Category: Pennsylvania Governor

Corbett Wins LOL

CorbettCott Final Insult

Corbett Wins LOL

Incumbent Gov. Tom Corbet in yesterday’s Republican primary handily beat a guy who was not officially on the ballot and had rejected fundraising.

Where retiree Bob Guzzardi’s name appeared on the ballot due to the lateness of the Supreme Court decision ruling him ineligible, Guzzardi tallied, unofficially,  well over 10 percent of the vote getting  14.46 percent (3,501 votes) in Allegheny County and 17.45 percent  (4,051 votes) in York County.

York County also had 1,410 actual write-ins while Allegheny had 842. Many if not most likely went to Guzzardi.

Where Guzzardi’s name did not appear on the ballot — which included the ring suburbs of Philadelphia — there were, unofficially, 1,199 write-ins in Chester County or 6.91 percent;  and 218 in Delaware County (1 percent).

Montgomery County and Bucks County did not release write-in tallies although the “name removed from ballot” button was hit 38 times in Montco and 135 times in Bucks. The under vote for Corbett in Montco was 6,054.

Corbett got 368,995 votes statewide. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley got 395,845.

We should note that Democrat winner Thomas Wolf got 484,495 votes in the D’s highly contested primary.

Guzzardi deserves only praise. He ran on principle and to give the many Republicans displeased with Tom Corbett  a choice. That the governor feared his candidacy is obvious in the steps he took to disqualify him.

Will the Guzzardi people, many of whom are activists, get behind Corbett this November?

If Corbett changes his position and stops the Common-Core based Pa Core Standards, yes, at least for this one.

If he doesn’t, this vote goes to Libertarian Ken Krawchuk.

A word of advice, Governor, get Peg Luksik’s endorsement.

 

CorbettCott vs GasCott

Don Adams of the always brilliant Independence Hall Tea Party Association proposed a “GasCott” during a recent appearance on WHPT’s Dom Giordano show.

He’s encouraging Pennsylvanians to fill their tanks in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware in response to the gas tax hike imposed last November by our Republican-led state government that will give our state the highest gas tax in the nation by 2018.

Don, by the time the full tax takes effect encouragement will not be needed to fill up in other states.

To  make our anger known in the short-term, we propose a CorbettCott. Leave Gov. Tom Corbett’s name unchecked during the May 20 primary election while voting for the down-ticket.  If enough Republicans do this, maybe a cleansing gale could be started to blow away the corrupt (insert an appropriate noun) who run the state party.

CorbettCott Final Insult

CorbettCott, The Final Insult

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in CampaignGuzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

Bob Guzzardi will be appearing on The Robert Mangino Show on KDKA in Pittsburgh, 8 tonight,  May 2, where he is expected to announce a write-in campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

The state Supreme Court, yesterday, overturned a Commonwealth Court decision and threw Guzzardi off the ballot on a rather bizarre technicality.

Many counties are distributing absentee ballots with Guzzardi’s name due as the delay in the Supreme Court’s decision forced them to go to press.

Votes for Guzzardi on those ballots will be counted as write-in votes.

The show’s call-in number is 866-391-1020. It can be listed to live at this link.

Guzzardi Announcing Write-in Campaign

Guzzardi Decision Revealed Fear

Guzzardi Decision Revealed FearGuzzardi Decision Revealed Fear

Yesterday’s (May 1)  Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision throwing retiree Bob Guzzardi off the GOP gubernatorial primary ballot was 5-2 with Max Baer and Debra McCloskey Todd dissenting.

The ruling overturned an April 15 decision by Commonwealth Court Judge  Mary Hannah Leavitt,

The Supreme Court’s rationale was that Guzzardi  did not timely file a Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission.

It was the type of petty reasoning that ended for most of us with grade-school playground games, and indicated that Guzzardi’s no-money campaign — he was purposely refusing all donations — actually might have beat the incumbent Tom Corbett.

Guzzardi had initially filed the statement with the Department of State.

Judge Leavitt had  noted that the procedure changed this year;  the directions for submission were confusing; and Guzzardi’s campaign was given incorrect information by “a Department of State employee with apparent authority” that he only needed to file with that department rather than submit a separate filing to the Ethics Commission.

She  noted the Department of State issued a receipt to Guzzardi that it shouldn’t have as he was filing with them the original rather than the required copy.

She noted that Guzzardi promptly corrected the omission upon learning of the problem.

The Supreme Court, solidly in the pocket of the state’s power brokers, found none of these things mattered. It was better that thousands of Pennsylvanians be disenfranchised over a laughable technicality than the status quo of the money flow be threatened.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, a house organ of the establishment, reported Guzzardi as raising less than $5,000. Great journalism. The phrasing should be that he spent less than $5,000. The campaign was entirely self-funded. As noted, he was not raising money. He was refusing donations.

Corbett’s faction spent close to six figures in their fight to keep Guzzardi off the ballot.

The two weeks the Court took in making the decision forced many counties to issue absentee ballots including Guzzardi’s name. Votes cast for Guzzardi on those ballots will be counted as write-in votes for him.

