Category: Election 2024 Primary

Successful Insurgency In Pennsylvania House District 80

Successful Insurgency In Pennsylvania House District 80

By Bob Small

The Pennsylvania 80th House District has been Republican since 1969. It encompasses Blair County — except Altoona and part of Huntingdon County. The Republican Primary is basically the general election.

On April 23, incumbent, Jim Gregory lost to Scott Barger 5,648 votes to 4,649.

It was basically a blow out.

A big issue was Gregory’s support of Mark Rozzi (D-126) as Speaker of the House when the Republicans had a temporary majority in January 2023.

Rozzi, had pledged to govern as an independent but reneged almost immediatly stepping down in place of radical Philadelphian Joanna McClinton take over. 

Both Gregory and Rozzi are childhood sexual abuse survivors and were working on a”a constitutional amendment to relax the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse survivors.”

Barger who has degrees from both Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary served 15 years as a Pastor, then joined the family business WRTA – Altoona,PA, a news/talk radio station that also carries the Altoona Curve minor league team Altoona Curve.

Scott’s wife, Beth, is a public school teacher. They have five children.

On his campaign website, he lists five goals, including enacting a school report card and blockage of the Shapiro Energy Tax. He said “Our job as Representatives is to represent people from our district”.

He also received $15,000 from a PAC associated with State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-33)s.

Unless the Pennsylvania Alternative Parties (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, or Socialist Workers Party) or an Independent gains ballot status, Scott can waltz into office uncontested. This doesn’t speak well for our Pennsylvania Democracy.

See also Bryan Cutler survives primary, Kevin Boyle loses election

Successful Insurgency In Pennsylvania House District 80

An Interesting Race In Pa 172

An Interesting Race In Pa 172

By Bob Small

There were few upsets in the April 23 primary. Even Bryan Cutler managed to survive.

And it was not unexpected that incumbent Kevin Boyle would lose in the 172nd House District in Northeast Philly. A warrant had been issued for his arrest for violating a protection from abuse order and that his opponent Sean Dougherty was supported by the State Democrat Party.

Note that the warrant was withdrawn the day before the election by Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, because the order was “not active”.

But Boyle also had other problems. He was banned in February from Rockledge’s Gaul and Malt House, where he was “caught on video berating employees”. Here’s the video in case you missed it.

Also see this story from PennLive.

Boyle’s brother Brendan is the Democratic Congressman from the third District.

So Sean Dougherty is on the ticket for November where he will face Republican Aziaz Gill. Dougherty is the son of Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice Kevin Dougherty and the nephew of the infamous Johnny Doc.

Dougherty has a BA in Political Science and a minor in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Chestnut Hill College. His law degree is from Temple. He is as an associate attorney at The Duffy Firm.

He had been an assistant public defender in Philadelphia. worked at the Defender Association of Philadelphia (Assistant Public Defender)

Gill in his primary got 65.2 percent of the vote to Pathrick Gushue’s 34 percent.

Gill is the son of immigrant parents from South Asia. He has a Bachelor from Chestnut Hill College. He has worked as manager on City Councilman Brian O’Neill’s election campaign and was community outreach coordinator for City Commissioner Al Schmidt.

An Interesting Race In Pa 172

An Interesting Race In Pa 172

Committee Loss Leaves Bucks Boss Red Faced

Committee Loss Leaves Bucks Boss Red Faced –Bucks County GOP Chairwoman Pat Poprik is probably wishing she hadn’t gone hands on in a committeeman race in the April 23 Primary.

Top-down micromanaging invariably backfires but Pat really wanted Barry Casper out of politics and needed long-time ally and incumbent Wally Rosenthal to keep his post in Hilltop Fairhill’s 2nd Precinct.

So she sent a letter on GOP letterhead to the residents praising Wally and saying all Barry wants to do is “create chaos for personal gain.”

