Friday, February 17, 2012

PA State Represenative candidates in Luzerne County

The candidate roster can found at the PA Department of State.

Mike Carroll (D-118) and Karen Boback (R-117) will not have an opponent in the upcoming primary and general elections. Like most political junkies I hate uncontested elections because the people should always have a choice plus you never know if the incumbent might have something blow up on them. It looks looks like Duke started too late to get the 300 signatures needed in the 117th.

The big news is assistant Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Frank McCabe is running in the Democratic primary trying to unseat my 3rd favorite State Rep Phyllis Mundy in the 120th HD.
A resident of the district said "Nice, a stealth undercover petition signing. He must know people to get all of those signatures with no one spilling the beans. Now its getting fun." I don't think that Mundy hasn't has had a primary challenger since she won the election in 1990 taking the seat from Republican incumbent Scott Dietterick who was found guilty of insurance fraud just before the election. The Yonk will correct me if I'm wrong. What Democrat could have a beef with Phyllis? Young Republican Aaron Kaufer is the GOP candidate.



The other matchups include Ransom Young (D) taking on freshman Tarah Toohil (R) in the Hazleton area 116th HD. Rick Arnold (R) has a rematch with Gerald Mullery (D) in the 119th. Pete Mailloux (R) is taking on incumbent Eddie Day Pashinski (D) in the 121st HD for now but all this could change depending on the mapmakers response to the Supreme Court.

8 comments:

D.B. Echo said...

Is a write-in campaign for Duke still a possibility? I know it's a long shot, but it's better than no shot at all.

Anonymous said...

That's what Evans is planning for him, according to the Young Democrats.

Anonymous said...

If Duke couldn't get a lousy 300 signatures he doesn't deserve a write in vote. Yeesh...

Anonymous said...

Interesting reading on the DA race. Seems young Toohil went back to her Democrat ways when she wrote a check out for Jackie Musto Carrolls campaign. I wonder how the new young DA feels, and dont forget that Toohil worked for Conahan and supported financially what the new DA said was an insider in the courthouse in JMC. Interesting huh.

Gort said...

People forget that Toohil was a Dem looking to run against Eachus but hit a brick wall so she went to the Republicans for support. It worked out well for her.

Gort said...

DB and Anon 3:50,

Getting 300 signatures is not as easy as you think. I have been involved in more than one prospective campaign that couldn't get it's act together to get on the ballot. My read is that Duke decided to try with only a week to go and simply ran out of time.

He can still make the the ballot as an independent but that will take a lot more than 300 signatures. I'm not sure of the number that is needed but the good news is that the deadline is Aug. 1st.

Although it is now easier to write-in a name for an office with the electronic machines in a large district like the 117th it is just not practical.

Unknown said...

You can get the 300 signatures in a short window (I did it two years ago) but you have to have a lot of people circulating for you and they have to know what they're doing. I was blessed in that regard. I would never have made the ballot without a lot of great people getting signatures.

As to uncontested races... I think the redistricting fiasco played a part in this. I have to wonder how many people simply decided not to run due to the uncertainty about what district they were going to be in. I'm still waiting to see where we folks in Plains end up: the 121st or the 118th. Redistricting added a whole layer of complication to this year's petition season.

Anonymous said...

Gort it worked out well for her ONCE, lets see this time around, she now has a voting record. Time will tell, and with the Presidental turnout, she has a hard battle one that she isnt prepared for, but that is why we have elections.