are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. The most prominent unions are among public sector employees such as teachers and police...
, and has spoken out against the Iraq War. He has served on the Financial Services Committee
United States House Committee on Financial Services
The United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
since he entered Congress in 1985 and is now the second-ranking Democrat on that committee. He usually plays behind-the-scenes roles in the advocacy or defeat of legislation and steers appropriations money toward improving the infrastructure and economic needs of his district. He is popularly known as "Kanjo."
On May 10, 2007, the usually moderate Kanjorski voted with fellow Democrats to begin the redeployment of all forces from Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, however the bill was defeated. As of the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, Kanjorski's position on the war in Iraq appeared to be that he would vote for redeployment, but not as a condition of continued funding for the war until and unless the expected presidential veto of such a bill would be overridden.
After the August 1, 2007 collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, Kanjorski said he believed the $
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
250,000,000 bill passed by Congress to rebuild the bridge was a ripoff because it exceeded the normal $100,000,000 limit for emergency relief projects. He added in saying that Minnesotans "discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get" and that they took the opportunity "to screw us." In March 2010, Kanjorski supported and voted for the federal health care reform legislation.
2008 financial crisis
In an interview on CSPAN on January 27, 2009, Kanjorski defended the original emergency actions by the United States government to halt the 2008 financial crisis in September 2008. Kanjorski stated that the move to raise the guarantee money fundMoney fund
A money market fund is an open-ended mutual fund that invests in short-term debt securities such as US Treasury bills and commercial paper. Money market funds are widely regarded as being as safe as bank deposits yet providing a higher yield...
s up to $250,000 was an emergency measure to stave off a massive money market "electronic run
Bank run
A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
" on the banks that removed $550 billion from the system in a matter of hours on the morning of September 18. He further asserted that, if not stopped, the run would not only have caused the American economy to crash immediately, within 24 hours it would have brought down the world economy as well.
On February 10, 2009 the financial writer Daniel Gross
Daniel Gross
Daniel Gross is an American journalist and author, a former Senior Editor at Newsweek, and since September 2010 employed at Yahoo! Finance. A native of East Lansing, Michigan, Gross graduated from East Lansing High School and Cornell University , and holds an A.M...
subsequently confirmed some elements of the story on Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
, but he prefaced his remarks by saying “I don‘t know if his numbers are 100 percent correct”. Felix Salmon
Felix Salmon
Felix Salmon is a financial journalist, formerly of Portfolio Magazine and Euromoney, and a blogging editor for Reuters. He was also author of a Wired cover story on the Gaussian copula....
of Condé Nast Portfolio
Condé Nast Portfolio
Portfolio.com is a website published by American City Business Journals that provides news and information for small to mid-sized businesses. It was formerly the website for the monthly business magazine Condé Nast Portfolio, published by Condé Nast from 2007 to 2009.Portfolio.com is continually...
also questioned why Kanjorski's account had not been stated before.
Political campaigns
In 1980, Dan FloodDaniel J. Flood
Daniel John "Dan" Flood was a flamboyant and long-serving Democratic United States Representative from Pennsylvania. He was censured for bribery and resigned from the House in 1980.-Early life and career:...
, who had represented the 11th District for most of the time since 1945, resigned. Kanjorski ran in the crowded special election as an independent, finishing behind State Representative Ray Musto. He ran against Musto in the Democratic primary later that year, but finished third. Musto lost to Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
James L. Nelligan
James L. Nelligan
James Leo Nelligan was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.-Biography:James L. Nelligan was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He attended King's College in Wilkes-Barre, graduating in 1951. He served in the United States Army, and worked as an accountant...
in the general election. In 1984, after sitting out the 1982 campaign, Kanjorski defeated incumbent Frank G. Harrison
Frank G. Harrison
Frank Girard Harrison was a one-term Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.-Biography:...
, who had defeated Nelligan in 1982, in the primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
. He won the general election by a solid 17-point margin, even as Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
carried the district in his landslide reelection bid.
In 1986, Kanjorski faced a younger, well-financed Republican opponent in Marc Holtzman
Marc Holtzman
Marc Holtzman is Vice Chairman of Barclays Capital. Mr. Holtzman was the first Secretary of Technology for the state of Colorado and served as President of the University of Denver. He currently resides in Aspen, Colorado.-Business:...
. The race was initially seen as one of the hottest in the country. However, Kanjorski won by 41 points, his largest margin of victory in a contested election. He was unopposed in 1988 and 1990 and did not face another credible opponent until 2002, when he faced Lou Barletta
Lou Barletta
Louis J. Barletta is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Republican Party. He is the former Mayor of Hazleton, known for his vocal opposition to illegal immigration and his efforts to keep illegal immigrants out of the city.-Early life, education, and business career:Barletta was...
, the mayor of Hazleton
Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, an increase of 8.6% from the 2000 census count .-Greater Hazleton:...
. Kanjorski defeated Barletta by 13 points. The margin would have likely been closer had the state legislature not shifted heavily Democratic Scranton and most of surrounding Lackawanna County from the nearby 10th District to the 11th. It appeared that the Republican-controlled legislature wanted to protect the 10th's then-incumbent Republican, Don Sherwood
Don Sherwood
Donald L. "Don" Sherwood is an American politician. He served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, from 1999 to 2007...
by packing the already heavily Democratic 11th with as many Democrats as possible. Scranton had anchored the 10th and its predecessors for almost a century.
2008
After facing no major-party opposition in 2004 and a nominal Republican challenger in 2006, Kanjorski faced Lou Barletta again in 2008. Since the 2002 race, Barletta had become well-known for his opposition to illegal immigrationIllegal immigration to the United States
An illegal immigrant in the United States is an alien who has entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date of a visa....
. In 2008, Fox News broadcast a segment accusing Kanjorski of obtaining $10 million in earmarks for a company run by his family.
Multiple polls had shown Kanjorski trailing by as many as five percentage points, and the race was pegged as one of the nation's most competitive leading into the 2008 elections. Kanjorski was one of the few House Democrats in the Northeast in any danger of being unseated. However, Kanjorski won in a much more competitive race than his first matchup with Barletta, taking 52 percent of the vote to Barletta's 48 percent, even as Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
easily carried the district. Kanjorski lost three of the district's five counties, including Luzerne County, where both he and Barletta live. However, as in 2002, Kanjorski swamped Barletta in Lackawanna County, winning by 12,500 votes (20 percent); he lost the area he had represented prior to the 2000 redistricting by almost 4,000 votes.
2010
Kanjorski won against Corey O'BrienCorey O'Brien
Corey D. O’Brien is the current Commissioner for Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. He challenged incumbent U.S. Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski in the May 2010 Democratic primary but lost.-Early life:...
and Brian Kelly in the May 2010 Democratic primary with 49.3% of the vote.
Barletta challenged Kanjorski again in 2010. This time, Barletta managed to defeat Kanjorski with 55 percent of the vote, largely due to winning Luzerne County by almost 10,000 votes. Kanjorski was dogged by some of the more incendiary comments he made during the campaign, such as his comments about Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott: "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him."
2011
In April, Kanjorski and his long-time chief of staff Karen Feather formed Kanjorski & Associates, LLC, a public policy consulting firm.External links
- Kanjorski & Associates, LLC.}
- Profile at SourceWatchSourceWatchSourceWatch is an internet wiki site that is a collaborative project of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy...
- A twisted tale of congressional earmarking Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, September 5, 2007