Apr 24, 2016 3 min read

Pennsylvania’s 9th Congressional District is a microcosm of everything that is wrong with how we draw our congressional boundaries.

It’s a geographic monstrosity that stretches 160 miles in the south, from the eastern edges of Washington and Greene counties to the Cumberland Valley, in close proximity to Chambersburg and Hagerstown, Md. Then it goes north to just beyond Altoona and juts west into Indiana County.

It’s also a profoundly uncompetitive district, with Republicans having held the seat there without interruption since 1945. More recently, no one who is not named Shuster has represented the district since 1973.

With Democrats being little more than easily slaughtered sacrificial lambs, the real brawl in the last couple of election cycles has been in the Republican primaries, with candidates drifting away from the political center to prove that they are, in fact, authentic and pure conservatives. This is being enacted once again, with Rep. Bill Shuster facing an opponent to his right, who is charging that Shuster is part of the “Washington cartel.”

There can be no doubt that Shuster is a flawed candidate. The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Shuster has made headlines over the last year or so for divorcing his wife of more than 20 years and embarking on a romantic relationship with a lobbyist for Airlines for America, an airline trade association that has an obvious stake in decisions that are made by the committee Shuster leads. The stink of a conflict of interest was only sharpened when reports surfaced in February that Shuster had been seen lounging poolside in Miami Beach, Fla., with his girlfriend and Nick Calio, the president of Airlines for America. And this happened not long after Calio testified before his committee.

Beyond this, the perception hangs over Shuster that he is an absentee congressman who sends aides to speak for him in the district rather than appearing himself. He has been seldom seen in Washington or Greene counties, but, in fairness, Shuster has a lot more ground to cover than, say, Rep. Mike Doyle, whose district only encompasses Pittsburgh and parts of Allegheny County.

While Shuster is far from an ideal choice, he is the best bet for Republican voters in the 9th Congressional District.

Art Halvorson, his opponent, raises concerns.

A retired Coast Guard captain, Halvorson is far to the right. Very far. His message is apocalyptic, and he suggests that the United States is heading toward an abyss. In fact, the address for his website is rescueusa.org. It’s a far cry from the sunny optimism that Ronald Reagan brought to the conservative movement in the 1980s.

And Halvorson’s policy prescriptions are so far to the right they make Reagan look like a fellow traveler of Ted Kennedy. For instance, Halvorson proposes that the citizens of 25 predominantly Muslim countries be barred from entering the United States. He also wants to repeal the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished quota systems based on national origin, and reduce legal immigration to only 250,000 people per year. This not only runs counter to American ideals, but would all but guarantee the country’s long-term decline in the face of an aging population.

To paraphrase an old ballad from the 1930s, Republicans in the 9th Congressional District should string along with Shuster.