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Political analyst calls incumbent’s decision to campaign in district neighborhoods ‘act of desperation.’

Kanjorski

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski will be in Avoca and Dupont today knocking on doors, asking people to vote for him on Nov. 2.

Kanjorski is opposed by Republican Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta in the 11th Congressional District race.

The Kanjorski campaign says this form of campaigning is not new for the 13-term Democratic incumbent, but one political analyst says Kanjorski’s decision to campaign in neighborhoods is “an act of desperation.”

Kanjorski will join his campaign’s door-to-door effort today as part of a nationwide Democratic Day of Action in which volunteers will be on the phones and at the doors talking to voters.

Before the canvass, Kanjorski will join Duryea Mayor Keith Moss at 9 a.m. at My Sister’s Kitchen, 421 Main St.

At 10 a.m., Kanjorski will greet volunteers at the Medical Center parking lot at 824 McAlpine St., Avoca, before he and the group begin knocking on doors in the borough.

The congressman will meet more volunteers at 11:30 a.m. at the municipal building at 315 Main St., Duryea, to knock on doors in that borough until about noon.

“Going door-to-door appears at this point in the campaign to be an act of desperation,” said Jeff Brauer, associate political science professor at Keystone College in LaPlume.

“In 2008, Kanjorski rode the coattails of Barack Obama to victory. But since then, the mood of the country has turned 180 degrees.”

Brauer said Kanjorski can’t rely on national Democratic coattails this election cycle.

Brauer said there are still a lot of undecided voters still out there, but how much they will impact the election is unclear.

Kanjorski’s campaign said it holds a canvass every Saturday in which volunteers go door-to-door talking to voters.