Races for Congress pit vet against vet

Races for Congress pit vet against vet

Kathy Matheson - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 20, 2008 9:03:12 EDT

LANGHORNE, Pa. — Ten months ago, the battle lines were clearly drawn when retired Marine Col. Tom Manion decided to challenge freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq war Army veteran who has been a leading Democratic proponent of bringing the troops home.

Manion, who lost a son in Iraq, favors keeping troops there as long as it takes to stabilize the country. Murphy says a timetable should be set for their return.

Yet since Manion’s announcement in January, Iraq has nearly fallen off the political radar, replaced by the financial meltdown — reshaping not just the presidential race but also congressional contests like this one in the Philadelphia area.

In a recent interview, Manion said he is “running more as a business person,” having worked for health care company Johnson & Johnson since 1990.

“It’s not like I was running sort of as a war guy,” said Manion, 54.

But his campaign Web site prominently features a video series focused on his son, Marine 1st Lt. Travis L. Manion, killed last year at age 26 during his second tour in Iraq. The Republican challenger also told voters in his first TV ad that if he ever had to vote on sending troops to war, he would do so “as a father who lost his son in Iraq.”

It’s not the only congressional race pitting veteran against veteran at a time when the war has taken on less importance as a campaign issue.

A contest outside Pittsburgh features 17-term Democratic Rep. John Murtha — a former Marine and the first Vietnam veteran elected to Congress and an early proponent of withdrawal from Iraq — running against retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell, who opposes a timetable.

In central Georgia, Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall, an Army veteran of Vietnam, faces Rick Goddard, an Air Force veteran of Vietnam. And in California, Republican Duncan D. Hunter, a Marine Corps Reserve captain who served two tours in Iraq, and Democrat Mike Lumpkin, a retired Navy SEAL commander who also served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are competing for the seat made vacant by Duncan’s retiring father.

Murphy, who just turned 35, won in Pennsylvania by only 1,500 votes two years ago to become the first Democrat in 14 years to represent the 8th District, which is dominated by suburban Bucks County north of Philadelphia. He is the only Iraq war vet serving in Congress.

Murphy should be fairly safe in the Nov. 4 election because he hasn’t made any major mistakes and is centrist enough to not alienate voters, said Terry Madonna, a pollster and professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster.

Murphy also has a financial advantage — $2.2 million cash on hand, compared with Manion’s $370,000 as of Sept. 30. And Murphy is benefiting from Democratic momentum in the presidential race in this key region of a battleground state.

The war is “just not the dominant issue in the district anymore,” Madonna said.

Manion said he was inspired by his son’s death to seek public office. His Web site, though, has drawn some criticism for its focus on his son’s life rather than on his qualifications.

“Just who is running for Congress: the father or the son?” asked an editorial in the Bucks County Courier Times.

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