Melissa Hart

Call it the Republican version of Democrats' constant attempts to link GOP lawmakers to President Bush.

A new ad being aired by Congressional candidate Melissa Hart tries to link U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while also blaming people's economic troubles on tax increases.

"We spend our nights worrying how we're going to make ends meet, and our days working as hard as we can to only get furter behind," the narrator says.

Hart is mounting a competitive challenge to Altmire in the 4th Congressional District.

See the ad embedded below: 

The two vulnerable House Democrats from Pennsylvania who voted against the first version of the bailout bill held strong in their opposition Friday, casting no votes on an amended Senate bill that passed the House.

Both U.S. Reps. Chris Carney (D-Dimock) and Jason Altmire (D-D-McCandless) voted against the legislation. Both are facing tough reelection battles in conservative-leaning districts.

Carney faces Republican Chris Hackett in the 10th Congressional District, while Altmire is being challenged by Melissa Hart in the 4th Congressional District.

Republican Congressional candidate Melissa Hart disputed that her opponent, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless), defected from his party when he voted Monday against a $700 billion bailout plan.

"Not really," she told PolitickerPA.com. "I think what you saw was a whole bunch of vulnerable freshman voting against it."

Ninety-five Democrats voted against the plan, which was defeated 228-205. One-hundred-and-forty Democrats voted in favor of the bill.

Hart, who lost to Altmire in 2006 by 4 percentage points, is trying to unseat the first-time incumbent in one of the state's most competitive races.

The candidate said she thinks Congress moved too quickly to intervene in the market. She prefers lawmakers give a little more time to allow the market to take care of itself.

Former U.S. Rep. Melissa HartBEAVER -- U.S. House candidate Melissa Hart is counting on 2008 to be different than 2006, when voters in the 4th Congressional District removed her from office amid a tidal wave of anti-GOP sentiment in the state and country.

She can point to one way it already is -- the absence of former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and GOP gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann. Neither is on the ballot this year, unlike 2006, when each lost by more than 15 points to his Democratic opposition.

Their ill-fated candidacies, combined with a highly unpopular war in Iraq, helped put U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) in office, Hart told PolitickerPA.com while knocking on doors in Beaver Borough last Saturday. She was canvassing the area as part of what aides say has become a vigorous grassroots effort to help put Hart back in office.

"Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in 2006," Hart said.

The difference provided by the top of this year's Republican ticket, John McCain and Sarah Palin, and attempts to paint Altmire as a "Nancy Pelosi liberal" are Hart's two biggest hopes to recapture her former seat.

The campaign for U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) said the congressman is in Washington now determining how the government should respond to the country's financial crisis but declined to say whether it would affect any campaign events.

"I'm not going to go into that; I don't think it's necessary," said Tess Mullen, Altmire's communication's director.

She emphasized Altmire has never missed a vote during his nearly two years in office.

Altmire faces Republican Melissa Hart this fall, whom he unseated in 2006 in the 4th Congressional District.

The campaign for U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) has released its third campaign ad, touting what is says is the first-term's incumbent's commitment to helping the 4th Congressional District's economy.

The 30-second spot, which the campaign said will run on all of Pittsburgh's network TV stations, highlights Altmire's efforts on seemingly non-partisan issues, such as bringing money back to the district for infrastructure repairs. For the length of his campaign, the Democrat has attempted to portray himself as a moderate lawmaker more interested in helping the region than committing to liberal ideology.

His opponent, Republican Melissa Hart, says that contention is rooted in myth, not fact. She is trying to defeat Altmire after he unseated her in 2006.

Joe Biden: Getty Images PhotoA quartet of western Pennsylvania Republicans seized Tuesday on statements made by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden that he opposes building "clean coal" plants, saying the Democratic presidential ticket clearly doesn't understand the needs of the Keystone State's middle-class families.

"It's fairly clear Joe Biden has sided with the faction of radical environmentalists that is opposed to any application of clean coal," said U.S. Rep. Phil English (R-Erie).

"Senator McCain has spelled out in great detail his strong position on energy that is ultimately a winner for him in Pennsylvania," he said.

English was speaking with reporters on a conference call organized by John McCain's campaign, which acted quickly to exploit Biden's statements to gain an advantage in the state's western half. Clean coal technology is a Holy Grail of the once-heavily industrial region, carrying with it the hope of an economic revival for an area struggling to create jobs.

Republicans nationally and in Pennsylvania tout the energy vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has injected in the GOP base.

On Tuesday, it caused state party Chairman Bob Gleason to make a bold prediction: Republicans will win back "four or five" congressional seats in the Keystone State.

Generic ballots between Republicans and Democrats show a dead heat, Gleason said, "and that's caused Democrats to be very nervous about their congressional seats."

The chairman, joined by congressional candidate Craig Williams for the state's 7th Congressional District, spoke to reporters on a conference call hours before Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden campaigned in the Philadelphia suburbs.

The campaign for congressional candidate Melissa Hart says an internal poll showing the candidate facing a 5-point deficit proves she is in a "tight race" against Democratic incumbent Jason Altmire in the 4th Congressional District.

The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and released Monday by Hart's campaign, says "Melissa is well within striking distance, and if she has the funds to fully fund her advertising budget, she should be able to break Altmire's tenuous hold on this seat."

Its margin of error is 4.9 percent.

Hart is challenging Altmire after losing to him by fewer than 4 percentage points in 2006, a year poisonous for Republican statewide and nationally.

Tom Cole, the Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee will be in state on Wednesday to campaign for former Congresswomen Melissa Hart.  Cole and Hart will hold a joint press conference at the Ingomar Gulf gas station to discuss energy and energy exploration.