Dem Candidate Was Ripped By Mother Jones — Carmela Ciliberti’s latest podcast concerns David Cunningham, the Democratic seeking to unseat incumbent John Lawrence in Pennsylvania House District 13.
The 13th District consists of the townships of East Nottingham, Elk, Franklin, Highland, London Britain, London Grove, Londonderry, Lower Oxford, New London, Penn, Upper Oxford, West Fallowfield and West Nottingham and the boroughs of Oxford and West Grove, all in Chester County.
Carmela ran against Lawrence in the Republican primary and heaped upon him loads of criticism. We suspect, though, after hearing her Oct. 5 show that it’s a pretty safe bet that she’s voting for him on Nov. 8.
She reveals that Cunningham’s employer for the last 31 years was Landmark Education. This is the successor to Erhard Seminars Training or est founded by Werner Erhard and was an influential faddish cult in the 1970s.
Cunningham is also the subject of a not-so-flattering story by Laura McClure published Aug. 17, 2009 in Mother Jones.
And Carmela expresses particular ire at Cunningham’s Landmark sessions for children.
Erhard and est — yeah, no caps — played a significant role in the feelings over facts cultural shift which is causing so much misery today.
Where do the Democrats find such candidates anyway?
For the last several presidential election cycles, media messaging has been consistent: candidates who capture the Hispanic vote will win. The suggestion, often unstated, was that GOP candidates need to promote an illegal alien amnesty, pledge to curtail interior enforcement and promote expanded immigration. In 2022, however, Hispanics could indeed hold the key to a GOP victory, but not because they endorse amnesty. Hispanics, realizing that an open border creates job competition, classroom chaos and disrupts their communities, oppose President Biden’s immigration agenda.
The Hispanic shift toward Republicans has been slowly, but steadily building. In 2004 and 2016, Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump scored well among Hispanics, 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively. Trump’s 2020 total was almost 10 points higher than his 2016 tally. But in the 20 months since Biden’s inauguration, the White House’s open borders agenda has accelerated the Hispanic shift to the GOP. Remember that Hispanics who vote are U.S. citizens, and their hopes and concerns are largely identical to other Americans.
In his new book, “Political Migrants: Hispanic Voters on the Move,” Jim Robb wrote that Biden’s refusal to enforce border laws, and instead to opt for catch-and-release, has been disastrous for all Americans, but especially legal immigrants and the 40-plus million American-born Hispanics.
This fall, indications are that Hispanics will vote Republican at a higher rate than they did in 2020: 41 percent plan to vote Republican against 45 percent who will support Democrats, with others undecided. Since only 29 percent of Hispanics voted Republican in the 2018 mid-term election, 41 percent would be a significant GOP move toward capturing an important demographic. In fact, 41 percent would be the highest mid-term election share Republicans have ever received from Hispanics.
On important life-affecting issues, Hispanics side with the GOP. Among likely Hispanic voters, 52 percent believe the government is doing “too little to reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays.” Only 15 percent believe the government is doing “too much.” Hispanic voters overwhelmingly agree that chain migration should be limited to spouses and minor children, that Congress should mandate E-Verify which helps assure that only citizens and lawfully present foreign nationals can hold jobs, that businesses should raise wages to attract American workers before hiring foreign nationals, and that legal immigration should be reduced from its current 1 million-plus annually inflow.
Other poll findings may vary, but tangible evidence exists that the Hispanic shift to the GOP is real and may represent the difference in November. In a special June election to determine who would represent Texas’ 34th congressional district in the illegal immigration-besieged Rio Grande Valley, Mayra Flores defeated Democrat Dan Sanchez. A citizen since age 14 and married to a border patrol officer, Flores represents a burgeoning breed of Hispanic officeholders who promote strict border enforcement. Flores is the first Republican to represent her historically blue district in 150 years, and the first woman born in Mexico ever elected to Congress. Just weeks after her victory, Flores called on her colleagues to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his abject failures to enforce immigration laws which have caused the ongoing border crisis.
Texas gubernatorial challenger Robert O’Rourke, trailing Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, explained why Hispanics have abandoned Democrats. O’Rourke, harkening back to 2020, blamed Biden who “…didn’t spend a dime or day in the Rio Grande Valley or really anywhere in Texas….”
Flores will be on the November ballot when she’ll face Democrat Vicente Gonzales who has consistently voted to support Biden’s open borders policy. Political forecasters maintain that the 34th still leans blue. But a Flores victory would confirm that the Hispanic trend to red is real.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
We can be pretty sure that Nov. 8 won’t begat Libertarian Governor Matt Hackenberg.
Pennsylvania’s next governor will either be Republican Doug Mastriano or Democratic Josh Shapiro and few, if any of Hackenberg’s Libertarian positions will be adopted.
So here is a chance to see them.
All quotes from his campaign tweets.
Matt Hackenberg
As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you have the right to choose how you live.
In Pennsylvania, even if you own your house, you’re still always renting from the State.
As parents know best how to raise our kids, and the State shouldn’t come between us.
We must end the theft of taxation and restore our prosperity.
