Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Just six months back, Jason Altmire was involved in an expensive election campaign -- he's shown in September talking with supporters in New Castle, Lawrence County, at a fund-raiser for Gov. Ed Rendell -- and he's already gearing up for another tough fight for re-election.

For hordes of hungry pancake lovers, it was a frustrating sight: a two-hour wait to enter the sugary heaven of Bradys Run Park Lodge at the Beaver County Maple Syrup Festival.

For Rep. Jason Altmire, almost 100 days into his new job as a U.S. congressman, it was a captive audience.

		Altmire's view from Washington Read "Freshman Class," Rep. Jason Altmire's blog about his first 100 days in Congress.

Wearing black shoes, black slacks and a gray blazer, the 39-year-old Democrat from McCandless looked a little out of place last weekend amid the Steelers jackets and blue jeans. Yet he eagerly worked the festival line, grasping the hands of the constituents who decided to send him to Washington, D.C., in a wave of November victories that gave the Democratic Party control of Congress.

"What are you running for?" asked Marianne Jentilucci of Ohioville.

"I'm not running for anything," Mr. Altmire told her. "I'm your congressman."

"You're not pulling the troops out, are you?" she replied, referring to the war in Iraq.

Just a few months removed from the end of his successful, and expensive, run against former Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, Mr. Altmire says he is focused on his post's weighty responsibilities. But, out of necessity, he's also gearing up for another difficult campaign.

This time he'll have to defend a record of votes on hugely complex and controversial issues, especially the Iraq war. In March, he joined 217 House colleagues in approving an emergency spending bill that sets March 1, 2008, as a deadline to begin removing U.S. soldiers from Iraq.

He's also voted to increase the minimum wage, expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and allow workers to organize unions more easily.

Republicans say those votes demonstrate that the freshman lawmaker is too quick to side with top Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The GOP's campaign arm for House candidates, the National Republican Congressional Committee, already is targeting Mr. Altmire and 10 other newly elected Democrats in next year's election.

The NRCC recently launched a Web site to keep track of his record: www.therealdemocratstory.com/jason.altmire.

Republican Ron Francis, a former Allegheny County councilman from Ben Avon, is raising money to run for his party's nomination. Other potential candidates include Ms. Hart and former Steelers receiver Lynn Swann, who lost his bid for governor last year.

The national Democratic Party, meanwhile, has identified Mr. Altmire as one of its "frontline" candidates in 2008, and party leaders have promised help with fund raising, volunteer recruitment and Internet outreach.

Mr. Altmire isn't waiting for help. Since the beginning of the year, he's raised about $300,000 and has more than $200,000 on hand after settling some debts from his last campaign.

"It's the nature of the House. They have to run every two years, and it gets more and more expensive," said Jennifer Nicoll Victor, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on Congress. "You're forced to campaign all of the time. You have to raise money all of the time."

In the 2006 election cycle, Mr. Altmire raised more than $1.1 million, while Ms. Hart raised nearly twice as much.

Throughout the race, few pundits thought the former UPMC executive could defeat Ms. Hart, a three-term incumbent and rising star in the Pennsylvania GOP.

The sprawling 4th District stretches from Murrysville in the southeast to Farrell, Mercer County, in the northwest, encompassing expensive bedroom communities in Pittsburgh's North Hills and old mill towns in Beaver County. In 2004, President Bush carried the district by 9 percentage points.

But two years later the president's popularity was falling nationwide and Mr. Altmire criticized Ms. Hart for repeatedly following the party line on issues like Iraq. He portrayed himself as a champion of fiscal responsibility who was against abortion and close to the moderate views of district voters.

Mr. Altmire defeated Ms. Hart by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. Democrats picked up 30 seats in the House and six in the Senate, winning control of both chambers for the first time since 1994.

Now, after more than 200 roll call votes, Mr. Altmire and fellow freshmen have their own records, and the opposition is scrutinizing every detail:

Republicans say Mr. Altmire's vote to give federal funds to stem cell research, which involves the destruction of embryos, goes against his anti-abortion views. Mr. Altmire argues that the research has the potential to help treat major medical conditions, such as diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

The NRCC argues that Mr. Altmire is supporting the "largest tax increase in American history" by backing a five-year budget plan that doesn't renew the tax cuts pushed by President Bush in his first term. Mr. Altmire counters that Republicans, not Democrats, devised the tax cuts so they would expire in 2010.

Mr. Altmire, who received significant support from organized labor on the campaign trail, approved the "card-check" bill, which would let workers organize unions as soon as a majority of them sign authorization cards. Opponents say the measure is anti-democratic because it bypasses secret-ballot elections.

"It's clear that Jason has been voting in lock-step with Pelosi," said Mr. Francis, a lawyer with Reed Smith, Downtown, who served on Allegheny County Council from 2000 to 2006. "This is out of step with the district."

Mr. Altmire points to a recent study by CQ Politics that shows he has the lowest record of voting with the Democratic majority among the party's freshmen. He also argues that he'll likely break with the party on major issues in the future, including immigration. In contrast with both leading Democrats and Republicans, he's against granting any form of amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants.

His most controversial vote to date has been on the war.

Republicans accuse him of backing down from his position during last year's campaign, when, in August, he told an interviewer that he thought the Iraqis should set their own timeline for ending U.S. involvement in the country.

"The situation has changed since then," Mr. Altmire said last week. "Unlike the president, I'm not one who just says 'stay the course' on a failed policy."

Mr. Bush has promised to veto any spending bill that includes a withdrawal deadline, and he has warned congressional Democrats not to wage a political confrontation when troops are on the battlefield.

Mr. Altmire's constituents come down on all sides of the issue.

"I'm very much in support of the troops," Peggy Barr, 46, a paralegal from New Castle told Mr. Altmire at a Shop 'n Save on West State Street last week. "But I just don't think they should be there."

It was the first of a series of "Congressman on the Corner" meetings Mr. Altmire plans to hold. He and several aides stood by the store's entrance, near the olive oil and jarred banana peppers, greeting shoppers and taking notes about their problems with federal services, from late Social Security checks to difficulties with veterans' health care.

Some people simply wanted to talk.

"So much money is going into Iraqi infrastructure. What about our country?" Mrs. Barr asked the congressman.

"That was the problem with the previous Congress -- no oversight," he told her.

A registered Republican, Mrs. Barr said she voted for President Bush twice and supported Ms. Hart in the 2006 election. But she has become disillusioned with the Iraq war and is willing to give Mr. Altmire a chance.

"I'm very impressed that he came here to talk to us ordinary people," she said.

Tom Patton, 52, a dentist, warned Mr. Altmire not to "pull the rug out" from under the troops.

"Nobody's pulling out the rug," the congressman replied. "We put in more money than the president asked for."

"Be the stand-up guy," he told Mr. Altmire

As he exited the store, Mr. Patton said the "jury was still out" on Western Pennsylvania's newest member of the House of Representatives.