Category: Election Archive

GOP Picks Burns In Race To Fill Murtha Seat

GOP leaders from Pennsylvania’s 12 Congressional District, tonight, picked businessman Tim Burns as its candidate to fill  remaining months of the seat left vacant by the Feb. 8 death of John Murtha.

Burns beat out  Bill Russell, Murtha’s opposition in 2008, by a vote of 85-46.

Also seeking the nomination were Ron Robertson, Luke Summerfield  and Bill Choby.

Burns will take on Democrat Mark Critz in a special election on May 18, the day of the primary.

A separate vote will be taken to determine the candidates for the general election for a full two-year term. Russell said he will not remove himself from the primary.

Can Admiral Joe Be A Health Care ‘No’?

Residents of Pennsylvania’s 7th District are reportedly getting emails (aka spam) from President Obama asking them to call Congressman Joe Sestak to say  thank you for his vote last fall to socialize our health care system and “to report that OFA supporters in Pennsylvania have pledged 332,199 volunteer hours to back up member of Congress like yours who stand up for health reform”

Sestak wavering on socializing our health care system would be like Ed Rendell joining the Republican Party.

Hafer Off The Ballot

Former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer has removed herself from the Democratic primary ballot to replace the late John Murtha as congressman for the 12th District of Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The state Democratic Party’s Executive Committee  picked 
Mark Critz, who had been Murtha’s district director, as its candidate in a special election to fill out the rest of Murtha’s term.

There will be a primary election to determine the party candidates for the general election race for a new two-year term . Still preparing to battle Critz in it are Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr., Air Force veteran Ron Mackell Jr. of Johnstown and Navy veteran Ryan Bucchianeri.

Republicans will choose, tomorrow, either  Johnstown
businessman Tim Burns, Army veteran William Russell, or  Bill Choby as their nominee for the special election.,

Specter, Sestak Now Face A Conservative Dem

Democrats will have a third choice for senator in the Pennsylvania primary, May 18.

Joseph Vodvarka of Allegheny County appears to have acquired the necessary 2,000 signatures to get on the ballot to battle incumbent Arlen Specter and 7th District Congressman Joe Sestak.

Vodarka describes himself as a manufacturer and small business owner. He describes himself as a conservative Democrat. He is against ObamaCare and has been an NRA member for 36 years.

Vodarka will have nowhere near the resources as the other candidates and Specter, the party’s endorsed candidate, is already the heavy favorite. Still he’s the lone candidate not from the Philadelphia area and western Pennsylvanians are known for their reluctance to vote for Philadelphians.

Dems Pick Critz In Murtha Replacement Race

The state Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, today, picked 
Mark Critz as the party’s candidate to replace the late John Murtha to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District.

Critz had been Murtha’s district director. Also, seeking the nomination were former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer, Cambria County Controller Ed Cemic Jr. and former Naval Officer Ryan Bucchianeri.

The election will be  May 18, the day of the state primary.  The Republican nominee will be selected Thursday and be either Tim Burns or Bill Russell who opposed Murtha in 2008.

The winner will serve out the rest of Murtha’s term. An election will be held in November for a new term and there will also be a primary election May 18 to pick the candidates for the November race.

Bucchianeri and Ms. Hafer  say they will be primary candidates.

PoliticsPA.Com says the finally tally of the Executive Committee was Critz, 30; Hafer, 18; and Bucchianeri, 1.

Tenacious Rohrer Marches On


Most observers figure the GOP nomination for this year’s governor’s race has been wrapped up with a pretty bow on top for party-endorsed  Attorney General Tom Corbett  but by the slew of stops he has slated for  March, last-challenger-left Sam Rohrer seems determined to see them surprised.

Rohrer, the state representative for the 128th District, has 10 stops scheduled for the rest of this month including two today starting with  the Greater Philadelphia Candidates Forum where he is expected to face off against Corbett and Democrats Joe Hoeffel, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, state Auditor General Jack Wagner, and State Senator Anthony Williams, who represents the 191th District which consists of parts of Philadelphia and Yeadon in Delaware County.

He will then go to the Pizza Como Club in Pennsburg for an 8:30 p.m. event sponsored by the Upper Montgomery County Republican Club.

The Chamber forum is scheduled to be broadcast on PCN at 9 p.m.

Rohrer has a meeting scheduled in Delaware County, 7 p.m., March 26 at the Delaware County Christian School, 462 Malin Road, Newtown Square.