We are not free if we don’t have bodily autonomy.
(I) don’t want to see our men and women sent overseas to die.
(I) won’t stand for our kids being muzzled and abused”.
And more than anything, he wants individuals be the ones that decide how (they) live our lives.
Matt describes himself as “a veteran against war”, married to “a nurse against medical tyranny”.
He is a computer engineer.
Matt will not be our next governor but, hopefully, like many of those we have profiled this fall, some of his ideas will be heard beyond the rarefied walls of Alternative Party politics.
Shapiro Won’t Debate Mastriano Or Things That Make You Go Hmmmm –Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro is refusing to debate Doug Mastriano, his Republican opponent.
Why would the “brilliant” lawyer who before becoming Pennsylvania’s attorney general was counsel at Philadelphia mega-lobbyist law firm Stradley Ronon be afraid to face off behind the podiums with a guy he sneers at as being a redneck?
Maybe Josh is just a small package of hot air who would burst at the smallest pin prick.
Regardless, those afraid to debate do not deserve a vote.
For what it’s worth, Democrat John Fetterman ducked debates in Pennsylvania’s Senate race with Republican Dr. Mehmet before agreeing to one on Oct. 25, a week before the election.
Debate ducking is a strategy this year among Democrats as Charlie Kirk tweeted out.
Ruth Moton Has Effective Commercial Online — Ruth Moton, the Republican candidate for the 159th Pennsylvania House seat, has a great on-line commercial explain why she should get your vote.
Ruth Moton
The seat has been held by Democrats — or Kirklands if you want — since 1993.
The Kirkland part will be changing regardless as incumbent Bryan Kirkland lost his primary to Carol Kazeem.
The revised parameters of the 159th are Chester, Eddystone, Lower Chichester Township, Marcus Hook, Parkside, Trainer, and Upper Chichester Township.
Ruth’s ad shows many scenes of Chester and the legacy of Democrat rule.
Richard Weiss is an attorney who has the Green Party nod for Pennsylvania’s U.S. senate seat. He ran before for attorney general and a judge.
He has a number of issues for which he proposes green solutions.
One solution he proposes for the Covid controversy is that “we could have hours of operation for those who want masking”. Further on, he proposes that we could have “mask-only buses and mask optional buses”.
These may or may not be practical solutions, but they’re at least possible solutions.
He believes that we should seek to negotiate peace in the Ukraine and revoke the authorization for use of military force (AUMF) instituted on Sept. 18, 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks.
He wants to reduce overseas bases to pre-911 levels, bring troops home and spend that (my italics) money at home. He supports the Stop Arming Terrorists Bill proposed by Tulsi Gabbard”, and wants to free Julian Assange.
He wants to end civil asset forfeiture and qualified immunity, and ban fracking
During an extensive electronic interview he said supports approval voting which he says would eliminate any spoiler effect, backed criminal justice reform and single payer healthcare, and explained why he is running as a Green.
“The Green Party is in favor of ending forever wars, closing oversea bases, and bringing troops back home,” he said.
Immigration Crisis Should Give GOP Upper Hand But Will They Act?
By Joe Guzzardi
With seven weeks remaining before the 2022 mid-term election, Republicans and Democrats have drawn their battle lines, and staked out what each party considers their opponents’ political vulnerabilities.
Last week, the GOP released what it called a “Commitment to America” that included many oft-made, unfulfilled promises to its base. GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) vowed to fund border enforcement, end catch-and-release and mandate E-Verify, the online program that confirms whether a newly hired employee is legally authorized to work in the U.S.
President Biden swiftly rebutted. Speaking to the teachers’ union in Philadelphia, Biden called the “Commitment to America” thin gruel, and chided McCarthy for omitting references to issues that, in his view, voters most care about like a woman’s right to choose, Medicare, Social Security, gun violence and LGBT discrimination.
Enforcing immigration laws may help give Republicans a winning hand – border patrol agents have apprehended an estimated 4.9 million illegal immigrants during the 20 months since Biden’s inauguration. The variable in the November election is whether the GOP can unify behind its promises, traditionally a huge problem for Republicans, and press their advantages into a congressional majority against what will be solidly determined, no defectors allowed, Democrats.
Key to the Commitment to America is E-Verify. At first glance, the program should have universal congressional support – no one from either party can intelligently argue that citizens and lawfully present immigrants shouldn’t be protected against illegal immigrant employment. But the donor-base wants illegal immigrant employees, cheaper and more subservient. And because the corporate elites are so influential with U.S. representatives and senators, E-Verify has hit a congressional brick wall for nearly 30 years. Thus, E-Verify has never had the benefit of a full floor vote.
Sadly, the Biden administration has moved dramatically away from E-Verify’s intention. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ October 12, 2021 memo prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting worksite enforcement raids that might turn up employed illegal aliens. Mayorkas’ memo is an administrative subversion of immigration law, and an open invitation for employers, penalty-free, to hire illegal aliens who will also be protected from enforcement consequences. Under existing but ignored law, employed illegal immigrants could be deported.