What micromangers never get is that the ones closest to the scene know more about what’s going on. The residents of Hilltop Fairhill know Barry as a coach and neighbor and knew the grief he was putting himself through is for anything but personal gain.

Anyway, when the votes were counted it was Casper 202 to Rosenthal 146.

In other Bucks election news, challenger Mark Houck lost to incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick 39,168 to 22,957 in the GOP Primary for Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District.

Frankly, he did better than we expected.

Houck said at event we attended that he will back Fitzpatrick in the general. Hopefully, he hasn’t changed his mind.

Committee Loss Leaves Bucks Boss Red Faced

Committee Loss Leaves Bucks Boss Red Faced

Mules Seen At Montco Dropbox

Mules Seen At Montco Dropbox — Former Montco Deputy Sheriff Sean Connolly, in an interview by Emerald Robinson, posted yesterday, April 23, described the steps the Democrats who control the suburban Philadelphia county are taking to ensure eternal rigged elections.

The interview begins with a clip of Joe Rooney of Abington telling the Montgomery County Commissioners, April 18, how he watched those in cars with out-of-state plates drop multiple ballots at one of the county’s 18 dropboxes over the course of an hour the day before.

Rooney’s complete statement can be seen here starting at 1:09:00.

Connolly told Emerald that Montco’s mandated minority Commissioner Thomas DiBello, arranged him a visit to Norristown’s ballot counting center where he saw the tabulation machines wired with network cables and numerous wireless access points (WAPs) on the ceiling.

The WAPs had been installed the day before, he was told.

Was it practice for November?

Connolly also gave Emerald an update about his battle with Gov. Josh Shapiro and Toll Brothers, a major Shapiro donor.

Satan laughs with delight when developers dedicated to the destruction of meadows ally with politicians who give lip-service to environmental protection.

Especially when that developer develops a reputation of ripping off customers with poorly made products.

Connolly also says that the Shapiro administration is delaying his right-to-know request to “lawyer up” due to his queries. Besides the Toll Brother matter, these includes sexual assault cover ups and narcotic officers having affairs with confidential informants.

He says he has been in contact with an undercover agent who had been with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office for over 29-year. He was in the forefront of uncovering the corruption there while it was under the reins of Shapiro and his minion Mike Vereb, he says. Vereb had been a Montgomery County Republican — note Republican — Party chairman.

Connolly will file federal charges when he gets a response to his right to know he says.

Watch the interview here.

Mules Seen At Montco Dropbox

Mules Seen At Montco Dropbox

Dasha Pruett To Launch Indy Congressional Campaign

Dasha Pruett To Launch Indy Congressional Campaign — Dasha Pruett is off the ballot for tomorrow’s (April 23) primary ballot and will launch an independent campaign for Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District, according to her husband, Rich.

This gives clear sailing for party-endorsed Alfe Goodwin to be the Republican nominee but might make things harder to unseat Democrat incumbent Mary Gay Scanlon in November.

Dasha needs 4,200 signatures by Aug. 1 to get on November’s ballot, said Rich.

Meanwhile, Mary Gay is getting some unfortunate publicity on X. Story here.

Dasha Pruett To Launch Indy Congressional Campaign

Pennsylvania Auditor General Primary 2024

Pennsylvania Auditor General Primary 2024

By Bob Small

The Pennsylvania Auditor General “monitors how public dollars are spent.” This is done by “conducting financial audits” and other reviews.

The primary election Tuesday, April 23, includes two running in the Democrat primary and the Republican incumbent running unopposed.

Republican Incumbent, Tim Defoor, is the first person of color to win a statewide office in Pennsylvania, as a Republican. The first, Austin Davis (Democrat) is the current lieutenant governor.

Defoor, from Dauphin County, is a graduate of Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He has served as Dauphin County controller, a special agent for the State Attorney General, and fraud investigator for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Defoor says that a dozen school districts had raised local taxes, while holding millions of dollars in their general funds.

During his first term he created the first (DEI) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office among many other initiatives.

