Redistricting remains a wild card in many House races this year, and Tuesday’s primary in Pennsylvania will provide the latest test. Two Democrats are ensnared in a member-on-member battle, and one will emerge with his political career fatally wounded. Other Democrats and Republicans are fighting off feisty outside challenges with a redistricting twist.
In the redrawn 12th District, north of Pittsburgh, Representatives Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, both Democrats, are battling one another to remain in office, while south of Pittsburgh, in the 18th District, Representative Tim Murphy, a Republican in his fifth term, is facing a primary challenge from Evan Feinberg, a former aide to some of the Senate’s most conservative members. Representative Tim Holden, a Democrat, is trying to fend off a newcomer, Matt Cartwright, for a seat in the redrawn 17th district.
Several other incumbents around the state, which is down to 18 districts after losing a seat in redistricting, are also facing primary battles, but these three races have attracted the most attention.
“Redistricting may be destiny here,” said David Wasserman, House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. The new 12th District, drawn by Republicans, gives Mr. Altmire an advantage over Mr. Critz simply because Mr. Atlmire previously represented more than 60 percent of the district. Mr. Critz, in the sort of frenemy move that usually comes when members of different parties face off, tried, unsuccessfully, to get Mr. Altmire removed from the primary ballot by challenging his petition signatures.
Elected in 2006, Mr. Altmire has tried to run as a moderate; he voted against the health care bill, which has cost him some good will and likely votes with labor and other groups. Mr. Critz, elected in 2010 to serve the remainder of Representative John P. Murtha’s term after he died, touts his role as a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
In the 17th district, Mr. Holden, a ten-term member of the House, is scrapping it out against Mr. Cartwright, a lawyer. “There is an ideological tinge because Cartwright is more liberal and Holden is a Blue Dog,” Mr. Wasserman explained. “But that’s not really the reason Holden’s vulnerable. It’s much more because of redistricting — Holden began the campaign pretty much unknown in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre portion of the district or 80 percent of the seat, whereas Cartwright has appeared in ads for his law firm there over the years.”
Mr. Holden, is also a target of the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a “super PAC” solely dedicated to defeating longtime incumbents of both parties that has already claimed a few scalps this primary season, in one case with the help of Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 24, 2012
An earlier version of this post misstated the year in which Representative Jason Altmire was elected to the House. It was 2006, not 1996. It also misstated the number of terms Representative Tim Holden has served in the House. He is now in his 10th term, not his ninth.
