Campaign 2012: Mike Kelly, PA 3rd

Who would have guessed that a car dealer, hailing from the hills of western Pennsylvania, would be the right guy to talk some real common sense into Members of the United States Congress?

Well, it just so happens that the car dealer I'm talking about -- who has indeed been making a whole lot of sense -- is a guy named Mike Kelly, just now half way through his first term representing Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional District, a sprawling district comprised of large chunks of several rural counties, all located in the northwestern corner of the Commonwealth, north of the City of Pittsburgh.

Mike was born in the "Steel City" back in 1948, but he hails from Butler, a modest town of 15 thousand residents or so, set along the Connoquenessing Creek, north of Pittsburgh. Butler is where Mike grew up and where he played high school football, before attending Notre Dame.

Butler is just over 33 miles, and about a little less than an hour's drive up Rt. 8, north of Pittsburgh. It is also located about 100 miles (give or take a few depending on your route) due south of the largest town in the 3rd District, the City of Erie, Pennsylvania. Erie, the 4th largest municipality in Pennsylvania, with a population of just over 100,000 residents, is the only Pennsylvania port on the Great Lakes, located in the northernmost section of the state.

Just listen to these comments of Mike's during a recent committee hearing in Congress, talking about the need for a balance budget.