Candidates on the air

I had to cut yesterday's post short to deal with yet another minor domestic crises. The only reason I was even watching the local news is to see what candidates for local office had ads running. Yesterday's 6PM newscast had 3 political spots. The first was from ASCME asking Lou Barletta to support President Obama's job plan, that's not going to happen. Judge candidate Jennifer Rogers had the 2nd and the last was for DA Republican hopeful StephanieSalavantis that has the local blogosphere buzzing. See Joe V and the Yonk. Today there were a few more on the Noon broadcast including one for Luzerne County Council candidate Rick Williams.

I will highlight some of them in future posts.

Tonight I'm looking forward to game 2 of the World Series and will be cooking that All American dish, meatloaf. I took the night off from work after being poked, prodded, wired up and getting electric shocks in my leg by a Neurologist then went to the dentist for more fun. This aging process stinks.

Luzerne County Young Democrats

Our local YD chapter will be meeting tonight at

Rodano's Pizza
53 Public Sq
Wilkes-Barre, PA

starting at 7PM


At the meeting The Luzerne County Young Democrats will be electing officers, endorsing the Democratic slate of candidates, and launching the new Luzerne County Young Democrats website.

A new website, woo hoo.

According to their Facebook event page a few candidates will also be attending including 11th CD candidate Bill Vinsko, Common Pleas hopefulls Jennifer Rogers and Molly Hanlon Mirabito plus county council nominee Jane Waitkus. I think that all Luzerne Democratric county candidates and those running for municipal offices would do themselves a favor by showing up. These kids give you enthusiasm and boots on the ground.

Many moons ago I was an officer in the Young Dems of Luzerne County organized by Bob Caruso who had the ear of State Senator Marty Murray who gave us office space and some money. The group fizzled out and I went off to see the world courtesy of the US Air Force.

This incarnation is much stronger with my local Plains committeeman Tom Shibula at the helm. He replaced some guy in the last election that I never met although he lives a few doors away. The VP Tony Thomas is the son of a HS classmate who used to comment regularly on this site. Herself is another officer of the the LCYD who inspired this post.

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.