Political newcomers vie for veteran's House seat in Pa.'s 13th Congressional District
The last time that a Shuster was not running to represent the local community in Congress, gasoline was selling for 36 cents a gallon and the Beatles had just broken up.
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster is retiring after 17 years in Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District seat, which his father, Bud Shuster, held for the previous 28 years. The district has a new number this year and slightly different boundaries. It’s the 13th Congressional District.
Two political newcomers are running for the seat. Both are professionals who live in Hollidaysburg, the Blair County seat.
Dr. John Joyce, a dermatologist, won an eight-way race in the GOP primary with 22 percent of the vote. Brent Ottaway, associate professor of communications at St. Francis University, was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
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More:John Joyce, Brent Ottaway to debate for Pa. 13th U.S. House seat
More:Young and older voters have their differences, but they share key views
Both are keying on voters’ dissatisfaction with politics in Washington, D.C. In the words of the campaigns:
- Joyce “is fed up with career politicians who continuously put special interests and their next election before their constituents. His abilities to listen and problem solve are what our country needs in the U.S. Congress.”
- Ottaway says “too many of our representatives define the ‘future’ as the time between now and the next election cycle. We need people with vision and the ability to move us toward it. That’s what I offer voters of this district."
The "blue wave" that is expected to sweep Democrats into congressional seats this November is more likely to be a ripple in central Pennsylvania.
The 13th District is the most solidly Republican in the state and one of the most Republican in U.S., according to the 2017 Cook Political Report. In the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, the region went 22 points more Republican than the nation as a whole. The Shusters’ 9th District scored a lower R+19.
Bill Shuster also is backing Joyce. He personally campaigned for Joyce at the last minute in the May primary.
Shuster’s campaign committee also financed a superPAC whose lone action this year targeted Joyce opponents John Eichelberger Jr. and Art Halvorson in the primary. Shuster’s committee donated $100,000 to the CLA PAC, which ran anti-Eichelberger and anti-Halvorson ads costing a total of $93,200, according to campaign finance records. Shuster’s committee still has $676,353 cash on hand.
Joyce’s campaign treasurer, Paul Kilgore, is also the treasurer of Shuster’s committee.
Joyce has raised 10 times as much money for his campaign since August than Ottaway has raised during the entire campaign season, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
Joyce’s committee has spent $1.2 million, nearly all of it in the GOP primary. The committee has raised $1.4 million. Joyce has loaned $906,000 of his own to the campaign, although the Federal Election Commission claims a large portion of the loans must be considered contributions. Joyce has until Nov. 1 to respond.
More than half the contributions to Joyce’s campaign have come from political action committees. PACs donated $290,178.
Ottaway’s campaign had raised less than $11,000 as of July 1. His latest campaign finance report was not available. He contributed $3,200 of his own money to the campaign and got less than $600 from a single PAC, Democracy Engine.
Joyce has $187,000 to spend, Ottaway less than $4,000.
You can review the candidates biographies and platforms online and on Facebook. Joyce's campaign is at https://johnjoyceforcongress.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/JoyceForCongress. Ottaway is at https://www.brentottawayforcongress.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/Brent4Congress.
The two also meet locally in candidate forums before the Nov. 6 election:
- 6 p.m. on Oct. 22 at Cross Keys Village, 2990 Carlisle St., New Oxford.
- 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the Cumberland 9/12 Patriots Forum at the Carlisle Fire & Rescue Services, 177 Carlisle Springs Road, Carlisle.
More:Young voters are making Franklin County less Republican, but not more Democratic
What the candidates say
Public Opinion asked the candidates seven identical questions and a separate question specifically for each candidate. Here are their unedited replies:
Dr. John Joyce, R-Hollidaysburg
Do we need a physical wall to protect the southern U.S. border?
As Illegal immigrants and deadly drug traffickers pour through our U.S.-Mexican border, Americans wait for Congress to fund the wall. I fully support the funding of a wall to protect the southern U.S. border.
How would you support improving healthcare for the nation's veterans?
As a physician who has worked within the VA system, I would propose that medical residents be introduced to veterans’ care as part of their residency training. Additionally, I would support that any veteran could receive their medical care in any hospital in the United States.
How would you improve the nation's health care system?
A fair market plan that would allow individuals to purchase health insurance across state borders would allow for cost savings and provide an equitable solution.
Does the nation need further controls on the possession of guns? What kind of controls, if any?
No
Should abortions be banned?
As a doctor and a scientist, I believe that life begins at conception. Abortion should be banned as our U.S. Constitution proclaims the protection of life. Exceptions should be made in the case of rape, incest or if the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
Is climate change real? Do human activities play a role in it? What should be the response of the federal government?
