Pennsylvania Republican State Committee Chair Rob Gleason is taking credit for Anne Covey’s election to Commonwealth Court and Republicans taking control of 12 county courthouses. He is taking credit for wins that are not his and blaming others for losses which are and gets away with it. Rob Gleason profits from his politics. Why should he not smile?
Let us look at some details omitted by Chairperson Gleason and let us look at Montgomery County where Rob Gleason played a large role losing, with one exception (fn 2 below) and Lehigh County where he played no role in general election win and a losing role in primary loss by his candidate, Dean Browning.
Lehigh County, which Chairman Gleason failed to mention and where Democrats out register Republicans by a substantial margin, Republican swept 4 for 4 on County Board of Commissioners changing a 5 to 4 shaky Majority (which had included Rob Gleason supported Dean Browning who broke ranks with other Republicans to enable a 16% Democratic Tax Increase and then lost in the primary) to a 7-2 Majority of reliable fiscal common sense Republicans. Scott Ott analyzes his opposition to Cunningham-Browning 16% Tax Increase.
Fiscal common sense MyLehigh Republican Glen Eckhart , in a surprise win, defeated Democratic incumbent for County Controller 53-47 for the first time in long memory.
County Judicial candidate Republican Doug Reichley, supported by MyLehigh, also won his election. ( In MontCo, The two Republican County Judicial candidates lost by significant margins.)
Rob Gleason played no role whatsoever in general election after his disastrous intervention on behalf of loser Dean Browning in the primary. Perhaps this is why Lehigh County’s stunning turnaround from weak fiscal common sense to solid fiscal common sense Majority is not mentioned by State Committee Chair.
Rob Gleason invested time, money and resources in MontCo which went Democratic for the first time in 140 years. The Rs, also, lost the judicial races and both Vic Stabile and Anne Covey lost in MontCo.
Rob Gleason’s magic touch was, also, inversely evident in Lehigh County’s primary where, below the radar, he backed an incumbent Republican sell-out Dean Browning who voted for a 16% tax hike proposed by Union Democrat County Executive Don Cunningham.
The “MyLehigh” team ran on a simple and consistent fiscal common sense message of opposition to that tax hike and took three of the four seats. The fourth seat went to Republican Brad Osborne ran on a record of fiscal common sense as South Whitehall Township Commissioner.
Party Chairman Wayne Woodman, who does not profit financially from his political work and, in fact, contributes significant amounts of his own money to Republican Party and candidates gets no credit from the county chair, perhaps, a petty payback for defeating Rob Gleason’s candidate.
This was an open primary where the Republican base chose its candidates without endorsement or manipulation from the top. As a result, the base was invested in these candidates, MyLehigh’s Scott Ott, Lisa Scheller and Vic Mazziotti as well as Brad Osborne.
In the general, the My Lehigh Team hammered the message of rolling back the Democratic Tax Increase while the Republican Osborne stressed his “no new tax” record over 7 years as South Whitehall Township Commissioner.
Does Winner Wayne feel bad that he “don’t get no respect” from loser Rob?
Fyi Wayne and I went to the same charm school. I graduated with honors and Wayne made Dean’s list. Lesson Learned: a consistent, clear message of fiscal common sense delivered by credible candidates with a voter base invested in their political success wins. Ego driven personalities (I think you all know to whom I refer ) fracture party unity with their self-centered focus on themselves and not the message or the team as MontCo Row Offices can attest. MCRC Chair did nothing, except take candidate money.
A budding new leadership will be meeting soon and I expect will be adopting the Lehigh County Republican Model.
Notes:
1 Statewide Republican Commonwealth Court Candidate the well-qualified and highly competent, team player and not a hack Anne Covey won over Democratic Leftist Kathryn Boockvar 52.4 versus 47.6 while Rob Gleason’s hand picked hack, Vic Stabile, lost 54.6 v. 45.5 to Trial Lawyer financed David Wecht.
In MontCo, both Anne Covey and Vic Stabile lost by significant margins and won in Lehigh County by significant margins: In MontCo, Democrat Wecht 52.3 to Stabile 47.7 where as in Lehigh County Democrat David Wecht lost to Republican Stabile 47.7 to 52.3 and in MontCo Democrat Boockvar defeated Republican Covey 50.9 to 49.3 whereas in Lehigh County, Democrat Boockvar lost to Republican Covey 45.9 to 54.1
In MontCo, both county judicial candidates lost by substantial margins while in Lehigh County the judicial candidate won by substantial margin.