No Choice In Pennsylvania Primaries For US Senate
By Bob Small
When one first viewed the dueling slates of candidates for the Pennsylvania US senate seat, there were two Democrats and three Republicans listed, enough to have an interesting Primary.
The incumbent, Bob Casey, Jr. is still remembered by many alternative party adherents for forcing Green Party candidate Carol Romanelli off the ballot in 2006 and, at one point, he was ordered to pay $100,000 in court costs, later appealed.
On March 4, Democrat William Parker was ordered off the ballot for insufficient signatures.
Thus the Democrats have again protected Bob Casey, Jr. from a meaningful debate before the Primary.
Dave McCormick is again running for the US Senate, two years after losing to Doctor Oz, for the right to face John Fetterman.
This year, they were not taking chances of a loss again.
McCormick was endorsed by the state party in September.
It is believed to be the first time the state party has endorsed a candidate for an election more than a year away.
Brandi Tomasetti, of Lancaster County ended her campaign against McCormick, March 8, with a court challenge pending regarding her nominating petitions.
“We will never surrender the country. We lost a battle but we will win the war,” she said. She asked voters to write in her name.
On March 11, Commonwealth Court ordered Joseph Vodvarka of Clinton be struck from the GOP ballot leaving McCormick uncontested.
To see his campaign site, go to Joseph Vodvarka for Senate! while it’s still up there. Actually, we just checked, it’s no longer up there.
So the primary race is pointless for U.S. Senate.
Ved Dookhun, of the Socialist Workers Party is the only third party candidate so far who will be on the ballot.
One expects that, at the very least, that the Pennsylvania chapters of the Constitution Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and maybe even the No Labels Party, will run candidates.
Of course, the chance of any of these candidates winning is, as they say “slim and none and slim just left town.”
No Choice In Pennsylvania Primaries For US Senate
This article would be more accurately titled, “No Choices That Bob Small Likes in PA Primaries”.
McCormick is a good candidate. It was unfortunate that Oz ran last time, and with Trump’s support. Oz had no chance. If Trump really felt the need to get involved, he should have supported McCormick. Better, though, if he had just stayed out, or played as low-key a role as possible. We might have McCormick now, instead of that waste of space Fetterman.
You have every right to support McCormick and to believe that he would have faired better than Oz in 2022. However, the fact that Fetterman won, despite his medical and mental incompetency, is a direct result of PA’s mail in ballot system that lets voters send in their election ‘coupons’ 50 days in advance of the actual election. Fetterman, by virtue of the Democrat ballot harvesting machine, was 600,000 votes ahead of Oz before the polls even opened on “election day”. Do you really think McCormick or any Republican could have overcome that disadvantage? Then we have our PA GOP and county affiliate committees who still haven’t figured it out yet. By anointing McCormick and attacking any other challengers (see below comment), they are saying screw you to all of us. Then there’s the back story to how and when they anointed McCormick. That happened when he agreed to withdraw his candidacy in 2022. In doing so he also withdrew his lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court that could have forced hand recounts in every district in the state to check the reliability of the election computers, an opportunity we will likely never get again. We’ve been sold out, plain and simple.
It is unfortunate that it is harder to get on the ballot (and stay there) than it is to vote illegally. I represented Brandi Tomasetti on a pro bono basis when the PA DOS Bureau of Elections initially rejected her petitions based on a variety of technical issues that we were able to overcome. Brandi, with just in excess of 2100 signatures (2000 required to run for the US Senate), was then placed on the ballot, only to be challenged thereafter by well sponsored voters with a well known attorney. We did our best to overcome those challenges but, with only a matter of days to do so, we fell short by the single digits and Brandi wisely elected to voluntarily withdraw her petition instead of risking a huge damages award against her where she could held liable for her challenger’s legal fees and costs. It was Brandi’s first try for office and she did an incredible job. What is unfortunate and why I chose to help her is that it should be easy to get on the ballot but very hard to vote illegally. Unfortunately, our state has it backwards.
Wasn’t McCormick some big time hedge fund guy with ties to China, the WEF and other globalist types.
Why exactly was he endorsed over a year before the election.
What is even the point of a Primary in Pennsylvania in the 21st Century.
When McCormick would not say that the 2020 election was rigged then Trump endorsed OZ and because democrats are better at getting their base to vote by mail McCormick would have lost to LURCH. I was for State Committee to endorse McCormick so we did not have Trump pick another loser
So endorse the least MAGA candidate. The globalist with globalist ties. That’s definitely a formula for success. NB my sarcasm.
The only genuine MAGA candidate for Senate in 2022 was Kathy Barnette. With nearly no funding (compared to Oz or McCormick), she came in a close enough third (despite the balloting games) to scare the establishment so much they had to try an smear her at the last minute. I make no excuses for Trump backing Oz. It made no sense then and makes no sense now. The Republican establishment is no different than their Democrat bud. Their policy is you will get who we pick for you, so don’t forget to vote for our endorsed candidates.
If we learned anything from Nimarata is that a candidate can lose to “none of the above.”
I NEVER vote for unopposed candidates. Period. This year I will be writing in “none of the above” for any uncontested races on the April ballot and suggest everyone else do the same to send a clear message to the so called establishment.