WNEP: Luzerne County has a new commissioner and she is a familiar face.
Former commissioner Rose Tucker was named to the post Monday. Tucker, a Democrat from Nanticoke, takes over for Todd Vonderheid who resigned to take a job with the chamber of commerce.
It's no surprise that Skrep got his pick and Rose has always been a team player. Many people were pulling for former state rep Tom Tigue and the other candidates never had a chance. And speaking of not team players Steve Urban and Bill Jones are running against each other instead of the Democrats.
Luzerne County Republican Chairwoman Lynette Villano tries to put a good face on it in a CV story. She points out that the Republicans hold 2 of the row offices and expect to retain them. But they couldn't even find candidates to run for judge, district attorney or coroner. Red O'Brien will give Mary Dysleski a run for the money with 2 long time employees confessing to pocketing large sums of money from The Recorder of Deeds office. But I think Barry Stankus should be reelected as sheriff over Michael Savokinas especially if sore loser George "Nipper" Nowakowski mounts the write-in effort that he is threatening to do.
Bill Jones says the county GOP “is in total disarray.” Hard to dispute that. Most people I talk to blame Lynette for the state of the local Republican Party. That's probably unfair as this bunch has been dysfunctiona lfor a long time. And Urban is floating a conspiracy theory that the Dems are backing Jones to get rid of him calling Jones a RINO.
The only Republican capable of saving PA is Lou Barletta. This guy could have a HUGE political future if he chose and the GOP started rallying around him.
ReplyDeleteI think Barletta is a flash in the pan riding the anti-immigrant wave. Before Santorum put him up to this nonsense he welcomed immigrants to Hazleton. He may run for Congress again and get clobbered just like last time as 2008 is going to be another big Democratic year or he may run for a statewide office such as Auditor General or Treasurer. If he waits until 2010 to take a stab at Governor or Senator his 15 minutes of fame will have passed.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is how does the local GOP become relevant. It's not a healthy situation that the opposition party in the county is so weak.
The local GOP is non-relevant. Any Republican that is relevant are all independent of the local GOP. Such as Karen boback and Lisa Baker. Steve Urban is a loon, but is also independent of them. I don't see any change in this until Lynette Villano and the goons she surrounds herself with disappear.
ReplyDelete