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.

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.

Michelle Bednar for Controller 2017

Incumbent Democratic Luzerne County Controller had a nice gathering of supporters at Bentley's on Friday. It attracted a nice crowd including a few Republicans including District Attorney Stephanie Salavantis. The Democratic Party heavyweights State Reps. Eddie Day Pashinski , Jerry Mullery and State Sen. John Yudichak sang her praises. Her campaign team touted her accomplishments including weeding out incorrect homestead tax breaks wrongly granted to some Luzerne County property owner. Her opponent Walter Griffith  had received the break on two homes and an auto repair business he owns.

Democratic County Council candidates Wendy Cominsky, Matt Vough and John Gadomski  offered their support and Republican Chris Perry showed up. Perry has been to almost every event D or R I've been to. He is running hard.

Other notables were Judge David Lupas who is up for retention and George Brown who should have been the Mayor of W-B. I asked Judge Lupas about mandatory minimums and he gave me a  lawyers answer saying they could act as a deterrent but Judges should be able to fit the punishment to the crime.

                                          


Luzerne County sending bills to recipients of incorrect homestead tax break

Yuddy pick-a-nick 2016

State Senator John Yudichak had his annual get together at the PAV in Plains today. Local labor unions sponsored the event . Many candidates running for election this year and in the the future  showed up.


Yuddy  actually made some news. He told me he favors legalizing Marijuana.

One statewide candidate made an appearance. Joe Torsella wants to be the next Treasurer of the Commonwealth.

Joe with Bob Caruso

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The State Rep candidates are sticking together.

Maureen Maden, Yuddy, some guy and Bob caption

 And my pal Michelle  with Mrs. G

More pics at my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/gort.fortytwo?hc_ref=NEWSFEEDhttps://www.facebook.com/gort.fortytwo?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

A boring upcoming election

Most of the PA legislature seats in Luzerne County are uncontested. John Yudichak and Lisa Baker may get a third party challenge but will cruise to reelection to the state Senate. Eddie Day, Mike Carroll, Jerry Mullery and my favorite party girl Tarah Toohil don't have an opponent for state rep in the fall.

The most interesting races are Karen Boback being challenged by Laura Dickson and the open seat being vacated by Phyliis Mundy's retirement.  Eilleen Cipriani is the hands down favorite to succeed one of my favorite state reps although Aaron Kaufer has been working very hard.

The most interesting race is the 117th District which has been redrawn to include Wyoming County and local official Laura Dickson is looking to work the home field. I don't know what it is but the local Republicans out there have a thing for making Karen Boback's life misarable. Davis Haire took her on in the primary this time and James May went after her earlier. I think Dickson's best chance is a depressed GOP turnout because Tom Corbett has pissed off just about everybody on both sides of the aisle. 
 

Dairy issues may be a key

Looking to 2014

As my long time readers know the primary focus of this blog has always been elections. Next year we choose a Governor of the Commonwealth, members of the US House and state House and half the state Senate. In the next few days I will post about these and some races around the country.

PA Gov Tom Cabot Corbett has an uphill climb according to the polls but things can change in the next year and no sitting Guv has lost reelection since they have been allowed to run for a 2nd term. So far there are 8 Dems smelling blood in the water.

The Lt. Governors race is most interesting as I have met most of the Democratic contenders. My early favorite is Brad Koplinski because he sent me a bribe.

Of the 3 local Congressman I keep an eye on only Matt Cartwright has a declared opponent so far. 2 of them in fact. A few people are teasing that they will run against Lou Barletta including Bill Vinsko, Gene Stilp and Chris Carney but I doubt any of them will run. Libetarian Betsy Summers may get into it.

A few weeks ago an old friend called to feel me out about running against Tom Marino in the Republican primary. His rational was Marino is one of the most ethically challenged people to ever hold office.  I had to throw cold water on the idea because his family wasn't behind it and he would need to declare right now and raise at least $100K before the end of the year.


On the state scene Sen. John Yudichak has no declared opponent so far. Neither do Mike Carroll, Phyllis Mundy, Eddie Day Pashinski, Tarah Toohil or Gerry Mullery. I heard a rumor that Mullery may get a primary opponent.

Karen Boback however is being challenged by Laura Dickson. I haven't been this excited about a state rep race since James May took her on.

Rob McCord gets local support

PA Treasurer Rob McCord  is one of the hundred or so people running for Governor next year. He has been rolling out endorsements just like many of the others and he has the backings of some of our local legislators. State Senator John Yudichak and Rep. Mike Carroll from Luzerene County are on board according to PoliticsPA. 

McCord  was the only Guv hopeful that showed up for Yuddy's picnic in August and Eddie Day Pashinski and Mike Carroll were the only local State Reps to make it.

Rob and Yuddy having a laugh

A few neighbors from our north are also on board. Sen. John Blake and Reps. Kevin Haggerty and Sid Michaels-Kavulich.

