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

Upcoming Events

One of my favorite features of The Lu Lac Political Letter is the Yonk's plugging the upcoming political events. Mrs. Lu Lac tells us he is doing fine after surgery and we all hope he will back soon. I'll try to pick up the slack while he is away. If anyone has an event coming up please email me at gort42@yahoo.com.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.

Show Map Le Manhattan bistro 264-268 South Main St, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18701 (corner of Ross St)

5-7PM Wednesday August 19th


Tony Brooks for City Council Campaign will host a fundraising campaign kickoff for the General Election. 

$20 per person.

Come have some hor d'oeuvres and see one of Wilkes-Barre's new restaurants. If you would like to stay for dinner please call 570-706-9588.

Checks can be made payable to Brooks for Wilkes-Barre Committee and mailed to 72 West River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702, or brought on the day of the event. No corporate checks. For information, call 570-793-3631.

 The Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition is pleased to announce the latest episode in its Marcellus Shale Reality Tour series, and will have a screening and pipeline discussion on August 19 at the American Legion, Rt. 415 (across from Leggio’s) in Dallas, PA at 7 pm.

JFK: 50 years later

My friend David Yonki has had the best retrospective of any local media outlet on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's murder. The well researched posts on The LuLac Political Letter and his media tour that gave us a local perspective has been outstanding. 

I usually discount conspiracy talk but when you look at the Zapruder film it's obvious that the 3rd shot came from the front. I'm too young remember where I was when he was killed but I remember where I was when I heard that President Reagan was shot. The Hagiography of Kennedy is annoying and Taylor Marsh doubts that he could be elected today.

 The thing that always bothered me about Oswald is he had to have been watched by the FBI or some other agency. A Marine who defects to the Soviet Union, get's mixed up with pro-Castro groups and even visits the USSR embassy in Mexico City that the CIA knew about.

Wilkes-Barre Area School District

From LuLac: Very simple. Ned Evans former District employee vs Kathy Grinaway a widowed, working mother who has worked in the private sector all her life. Grinaway has presented herself well, Evans I’m told has not. People have told me there is nothing wrong with have former School District employees on a School Board. I agree. But you don’t want all of them to make a majority. Already political insiders are calling it “The Coaches Club”. That is just so wrong for the district. Plus look at how this district was asleep at the wheel when Attorney Anthony Lupus overcharged for professional services. They thought that was okay.

Incumbent Christine Katsock and newcomers Joe Caffrey  and Denise Thomas won double nominations and barring some last minute scandal will probably win 3 of the 4 spots up for election. I would really like to see the end of cross filing for school board races as there is nothing more political in this area than a school board. Better yet get rid of school boards and let the IU's administer education.


I still can't forgive Katsock for voting for indicted and later convicted criminal Frank Pizzella as board president and she botched the hiring policy. For too long the hiring policy has been who you know are related to but then again that's life but it's done in such a blatant way.

The TL story by Mark Guydish asks about security and 3 of them want to put metal detectors in the schools.Denise Thomas said it would only cost $50,000. Sorry Denise, there are  a bunch of other costs with metal detectors. They have to be maintained and calibrated then you have to train people to man them so they know what they are looking for. And the biggest cost is

Do we really want to treat our kids like criminals?

So the final choice is between Evans and Grinaway with wild card Independent Sam Troy thrown in.

I like bomb throwers and rabble rousers so Sam has one of my votes and Grinaway has the other. That's only 2 votes out of 4 spots so I will write-in the Yonk.

Pennsylvania Exit Polls

There were no poll workers outside the Plains Twp. fire hall when I was recorded as voter number 550 out of 1000+ at about 5:30PM today. This is the best turnout I have seen in the 15 years I  have voted in this precinct. This is even better than 2008 and Plains is a very Democratic area. The poll workers are people Mrs. G has known since she was a child and looked us up as soon as we walked up to the sign in table so we didn't show a photo ID and neither did anyone else who voted before of after us. I have never voted a straight party ticket and didn't this time. I wrote in David Yonki for State Rep because Eddie Day Pashiniski is unopposed and I hate uncontested elections.

YouTube Weekend

I was on WILK yesterday with the Lovely and Talented Mrs. Sue Henry. (back off Joe) We discussed Blogfest, the Toohil video, Aaron Kaufer and writing in David Yonki for State Rep.

The Tom Marino  almost Macaca moment with a tracker also came up and much to my surprise Steve Corbett sent me an email inviting me to call into his show to discuss it. Unfortunately I had another commitment and wasn't able to chat with him. Is Corbett mellowing out on bloggers? 

Sue is also the GM of Kings College radio station WRKC 88.5FM and has a show every Saturday 3-6PM. She asked me if I had a request for this week's show.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Gil Scott-Heron

 

 

Jury Commissioner

A few months ago I was on the WILK Sue Henry Show and the situation of indicted Democratic Jury Commissioner Jerry Bonner came up and off the top of my head I suggested that we should all write-in the Yonk for that office in the November election. The reaction to that idea was tremendous. Unfortunately David wasn't able to mount a campaign for various reasons which disappointed me because I had already appointed myself campaign manager.

The office is useless and should be eliminated either by the Study Commission or a referendum authorized by the legislature that has happened in other counties.

Write-in David Yonki for Democratic Jury Commissioner and skip the other 2. The one good thing about the new electronic voting machines it is easy to write-in a person for an office. No more stickers or golf pencils just hit the letters on a touch screen.

Groundswell

I want to be the last Jury Commissioner of Luzerne County-David Yonki

I called into the Sue Henry show on WILK this morning and we discussed Luzerne County politics and scandals. These days they are one and the same. The situation of Democratic Jury Commissioner Jerry Bonner came up of course and off the top of my head I suggested that we should all write-in the Yonk for that office in the November election. The reaction to that idea has been tremendous.

After receiving numerous phone calls, e-mails, Facebook postings and hearing the idea being discussed on the late afternoon show on a local talk radio show that were all positive I called my friend David.

He likes the idea!

And he agreed to run for the post after some cajoling from me.

His platform includes:

1. I'd run as an alternative to the taxpayers to ensure that if Mr. Bonner resigns, a crony would not get the position.

2. In my official capacity as jury commissioner, I would take every opportunity to lobby against the continuation of the position. I find it interesting that the Republican Commissioner is not even saying a word about this and how it would effect him.

3. I have much experience with downsizing and elimination of my job. I'm good at it, in the last decade I was downsized three times. It was not of my own making. Finally I can downsize out of a job because the job is not needed.

So let's write-in David Yonki for Democratic Jury Commissioner. The one good thing about the new electronic voting machines it is easy to write-in a person for an office. No more stickers or golf pencils just hit the letters on a touch screen.

August 10 was the last day to take your name off the November ballot so the chances are that Jerry Bonner will still be listed as the Democratic candidate for Jury Commissioner.