Like most issues that scientists face, global warming cannot be explained by one cause alone. Variations in solar energy, the cyclical changes in the tilt, the orbit of the earth around the sun, the changing oceanic circulation, as well as human effects, can ALL contribute to this problem. A simple one answer solution is not obvious. Just as all cancers cannot be assumed to be caused by one agent, Global warming is a multi-factorial problem that will require evaluation from many angles to solve.
What do you see as the chief achievement of the Trump administration so far? It’s greatest short coming?
There are so many achievements the President has accomplished in such short order, and the top three would are:
- The passage of tax reform.
- Unemployment is at an all-time low.
- Increased funding of the United States military.
What is the greatest shortcoming?
The next big step is reforming healthcare with a fair market plan. This is something I hope to help the President achieve moving forward.
How do you reconcile your campaign statement “special interests in Washington, D.C., have enough influence over members of Congress” with your campaign subsequently accepting thousands of dollars in contributions from the Koch Industries PAC, National Beer Wholesalers of America PAC, American Resort Development PAC and other political action committees?
My campaign is proud of all of the support it has received from the many individual donors as well as many groups such as the National Rifle Association, and Koch Industries who support the commonsense conservative values I share with Central Pennsylvania.
Brent Ottaway, D-Hollidaysburg
Do we need a physical wall to protect the southern U.S. border?
Our borders can be protected using existing law and 21st-century technology. The wall was a bad idea even when Mexico was supposedly paying for it.
Those billions would be better spent on infrastructure improvements than scarring the border with a permanent reminder of this unfortunate period when the U.S. government turned on its neighbors and friends.
How would you improve health care for the nation’s veterans?
I would encourage the appointment of a qualified administrator to oversee a streamlining of policies and improved service, including providing more options for veterans. Privatization of some services might make sense, but large-scale privatization is problematic.
How would you improve the nation’s health care system?
The Affordable Care Act was an imperfect attempt to improve health-care coverage for Americans. Millions have benefited from the Act, but high costs, inefficiencies and inequities remain. Republicans promised to repeal and replace it but never got past the political appeal of “repeal.”
I support efforts to repair, not "shred" (to borrow my opponent's verb of choice) the ACA and will work with anyone, regardless of party, who is serious about actually improving health care for all, including those with preexisting conditions.
Does the nation need further controls on the possession of guns? What kind of controls, if any?
I support the second amendment; fortunately, the NRA’s breathless hyperbole notwithstanding, no one is coming to take our guns away. Indeed, polling shows that most Americans recognize the need for additional measures to reduce the horror of gun violence.
Universal background checks, timely restrictions in cases of domestic abuse, closing the private-sale loophole—these are all things that are widely supported by the majority of people not accepting campaign contributions from special-interest groups.
Washington needs to encourage research on the matter. The fact that Congress prevented the CDC from conducting such research for many years is outrageous. Willful ignorance does not make for good policy. We need informed decision-making.
Should abortions be banned?
Early-term abortion should be legal, safe and rare.
Sacred texts in various religions can be interpreted as supporting the idea that life begins at conception . . . or at birth . . . or at various points in between. In America, religious belief should not be the basis of legislation.
Banning abortion would have disastrous consequences for the nation’s women. They, in consultation with their physicians--not lawmakers and judges--should make the decisions regarding their bodies.
Is climate change real? Do human activities play a role in it? What should be the response of the federal government?
It’s a sad commentary on the state of Congress that you find it necessary to ask this question. Climate change is real, it is underway, and it is worsened by human activity. We cannot reach good decisions if a large proportion of decision-makers refuse to base discussion on evidence.
As Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
What do you see as the chief achievement of the Trump administration so far? Its greatest shortcoming?
Although the final verdict is not yet in, the president’s unorthodox approach to North Korea has seemed to curtail the regime’s missile launches while getting them to sit down at the bargaining table with South Korea and to return the remains of U.S. soldiers.
The greatest shortcoming of the administration is the way it has devalued the concept of Truth. The president’s unprecedented frequency in lying directly to the American people undermines our faith in government while adding compost to the growth of cynicism.
You have said that No Child Left Behind has hindered all of K-12 public education. What should be the role of the federal government in education?
NCLB’s obsession with high-stakes testing was indeed harmful, as it squeezed the life out of learning, at great financial cost, in an effort to justify vouchers. The solution to weak schools is not private-school vouchers for some students—it is to improve those schools.
But that work must be done mostly at the state and local levels. The federal government should enforce laws regarding privacy and civil rights but mostly stay out of the way, while avoiding the temptation to add unfunded mandates.
Below: See an interactive map of the 13th District. Note: Public Opinion created this map of the 13th District ahead of the primary election, so it shows candidates that are now out of the race.