Murtha wins

Despite a tough challenge emerging after the Democratic leader called his own district racist, Jack Murtha holds on to his House seat.

Published November 5, 2008 5:59AM (EST)

Let this be a lesson to you all: It's typically not a good idea, if you're an incumbent Congressman, to go out in public and call your own district racist. Rep. Jack Murtha (D.-Pa.) will, for one, almost certainly never do that again.

That said, though, Murtha managed to fend off a Republican challenger who was strengthened by the Democratic leader's words and win re-election. 100 percent of precincts are now in, and Murtha won by a comfortable margin, defeating William Russell 58-42.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Alex Koppelman


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