Luzerne County Democratic organization

There are 6 legislative districts in Luzerne County that are based on the PA House Districts and that is how the County Democratic and Republican  Parties have  been  organized for as long as I remember (there used to be 7) but it gets confusing.

The 116th HD is the Luzerne County Democratic Party 1st District. Presently represented by Tarah Toohil (R). No opponent in this election

The 117th is the 2nd District. Karen Boback (R). No opponent.

The 118th is the 3rd District. Mike Carroll. (D). No opponent.

The 119th is the 4th District. Jerry Mullery (D)  Justin Behrens is the Republican nominee 

 The 120th is the 5th District. Aaron Kaufer (R). No opponent. 

The 121st is the 6th District. Eddie Day Pashinki (D). Sue Henry is the Republican nominee.

Recently the county Republican Party renamed their subdivisions to the corresponding PA House Districts. So now it's not the 5th District Republicans but the 120th District Republicans, etc. That is very progressive of them. The Democratic Party should do the same thing.
 

Matt Cartwright's lame media

Matt Cartwright(D-PA8)  and John Chrin (NJ) have a lot of money to spend on teevee ads.

 Right out of the box Chrin was kicking Cartwright's teeth in. Sanctuary Cities, higher taxes, welfare and scary photos of the soft spoken grandmother from Sodom on the San Andreas.

That's normal for a challenger to tear down the incumbent because he really doesn't have anything to offer. Read his issue page. But he does have the endorsement of the part-time occupant of the White House and his butler.

In response the Cartwright campaign violated the first rule of political advertising. Never, ever let your candidate respond to an attack ad. Use a narrator, man in the street, etc. But they keep using the same approach.

I have a novel idea for the Cartwright campaign. Remind us why we voted for you in 2012.


Instead we get New Jersey and Social Security

Eddie Day Pashinski for State Represenative

Eddie Day had his annual brunch that attracted about 300 people at Genetti's. He brought in some of the heavy hitters in state and local politics like Bob Casey, Matt Cartwright, John Yudichak, Mike Carrol and Guido Sarducci.

In the warm up Yuddy sang Eddie's praises since he rarely does it himself. He recounted the  many infrastructure and economic development projects he has done the hard work to make it happen. He had a nice quip about how he shows up with a piano and his own  Paparazzi. Matt Cartwright also praised him and noted that he is sharing campaign space in W-B. He said "I've had worst roommates but at least he cleans up after himself."  All those losing lottery tickets and empty cans end up in the trash.

Senator Bob Casey continues to impress me. He gave another fiery address about the ACA and his opposition to the Trumplican agenda.


When it came time for Eddie to speak  he told us about he is working with his Republican colleagues to get help for grandparents raising grand kids. He lamented that that the Republican Party has been hijacked by extremist who want to divide us on race, sex, etc. He said they want to divide us because there are "more of us than them."   He decried the money in politics and  defended public schools, labor unions, Social Security and Medicare. He doesn't want to go back to the days of the coal barons and celebrated the gains made on job safety, the 8 hr.workday/ 40 hr. week because of collective bargaining. And then he went on and on and on so I had to leave because I already missed kickoff.

He never mentioned his opponent.

Scott Wagner in Luzerne County

GOP Governor nominee Scott Wagner had a rally at the Woodlands Wenesday night and had a nice turnout. State Senator Lisa Baker was the MC and she kept the program rolling along limiting the under card to brief statements. Many people think she should run for Governor.

The state rep candidates warmed up the room. Sue Henry started off with her usual good humor saying :“It’s really good to be behind the microphone again.”.  I'm sure she is happy that the Red Sox are running away with the AL East. She then made her case for property tax reform.

I want to thank Sue for being so generous to me when she was on WILK, she always gave me a good time slot, :07 after the hour and entertaining us on WRKC 88.5 FM. My favorite conversation  was when we decided to nominate David Yonki for Jury Commissioner . I have always cast a write-in vote for the Yonk in every election since.

Justin Behrens and Frank Scavo also joined the bandwagon on taxes. John Chrin (R-NJ)  said something about socialism.

The red meat was thrown out by Pennsylvania  GOP Chair Valetino  DeGiorgio. He mentioned Maxine Waters and Nancy Peolsi which got of few boos in the audience.  He repeated the ALLEGATION that immigrants get welfare. And Socialism! He forgot George Soros.

Scott Wagner started his speech talking about his humble upbringing and some flashes of humor admitting he didn't have the best smile and can sometimes be abrasive. He talked about touring areas hit by the recent flooding recent and accused Tom Wolf of using it as a photo op. He backed teachers in his education plan but panned union bosses. Wagner wants to sell the liquor stores to fund education. He also made fun of Wolf's "honky jeep." He denied wanting to tax retirement income claiming his opponent is using 7 seconds of a long speech out of context.

