Race to Represent PA's 9th District Already Heating up Months before Election

On Tuesday morning congressional candidate Tony Barr took to the streets to challenge incumbent Bill Shuster to speak out on the issues that matter to the 9th district. Barr met with a number of supporters to announce his invitation to Congressman Shuster for a series of debates. "This is a very big district it encompasses all or parts of 15 counties and for that reason I propose that we hold a debate in all of those 15 counties," said Tony Barr, a democratic candidate for Congress. Afterwards he and his group walked down the street to the congressmans regional office to deliver the invite, but was turned away when they informed him it was against federal law to bring up campaign issues at a congressional office. "I think he is going to try and ignore us, as much as possible," said Barr. Representative Shuster was in Washington D.C. during the political stunt. "We are taking all challengers seriously, but in the meantime this challenger needs to demonstrate that he is a serious challenger. In order to do that, he needs to travel the 15 counties, meet constituents, learn the issues, and learn whats important to the residents of Franklin County," said Tory Mazzola, Shusters spokesman. In his invitation Barr proposed just a series of ten debates for the large district and said he is hoping to inform voters of their choices. "The voters of Pennsylvanias 9th district deserve the opportunity to make an informed and educated choice about who will best represent their interests in the Congress of the United States," said Barr in his invitation to Shuster. Although he was turned away by the congressmans workers, Barr said he will still give him a week to respond. "I think that the people should know where the candidates stand on various issues and they ought to have an informed choice, more than a 30 second sound bite on a TV. Commercial," said Barr. Barr also said the debates are a key time for Representative Shuster to defend his votes in Congress and to explain his policies. The general election in Pennsylvania will be Nov. 7th. Reported by Gretchen Gailey" "Maryland Report Card Released, Bester one of Many Area Schools Performing High