The three Republicans running for the congressional seat that represents Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and Pottsville admit they mostly think alike on the major issues facing the nation.

Schuylkill County Coroner David J. Moylan of South Manheim Township, Wind Gap airplane pilot Matthew Dietz and Bethlehem Township sports car racer and team owner Matt Connolly agree their real differences lie with the incumbent 17th District congressman, Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright of Moosic.They say he's too liberal, but they also know Cartwright will be tough to beat for whomever wins the Republican nomination in the May 20 primary election."It's going to be a formidable task, because he's so well-funded and if you look at the (voter) registration, it's lopsided in his favor. So we have to have our most electable guy carrying the standard," Moylan said.This is undoubtedly true.The district includes all of Schuylkill County and parts of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Carbon, Monroe and Northampton counties, and has about seven registered Democrats for every four Republicans. As of April 30, Cartwright had more than $541,000 in campaign money left, while Dietz had $8.921 and Connolly had $646. Moylan had $919 as of March 30, but had not filed a later report as of Friday.Cartwright, seeking a second two-year term in the $174,000-a-year job, also has no opposition so he can save most or all of his money for the fall campaign.The major Washington-based congressional election forecasting organizations - The Cook Political Report, The Rothenberg Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball - all rate the race as "safe Democrat," meaning Cartwright remains a heavy favorite to win re-election.Nonetheless, the three Republicans forge ahead, believing they can raise enough money to compete and win if they run the right campaign because they are right on the issues.Connolly said he's the best qualifi ed to take on Cartwright because of his past political and business experience. Connolly said he learned a lot about running a political campaign working on independent Ross Perot's failed 1992 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania and running for the 18th state Senate district seat in 2010. He lost by 21 percentage points to Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola.His business experience includes more than 30 years as an auto mechanic, sports car builder and racer and racing team owner and crew chief. He is certainly one of the few congressional candidates who raced several times at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the famed annual, day-long sports car race. With the money he earned, he became a real-estate investor.He said he gave all that up to run for Congress, running because he realized Dietz and Moylan can't beat Mr. Cartwright "and I was a better candidate.""I have run more businesses and made so many business decisions, written paychecks and dealt with the governme nt on so many levels from taxes to regulation, insurance. I see how everything is interconnected. I don't think those two guys have done that," he said.He called Cartwright "disastrous on life (abortion) issues," even though Cartwright opposes abortion in most cases. Connolly saved his worst barbs for President Barack Obama."We have an administration that doesn't understand business, doesn't trust business and thinks government should be in the business of business," Connolly said.His chief policy goal is repealing the president's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, derided as "Obamacare" by Republicans. He accused Obama of lying about Obamacare allowing people to keep their health insurance care."It absolutely cannot be fixed," he said.He favors incentives and other measures to encourage the free market to provide health care to more people.Connolly also said he would push to make the nation "energy independent" by encou raging the use of the nation's natural gas and coal and allowing drilling for gas and oil on federal lands. Developing natural resources would create new jobs, which would help with implementation of a stronger welfare-to-work requirement."I'm all for a safety net, but the problem is the safety net can become a hammock if we don't have an economy to get people back off (welfare and unemployment)," he said.Moylan called his opponents "decent guys," but said he would make a better congressman because he's good at solving problems.Elected coroner in 2011 in a hard-fought contest against an incumbent Democratic coroner, Moylan, a radiation oncologist, said he computerized coroner's office records, reduced costly autopsies through use of CT scans and developed a mobile autopsy lab when previous locations for autopsies became unavailable.He vows to champion the right of the unborn if elected and wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, too. He believes i t will cost the nation jobs, lead to government-run health care and ruin "the best medical system in the world."He favors allowing patients to shop for health insurance across state lines to reduce costs, banning abortions after 20 weeks and creating standard tax deductions for health insurance premiums. All are gleaned from the health-care platform of a Republican congressional candidate in Alabama, he said.He also said he would fight to boost natural gas and coal usage, promised to fight "Obama's war on coal" and disputed whether climate change is a real as the president declared last week, even though the vast majority of scientists say the climate change is happening."I do not think it is settled science," Moylan said. "I would advocate further study."Dietz, who this week mailed a large post card promoting his candidacy to voters across the district, said his volunteerism and business experience differentiate him. Dietz said he serves with his church's youth group and on the Wind Gap Borough Park Board.His business experience includes owning a charter airline, flying planes for another charter company and running a delicatessen and cafe in Bethlehem.His emphasis will be creating jobs."Everyone's hurting with these high unemployment rates, the cost of energy and health care and that," he said.Dietz said he would fight to simplify the nation's tax code "and eliminate loopholes that only satisfy the Washington-connected." That would encourage small business growth, he said."Right now, they're spending too much of their time and resources on paperwork and accounting when instead they could be spending on marketing, expanding and growing," he said.He also favors boosting the state's development of natural gas and coal and rolling back environmental regulations that hurt the coal industry.He, too, favors repealing "Obamacare," but said he would allow states to opt out enti rely if they come up with a better plan for health insurance and favors eliminating the mandate requiring larger employers to offer insurance and allowing shopping for insurance across state lines.Dietz holds the one position that distinguishes him from the other candidates.He favors gay marriage."The government should be out of that," he said. "States should recognize it, but states shouldn't tell religions how to handle it."bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.comName: David John MoylanAge: 62Residence: South Manheim Township, Schuylkill CountyEducation: Graduate, Malvern Preparatory School, Malvern, 1969; bachelor's degree, life science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973; doctor of medicine degree, Georgetown University School of Medicine, 1977; internal medicine, Bryn Mawr Hospital, affiliate of Jefferson Medical College, 1977-1979; residency, radiation oncology, Jefferson Medical College, 1979-1982Experience: Assistant professor of radiation oncology, Jefferson Medical College, 1982-1985, teaching, treating patients and doing research; founder and medical director of the Schuylkill Cancer Treatment Center, 1986-2004; founder and director of Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Lehighton, 1988 to present; founder, owner, Simon Kramer Cancer Center, New Philadelphia, 1998 to present; Schuylkill County coroner, 2012 to presentFamily: Wife, Denise, daughters, Elizabeth Anne, Tara and LaurenEmail Address:

udvccdave@hotmail.comName: Matthew Donald ConnollyAge: 48Residence: Bethlehem Township, Northampton CountyEducation: Graduate, Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Md., 1983; attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., majoring in aeronautical science for one year; attended University of Maryland, majoring in psychology and architecture for one yearExperience: auto mechanic, 1982 to 1989; race car driver, team own er, mechanic, crew chief over five different classes of Sports Car Club of America racing series, 1989 to 2013; real-estate investor, mid 1990s to presentFamily: Daughter, AlexisEmail Address:

matt@mattconnollyforcongress.comName: Matthew Herbert DietzAge: 37Residence: Wind Gap, Northampton CountyEducation: Graduate, Pen Argyl High School, 1995; professional pilot certification, Lehigh-Carbon Community College, 1998Experience: Baggage handler, Lehigh Valley International Airport, 1996-2006; commercial pilot, 2002 to present; pilot, LR Services, charter plane company 2007 to present; founder and owner, Friends Cafe, Bethlehem, 2003-2006; charter dispatcher, East Coast Jets, 2003-2005; owner, Advanced Aircraft Charter, 2005-2010Family: Wife, Lori, sons, Brilynd and Cade, daughter, MadisonEmail Address:

matthewdietz@dietzforcongress.com