 He talked about his plan to combat Pennsylvania's opioid epidemic. Emphasizing treatment, education  and surprisingly suing pharmaceutical companies. Then he attack Wolf for vetoing a bill he sponsored claiming he did it because he has taken money from the PAC Fairness PA saying Governor Wolf is just as bad as the drug dealers. He also said "If you want a guy who enables those who makes money killing our kids, taking contributions of $1.2 million please reelect Tom Wolf. Because I'm not your guy."

He then said he could get things done because he has relationships with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and told us what a great guy John Yudichak is. 

Wagner unveils 'first real plan' to tackle opioid epidemic

Oppose the Funeral Tax

Sue Henry has a famous name and a bumper sticker issue in her challenge to Eddie Day Pashinski. Her issue is eliminate property taxes but HB 76 does no such thing.It just moves taxes from the wealthy property owners to working people.  The response should be to oppose the expansion of the sales and income tax such as a NEW TAX on Funeral Services of 7%.. It will also tax food and clothing for the first time.

 No one wants to see a senior lose their  home as we are told  but I've never seen any data to support the allegation that seniors lose there home more than other people that fall behind on their taxes. In fact people over 65 and the disabled get a rebate up to $650 to offset the tax. I would like to see it applied up front so they don't have to wait for the money after they paid the bill.

I'm getting to be a senior and know how much a funeral can cost since I have had  to plan a few. I read obituaries all the time that ask for a donation to a Go Fund Me page to pay for the funeral service, burial and marker. Sadly, many of the deceased left us way before they should have because of overdose, murder, car crashes, etc. Young people for the most part don't have Life Insurance and the family should not be burdened with an additional cost such as a sales tax.

Cartwight opens Wilkes-Barre office

A literately overflow crowd was on hand for the opening of Matt Cartwright's W-B office in W-B tonight. So many people showed up that there wasn't enough room in the building to hear him speak and those who couldn't get in spilled out onto the sidewalk.  I was a afraid the fire marshal would arrive but Mayor Tony George was there so that didn't happen.

Matt Cartwright (D-Moosic) started off by asking a moment of silence for John McCain. He then assured us that there are members on both sides of the aisle who want to do the right thing for our country and tries to work with them everyday. He's proud that many of the bills he has introduced have Republican co-sponsors.

He gave a full throttled defense of Social Security and Medicare and trashed the latest trickle down tax cut bill. He reminded the crowd that the full name of Obamacare is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The protection part is making sure that people with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. A big chunk of the population has some sort of medical condition that used to allow insurers to deny them coverage.  He decried the provisions of the last tax bill that gave away the store to corporations and the very rich with few benefits for the rest of us. Part of it was repealing the the individual mandate that cuts funding for the program and reduces the risk pool so premiums will soar. . 

Yuddy's annual pick-a-nick

State Senator John Yudichak's end of summer picnic at the Plains PAV was another roaring success. It was a salute to labor and was attended by the working men and women in his district and beyond. The unions were out in force but so were people who don't have union representation in their workplace but wish they did. It was of course a political rally and many elected officials and candidates attended. The official program was mercifully short with Luzerne County Democratic Chair John Pekerovsky doing the introductions and Yuddy as the MC. Congressman Matt Cartwright , candidate Denny Wolff  and US Senator Bob Casey offered some brief remarks. Like the event with Gov. Wolf on Tuesday you could feel the energy of the local Dems.

Tom Wolf rallied the Luzerne County Democrats

Governor Tom Wolf was the headliner for the Luzerne County Democratic Party event tonight and he didn't disappoint. The place was so packed that I couldn't get a count. More than 300 people , maybe more packed the ballroom. He listed his accomplishments like getting more people health insurance, balancing the budget with enough money to make a deposit to the rainy day fund. Wolf pointed out that he was able to restore funding for education working with a Republican Legislature.  He didn't mention his opponent once.  The local Democratic candidates also attended. State Senator John Yudichak was the MC with some good jokes. Congressman Matt Cartwright fired up the crowd and I was lucky not to get between Eddie Day and the microphone, a dangerous place. Jerry Mullery also spoke.

A special treat was seeing Cassandra Coleman. She convinced   me to vote for Wolf last time.

Republicans are touting a questionable poll

Many of my Trumplican friends are all excited abut an "independent poll" from Commonwealth Leaders Fund that shows Wagner  and Barletta within the margin of error. 
 
The poll reports Gov. Tom Wolf leading Scott Wagner 46% to 43%. Sen. Bob Casey leads Rep. Lou Barletta 47% to 45%.  
The polling, conducted via IVR interviews from Aug. 13-15, included 2,012 likely voters. 

I have never heard of the Commonwealth Leaders Fund and a google search came up empty. A link to the poll Topline View.

