Kats gets nod
to oppose Schwartz

The field is set in the 13th Congressional District, as Marina Kats on Monday night easily won the endorsement of the Montgomery County Republican Committee.
Earlier, Kats earned the backing of the Philadelphia Republican City Committee and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.
After Monday’s vote, Lee Falgoust — president of a management consulting firm and chairman of the Upper Moreland Republican Committee — dropped out of the race.
That sets up a showdown in the fall between Kats and incumbent Rep. Allyson Schwartz, who is unopposed in the April 22 Democratic primary.
Schwartz is seeking her third two-year term. In 2006, she took 66 percent of the vote against Republican Raj Bhakta despite spending little of her bulging campaign fund.
The district consists of most of the Northeast and much of Montgomery County. Two years ago, Schwartz captured 69 percent of the city vote and 64 percent in the suburbs against Bhakta, a former star on The Apprentice 2 who ran an energetic campaign.
Kats, a lawyer from Meadowbrook and president of the local Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, won the vote of the rank and file committee members, 178-81. She had the backing of Bob Asher, Montgomery County’s most prominent Republican.
A native of Ukraine, she will emphasize opposition to illegal immigration and said she wants to bring "sanity and common sense" back to Washington, D.C.
Kats, a mother of two, is making her first run for office.
"Private citizens like myself can no longer stand by on the sidelines as our political leaders fail time and again to make a difference for our families," she said.
Kats said she was running to change the "most unpopular and ineffective Congress in our nation’s history." Democrats took control of the Senate and House of Representatives after the 2006 election, ending 12 years of mostly Republican rule.
The candidate does not believe the United States is divided into so-called "red states" that favor Republicans and "blue states" that vote for Democrats.
"In my mind, there is only one America that is red, white and blue. I implore citizens from across the district to join us in creating a more perfect union," she said.
Former Gov. Tom Ridge once named Kats as one of the "50 Best Business Women in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." She serves as vice president of Temple University’s Presidential Advisory Board and is a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of Philadelphia. She is a member of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network’s Board of Overseers and the Temple University School of Law Alumni Board. ••