See also Timothy DeFoor

Malcolm Kenyatta, of Philadelphia, graduated from Drexel and Temple. He represents the 181st District in the Pennsylvania House and is the first openly Gay person of color to serve in the General Assembly. Kenyatta, says “ I’m running for Auditor General because it’s time for the underdog to be a watchdog for Pennsylvania’s working families. “

He says that  “I will stand up for our workers by creating the first ever Bureau of Labor and Worker Protections and use the power of the office to take on wage theft, employee misclassification, and union busting. “

(Ed note: Will stopping union busting apply to Delaware County’s George Hill Prison?)

He has been chosen for  the Bertelsmann Leadership Fellow in the Digital Economy, the bipartisan Hunt/Kean Leadership Fellow in Education, and American Jewish Committee (AJC) Project Interchange.

See also Philadelphia’s rising Democratic star on another school …

Mark Pinsley is a graduate of Indiana University and Northeastern University. He is a businessman and a US Army Veteran. He’s currently Lehigh County Controller.

He owns Dermamed Solutions DermaMed Solutions. His goals as Auditor General are included in the following article Jewish Democrat Mark Pinsley Running for Auditor . See also Mark Pinsley For Auditor General

Pennsylvania Auditor General Primary 2024

Full Ticket In Pennsylvania 12

Full Ticket In Pennsylvania 12

By Bob Small

Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District is mostly Allegheny County with some of Westmoreland County.

The current Congressperson is Summer Lee, widely acknowledged as Pennsylvania’s most progressive congressperson. How you feel about that will probably determine your vote.

She voted for a ceasefire in Gaza and is supported by Justice Democrats Pa.

She is the first Afro-American to represent Southwestern Pennsylvania in the state legislature.

Her opponent in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary is Bhavini Patel, the daughter of a mother who emigrated from India.

After Graduating from Pitt, the site of her family’s food truck, she earned her masters in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

She was cofounder and CEO of Beamdata which helped people connect with their elected officials during Covid and has continued to use data technology to advance social justice. She is on Edgewood Borough Council. She has the support of Modsquad which is a PAC that declares itself moderate and funds candidates of both parties.

See The Moderate Democrats for the April 7 Debate between her and Summer Lee.

On the Republican side, there is James Hayes.

Hayes, an African-American, declares himself to be a supporter of Israel which contrast himself with his probable November opponent. He has degrees from Case Western (doctor in Business Administration) Georgetown (bachelors in International Economics, Princeton (masters in Economics and Policy) , and the University of Chicago. ( MBA in Finance and Accounting)

He has three children with his wife, Brenda Diaz,, whom he met while working in Mexico in the 1990s.

Finally, there is Laurie Macdonald. She was originally a Democratic candidate but was challenged off the ballot. She then announced a write-in campaign to be the Republican nominee.

She is president and CEO of Center for Victims.

“Good leadership requires the vision to see both sides, coalesce the ideas and bring people together,” she says.

Full Ticket In Pennsylvania 12

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

By Bob Small

Though there are five Democratic Candidates for Pennsylvania Attorney General, only Eugene Depasquale and Jack Stollsteimer have name recognition.  The others are Philadelphians Keir Bradford-Grey, Joe Khan and Jared Solomon.  None are endorsed by the state party.  If you like what Jack or Eugene has done, you can stop right here. If not, read on.

Keir Bradford-Grey would be the first Afro-American to be elected to this post.

She was head of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and Chief Defender for Montgomery County. In Philadelphia, she led the Pre-Entry Initiative and Participatory Defense Hubs.

“I’m running to be the people’s lawyer, and that’s what the attorney general is in every other state other than Pennsylvania,” she said in a debate.

Boston-born, she went to Albany State University and Ohio Northern Pettit College of Law

Khan and Solomon are graduates of Swarthmore College, but that needn’t be held against them. Both now reside in Northeast Philly.