I have been reading polls for years and this one is ridiculous. The cross tabs show that Trump has positive favorable rating.  53% of those polled identified as either very conservative or somewhat conservative. Only20% polled considered themselves very liberal or somewhat liberal. 

They used the  dubious method  of IVR. 
To give you an example I told the last IVR poll that I got that I'm a 30 something Female Asian American who is a life long Republican but will vote for all the Democrats this fall. 

The real polls:

RCP Average	4/4 - 6/25	--	--	48.0	32.0	Wolf +16.0
Suffolk	6/21 - 6/25	500 LV	4.4	49	36	Wolf +13
Franklin & Marshall	6/4 - 6/10	472 RV	6.5	48	29	Wolf +19
Morning Call	4/4 - 4/12	414 RV	5.5	47	31	Wolf +16

RCP Average	4/4 - 6/25	--	--	46.3	30.3	Casey +16.0
Suffolk	6/21 - 6/25	500 LV	4.4	47	32	Casey +15
Franklin & Marshall	6/4 - 6/10	472 RV	6.5	44	27	Casey +17
Morning Call	4/4 - 4/12	414 RV	5.5	48	32	Ca

The Blue Wave is being led by women

Yes, the party that holds the White House historically loses seats in the mid term elections. We all know that a record number of women are running for office and winning primaries for Governor, Congress and State offices in record numbers. But the thing I'm seeing is the intensity of their supporters beginning with the Women's March in January of 2017 that has not abated.

All the evidence points to a big year for the Dems with bigger than normal  turnouts in primary and special elections but very few Democrats have actually won special elections for Congress unless the GOP candidate is just ridiculous like Roy Moore or Rick Saccone. On the state level they have done much better. 

I'm always cautious about expectations because the Republicans have some advantages. First is almost unlimited money. Millionaires and Billionaires can write checks to dark money groups because of Citizens United that go to so called social welfare groups. They then can spend that money painting Democrats as the equivilant of  devil worshipers who want to take you guns, murder babies and give people health insurance.

The second is gerrymandering.  Things have improved in PA but many states have carved up the districts to give the GOP a big advantage. Just look at Ohio 12. In a fairly drawn district the Democrat would have won easily.

So that leads us to our little corner of the world. The Democrats are playing defense with Governor Wolf, Senator Bob Casey, Congressman Matt Cartwright and State Rep Eddie Day Pashinski on the ballot. Their opponents have gone all in with Trump. Although we don't have  women  running for office the Democratic women are leading the charge to keep these men in office.


After many years of being dormant the Luzerne County Democratic Party is coming roaring back. We are being led by Polly Delaney and Wendy Cominsky. This dynamic duo have organized many events past and future and are looking for ideas from the rest of us to just get people to vote.

Senator Bob Casey in town

Senator Bob Casey gave one on the most passionate speeches on health care  that I have ever heard. He threw out out a lot of statistics about how the ACA has covered thousands of people in Luzerne County. Then he gave examples of people who have benefited from the law.

The longer he talked about health care the more angry he got about the sabotage of the ACA

Some much about the Sleeping thing that the Republicans are pushing

While you were not looking

I know it's hard to keep up with all the news out of the 3 ring circus going on in Washington. It's like trying to take a drink out of a fire hose, you may get your lips wet but if you try to swallow it all your head will get blown off.

Now the EPA want's to relax the rules and bring back Asbestos. This is after 40 years and billions of dollars trying to get rid of the stuff that is scientifically proven to cause cancer just by breathing it. 

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

 I really can't blame the part-time occupant of the White House for this because he has no idea what is going on in his own administration. 

 

The Russian company  Uralasbest, one of the world’s largest producers and sellers of asbestos, has taken to adorning pallets of its product with a seal of Trump’s face.

Ned Evans shows how not to respond to a controversy

Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member Ned Evans posted something stupid and tasteless a few days ago on Facebook that has created a firestorm.

CV:

Outrage began growing after the Wilkes-Barre Area Save Our Schools page posted a screen shot Monday of board member Ned Evans’ comment about an article on a 27-year-old Arizona teacher who was charged in March with having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student.

The article that was shared features a crude headline referring to the teacher performing oral sex on the boy.

“Probably broke her teeth on it. Lol,” Evans wrote.

He initially apologized on his Facebook page "I wasn’t trying to convey anything. It was a stupid, idiotic, insincere comment that I made, and I apologize for it. I have no excuses. I apologize for it."
If he left it at that he might have been able to get through this after the outrage calmed downed. But then he added “It just was a stupid back-room-with-the-boys comment and I should never have made it. That only inflamed the situation, he's not Trump. His Facebook page has since been scrubbed or may have been deleted. The first rule of being in a hole is to stop digging.

I called him out on it and he responded by calling me a loser for being defeated in the election last year. Then the Superintendent and the rest of the board called for his resignation. He attacked some members of the W-B SOS group for his troubles. City council member Beth Gilbert pointed out  the continuous misogynistic comments by this man and he responded by attacking her.