For those wishing to write in Bob’s name  use Robert Guzzardi.

You know a lot of Republicans are going to pointedly not hit Corbett’s button at the polls and Pennsylvanians are sure learning how to use that write-in option. It would be cosmic humor of the highest magnitude if Guzzardi ends up beating him.

 

 

 

Supremes Kill Guzzardi Campaign

Supremes Kill Guzzardi CampaignSupremes Kill Guzzardi Campaign

 

The insurgent primary challenged that terrified Pennsylvania’s feckless incumbent governor is over.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thrown Bob Guzzardi off the ballot for May 20, Guzzardi just announced .

The Pennsylvania Republican leadership challenged the 68-year-old retired businessman’s petitions scant minutes before the deadline forcing the self-funded campaign to hire a lawyer to show that those who signed had been eligible to do so and to defend a bizarre claim that the phrase “semi-retired businessman and lawyer” as his job description was somehow fraudulent as he was no longer practicing law.

Oh, and that he violated a technicality as to which paper-please bureaucracy he was supposed to file his stuff.

His lawyer, Gretchen Sterns, did a fantastic job at the hearing before Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt who found rather conclusively in Guzzardi’s favor on April 15.

But apparently the fix was in. An appeal was filed and the decision desired by the party powers came though.

Expect a Democrat to be in the Governor’s Mansion next January. Power-hungry fools whose arrogant stupidity leads to shooting fleas with cannons deserve to lose.

What did they have to fear from a retiree who was pointedly refusing campaign donations?

By the way, did you see where the same bunch is trying to take out man-of-the-people Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sobering Talk Concerning Pa

Sobering Talk Concerning Pa

With Matt Brouillette of Commonwealth Foundation (center) are Whitey Coyne, Lisa Esler, Charles Martini and William Lawrence Sr.

Matt Brouillette, president and CEO of the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation, one of the nation’s top think tanks, gave a sobering talk this evening, April 28, about what taxpayer activists and fighters of corruption face in Pennsylvania.

He said the reform Gov. Tom Corbett is pushing regarding the state-controlled distribution of liquor is “not about getting the government out of the booze business but giving the appearance of convenience.”

The privatization of the state owned “Wine & Spirits Shoppes” is popular with the populace across partisan lines. It’s not going to happen because it is not popular with special interests who send the bucks to legislators.

On a much more frightening note, Brouillette also said critically needed pension reform is not going to happen either.  He said state workers were “circling the wagons” to stop legislation to change their pension from a defined benefit one to the defined contribution one now the norm in the private sector.

He said the largest state-backed pension funds SERS and PSERS, that handle the retirement money for state workers and school teachers respectively, have unfunded liability of $57 billion and it’s “going up”. He noted that local school districts are on the hook for half of PSERS money so expect massive property tax hikes.

“There is a general lack of will to tackle the pension crisis,” he said. He said the solutions being proposed involve the state cutting its regular contributions and will only make things worse.

“If Republicans controlled the governor, house and senate, we might get some resolutions,” he said. After a pause, he said “You are supposed to laugh at that” the punchline being that the Republicans do have complete control in Pennsylvania.

“It’s not funny,” said a woman in the audience.

Brouillette agreed.

“The Big Government Party is the majority party in Pennsylvania,” he said. “And it has both Republicans and Democrats.”

Brouillette said that is the reason why his group is pushing paycheck protection as the priority.

Paycheck protection is found pending legislation HB 1507 and SB 1034 that ban the use of public resources to collect, bundle and transmit public sector union dues and PAC contributions.

“If an elected official tried to have money automatically deducted from an employees paycheck (to use for a campaign) they would go to jail.”

The PSEA and other government unions can do just that legally and without the employees permission as how to use it.

He said this is the main reason why the Big Government Party is in the majority in the state.

Brouillette says the Republicans are two votes shy in the senate of getting the reforms passed.

Brouillette also said that HB 1154, the bill that would end the allowance for union members to stalk, harass and threaten the use of weapons of mass destruction during labor disputes, was amended in the Senate in a way that supporters in the House fear that it was neutered.

In other matters, support was requested for Megan Rath who is taking on Democrat Congressman Bob Brady in Pennsylvania’s 1st District and for Bob Guzzardi who is running against incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett in the May 20 Republican Primary. Guzzardi, who is also a vocal opponent of Common Core, has made fighting for pension reform a linchpin of his campaign.

Lisa Esler noted that the group will be participating in an NRA Women on Target Instructional Shooting Clinic, June 28, at the Northern Chester County Sportsmen’s Club. The cost is $35 and covers the use of firearms, ammunition, shoot supplies, a t-shirt and goodied bag along with snacks. Call Theresa Reynolds at 610-304-5873 for information or email her at theresa6733@gmail.com

Maria Heider announced that there will a Twitter clinic co-hosted by Americans for Prosperity, 6:30 p.m., June 19, at the Marple Public Library. Call 610-572-3442 for information or to register.

