Editor's note: With redistricting, the Shamokin-Mount Carmel area and other Northumberland County municipalities to the south and east of Sunbury will now be included in the 11th Congressional District. This story focuses on the contested Democratic primary in the district.
With the nation's economic slump in its fourth year, its citizens remain worried.
Polls show concerns about the economy, jobs, unemployment and personal finances trump all others.
For good reason.
The nation's unemployment rate for March dropped only a tenth of a percentage point from February to 8.2 percent with an anemic 120,000 jobs created.
The uncertainty is roiling election races with the economy expected to be the top issue as politicians seek office this year.
Candidates in a local congressional election are offering a wide menu of ideas for creating jobs.
In the 11th Congressional District race, the Democratic primary pits Harrisburg area activist-investor-consultant Gene Stilp against Wilkes-Barre attorney Bill Vinsko.
"A lot of people are very concerned," Vinsko said. "They won't want to leave their job because of health care costs; they don't want to leave their job or they don't want to start a new business because they're afraid the economy is not going to be able to sustain it."
Vinsko, who runs a law office and two other small businesses, said he favors providing more federal money for entities such as the Northeast Pennsylvania Industrial Research Center in Luzerne County, which lends federal and state money to small businesses willing to put up some of their own money and agree to a long-term commitment to create jobs.
"It can't be all on the government and it can't be all on the business," he said. "We have to have opportunities for businesses to grow. I like that model because I'm familiar with it, I've used it. ... I firmly believe that job creation is not going to be with large companies hiring masses of people. The only way we're going to be able to solve the job crisis is to hire people one, two, three at a time."
Vinsko also said Congress must focus on repair and developing the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
"Pennsylvania's roads and bridges are in very bad shape," he said. "And if we create an infrastructure bill that allows people to go back to work, that is one way to do it."
He also called for more flexibility in allowing earlier construction seasons and later ends to construction as weather dictates.
Stilp said the first thing he would do as a congressman is aggressively urge the state's delegation to work together to bring federal resources to bear on Pennsylvania's needs.
He called for a fight against the "army of lobbyists and lawyers" employed by large corporations that are getting "all the tax breaks" and hurting smaller competitors, an end to tax breaks for companies that received federal bailouts and using that money to focus on small businesses.
"Small businesses create a lot of the new jobs. That's where we have to grow them from," Stilp said.
He also would urge creation of a Securities & Exchange Commission office to teach small companies how to attract money for development; encourage public-school instruction of students on how to handle finances because that could prevent the students from getting so deeply in debt that they become a drag on the nation's economy; work for passage of a bill to allow credit unions to lend more of their money to small businesses; require credit unions to invest locally; encourage more research and development at local universities; and work toward building a community college in the Sunbury area.