On one hand, you have a seasoned congressman, securing his seat in the 9th District for 15 years.  On the other, there is the opponent that will not stop until he ends what he calls the “Shuster Dynasty.”

 

Art Halvorson lost the Republican primary by just over one thousand votes.  He faces incumbent Bill Shuster again, but this time on the Democratic ticket. 

 

“It’s night and day between him and me, his behavior and my behavior,” said candidate Art Halvorson (D). “His is unethical. We believe he’s ethically challenged and I want to run as a moral, ethical candidate that stands in juxtaposition to him.”

 

“Look, he has such a lust for power for this job. He’ll do and say anything, which he’s proven over the last four years. I believe that I’ll stand on my record alone,” said incumbent Bill Shuster (R). “He’s dividing the party when we should be pulling together, working to get a republican in the senate or a republican in white house.”

 

Halvorson said he wants to debate Shuster, which Shuster said has already happened six times.  With the release of a new campaign ad, Halvorson may have struck a nerve. 

 

“Oh I hope I poked the bear,” Halvorson said. “The bear needs to be poked and the bear needs to be replaced.”

 

The timing of the ad has Shuster shaking his head. 

 

“My opponent professes to be a Christian to anybody that’ll listen and that’s not for me to judge,” Shuster said, “but I’ll tell ya, we read from a different book to be able to come out the day after somebody buries their mother and attacks my father after he buries his wife of 61 years is really despicable.”

 

“We were sensitive to the death of Mrs. Shuster,” Halvorson rebutted. “It’s a tragedy and we’re sorry and we expressed our condolences at the time as soon as we learned about that. But this is the third week since then and we’re less than 30 days from the election, and we believe it’s the appropriate time we due consideration for the issues that have been expressed.”

 

In the ad, Halvorson was critical of Shuster’s relationship with a lobbyist and accused him of supporting liberal causes. 

 

“All he does is trash my character, tells lies about things that I do not support, for instance he says I support Obamacare,” Shuster said. “That’s laughable.”

 

Shuster admits he is dating an airline lobbyist, but insists there is no conflict of interest.

 

In an election year where anti-establishment seems to be a popular theme, Halvorson likes his chances in November. Congressman Shuster said voters just need to look at his record.