Dan Meuser

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Dan Meuser is the President of the Pride Mobility Corporation, a manufacturer of motorized wheelchairs in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton metro area of Pennsylvania. Meuser has previously allocated money to both Democratic and, according to his claims predominantly, Republican politicians, most notably President George W. Bush, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and New York Senator Hillary Clinton. He has previously testifed before Congress regarding the criticality for federal practices surrounding rights and caring for the disabled.

Meuser was a candidate for the GOP nomination in Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, having announced the implementation of his campaign in September 2007. He was defeated in the Republican primary by fellow businessman Chris Hackett, who will face Democratic incumbent Chris Carney in November 2008. Meuser heavily underscored his conservative values, even referencing Ronald Reagan and strongly emphasizing his work at Pride Mobility as part of a larger effort to embrace small-scale government and low taxes. The endorsements he received included a laundry list of well-known Pennsylvania conservatives including, most notably, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and the famously anti-illegal immigrant, border security-championing Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta. He was attacked by Hackett for hiring illegal immigrants in Pride Mobility and funding prominent national Democratic politicians. Both candidates have been attacked by each other's surrogates and supporters for publicly chastising earmarks while embracing such special localized federal funding for their own companies. Hackett's attacks against Meuser led to Meuser responding that a majority of his contributions go to Republicans while a large majority of Hackett's actually go to the very same Democrats that Hackett accuses Meuser of proudly funding. The discovery that Hackett had previously hired an illegal immigrant as a maid in his home--albeit he did claim to dismiss her once he learned of her status--was perceived to seriously damage Hackett's public image and worked to Meuser's advantage. However, Meuser was seen as uncomfortable, inconsistent, and nervous in his televised debate against Hackett a week prior to the primary which may have contirbuted to his loss the next week. Hackett's negative ads against Meuser were to believed to have factored heavily in his victory over Meuser given the fact that Meuser was less well-known that Hackett by 10th district residents and thus the ads allowed voters to establish a certain perception of Meuser. On the night of the primary, the nail-bitingly close returns--despite initially displaying a comfortable Meuser lead--were soon indicating a virtual tie for some time throughout the night, with merely more than 100 votes separating the candidates at one point. However, as time passed, Hackett took a lead that seemed to gradually grow within hours. By roughly 11:15 p.m. ET, local news media and the Associated Press dubbed Hackett, who had garnered 52 percent of the vote to Meuser's 48 percent, the projected winner of the primary while the candidate himself enthusiastically trumpeted that he was victorious. Nonetheless, at 12 midnight, Meuser defiantly addressed weary supporters that the race was still "too close to call", refusing to concede and insisting that "there are still a lot of votes to be counted", despite the noticeably sour emotions of his backers at the Ramada Inn Hotel in Clarks Summit where the candidate stayed that night. By morning, Meuser did in fact call Hackett to congratulate him on his four point victory, effectively conceding the race. To date, despite a Meuser campaign spokesman assuring that the candidate has "encouraged people to vote Republican for 20 years" when asked if he would support Hackett against Carney in the general election, Meuser has yet to publicly endorse Hackett. During the primary season, Meuser was skeptical of both his fellow Republican, so much so that many hypothesized that potential personal animosity existed, and Congressman Carney during the primary season.