Arlen Specter is the party-endorsed candidate in the May 18 primary election for U.S. senator. The Democratic State Committee gave the Republican turncoat its official blessing after a meeting yesterday in Lancaster, picking him over true-blue, ultra-liberal Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa7).
Category: Election 2010 Primary
Congressman Murtha Has Died
Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa12) died today at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. He was 77 and had represented his district since 1974.
Murtha’s gallbladder was removed Jan. 28 in what was considered a routine laparoscopic procedure at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. An infection developed, however, and on Feb. 1 he was moved to the intensive care unit at the Virginia Hospital Center.
Murtha, the first Vietnam veteran to be elected to congress, was Pennsylvania longest serving congressman and was seeking to win a 20th term this November. He chaired the House Subcommittee on Defense.
His district is the only one in the nation that voted for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Gov. Rendell is expected to call a special election to fill the seat. Murtha had challengers —Ron Mackell Jr. and 34-year-old Ryan Bucchianeri — in the May 18 Democratic Primary.
The leading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who was Murtha’s opposition in 2008. He faces GOP activist Dave Battaglia and businessman Tim Burns.
Snarlin’ Arlen’s Low Blow Against Admiral Joe
I think I might change my bet and put it on Admiral Joe “I Believe The World Is Burning To The Ground” Sestak as to who is going to be the Democratic nominee in this year’s Pennsylvania senate race.
During last night’s Democratic candidate’s forum in Lancaster, incumbent Arlen “I Believe The World Is Burning To The Ground Too” Specter compared missed votes by the 7th District’s congressman to going AWOL in the Navy. It turned out that a lot of the votes Sestak missed were due to his spending time with his dying father who passed away in September.
And Sestak, of course, had been hammering away throughout the night on the votes that Specter didn’t miss as a Republican in support of the Bush agenda which was not making Arlen a darlin’ with the Dems paying attention to the face-off.
Specter’s statement is akin to the bone-headed claim made by GOP incumbent Curt Weldon in the 2006 congressional race that Sestak should have been sending his four-year-old daughter to a Philadelphia-area hospital to treat her brain tumor. It was about then I thought Weldon might actually lose the race.
Still, to seal the deal Sestak did require a very strange last minute raid by federal agents on the homes and businesses of friends and relatives of Weldon — a raid which, btw, has yet to lead to any charges against the principals or serious charges against anybody.
Maybe, I won’t change my bet.
If Sestak should wind up being the Dems’ pick, however, almost sure-bet GOP-nominee Pat Toomey must keep in mind that Sestak is basically a nice guy. He doesn’t seem to hate anybody. He’s not sneaky. He’s not a liar. He’s not a thief. He’s not lazy. He’s not irresponsible, well perhaps intellectually but not in terms of keeping commitments and such.
What Sestak is, however, is an outspoken, staunch, true-blue believer in things that will make our lives much, much harder if they should ever be instituted. He is actually much worse than Arlen Specter whose constituency is first and perhaps only Arlen Specter.
If Toomey sticks to the issues, he’s going to win easily against either candidate.
Murtha Is In Intensive Care Unit
Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa12) has been placed in the intensive care unit at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va. following complications after his gall bladder surgery, yesterday.
Murtha, Pennsylvania’s longest serving congressman, has represented his district since being elected in a special election in 1974. He is seeking his 20th term this November.
Barletta Endorses Corbett
Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta who is seeking a rematch with Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski to represent the 11th District of Pennsylvania in Congress has endorsed Tom Corbett for governor.
Corbett is getting a tenacious battle in the GOP primary from underdog Sam Rohrer, who represents the 128th District in the State House.
Also in the race is National Guardsman Sgt. Robert Allen Mansfield.
Luzerne County Commissioner Enters GOP Lt. Gov Race
One steps out, one steps in.
Nine days after former Erie County Executive Rick Schenker announced that the was quitting the crowded race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, Luzerne County Commissioner Stephen Anthony Urban took his seat at the table.
Urban, 57, made his announcement Saturday. He is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War.
Also in the race for the GOP nomination are:
Carol Aichele (Chester County Commissioner)
Bruce L. Castor Jr. (ex-Montco D.A.)
