Outgoing Rep. Critz: Job search to play a 'big factor' in whether he runs again

Rep. Mark Critz (D-Pa.), who narrowly lost his reelection bid in November, told The Hill that where he can find a job will play a "big factor" in whether he runs again.

"I'm a middle-class guy. I've got to get a job. Depending on what job I get may determine whether I look at this again — if I get a job down here, or if I get one back in the district. That's a big factor," Critz said late Wednesday afternoon. "I've got a family, I've got a mortgage, so I've got to do the things that are necessary to be the father and the husband."

Critz, a conservative Democrat and longtime congressional House staffer, lost to incoming Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) by 4 percentage points, running far ahead of President Obama in the district. He's likely Democrats' best hope to retake his southwest Pennsylvania seat, which GOP state lawmakers redrew after the 2010 Census to lean Republican.

The congressman said he's not ruling out another run but that he's "not ruling it in either," and that he'll make a decision "sometime next year."

He said he was "still in shock" that he'd lost.

"Even with the amount of money and the new district, I still thought we were going to win. It's 70 percent a new district, $7-plus million spent, and the anti-vote was just too much to overcome. We projected that the president would lose my district by 13 points. He lost by 17. That's my margin."

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