Pennsylvania at a GlanceState Profile- Gov. Ridge (R)- Sen. Specter (R)- Sen. Santorum (R)Presidential PoliticsCongressional Districting- 01 - Brady (D)- 02 - Fattah (D)- 03 - Borski (D)- 04 - Klink (D)- 05 - Peterson (R)- 06 - Holden (D)- 07 - Weldon (R)- 08 - Greenwood (R)- 09 - Shuster (R)- 10 - Sherwood (R)- 11 - Kanjorski (D)- 12 - Murtha (D)- 13 - Hoeffel (D)- 14 - Coyne (D)- 15 - Toomey (R)- 16 - Pitts (R)- 17 - Gekas (R)- 18 - Doyle (D)- 19 - Goodling (R)- 20 - Mascara (D)- 21 - English (R)Almanac 2000 HomeStates & DistrictsElected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of Pennsylvania, please use the pull-down menu above.

One of the major industrial centers of America grew up in the 19th Century, nestled in the valley of the East Branch of the Susquehanna River, surrounded by mountain ridges. The mountains were laced with anthracite coal, the main home-heating fuel of the time. Thousands of immigrants, attracted by the high wages paid to scrape out the coal, flocked to this valley, in the chain of little cities north and south of Wilkes-Barre, named for two backers of the American revolution. While the supply was endless--the area produced 40% of the world's hard coal--the demand was not. The peak year of anthracite production was 1917, and long strikes in 1922 and 1925 quickened the conversion to oil and gas. By the 1930s, the valley around Wilkes-Barre was in decline; surrounding Luzerne County's population, 445,000 in 1930, was 328,000 in 1990.

This is Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District, including all of Luzerne County and similar land east to the town of Jim Thorpe and the Poconos, and west almost to the Susquehanna. A large Democratic voting bloc, the miners, has been here since the 1930s, but there also were a lot of white-collar and rural Republicans. In presidential politics this was a Republican district in the 1980s, Democratic in the 1990s. It is a district which long has hungered for federal aid and subsidy, much of which was delivered by longtime Congressman Daniel Flood, a theatrical Democrat who used his seat on Appropriations to bring millions of dollars into the anthracite country; but in 1980 he resigned amid scandal and in six years the 11th had three different congressmen.

The congressman from the 11th District now is Paul Kanjorski, first elected in 1984. Kanjorski grew up in Nanticoke, near Wilkes-Barre. As a 16-year-old page in 1954, he witnessed the shooting of five congressmen by Puerto Rican terrorists in the House gallery and he was sprayed by dust from the gunfire. After college, Army Reserves and law school, he returned home to practice law; he was a workmen's compensation administrative law judge for nine years and Nanticoke city solicitor for 12. In 1984 he ran for Congress and won the May Democratic primary by pointing out the incumbent was in Central America while flood-soaked Wilkes-Barre area residents had to boil tap water because of contamination. Kanjorski has retained the seat easily ever since.

In the House, Kanjorski's voting record has been liberal on economics and moderate on cultural issues. He is anti-abortion but voted for international family planning aid in 1997. He is skeptical about foreign commitments and Washington lobbyists. He is also a tough partisan. While chairing a subcommittee with jurisdiction over White House operations, he sharply attacked the Bush White House for lavish spending; Bush once apologized at a breakfast meeting for the skimpy meal, blaming Kanjorski's investigations. But with Bill Clinton in the White House, Kanjorski vociferously attacked fellow Pennsylvanian Bill Clinger's investigation of the White House travel office firings, delaying issuance of the report and saying, ''Like horses, we should take it out and shoot it.'' When Dan Burton led the Government Reform Committee's review of campaign finance abuses, Kanjorski said the panel ''should be holding its meeting in a chamber with padded walls.'' When the House considered impeachment options in October 1998, he was one of five House Democrats who voted against all impeachment inquiry resolutions. Legislatively, Kanjorski helped to enact in 1998 credit-union reforms, featuring expanded access to membership. That measure, which he termed ''a victory of David over Goliath,'' was a setback for banks by overturning a Supreme Court ruling that limited credit union membership to one occupational group.

Most important to Kanjorski is helping his economically ailing district. The New York Times called him ''a master of earmarking'' for capturing millions of dollars for the Earth Conservancy Applied Research Center, a public-private project for developing new technologies to reclaim mine-ravaged northeastern Pennsylvania. Other Kanjorski projects include a Social Security claims processing center in Plains Township, renovation of a VA hospital, and the Stegmaier Brewery project. When President Clinton called for 10 more National Historic Rivers in his 1997 State of the Union address, Kanjorski set the designation of the Susquehanna as his main district project. Although the river was not included on the list of 10 rivers, Kanjorski's active intervention led Clinton to expand the list to 14--including the Susquehanna. Referring to the White House, he boasted to his local newspaper, ''They know I'm a nag.''

Cook's Call:
Safe. This culturally conservative district has trended more Republican over the past decade, but that has not threatened Kanjorski's tenure here. Kanjorski's pro-labor but socially conservative record is well-suited for this old coal mining district.

The People:

• Pop. 1990: 565,802
• 39.6% rural; 19.4% age 65+;
• 98.4% White, 0.9% Black, 0.4% Asian, 0.1% Amer. Indian, 0.8% Hispanic origin; 0.2% Other.
• Households: 55.9% married couple families; 24.5% married couple fams. w. children; 29.3% college educ.; median household income: $24,310; per capita income: $11,937; median gross rent: $247; median house value: $58,000.

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 97,393 (48%) Dole (R) 76,969 (38%) Perot (I) 25,597 (13%)

1992 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 91,616 (42%) Bush (R) 84,199 (38%) Perot (I) 42,950 (20%)

Need A Reprint Of This Almanac Profile?
National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 202-266-7230.