Anti-immigrant Pa. mayor wins GOP and Dem. primaries

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Wilmington, Delaware News Journal

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press

Posted Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 8:04 am

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who gained national prominence by targeting illegal immigrants living in his small northeastern Pennsylvania city, cruised to the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday — and unexpectedly won the Democratic nomination, too.

Barletta trounced GOP challenger Dee Deakos with nearly 94 percent of the vote. And he beat former Mayor Michael Marsicano for the Democratic nomination by staging a last-minute write-in campaign, all but guaranteeing himself another term, unofficial returns showed.

“I think the message is clear,” Barletta said. “The people of Hazleton want me to keep fighting for them.”

The Republican mayor said Democrats kept telling him they wished they could vote for him in the primary. So, about a week ago, he mailed instructions to Democratic voters on how to write in his name.

Read more: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS/70516008

[atreides1]

1. Makes you wonder

How many of the White Non-Hispanics are illegals?

Doesn't seem to be that big of a problem from the numbers listed below, unless there has been a large increase recently.


Population (year 2000): 23,329. Estimated population in July 2005: 22,125 (-5.2% change)
Males: 10,898 (46.7%), Females: 12,431 (53.3%)



Races in Hazleton:

White Non-Hispanic (93.2%)
Hispanic (4.9%)
Other race (2.8%)
Two or more races (0.9%)
Black (0.8%)

This was the unemployment report as of August last year
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton/Hazleton MSA.

Year Month Civ Labor Total Total Unemp.
Force Employment Unemployment Rate(%)
2006 August 160,000 150,800 9,200 5.7

[bigworld]

2. There is a lot of support for people like him

here in rural PA. It won't show up in any polls or focus groups, but there's a big unspoken resentment against immigrants and Latinos in general, who are often blamed for high crime, social problems, and what old-timers see as a general breakdown of their town's social fabric. And I don't think it's entirely a racist thing, it's more of a "look what's happened to our community since 'they' moved in" reaction.

Just sayin.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Living near PA...

(and struggling mightily...) in NW NJ, I have been following this rather closely and I think I know what is causing this:

Back during the Whitman Administration, in NJ, a concerted effort was started to "terraform" Northern NJ, basicallty everything north of I-78. This terraformation was based upon jacking the prices on just about everything, but especially homes and apartment rents. Of course, the fact of astronomical property taxes, caused by poor fiscal management and the fact that NJ gets back only $.50 for every federal tax dollar it pays in are both big contributors to this.

What that resulted in was a great western migration of black, hispanic and other ethnic people. Of course, where they ended up was PA, because things were more affordable. One need only see the results in Stroudsburg, Easton, Bethlehem, Allentown and other communities that enjoyed, in the past, an almost pristine caucasian existence. Of course, this resulted in no small measure of backlash, leading to situations like we see in Hazleton.

In fairness, the social problems one sees with crime, that resulted from this western migration, especially in the Lehigh Valley, makes some of this backlash understandable, but no less distasteful. Fact is that the whole region has trouble generating the jobs that could keep crime rates down, but the same can be said for the country as a whole.

[Kolesar]

4. West Coast white supremists decided to move to Potter County in northern PA

...after they lost a huge civil rights lawsuit that took their old property away from them. They selected Potter County because it was the whitest place they could find on the map. pretty sad

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Hazleton is in Luzerne County, not Potter County

http://www.luzernecounty.org/living/municipalities/hazleton_city

[Kolesar]

6. that's not what I said...eom

[treestar]

7. These people are pathetic

They really believe their problems can be traced to Hispanics?

That's nuts, sorry.

Even the problems allegedly caused by illegal immigrants are indirect. To consider that their main problem is just sham.