Facing a strong challenge
from political newcomer Pat Murphy, Republican freshman Rep. Mike
Fitzpatrick is working to ward off attacks on national issues and
focus on his accomplishments at the local level.
Fitzpatrick is seeking to direct the debate away from the Potomac
River in Washington to the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. He told
the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that he planned to "address the
issues that people are truly concerned about here in Bucks County."
 Murphy,
however, is eager to nationalize the race and is running on the
slogan "If you want to change Washington, you need to change
who you send to Washington." He often reminds voters in the
8th District about Fitzpatrick's support for President Bush whose
low approval ratings have put scores of Republican incumbents in
danger of losing their seats.
"For the past two years, Fitzpatrick has been a 100 percent
supporter of President Bush's failed policies and open-ended commitment
in Iraq," Murphy said in a statement.
Fitzpatrick had backed America's presence in Iraq until early
August when he revoked his support for President Bush's "stay
the course" policy.
However, Fitzpatrick does not support an immediate exit strategy
and timeline for withdrawal, calling such a plan "a foolish
and dangerous idea which would render meaningless the sacrifices
young Americans have made in this war and increase the threat
of more and worse terrorism here at home," as quoted in the
Bucks County Courier Times. Fitzpatrick said he advocates creating
a bipartisan committee called the Iraq Study Group to discuss
the matter and make recommendations to Congress.
As the race to keep his seat heats up, Fitzpatrick has toned down
his right-leaning positions and is emphasizing his independence
from President Bush.
"I'm an independent leader for this district," Fitzpatrick
told the NewsHour's Gwen Ifill. "I'm with the party and the
president when I think he's right. And when I think he's not right,
then I'm voting against him."
But for Fitzpatrick, his campaigns for Congress have always been
difficult affairs. When he entered the fray in 2004, he was not
the pick of retiring Congressman Jim Greenwood. But fueled by
his more conservative stances, he ousted Greenwood's preferred
candidate in the primary.
The campaign did force Fitzpatrick to soften some of his more
conservative stances on federal funding for stem cell research
and abortion.
In the general election, Fitzpatrick won his House seat running
on a platform of family values. He defeated Democrat Virginia
"Ginny" Schrader, a staunch Democrat who supported reproductive
rights, with 55 percent of the vote compared to Schrader's 43
percent.
Schrader's campaign tried to portray Fitzpatrick as an extreme
ideologist, but voters instead saw him as the more moderate counterpart
to her liberal views, according to political analysts.
Once in the House, he joined a group of fellow representatives
to form the Suburban Caucus, a group targeted at addressing the
problems facing America's suburban families. Fitzpatrick authored
two of the caucus' bills that tackle online predators and encourage
open space preservation.
A lawyer in Philadelphia from 1994 to 2004, Fitzpatrick began
his public career as a Bucks County commissioner where he focused
on land preservation. In his 10 years as commissioner, he built
a rapport with his community that helped him win the seat in 2004.
-- Compiled by Kaelin O'Connell
for the Online NewsHour
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