Now he is threatening to sue people for his troubles.

CV:

Despite personal pleas from colleagues for him to resign, Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member Ned Evans on Thursday insisted he’s staying in office.

“Oh yes, absolutely,” he said Thursday.

In fact, Evans said he’ll soon be going on the offensive.

Amid the controversy over a crude comment he made online about a student sex case, he claims he has been defamed by certain people and plans to file a lawsuit.

“I cleary plan to sue,” Evans said, noting he has retained a lawyer.

He declined to name the possible targets of his litigation

This is so sad to see someone I know and like go so far off the rails.

 

Jerry Kairnes for Congress

 

 

 

My name is Jerry Kairnes; I'm 48 years old and I live in Cogan Station. I'm a father, and I earn a living as a building materials salesman. I'm running for Congress because I want our kids and grandkids to have the same shot at the American Dream that you and I had.

It's Time For All Americans To Put Country Over Party

I'm launching, for a second time, an Independent campaign in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional district, challenging both four-term incumbent Tom Marino and the district's two announced major party primary challengers.

I am motivated to run because of the complete absence of leadership demonstrated during the government shutdown by all three of the candidates running for Congress in our district. Not one asserted that we should not negotiate policy under the threat of government shutdown, or use policy as a concession to reopen the government. We must never allow functioning government to become just another bargaining chip at the negotiation table. Now is the time for all Americans to put country over party!

A Call To Action

Our common sense campaign is a call to action to those in the district who seek to fix our nation’s broken politics and restore the American dream for future generations. I seek to unite our neighbors around the principles of fiscal and environmental stewardship, economic opportunity, and equality under the law. We need leadership who will put country over party, follow the facts, and pledge to work together to solve problems.

It’s as if our house is on fire and two fire companies have shown up, but instead of putting out the blaze, they are content to argue with each other until our house is in ashes. We only get one Republic; if we burn it down, there is no empty Republic across the street to move into.

It's not a political choice to grab the hoses and start to put out the fire, it is a necessity.

The government shutdown turned me into a firefighter. Join me; our Republic needs you!

Our District Needs Centrist Leadership

I announced our first bid for Congress in 2016 when no candidate filed papers to challenge Tom Marino, but withdrew when a Democrat achieved ballot access via a write-in campaign, effectively removing the path to victory for our independent challenge. That Democratic candidate got 89,923 votes to Tom Marino's 211,282. A Centrist Independent most certainly has no worse a chance of winning than any Democrat.

A Problem Solver Platform

Our problem-solver platform is unchanged from 2016: if elected, I won’t be going it alone. I’ll work tirelessly towards the goals of a balanced federal budget, to secure the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, for American energy independence, and job creation. Send me to Washington! I’m ready to join dozens of other members of Congress who’ve pledged to put labels aside to advance solutions to our nation's biggest challenges.”

Here are the specifics:

• A balanced federal budget by the year 2030
• Secure Social Security and Medicare for another 75 years.
• 25 Million new jobs over the next ten years.
• American energy independence by the year 2024

You’ll Never Question Whether My Vote Is For Sale

Our campaign will only accept campaign contributions from individuals - real people - and never from Political Action Committees, special interests, lobbyists or unions. Additionally, Big Dollars from far away place should not fund campaigns in our district that is why I will cap campaign contributions at $250 from anyone who does not have a vote in the 10th District election.

Transparent Representation with No Strings Attached

I pledge to be an automatic “No” vote on any bill that has not been made available for three days of public review. Other folks have made that promise and broken it; I mean it! To prove it, we can start calling it the “Kairnes Rule” beginning today!

If elected, I will only accept a salary equivalent to the median wage of families in the 10th District - $52,199 - and return the balance of the Representative's salary of $174,000 back to the U.S. Treasury. If elected, I’ll make what you make, and I won’t get a raise unless you do.

A People's Campaign For The People's Seat

To earn access to the ballot our campaign must turn in 4,226 valid signatures from Pennsylvania 10th district voters by August 1st in order to get on the November ballot as an Independent candidate.

We can't earn a place on the ballot without your help and we won't win without you. We're just getting started! Send us as email at  team@jerrykairnes.com to learn what you can do!

A Campaign of Necessity

I believe we all share a responsibility to participate in our own governance in whatever way we are best able. I'm a building materials salesman; I was not expecting to launch another campaign for the people's seat but necessity demands it. I'm simply unwilling to expect of others what I am not willing to do myself.

The objective is simple: make sure our kids and grandkids still have a shot at the American dream. We can’t just sit back and do nothing while the politicians tell us that our problems are just too big, that we are too divided a nation to work together to find solutions, and that future generations of Americans will just have to figure it out for themselves