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Pa 17

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Matt Cartwright Wins 17th District Seat

Scranton-area attorney becomes Northampton County's new congressman.

Matt Cartwright, a Scranton area attorney and political newcomer, is Northampton County's newest congressman. Cartwright, a Democrat, will represent Pennsylvania's newly created 17th district, which includes the Easton and Nazareth areas.  With 50 percent of precincts reporting, Cartwright had picked up 63 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Laureen Cummings' 36 percent, according to the Associated Press.  In Northampton County, with 33 percent of precincts reporting, Cartwright was leading Cummings 56 percent to 43 percent, according to unofficial results. Cummings, a nurse and the owner of a home health care service, is the founder of the Scranton Tea Party and had advocated a national sales tax, or "fair tax," during their race…

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Cartwright, Cummings Debate in Bethlehem

Candidates for Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District discuss health care, fracking and the Tea Party.

Congressional hopefuls Laureen Cummings and Matt Cartwright took questions from reporters, students and each other during their first Lehigh Valley debate Wednesday night. Meeting at PBS 39's studio in South Bethlehem, the two candidates running in a newly created congressional district spoke for about an hour on the economy, energy, Pennsylvania's voter ID law and "divisiveness," a term both candidates threw at each other's party. Democrat Carwright --  an attorney from Moosic -- and Cummings -- a Republican nurse from Old Forge who owns a small nursing company -- are battling to represent Pennsylvania's new 17th Congressional district. They were asked how, as first-time candidates in a new district, they'd get things done in Washington…

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