WirePOLITICS: Brian Fitzpatrick looks to succeed brother in Congress

Tom Waring, the Wire

Former FBI Agent Brian Fitzpatrick announced last night that he wants to succeed his older brother in Congress.

Fitzpatrick, 42, announced outside the Bucks County Courthouse that he’s running in the 8th Congressional District Republican primary.

Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick is adhering to a pledge to serve no more than four two-year terms.

“He could have held the seat the rest of his life,” Brian Fitzpatrick said.

The younger Fitzpatrick billed himself as a “problem-solver,” not an ideologue.

At the FBI, he served as a national supervisor for the bureau’s public corruption unit and led its campaign finance and election crimes enforcement program.

“It was a tough, tough job to walk away from,” he said.

Fitzpatrick’s campaign platform includes fighting political corruption, improving economic growth and bolstering trust in government, along with protecting national security.

“National security is the issue this year,” he said.

Fitzpatrick graduated from Bishop Egan High School and La Salle University. He has a law degree and MBA from Penn State, and is a CPA.

After announcing his candidacy on Jan. 21, he appeared later that night in front of the Bucks County Republican Committee. Other GOP candidates in the race are state Rep. Scott Petri, former Bucks County Commissioner Andy Warren, attorney Dean Malik and psychologist Marc Duome.

Fitzpatrick said he is in the race through the April 26 primary, describing his campaign as storming out of the gate like horse racing Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.