May 5, 2002 By Paul Sunyak 5 min read

U.S. Rep. John Murtha told the Herald-Standard editorial board he was among the Democrats who “tried to influence” congressional redistricting in which the Republican-dominated state government substantially slashed the opposition party’s presence. Murtha, a Johnstown resident first elected to the House in 1974, said one of his goals was to retain a seat for U.S. Rep. Frank Mascara, a Charleroi Democrat who’s facing him in the May 21 primary election.

“It’s always a political process,” Murtha said of the redistricting carried out every 10 years. “The only concession we got was to give Frank Mascara his own district.”

However, rather than run in the newly configured 18th District, which he views as Allegheny County-based and crafted for a Republican to win, Mascara opted to challenge Murtha for the party’s nomination in the newly configured 12th District.

Murtha said he doesn’t understand why Mascara chose not to run in the 18th, which has a 75,000-voter Democrat majority.

“I was disappointed,” Murtha said of Mascara’s decision. “Frank had been praising me for seven years (in Congress) … I’m still not sure if I understand why he would run against me.”

Murtha also said that 40 Democrats in the state House of Representatives, most of them from the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas, voted for the plan that wiped out the seats of several Democratic incumbents. He said that House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese has a tough time keeping his members in tow, but noted the redistricting plan wouldn’t have passed had the Democrats showed unity.

“There’s a group of Democrats (in the state House) who vote against the leader (DeWeese), period,” said Murtha. “Whatever position he takes, they will vote against that position.”

Stressing that he’s taken a bipartisan approach throughout his many years in Congress, Murtha said he’s a high-ranking player who has the seniority-based clout to get a lot done for his district, even though Democrats are in the minority.

“The longer you’ve been around, the more friends you have in Congress,” he said. “It’s an insider’s game up there. If you’re not on the inside, you might as well forget it.”

The key edge he has on Mascara, said Murtha, is the fact that after 28 years in the House – 27 of them spent on the powerful Appropriations Committee, where he’s the second-ranking member – he’s got the rank that counts for a lot.

Because of that, Murtha said he has a powerful voice on how the $370 billion defense budget is spent. And on the more local level, he said it’s the reason that a $3.5 million sewerage project in Armstrong County got completed in one year with federal aid.

“The difference is I’m in a position to get things done,” said Murtha. “Frank’s not in that position. That’s the difference.”

Asked his reaction to renewed opposition to the Mon/Fayette Expressway among some factions in Allegheny County, Murtha said he relies on local people in his district to tell him what needs to be done, then he uses his position to try to meet those needs.

He added that he knows the importance of the expressway, having driven to Uniontown from Morgantown on a section of winding Route 857. Noting that he got $50 million to $60 million in federal funds for Route 22 in his current district, Murtha said he’d work to duplicate that kind of effort where needed.

“We put twice as much money into the (federal) transportation bill as (Mascara) did,” said Murtha, who noted, “I’m (also) the guy who got money for locks and dams (in southwestern Pennsylvania).”

Murtha said he’s aware that the district needs infrastructure, such as highways and water and sewer lines, in order to grow economically. While the expressway falls into that category, Murtha noted that much work remains to be done on the costly project.

“Will it get done right away? It depends on a lot of things,” he said, putting financing at the top of the list of concerns.

Considered something of an expert on national defense, Murtha said he thinks President Bush’s strategy on combating terrorism is “the best plan I’ve ever seen,” in that it’s comprehensive, it uses multiple intelligence sources and it calls for limited use of American troops.

Murtha said that while Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor, is doing “as good of a job as he can do,” the nation can’t prevent all terrorist attacks and must be prepared to respond if more occur.

“It’s going to be a long war. It’s not going to end overnight,” said Murtha, who noted that part of the problem is that it’s difficult to penetrate the small cell groups in which many terrorists operate.

On other topics discussed with the editorial board, Murtha:

– Said that conceptually he likes the “coordinated effort” that sets priorities, in reference to a question on whether he favors Fayette County joining the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, a regional planning organization.

– Said an “ironclad accord” is needed to settle the ongoing problems between Israel and the Palestinians. He added that he told Vice President Dick Cheney that “he had to settle that problem before he tries to do anything else in the Middle East.”

– Said that Social Security should be left as it is, regarding initiatives to change the system to allow private investment of some of those funds. He used that question as a springboard to criticize the Bush tax cut as a bad idea.

“The biggest mistake I ever made in Congress was (supporting) the Reagan tax cut,” said Murtha, who noted that the move gave the nation a $4 trillion deficit.

He predicted that Congress would pass a prescription drug benefit bill this year but won’t be able to pay for it, largely because of the tax cuts under Bush.

He said the prescription drug benefit will go into effect in three or four years, but noted the challenge will be finding money to pay for it.