Staff writer
A Washington County Republican who addressed two "tea parties" earlier this month to coincide with the tax-filing deadline launched a Web site Tuesday.
"Tim Burns for Congress" hit the Web just before Burns, 41, of Eighty Four, hit the road for meetings in Washington, D.C., where he hopes to be sworn in as representative from the 12th Congressional District in January 2011.
Burns, who is seeking political office for the first time, spoke at tea parties in both Washington and his hometown of Johnstown on April 15 and 18, respectively. Burns said at the time he was considering a run against longtime Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. John Murtha, 74, of Westmont, Cambria County.
Burns said he started thinking about running for Congress last fall, inspired by a financial report from the U.S government.
"It very clearly states that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are going to bankrupt the country," Burns said by phone.
Since then, bailouts of financial institutions and the automobile industry have driven the country deeper into debt during the Obama administration than it was in the Bush administration, Burns observed.
"I have no issue as to who's to blame when it comes to wasteful spending," Burns said. "Forty percent of the earmarks that are in place are Republican earmarks."
Burns, a 1990 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, sold his TechRx pharmacy software business to NDC Health, and he said he intends to devote "100 percent" of his time to his political campaign.
"Politics is not something I'm looking to make a career out of," Burns said. "I've lived my life as a businessman. I know what it means to run a company, meet a payroll." He said those with business backgrounds could educate others in Congress.
Burns may not be the only Congressional candidate on the Republican ballot in next year's primary.
Although it could not be determined from William Russell's Web site that he intends to run on the GOP ticket for Congress, the manager of his 2008 campaign, Peg Luksik, a U.S. Senate hopeful, told the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat when announcing her candidacy that she and Russell intend to run in 2010 "as a team."
In the last election, Murtha handily defeated Russell in the eight-county district.