African-American Republican To Seek Gov. As Independent

Robert Allen Mansfield, a sergeant in the National Guard with service in Iraq, has announced he is dropping out of the May 18 Republican primary election to run for governor as an independent.

The state Republican committee voted overwhelmingly, last month, to endorse Attorney General Tom Corbett for the spot.

Still in the primary race is state Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128)

Mansfield is an African-American from Philadelphia, born in 1971, whose heroine addicted mother put him up for adoption. He spent two years in foster care before being adopted by the Mansfield family.

He had a stormy youth in which he ran away from home several times. Things began to turn around in 1991, he says, when he accepted Jesus Christ into his life. He earned his GED and  joined the Guard in 1996.

While in the Guard he did odd jobs and began his own financial firm, R. Allen Associates.

He now lives in York.

For the independent run he will require 19,000 signatures rather than the 2,000 he got for the primary.

Here is a link to a biography and his positions.

They include a belief in smaller government, school choice, free markets, and that every child is a gift from God.

“I know that life begins at conception,” he says. “I don’t need to defer to a higher pay grade to come to that conclusion”

Singel Backs Critz For Murtha Seat

Former Lt. Gov. Mark Singel, who ended his bid Thursday to replace fellow Democrat John Murtha as Pennsylvania 12th District’s representative in Congress, has endorsed Mark Critz for the seat. Critz is Murtha’s former district director.

A special election will be held May 18, the day of the state’s primary election, to fill the remaining months of the term of Murtha who died Feb. 8.

A election for a full-term will be held in November.

Other Democrats seeking the seat are Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr., former Navy officer Ryan Bucchianeri, and former state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and writer Ron Mackell Jr

Theleading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who wasMurtha’s opposition in 2008.  GOP activist Dave Battaglia  andbusinessman Tim Burns were also GOP primary candidates.

Thanks to PoliticsPa.Com

Sestak OK With Terror Trials In Pa., Is Lentz?

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa7) is fine with having the trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 plotters  held in a federal court in western Pennsylvania if they should be blocked in New York City or Northern Virginia.

“I would accept them anywhere in America, to be brought here, to bebrought to justice, to have the keys thrown away or to have them giventhe death sentence by a jury of our peers,” said Thursday according to the Wall Street Journal.

If you feel that way, Joe, why bother with the trial? Do you understand the concept of the presumption of innocence? Do you realize that a judge is mandated to throw out tainted evidence, an action that could almost guarantee acquittal? Or do you think we should make exceptions for these guys and, if so, how would that not be a far greater mockery of due process and our system of justice than simply putting them  before military tribunals in accordance with well-established procedures?

Can you comprehend that these guys aren’t afraid of death — which as noted is not guaranteed so imagine them serving a life sentence in federal prison and being a constant source of inspiration for kidnappings and terrorist acts in attempts to free them — and that they would use these trials as platforms for propaganda and the acquisition of sensitive information  which they can funnel to their followers?

I guess not.

To be honest, Joe, I would be far more willing to guarantee a Specter-Toomey senate race this fall than I would KSM’s conviction in a civilian trial much less death.

Which brings us to the race to replace Sestak in the 7th District:  Does Bryan Lentz, the presumptive Democratic nominee agree with Sestak about this state being a fine place for a civilian terror trial? If not, is Lentz, who served in a civil affairs unit in Iraq and  was a prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, willing to explain to the congressman why such a trial is a real bad idea?

Pat Meehan, the former federal prosecutor and Delaware County D.A. who is going to be the GOP nominee for the seat, certainly can.

Specter Says Reconciliation OK For Destroying Health Care

Sen. Arlen Specter (S as in Specterite-Pa.) has changed his mind. At first blush that’s not news with regard to the longtime Republican who switched to the Dems when it looked like he’d lose the GOP primary, but when you realized Specter is not blushing when he says it regarding this particular matter, it becomes rather remarkable.

Specter was one of 20 senators who signed a letter presented to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Feb. 19,  supporting the use of reconciliation, a process to avoid a Senate filibuster regarding budgetary matters, to pass ObamaCare.

Specter says he changed his mind to support of this dubious action — the people of America are making it clearer by the day they don’t want socialized medicine — because he has learned it has been used many times in the past according to PoliticsPa.Com.

So, Specter — who has been a senator since 1981 — has just come to realized this?

“I have (supported reconciliation) after taking a look at theprecedents and seeing that it has been used very, very broadly,”Specter said.

At least he didn’t cite Scottish law.

The sooner he goes the better off this country will be.