SCRANTON - Democratic attorney Matt Cartwright kicked off his insurgent campaign for Congress on Tuesday, portraying himself as a champion of the middle class and working families who will act like a real Democrat.
During a 15-minute speech at the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center in downtown Scranton, Cartwright never named the Democrat whose job he wants, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, Saint Clair, but it was clear he thinks the congressman too often acts like a Republican.
"When a handful of Democratic representatives turn their back on the middle class and start voting like Wall Street Republicans, something is really wrong," Cartwright, 50, of Moosic, said. "I'm Matt Cartwright, and I am from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."
Cartwright was joined by about a hundred supporters, many of them family members and local lawyers. Cartwright is a partner in Munley, Munley & Cartwright and is married to attorney Marion Munley. The Munleys are one of Lackawanna County's most prominent Democratic families, but much of the county Democratic establishment is already lined up behind Holden.
Holden is the 19-year representative of the 17th Congressional District, which will include Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and other new areas of Northeast Pennsylvania for the first time starting next January because congressional boundary lines were redrawn.
Cartwright said Republicans led redistricting and "assigned us a congressman" who is viewed as the incumbent.
"We may start out as David against Goliath, but I tell you here and now I will never give up, I will never sell out and I will work tirelessly to get this message out to everyone in the 17th Congressional District of Pennsylvania," he said.
Cartwright said he's spent 24 years as a lawyer fighting "huge corporations" and "fighting for the middle class against corporate greed, fighting for the most vulnerable against uncaring insurance companies."
"And fighting for small businesses against big-business bullies," he said. The redistricting represents "a new beginning."
"It's a chance to elect somebody to Congress who truly represents the interests of the middle class, not the banks, not the credit card companies, not the insurance companies, not the Wall Street firms. The middle class," Cartwright said.
Cartwright said he "will not apologize for being a Democrat" and will keep in mind the "Democratic Party is the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt" who battled the "economic royalists that we know even today always line up against the interests of working families and the middle class."
Cartwright's audience included former Mayor Jim Connors, who said his presence represented respect for Cartwright, not a slap at Holden.
"Matt Cartwright is one of the finest lawyers that I've ever met and I think he's going to represent our district beautifully," Connors said. "This is our Democrat."
Afterward, in a telephone call, Holden touted his own record of voting for middle-class interests, including his 95 percent pro-union voting record and consistent support from the AFL-CIO.
"For 20 years, I held a Republican seat," Holden said. "I've concentrated my entire career on economic development, investment in my district through the appropriation process, through highway bills, through any opportunity I have to work with local leaders on economic development. I've always prided myself on staying out of petty, partisan bickering and trying to find solutions to the problems that we face."