 

 

Read more at BillLawrenceDittos.com for Sobering Talk Concerning Pa

 

Corbett Lied

GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Guzzardi had his first TV interview this afternoon with KDKA political editor Jon Delano.

The topic concerned the claim that Corbett broke the promise he made in 2010 not to raise taxes.

Delano rather brutally illustrated Guzzardi’s claim that he did.

The interview can be seen here with a transcript.

Corbett Gang Files Appeal


This is not a caricature of Gov. Tom Corbett but of the late Leslie Nelson in his role as Frank Drebin from the Naked Gun movies. You can be forgiven, however,  for thinking otherwise.

It’s official.

Gov. Tom Corbett has, figuratively, taken a 10-guage double-barreled shotgun and blown off both of his feet.

The party hacks, who for some unfathomable reason are desperately trying to keep Corbett on November’s Republican ticket, appealed, yesterday, April 16, the well-grounded decision handed down the day before by Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt that lets reformer Bob Guzzardi stay on the May 20 primary ballot.

Guzzardi, it should be noted, is purposely running a shoestring campaign and refusing all campaign donations.

Only two things can happened with the case now officially before the state Supreme Court.

— Corbett wins it. This means the Supremes overturn a decision made after a fair hearing that revealed Guzzardi did not use fraud to get on the ballot and that a significant number of Pennsylvania voters want him there. This would cement in the minds of those voters that the judicial system is corrupt and the Republican establishment cannot be trusted to protect them from government which is after all their reason for voting Republican. This not only kills Corbett but severely damages the party.

— Corbett loses it. This means Guzzardi gets publicity he otherwise would not have, and still causes the GOP base to wonder why the party establishment wants so badly to keep this guy off the ballot.

Visit BillLawrenceDittos.com for Corbett Gang Files Appeal
Visit BillLawrenceOnline.com for Corbett Gang Files Appeal

Frightened Corbett Faction Plans Appeal?

TribLive.com is reporting that the Tom Corbett faction is planning an appeal of Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt rejection of their challenge to throw Republican gubernatorial challenger Bob Guzzardi off the May 20 primary ballot.

If accurate, it would not merely indicate that Corbett is scared of Guzzardi — who is running a shoestring campaign and pointedly refusing all donations — but that they are terrified and absolutely desperate.

If they fear Bob Guzzardi in the primary what hope can they possibly have in November?

Of course, what they fear, perhaps, is that Guzzardi is putting the needs of the state ahead of politics.

Maybe they should be afraid and maybe the Democrats should fear as well.

Visit BillLawrenceDittos.com for Frightened Corbett Faction Plans Appeal?
Visit BillLawrenceOnline.com for Frightened Corbett Faction Plans Appeal?

 

Guzzardi Wins Ballot Challenge

Guzzardi Wins Ballot Challenge — Bob Guzzardi, the reformer seeking to unseat incumbent Tom Corbett and give the Republicans a halfway chance of keeping the governor’s office, is on the ballot in a decision handed down today by Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt.

Corbett’s team sought to keep Guzzardi off the ballot claiming he lacked the minimum number of valid signatures, misrepresented his occupation on his nomination petition and did not timely file a Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission.

It is thought they spent between $25,000 and $50,000 in the futile endeavor.

Corbett’s team managed to knock the total number of signatures in Cumberland County from 131 to 104; in Delaware County from 182 to 159, from Lebanon County from 142 to 104 and from Northumberland County from 127 to 108.

The rule for ballot access requires 2000 signatures with at least 100 coming from 10 counties.

The objectors then levied challenges against 20 of the remaining names in Cumberland, 14 in Lebanon and 19 in Northumberland.

Corbett’s team picked over clear typographical errors, the use of diminutives rather than full names and even hired forensic document examiner J. Wright Leonard in a futile attempt to impeach the signatures.

Guzzardi’s attorney Gretchen Sterns successfully defeated the challenges citing case law and, at times, getting affidavits from those whose names were allegedly wrongly marked.

The occupation misrepresentation claim was based on Guzzardi describing himself as a “semi-retired businessman and lawyer”.

Corbett’s team said this was false because his state attorney license has been in inactive status since 2011 hence he was falsely calling himself a lawyer.

Judge Leavitt noted that Guzzardi’s description of his occupation was logical and consistent with common usage, and that there is no evidence that the electorate was deceived.

Regarding the Statement of Financial Interests, Guzzardi had filed one with the Department of State. Judge Leavitt found that the procedure changed this year and the directions for submission were confusing. She said the Guzzardi’s campaign was given incorrect information by “a Department of State employee with apparent authority” that he only needed to file with that department rather than submit a separate filing to the Ethics Commission. She noted the Department of State issued a receipt to Guzzardi that it shouldn’t have as he was filing with them the original rather than the required copy.

She noted that Guzzardi promptly correct the omission up learning of the problem.

Bob Guzzardi is on the ballot for May 20 in the Republican gubernatorial primary. As noted Corbett supporters spent at least $25,000 in an attempt to knock him off.

 

Guzzardi Wins Ballot Challenge