Khan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. Speaking of his upbringing;  “when my parents got together in the 70s, he was Muslim and my mom was Catholic, so they settled on a Jewish neighborhood as a place to raise their kids. “

He has been an assistant district attorney in Philly and assistant US Attorney for the Pa. Eastern District. He also spent three years as Bucks County Solicitor. He mentioned starting a “Housing Justice Unit”, among other plans.

According to Meet Joe Khan he plans to “enact a 67 County Strategy for Public Safety”

Jared Solomon, State Representative for the 202nd District, has worked in both private law and as a Jag Officer in the Army Reserves.

He also mentions the Colorado Method among other innovations.

He also believes that police officers should engage with the community, as they used to.

Below is the link for the latest debate between the five candidates FULL DEBATE: Democratic candidates for Pa. attorney general

My favorite fictional cowboy lawyer was The Big Valley ‘s Jarrod Barkley.

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

Delco Council Told Unauthorized Software On Voting Machines

Delco Council Told Unauthorized Software On Voting Machines — Delaware County (Pa) Council was told, last night, April 17, that there was unauthorized software on its Hart Verity Voting 2.7 voting system.

The software is MathNET Numerics Dll, said Robert Mancini of Upper Providence.

This is a dynamic link library for MathNET.Numerics and can be used for manipulating data, Mancini said.

He said it’s listed neither on the Pennsylvania Department of State certification of the system, nor thee U.S. Election Assistance Commission test report for Hart 2.7.

Mancinie said the machines must be immediately secured and that an investigation be conducted as to how the software appeared.

“This would include an inspection of the administrator logs due to the fact that software cannot be installed without administrator privileges and whenever the software is installed, that will show up on the administrator logs,” he said.

Secure build validation were performed on but nine of the county’s 428 precinct machines, Mancini said. These must now be done on every machine, he said.

He said a criminal complaint will be filed within two weeks against a public official in Delaware County.

His three minutes can be watched here starting at 1:08:56.

If we trusted the county, we’d chalk this up to something innocent.

As it is, this must be taken seriously and investigated.

What is the big secret with Fort Orange Press, anyway?

Delco Council Told Unauthorized Software On Voting Machines

7th District Wild Congressional Race

7th District Wild Congressional Race

By Bob Small

The 7th Congressional District was the bailiwick of such icons as Pat Meehan, Joe Sestak, and Curt Weldon and even a Mary Gay Scanlon before it became the District of Allentown’s Susan Wild. The shape of the District was described as “Goofy kicking Donald Duck”

Susan Wild became infamous recently for saying, with a later apology, that she was “dismayed” to have Trump-leaning Carbon County added to her District, which also includes Lehigh, Northampton, and a small parcel of Monroe counties.

Though she doesn’t have a Democratic opponent, there are three Republicans vying to take her on in November.

The primary election is April 23.

Maria Montero is bilingual and a first-generation American on her father’s side while her great-grandfather was a Carbon County coal miner.

She grew up in Carbon County.

She is a graduate of St. Joe’s and Widener Law. She has led the Pennsylvania Commission for Women and The Pennsylvania Latino Commission.

Kevin Dellicker with his wife, Susan, wrote Twenty-Percent Soldiers, Our Life in the National Guard

They are the co-founders of Dellicker Strategies Dellicker Strategies – Technology, Solutions, Services a technologies solution company.

He was an economic policy advisor to Tom Ridge and has degrees from Air University, Liberty, Penn State and Syracuse. His family, including three sons, live in Lehigh County. There are 22 issues on his platform.

Ryan Mackenzie is the State Representative for the 187th District.

He is a descendant of a Northampton County Militia soldier in the Revolutionary War.

He is a graduate of NYU and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He wants to prohibit congresspeople from trading stocks based on insider information. He also wants term limits.

As a state rep, has voted to eliminate state cars for legislators and for curriculum transparency in K-12 schools.

He lives with his wife, Chloe, and their rescue hound dog, Ruckus, in Lower Macungie Township.

7th District Wild Congressional Race