Cartwright, Chrin face off

FRITZ MAYER
Posted 10/24/18

PA EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — Republican Congressional Candidate John Chrin has been getting some help from the administration of President Donald Trump. Donald Trump Junior has already …

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Cartwright, Chrin face off

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PA EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — Republican Congressional Candidate John Chrin has been getting some help from the administration of President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Junior has already been in Northeast PA to campaign with Chrin, while at press time Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled for a campaign appearance on October 24 at Forty Fort.  Chrin supporters say this shows the White House believes there a path to victory in the race for the Eighth Congressional District.

Still, a New York Times/Sienna College poll published on October 19 put Democratic Congressman Matt Cartwright head of Chrin by a margin of 52% to 40%. This is the first vote in the newly established district, but voters in the entire Northeast turned out for Trump by 10 points more than they did for Hilary Clinton in 2016.

Chrin and Cartwright have made Social Security one of the top issues of the contest.  Cartwright has charged that Chrin would vote to cut benefits and would support the adoption of an inflation index that would result in smaller cost-of-living increases. Chrin says he is opposed to cutting cost-of-living adjustments, but a video from a February meeting shows Chrin discussing tweaking the adjustments in a way that would result in a slight decrease over a 50-year period. This would be a “very meaningful change in terms of the viability of the system.”

Cartwright has said that he supports increasing Social Security benefits. He has co-sponsored a bill that would increase benefits by 2% and would create a new inflation index for cost-of-living increases based on the spending practices of seniors.

The two campaigns have also taken strong stances on sanctuary cities, with Chrin saying on his website that they “flagrantly disregard the rule of law, are an insult to legal immigrants and hinder the collaborative efforts of state and local law enforcement and our federal agencies.”

Chrin has accused Cartwright of supporting sanctuary cities, but Cartwright recently said that he is not a strong supporter of the idea. He has also said that he does not favor deporting the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. and has called for immigration reform.

Cartwright has also repeatedly attacked Chrin over his residence. Chrin lived in a house in Short Hills, NJ when he announced his run for Congress in May 2017; his wife still lives there. At the time, he also owned a home in Lehigh County. He then bought another home in Northampton County, which was located in the existing 17th congressional District. After the PA Supreme Court ordered the districts redrawn, he bought another house in Monroe County, located in the new eighth district.

Chrin, who had a 20-year career on Wall Street, says he has a Pennsylvania drivers license and has paid income taxes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Cartwright, chrin, election, president Trump

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