Pennsylvania exit poll

Me and Mrs. G were voters number 313 and 314 around 5Pm at our polling place at the Plains Twp. fire hall out of 1000+. There were a number of poll workers handing out palm cards for Judge, County Council, DA and state offices. For the most part I think handing out cards at polling place is a waste of time as most people already have made up their minds. We ran into Luzerne County Council candidate Eileen Sorokas and W-B Area School board hopefull Dino Galella. In a local election I think the candidate can pick up a vote or 2 just by being available to answer questions for people heading into the polling place.

In the unscientific poll of Gort 42 readers you are predicting 2 close races.

The Luzerne County District Attorney contest Stefie Salve is leading Jackie Mo by a hair

Carroll 51 47%

Salavantis 57 52%

Wilkes-Barre Mayor

Tom Leighton 40 45%

Lisa Cope 38 43%

Betsy Summers 9 10%



A sample of the paraphanalia

Looking to the fall-Luzerne County Council

What a cluster**** this primary has been. 49 candidates for 22 spots on the ballot and most of the nominees I still don't know very much about.

I'm looking for links to campaign sites and Facebook fan pages so help me out. I found some via The Nothington Post.

Dems



Stephen A. Urban

Linda McClosky Houck

Jim Bobeck

Edward A. Brominski

Jane Walsh-Waitkus

Eileen M. Sorokas

Salvatore Licata

Tim McGinley

Michelle Bednar

M. Theresa Morcavage

Elaine Maddon Curry



Republican nominees

Stephen J. Urban

Rick Morelli

Kathleen M. Dobash

John Ruckno

Harry Haas

Blythe H. Evans III

William Bill James

Eugene L. Kelleher

Gina Nevenglosky

Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt

Michael Cabell

Looking to the fall-Luzerne County Judge

I got it wrong last night as 5 (not 4) candidates won both nominations. Barring some unforeseen scandal 5 of our 6 new Judges of the Court of Common Pleas will be:

Fred Pierantoni
Michael Vough
Joe Sklarosky
Lesa Gelb
Jennifer Rogers

I base that prediction on the fact that almost 10,000 people voted the straight party ticket in the 2009 election and the top vote getter in the Judicial election won with just over 38,000. Dick Hughes is again the odd man out topping the ballot on the GOP side but like 2009 he failed to garner the Democratic nomination. Molly Hanlon Mirabito snagged the Dem nomination so it is down to those 2 for the remaining fitting of robes on the 3rd floor. I have been hearing a lot of carping today that Terry Casey and Luzerne County GOP couldn't deliver the vote for the other 3 Republicans ( Haggerty, McMonagle, Saporito) on the ballot. I think that is unfair as judicial races are strange creatures. Let's see how the Republican candidates for county council do before we make judgements on his leadership. But I do think that they miss the organizational skills of Renita.

Another observation is I really don't like cross filing. The fewest voters have just decided an important election. The same goes for school director races. And don't get me started on state wide judicial elections.

Endorsements

I have long had the view that most endorsements are only good for a press release unless they bring boots on the ground or bundles of money. That being said it is better to get the endorsement of the local newspaper than not.

But just remember how the Times-Leader endorsement gave us State Rep Christine Kotsock way back when she was still a Republican. She even printed signs that said "Endorsed by the Times-Leader." She got clobbered by Eddie Day Pashinski 2 to 1 in 2006. I'm sure I can find other examples but this one comes to mind. Congressman Malcolm Derk, if he wasn't in the race I think Dave Madeira just might have topped geographically challenged Tom Marino.

The endorsement that matters the most in this election was made by a collection of Unions that natuarally pissed of many of my Republican friends. There also some hard feelings on the Dem side.
Maybe the question should be "why don't I have those protections" instead of why do "those people have them."

Anyway here is the annointed list:



http://www.timesleader.com/opinion/OUR-ENDORSEMENT-LUZERNE-COUNTY-COUNCIL--DEMOCRATS.html

Our endorsement: Luzerne County Council, Republicans