the district now has the three largest cities in the northeastern pennsylvania. he has served on the house financial services committee. he was a big part of rewriting the wall street reform package. he is -- he succeeded a very popular congressman who succeeded in bringing home the bacon, and he has tried to emulate him in many ways. he has the authority that the new congressman would not have, plus he is in the majority party. >> longevity and seniority is much more than years. it means that you know who the people are in washington, in the 2000 most powerful positions in the federal government of the united states. i have worked with most of those people for 26 years. >> at one time, lackawanna county was one of the oldest counties in the the nation. the median income fall slightly below the state median income. our major industry is health care. manufacturing used to be, but it has been on the slide for years. it's a big hit here even before the recession. it is considered working class and is targeted a lot by presidential candidates because it is full of sw

he represents the three largest cities in northeastern pennsylvania. he has served on the house financial services committee. he was a big part of the wall street reform package. he succeeded a popular congressman. he has tried to emulate him in terms of bringing home the bacon to the district. he is making the case for himself. he says he has the seniority to bring back the bacon that the new congressman would not have. >> longevity means that you know who the people are in washington, who are in the 2000 most powerful positions in the federal government of the united states. i work with -- and worked with most of those people spanning back 26 years. >> it might be the second oldest county in the nation. big employers are education, health care, manufacturing. it is targeted a lot by the presidential candidates. it is full of swing voters. the race was much higher than the rest of the nation during the recession. we were lucky. we were more in line with the national rate. that should be a key factor in the race. they have not talked about that much ye

. >> the district is made up of five counties in the state which is northeastern pennsylvania. it has voted consistently democratically. they voted for obama by i believe the 11 points. the republicans believe they can win this election because they have a good candidate. he has taken two shots at can joski >> this is the mayor. we just wanted to come by and say hello. >> i am his better half. great job your doing. we need someone like you. >> i wish the whole country would do that than of the challenger is the hazleton mayor. he was born and raised in hazleton. his family on a well-known amusement park there. he is very popular in his home city. host: we apologize for it we had a major technical in -- interruption. we lost our microphones on the set but i think we are back in order now. we are continuing our conversation about the effect of the tea party. we have a telephone call from cumberland, rhode island. you are a member of the tea party? caller: yes i am. my question to your guest today is -- i guess you are right. in the tea party, there is an anti-elitist view point o

the district is made up of northeastern pennsylvania. he won the district by four points. that is why the republicans think that they can win the district even though they are heavily outnumbered. he failed both times. they think that they can win this time. >> that is a great job your doing. we need somebody like you. what i was the whole country would do that. >> he ran for mayor in 1999. his family owned an amusement park down there. he is very popular in this area. in both elections, he dominated. i became a champion of immigration legislation. he is trying to impose emigration rules. he has become very high profile locally and nationally. he is a proponent of dealing with illegal immigration. he has been named a young gun. this is a man to be a race of the target with money. that is really interesting because it is such a heavily democratic district. it is not a district that you typically see republicans the weather. the only reason they are is because he is the canon that and they think that in this climate they should be able to beat them. until 2003, this district