Despite insistence from immigration advocates that Americans won’t do most of the jobs that aliens are hired to do, the evidence proves the contrary. In 2017, ICE audited an industrial bakery in Chicago which forced the employer, Cloverhill Bakery, to fire 800 illegal aliens. The terminated employees were quickly replaced by mostly black Americans. Similar ICE cases targeted illegal employment at Mississippi chicken plants, at a trailer manufacturer in Texas and a meatpacker in Tennessee. Not only were hundreds of Americans hired to fill the now-vacant jobs, but the government indicted some directly involved managers. The cases’ common denominators were the aliens’ presence in the labor market, a problem that E-Verify would have averted.
The Commitment to America is encouraging, but skeptics wonder if there’s muscle behind it or if it’s more GOP smoke and mirrors. McCarthy, Scalise and Stefanik have what’s generously described as tepid voting records on reducing illegal presence and jobs. In the same illegal presence and jobs category, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell scored a zero. About a week ago on the Senate floor, McConnell delivered a squishy speech about immigration’s importance; his tone didn’t reverberate with the Commitment to America theme.
During the campaigning, certain to be contentious, GOP leaders may have an awakening, and persuade undecided voters that American jobs and sovereignty must be saved. Time is short. At Biden’s current pace of admitting the world – including got-aways – the U.S. could have more than 7 million illegal aliens added to its population by 2024, an unsustainable total that will adversely affect every aspect of Americans’ lives.
Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist who writes about immigration and related social issues. Joe joined Progressives for Immigration Reform in 2018 as an analyst after a ten-year career directing media relations for Californians for Population Stabilization, where he also was a Senior Writing Fellow. A native Californian, Joe now lives in Pennsylvania. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Immigration Crisis Should Give GOP Upper Hand But Will They Act?
Caroline Avery is a Libertarian who is running for the US House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District. The incumbent is Republican Brian Fitzpatrick. The Democrat candidate is Ashley Ehasz.
Caroline, like too many independent Democrats and Republicans, had her petitions challenged in court, and was not permitted to run as a Republican. However, she secured the Libertarian endorsement to continue her battle against Fitzpatrick.
She is strongly endorsed by the Gun Owners of America (GOA).
“Caroline earned GOA’s support because of her high marks during her rigorous candidate endorsement process, and she earned a 100-percent score on our 2022 gun-rights candidates’ survey,” says the GOA.
And she enthusiastically accepts the endorsement.
“In a time of skyrocketing lawlessness and crime, the far left calls for defunding the police and attacks the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As a strong supporter of our Constitution and the Second Amendment, I won’t stand for it, and I’m proud to be endorsed by Gun Owners of America,” she says.
Gun rights are not her only issue. In a fiery posting on Facebook, she issues a challenge to Covid treatment orthodoxy, discussing how friends in Australia and Finland were punished for denying this orthodoxy.
On her website, she describes herself as a “world explorer , not a vacationer” and claims to have been in every state except Alaska. She says she is “the daughter of a mastery Gunnery Sergeant who served in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam”. She goes on to say “I am my father’s daughter” and “I’ve lived a big life”. She cites here work experience as including bartender, a forklift driver, a sales representative for gold and silver smithing industries, and a worker in various jobs in the equine industry.
Her current job is a “buyer of fine antiques and artifacts.”
She and her longtime husband, Joe, live in Bucks County.
The first man to hold the seat was Federalist Thomas Fitzsimmons, one of the signers of the Constitution, in 1789.
Democratic godfathers Bob Brady and Tom Foglietta served the 1st District when it included South Philadelphia and the Delaware County waterfront.
Of course, so did Michael “Ozzie” Myers of Abscam infamy, (no relation to the slasher in the “Halloween” films), who was one of the few to actually be expelled from Congress.
He was also quoted saying “money talks and bullshit walks” but appears to have stolen that line, too.
Also the representing the district was the fictional and hapless Peter Russo, who was suicided by Kevin Spacey in the first season of the House of Cards.
Fetterman And The Guilty Hortons — When it was revealed that John Fetterman hired two killers for his campaign staff, he snapped back saying Lee and Dennis Horton were wrongly convicted and that getting them sprung “was one of the proudest moments of my career and I’m honored to have them on this team.”
Fetterman is the Democrat nominee for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pat Toomey. His Republican opponent is Dr. Mehmet Oz.
As lieutenant governor, Fetterman was instrumental in commuting the Hortons’ life sentences as he chairs the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons.
The Hortons were convicted along with Robert Leaf of killing Samuel Alemo during a holdup of Filito’s Bar at 5th Street and Hunting Park Avenue in Philadelphia.
Liar hires killers for campaign
Also shot were Luz Archella and her daughter Luz Martinez both of whom survived.
Fetterman says the Hortons merely were out for a drive when they saw Leaf and gave him a ride. They didn’t know anything about the robbery.
Um, we’d suggest you get out your hankies and weep for these poor boys who spent 27 years behind bars for just being Good Samaritans but, um, witnesses identified Dennis Horton as the rifle-toting shooter.
Fetterman is either a fool or a liar. Regardless, you don’t want him as governor.
