Battle for the 72nd: The race heats up between Bradley and Burns

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — One local race is heating up as Amy Bradley takes on incumbent Frank Burns in the battle for the seat as state representative for the 72nd district.

Democrat Representative Burns has served Cambria County in the role for the past 16 years and believes that voters remain loyal to his plans, policies and previous voting record .

“Look, I’m always confident in my ability,” Burns said. “I go around the community, do everything I can to win. And I think that if we stick to our plan and do everything we’re supposed to, we’ll be successful in November.”

But Republican challenger Amy Bradley, a former media personality and spokeswoman, is working to nudge the historically blue county into the red.

“I just think it’s time for a change,” Bradley said. “Mr. Burns has been in for 16 years and I would ask people, ‘Are they better off?'”

Although it is a small, local race, with roughly 85,000 registered voters living in Cambria County, both campaigns are taking on the tones of large-scale, national campaigns — with big money and big drama.

Burns’ primary attack on Bradley is for her previous position as the spokesperson for Conemaugh Memorial Hospital at the time it was purchased by Duke Life Point. In her role, Bradley issued a public statement saying that the shift into the new leadership would be positive for the community.

“So everything in the ad is factually correct. She has to live by her own words. The words in that ad are what she said. So when she said it was good for patients, she must have believed it,” Burns said.

But Bradley defended herself stating that she was just doing her job.

“Frank Burns is trying to say that I sold the health care system, that I had something to do with that, which is absolutely not true. He also says that I profited from it, which is a bold faced lie. So I think the people that worked at the hospital know the truth. They know that I had nothing to do with the sale and I was an employee like everybody else,” Bradley said.

A focus of the Burns campaign is on the financial stability of Cambria County, specifically the Johnstown area. He said “the number one thing we have to do in our region is stop importing poverty,” claiming that individuals from outside the area are moving in under a “loophole” to attain public housing. His primary concern is that this migration bogs down the local school districts by decreasing the overall tax base but increasing the number of students.

But Bradley said Burns himself is involved in exorbitant spending on his campaign and feels that this spending is an example of money mismanagement.

“So my opponent has spent an inordinate amount of money for a state representative race and it’s surprising,” Bradley said. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous that money could be spent on so many other things.”

The most recent pre-election financial report from the Pennsylvania Department of State Campaign Finance records shows that Burns has spent almost $90 thousand on his re-election campaign .

The Bradley campaign has not spent a single dollar, but her committee — Friends of Amy Bradley — has spent only $1,500.

Despite their differing views on campaign strategies, both candidates agree on the larger issues in Cambria County.

“If we want to continue to have nice things, if we want to have nice restaurants and good shopping and entertainment, we have to be able to support that,” Bradley said. “So we need good jobs. We also need to work at keeping our young people here.”

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Burns echoed that belief, and also said, if re-elected, he would like to focus on lowering taxes for senior citizens.

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