Former race car driver Matt Connolly hopes his next pit stop will be in the nation's capital.
"I've been fortunate enough to live the American dream," Connolly said during an interview with The Republican-Herald Editorial Board as part of his campaign for the Republican nomination to represent the 17th Congressional District.
Connolly, 48, of Bethlehem Township, Northampton County, is one of three Republican candidates, the others being Northampton County pilot Matthew Dietz and Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. David J. Moylan III, for the 17th District in Tuesday's primary election.
The winner will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Moosic Democrat serving his first term. The heavily Democratic 17th District includes all of Schuylkill County and parts of Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe and Northampton counties.
Connolly, a real estate investor who still does freelance work in the automobile racing business, said he believes the incumbent does not truly represent the district's values.
"Matt Cartwright, I believe, was (President Barack) Obama's twin separated at birth," he said. "He doesn't believe that people run their lives the best."
One indicator of that, he said, is Cartwright's support of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
"It cannot be fixed. It must be repealed," Connolly said of that law. "At its core, it's wrong."
Furthermore, the repeal of Obamacare will help the economy, according to Connolly.
"If we get rid of Obamacare, that will be the switch that will set off the economy," he said.
Connolly said the price of gasoline has nearly doubled from the start of the Obama administration, when it was $1.84 per gallon. Energy production needs to be expanded by approving the Keystone Pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada to this country instead of China, and increasing the number of leases on government land, he said.
"We need to be completely self-sufficient in energy," Connolly said.
That, in turn, would put more money in people's pockets and stimulate further economic growth, Connolly said.
Two other necessary measures are simplifying the tax code and limiting the power of the Internal Revenue Service, he said.
"The tax system is way too complicated. The tax system should be simple, graduated and everybody should pay something," Connolly said.
IRS targeting of conservative political groups shows it has too much power, and people responsible for that abuse of power should be imprisoned, he said.
"It needs to be reined in and controlled. That shows ... they will use any bureaucracy for its own end," Connolly said.
Obama and Cartwright also are wrong on immigration because national security is more important than a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, according to Connolly.
"We need to secure the border. That's the first step," he said. "We don't have people who want to come and assimilate."
Another scandal that needs to be investigated is the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
"The first thing you want to find out is why we had people in the hostile country. The ... attack ... was very well planned. We don't know where the president was. I don't think the president was engaged," he said.
He also criticized Cartwright for what he said was his walking out of a hearing on the Benghazi incident.
Obama's failure of leadership also is evident from Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Connolly said. Russia has annexed the Crimea section of Ukraine and stirred unrest in the country's eastern section, with little response from the United States.
Connolly said 17th District voters should support him because he will be more in tune with their values than Cartwright.
"The Democrats in the district are not Matt Cartwright Democrats. He's not who he said he was. I'm going to work harder than he is," Connolly said.Candidate: Matt Connolly
Age: 48
Residence: Bethlehem Township, Northampton County
Office sought: U.S. representative, 17th District
Party: Republican
Employment: Historic building restorer, free-lance automobile racing crew chief, driver and mechanic
Education: Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Md., 1983
Family: Separated; daughter, Alexis, 13