News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
State GOP Candidates Coming To Lansdale — A meet and greet for the Pennsylvania Republican candidates seeking state offices will be hold noon to 2 p.m., June 8 at the Family Worship Center, 1000 Troxel Road, Lansdale, Pa. 19446.
Attending will be Stacy Garrity who is seeking re-election as treasurer; Timothy DeFoor who is seeking re-election as auditor general and Dave Sunday who is seeking election as attorney general.
RSVP at HamletGOPEvents@gmail.com.
Delco Comes Out Big For Trump — Rallies were held for President Trump, today, June 1 in Media and Concord in Delaware County, Pa.
Turnout was strong. Thursday’s kangaroo court conviction seems to have solidified support for The Donald.
Among those attending the Media rally were Kathy Buckley, who is the Republican candidate for 168 District Pennsylvania House race and Liz Piazza, who is the one for the 165th District seat.
Media GOP chairman Michael Straw has sent pictures from both events.
Peter Sonski And American Solidarity Run Principled Presidential Campaign
By Bob Small
The next President will have five letters in his name. The next President will be serving his second term. The next President will be our oldest serving President, older than Ronald Reagan, 77 when he left office. Either way, we will have six more months of Biden/Trump.
There are a dozen of what I call “Alternative Parties” with presidential candidates and with Pennsylvania connections.
The American Solidarity Party of Pennsylvania can be accessed at here.
They are a self-described Party with Christian democratic values” Among their seven principles is Sanctity of Life, which means they are anti-abortion and anti-death penalty and see themselves as consistent in this regard.
Among their 14 platform segments, they see foreign policy as the belief that “the United States should be committed to a more peaceful world through international cooperation and restriction of the use of military force to a strict understanding of just war theory. “
Peter Sonski is the party’s nominee for president for 2024. He former radio host, a member of Connecticut’s regional School Board 17, and director of The Knights of Columbus Museum.
His running mate is Lauren Onak who has a masters in Adolescent Education from Hunter College but is a stay-at-home mom to three children.
Good party .org gives an outline of What to Know About the American Solidarity Party including that they support “ economic policies that promote fairness, workers’ rights, and the redistribution of wealth to combat inequality.” including a living wage, etc. This article also mentions that they draw inspiration from the “ Christian Democratic movements prevalent in Europe and Latin America,” a rather unusual combination in North America.
One of my newest favorite online publications, The Imaginative Conservative, gives a dozen reasons why one should support them and starts with the adage “good news is only good when it’s subversive.”
The article’s third reason is that “The ASP supports common-sense environmental initiatives. Without being crazy tree-huggers, they promote responsible care for the environment that corrects wanton commercial exploitation.”
The eighth reason is “Supporting the ASP means holding your head up (because you are gazing at the stars) rather than hanging your head because you were gazing at the gutter”
Anyway, we probably know who the next President will be, if not the vice-president.
Peter Sonski And American Solidarity
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.