Paul Kanjorski

Kanjorski was born in Nanticoke, near Wilkes-Barre. He is Polish-American.[4] He attended public schools before enrolling at Wyoming Seminary, a private college preparatory school in Kingston.[5] He finished his high school education at the Capitol Page School in Washington, D.C.[6] He became a congressional page at age 15, first appointed by Republicans but ending up working on the Democratic side of the House.[6] He witnessed the 1954 U.S. Capitol shooting incident, helping to bring stretchers into the chamber for the wounded.[7]

Kanjorski attended Temple University in Philadelphia from 1957 to 1961, and briefly served in the United States Army Reserves from 1960 to 1961.[5] He then attended Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle. He passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in 1966. Kanjorski completed his studies despite suffering from dyslexia, once saying, "I always thought it was a blessing. It forced me to develop my memory."[6]

Before entering politics, Kanjorski practiced law in Wilkes-Barre often helping coal miners and their widows obtain black lung benefits. Kanjorski also volunteered to advocate on behalf of victims of Hurricane Agnes which devastated the Wyoming valley in 1972. Kanjorski served as a worker's compensation administrative law judge for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Assistant Solicitor for the City of Nanticoke and served as assistant solicitor to several other communities.

Like many Pennsylvania Democrats from outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Kanjorski opposed gun control. He is also moderately conservative on abortion. However, he is strongly pro-labor, and has spoken out against the Iraq War. He has served on the Financial Services Committee since he entered Congress in 1985 and was the second-ranking Democrat on that committee at the time of his departure. He usually played behind-the-scenes roles in the advocacy or defeat of legislation and steers appropriations money toward improving the infrastructure and economic needs of his district. He is popularly known as "Kanjo."

On May 10, 2007, the usually moderate Kanjorski voted with fellow Democrats to begin the redeployment of all forces from Iraq, however the bill was defeated. As of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Kanjorski's position on the war in Iraq appeared to be that he would vote for redeployment, but not as a condition of continued funding for the war until and unless the expected presidential veto of such a bill would be overridden.

After the August 1, 2007, collapse of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kanjorski said he believed the $250 million bill passed by Congress to rebuild the bridge was improper because it exceeded the normal $100 million limit for emergency relief projects. He added in saying that Minnesotans "discovered they were going to get all the money from the federal government and they were taking all they could get" and that they took the opportunity "to screw us."[12] In March 2010, Kanjorski supported and voted for the federal health care reform legislation.[13] Later that year, Kanjorski was instrumental in the crafting of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, helping draft a considerable portion of this legislation. When the bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama in July 2010, Kanjorski appeared with fellow legislators by Obama's side as the President signed the legislation.

One of Kanjorski's final votes in Congress, merely weeks before his final term ended, was a vote against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, legislation signed into law by President Obama in December 2010. Kanjorski's vote in opposition to the bill stemmed from his disenchantment with the fact that the legislation extended President George W. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

In 1980, Dan Flood, who had represented the 11th District for most of the time since 1945, resigned. Kanjorski ran in the crowded special election as an independent, finishing behind State Representative Ray Musto. He ran against Musto in the Democratic primary later that year, but finished third. Musto lost to Republican James L. Nelligan in the general election. In 1984, after sitting out the 1982 campaign, Kanjorski defeated incumbent Frank G. Harrison, who had defeated Nelligan in 1982, in the primary.[18] He won the general election by a solid 17-point margin, even as Ronald Reagan carried the district in his landslide reelection bid.

In 1986, Kanjorski faced a younger, well-financed Republican opponent in Marc Holtzman.[19] The race was initially seen as one of the hottest in the country. However, Kanjorski won by 41 points, his largest margin of victory in a contested election. He was unopposed in 1988 and 1990 and did not face another credible opponent until 2002, when he faced Lou Barletta, the mayor of Hazleton. Kanjorski defeated Barletta by 13 points. The margin would have likely been closer had the state legislature not shifted heavily Democratic Scranton and most of surrounding Lackawanna County from the nearby 10th District to the 11th. It appeared that the Republican-controlled legislature wanted to protect the 10th's then-incumbent Republican, Don Sherwood, by packing the already heavily Democratic 11th with as many Democrats as possible. Scranton had anchored the 10th and its predecessors for almost a century—though since the turn of the 20th Century the 10th was represented more often by Republican representatives than Democratic representatives.

In April, Kanjorski and his long-time chief of staff Karen Feather formed Kanjorski & Associates, LLC, a public policy consulting firm.

Media related to Paul Kanjorski at Wikimedia Commons

• Kanjorski & Associates, LLC.
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• A twisted tale of congressional earmarking Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, September 5, 2007.