“It's a great time to be a Republican in Luzerne County”

That was the message of Luzerne County GOP Vice-Chair Paul DeFabo before a big crowd at the Wilkes-Barre HQ last night. He said that because of all the scandals engulfing the county Democrats "if we can't win this time, we never will." It's hard to argue with that but after getting wiped out in the county elections in 2007 they still have a big hill to climb.

.

DeFabo outlined the process the party will use to endorse a slate in the primary. A straw poll of the local committee people will be taken then the executive committee will give their blessing to the lucky few. I suspect that they have already made up their minds. I still think that is a mistake and smacks of the heavy handed way the county Democrats have done things for years. It's been a long time since the Republican nomination has been worth something and trying to stack the deck might backfire. Notable by their absence were some members of the executive committee.

.

A few local bloggers made it including the Yonk who has a write-up of the event at The Lu Lac Political Letter.

Zen, Norton and McGruff were in the audience and will hopefully chime in later. The local media focused on America's Mayor Lou Barletta speech. Bill O'Boyle of the Times-Leader has a recap here.