James F. Cawley (Bucks County Commissioner)
Russ Diamond (founder of PACleanSweep)
Dominic D. “Nick” DiFrancesco II (Dauphin County Commissioner)
John H. Eichelberger, Jr. (state senator representing the 30th District)
James R. Matthews (Montco Commissioner, last GOP Lt. Gov candidate, Chris Matthews’ brother)
Frank L. Rizzo Jr. (Philly councilman, son of legendary mayor)
Mike Turzai (state representative for the 28th District)
Joseph P. Watkins (pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia)
Seeking the Democratic nod are:
Michael F. “Mike” Gerber (state representative for the 148th District)
Valerie McDonald Roberts (Allegheny County recorder of deeds)
Jonathan A. Saidel (former Philadelphia city controller)
Josh Shapiro (state representative for the 153rd District)
Doris Smith-Ribner (former Commonwealth Court judge)
The primary election is May 18.
Navy Grad To Challenge Murtha As A Dem
A former Naval officer is seeking the Democratic nomination to to run for Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th District, a seat long-held by fellow Democrat John Murtha, who has become a bit of a controversial figure in the last few years.
Seeking the seat is Ryan Bucchianeri, 34, who was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 and who has a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he focused on international security, political economy, and human rights.
Most recently he has worked as a manager at Lockheed Martin.
Murtha has represented the district since 1974. Among the acts that has garnered him national attention were his involvement with Abscam in 1980 in which he was videotaped telling FBI agents posing as Arabs “I’m not interested… at this point. [If] we do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested, maybe I won’t” before which he had provided the names of banks and businesses in which the money could be invested; his claim that Marines were guilty of war crimes in Haditha, Iraq before their trial ; and his observation during the 2008 presidential race that in his district “There’s still folks that have a problem voting for someone because they are black. This whole area, years ago, was really redneck,” which gave us this rather enjoyable Saturday Night Live skit.
Welch Remains In 6th District Race
Venture capitalist Steve Welch said an interview Thursday that he will remain in the GOP primary race for the 6th Congressional seat despite incumbent Jim Gerlach’s late decision to seek re-election.
Kudos to GrassrootsPA.com for the tip.
Rick Schenker Quits Lt. Gov Race
Maybe you can chalk this one up as a victory for President Obama. Former Erie County Executive Rick Schenker, a Republican, announced yesterday that
he is ending his bid for lieutenant governor.
“My employment and economic circumstances have changed drastically causing me to look for employment all over the country,” Schenker said.
Still
in the race for the GOP nomination are:
Carol Aichele (Chester County Commissioner)
Bruce L. Castor Jr. (ex-Montco D.A.)
James F. Cawley (Bucks County Commissioner)
Russ Diamond (founder of PACleanSweep)
Dominic D. “Nick” DiFrancesco II (Dauphin County Commissioner)
John H. Eichelberger, Jr. (state senator representing the 30th District)
James R. Matthews (Montco Commissioner, last GOP Lt. Gov candidate, Chris Matthews’ brother)
Frank L. Rizzo Jr. (Philly councilman, son of legendary mayor)
Mike Turzai (state representative for the 28th District)
Joseph P. Watkins (pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia)
Seeking the Democratic nod are:
Michael F. “Mike” Gerber (state representative for the 148th District)
Valerie McDonald Roberts (Allegheny County recorder of deeds)
Jonathan A. Saidel (former Philadelphia city controller)
Josh Shapiro (state representative for the 153rd District)
Doris Smith-Ribner (former Commonwealth Court judge)
The primary election is May 18.
Are the GOP’s Boyars Rohrer Ignorers?
Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-Pa6) has ended his quest for governor but two other Republican candidates remain besides front-runner Attorney General Tom Corbett, and today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has a story about how the supporters of one of them — state Rep Sam Rohrer who holds the seat for the 128th District in Berks County — feel the GOP establishment is unduly dismissing their man.
Which is probably true and is a shame since Rohrer, who has held his seat since 1992, has some interesting ideas and is not afraid to take on the special interests about the most pressing problems facing this state such as the ever increasing school property tax.
Rohrer has introduced House Bill 1275 — the School Property Tax Elimination Act — in every session since 2004 which would replace the $6 billion to $8 billion in lost
residential school tax revenue by broadening the state sales tax to
include more goods and services, such as nonprescription drugs and the
fees that a home plumber charges.
If you think about it, it is more sensible to tax the plumbing work than the home itself.
Still the better means of attacking the threat to home ownership would be on the expense side — such as ending prevailing wage requirements for municipal projects, allowing school districts to hire outside the educational establishment for administrators and, most importantly, ending the right to strike for teachers which would curtail the ever increasing cost of salaries which is by far the largest part of any school district’s budget and takes the largest bite from the taxpayers wallet even including county and township/borough/city expenses.
The primary election is May 18. The third candidate on the GOP gubernatorial ballot is National Guardsman Sgt. Robert Allen Mansfield.