It’s not a CAFTA 15 Democrat but an incumbent Republican, who voted for CAFTA, now has a challenger. The incumbent, Charlie Dent, is definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer and this is one of those swing districts with a lot of what we used to call “Reagan Democrats.” And the challenger is making Dent’s CAFTA vote an issue–as he tactically should given the area’s heavy industrial job losses. This is likely one of the districts Democrats will target in 2006.

Democrat gets early start on campaign

Software developer throws hat into ring for the 15th District seat.
By Dan Hartzell
Of The Morning Call

Believing candidates with little name recognition should get an early start, computer software developer Bob Dodge of Montgomery County launched his bid for the 15th Congressional District seat Saturday in Allentown.

Dodge, 39, of the Gilbertsville area of Douglass Township, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat held by U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a first-term Republican, in next year’s elections.

”There are 649,000 people in the district,” Dodge said when asked why he’s starting so early. ”I have a lot of people to meet.”

His wife, Suzanne, and two young daughters joined him on the plaza at the Lehigh County Courthouse as the Philadelphia native touched on his campaign issues, the theme of which could be summed up as jobs, jobs, jobs.

Dodge wants to stop the flow of American jobs overseas, and would do so by restoring or increasing import tariffs, including on goods from China.

While allowing that protectionism might drive up prices somewhat, Dodge believes a meaningful portion of the domestic manufacturing services and goods that have been lost to the cheap labor of overseas suppliers can be restored with the right government action on trade, international monetary policy (such as pressuring China to revalue its currency) and other measures.

”I don’t think our government has taken an active enough role * in trade disputes around the world,” said Dodge, who is making his first bid for political office.

Dodge opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement and its recent Central American counterpart, the latter supported by Dent.

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‘Now I want to displace the congressman from our district who voted for CAFTA * and to save American jobs,” Dodge said in a letter to Lehigh County Democratic Committee Chairman Charles F. Smith Jr., seeking the party’s support.

Smith said Saturday he had not met Dodge and could not comment on his candidacy.

Describing himself as ”probably a little left of center,” Dodge said his life experience gave him insight into the plight of America’s poor and dispossessed. He left home at 14 and lived in a Catholic boys home for three years.

That school of hard knocks, and several low-wage jobs in his young life, ”taught me a lot about the working poor” and helped inspire him to get an education, Dodge said.

He said he secured an associate’s degree in computer sciences from Montgomery County Community College, and has worked as a computer consultant. Dodge is a senior program analyst for Weidenhammer Systems Co., Wyomissing.

He is on the Douglass Township Open Space Planning Committee.

Dodge hopes to have a campaign Web site, http://www.bobdodge.org , operating soon.”