McCord also rolled out the endorsements of 20 PA state party chairs but our own Luzerne County guy Bob Boyer was not one of them.It was interesting that 5 prospective Democratic Guv candidates made it to the Luzerne County Democratic picnic but McCord wasn't one of them. Yuddy also skipped it. A scheduling conflict I'm sure.

Most endorsements are only good for a press release unless they bring in money or boots on the ground. That is why union endorsements are so important in a Democratic primary We will see if Yuddy can deliver either or both and become a latter day Marty Murray as the Yonk speculates.

Third District Dem Picnic

I wasn't able to attend the 3DP on Sunday but a friend was kind enough to send along a report yesterday.

Hello Gort,

New Third District Democratic Chairman, Phil Struzzerri, welcomed a large and loud crowd of about 240 people at their  picnic yesterday at the Pittston American Legion picnic grounds. The food was very well received by the crowd.

All of the usual suspects were there from the area and the county except for Linda Houck, County Council candidate. Representative Mike Carroll was the MC and Sen. John Yudichak gave a spirited keynote speech urging Democratic unity in the upcoming election, and criticizing the irrational Republicans in both Washington and Harrisburg. 

Alexandra Kokura was the star of the event. She was the first to arrive and the last to leave.

No Valenti.

(rumor also heard... there is now a split between Katsock and Grinaway!)

Rob McCord for Governor

It looks like I have a bit of a scoop and didn't realize it. State Treasurer Rob McCord is running for Governor although he hasn't made an official announcement yet. McCord was at Yuddy's picnic yesterday and looked and sounded like a Guv candidate. KP picked up on a subtle change to his website today.

More pics at my FB page

Yuddy Picnic

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Michelle Bednar and John Yudichak

My second favorite PA State Senator had an event at the PAV in Plains Twp. today. What a turnout! You couldn't find a parking space in the lot. There had to be a least 500 people who came and went.

2 statewide candidates showed up. Mark Smith is running for Lt. Gov and Rob McCord looking to take the place of Gov. Corbett.  I think McCord just got into this thing. Lot's of locals pressing for votes Eddie Day and Mike Carrol looking to next year. It looked like every Democratic candidate for County Council was in attendance. Eileen Sorokas , Kick Hefron, Mike Giamber, Renee Ciaruffoli-Taffera

I reminded them all that we have Blogfest coming up September 27th.

More pics at this link

Looking to the fall: State Rep 119th District

This is a rematch between  freshman state rep Gerald Mullery  and Republican Rick Arnold . In 2010 this was an open seat because John Yudichak decided to run for State Senator. Mullery won a 3 way Democratic primary snagging 50% of the vote. In the fall Mullery topped the poll with 8631 votes 52% to Arnold's 7274 44% with Libertarian Brian Bergman getting 741 4%.

Both Rick and Gerry made it to last Blogfest which has become the premier local political event of the election season.





The latest campaign finance report shows that Mullery has $8636 cash on hand but oddly I can't find a report for Arnold for 2012 or 2011. Nothing unusual jumps out on Mullery's reports. He raised money from some unions and most of his individual donors live in his district. Looking at the expenditures he doesn't use his campaign like a personal ATM paying for things like lunch, gasoline, dry cleaning and clothing like some other candidates.

Another oddity is that Mullery's campaign website is blank.

Mullery railed against the latest gerrymander like the one before it and offered a solution.

CV: Mullery offered amendments to the proposed maps that would keep the greater Hazleton area, Luzerne County’s South Valley region, the Mountain Top communities, the Five Mountain region and greater Wilkes-Barre together in their respective legislative districts.

He said splitting them is “unnecessary” and he doesn’t believe the new plans for state maps meet the requirements mandated by the state constitution

Meet the candidate

CV:

State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, and state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Avoca, will hold an old-fashioned rally for U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-St. Clair, who is running for re-election in the 17th Congressional District.
It will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Valenti's Restaurant, 1180 Wyoming Ave., Exeter.

Steve Urban is not running for Congress

Former Republican Luzerne County Commissioner now Democratic Luzerne County Council member was circulating petitions for a possible run in the newfangled 17th Congressional district but it looks like he either decided not to file or more probably didn't get at least 1000 Democrats to sign them. Urban has run for Congress before as a Republican and for Lt. Governor and State Senator. After his last race that he lost to John Yudichak he got miffed and switched party's because the local Republicans wouldn't sign on or help him financially in his long shot State Senate bid. The local Republicans put their efforts into winning the Congressional race and the Governor's contest that paid off. Urban has never been able to raise much money for his campaigns and probably won as the 3rd wheel of county government in past contests and rode his name recognition to a seat on the new county council.

That leaves sort of incumbent Tim Holden who is trying to introduce himself to most of the people of the new 17th Congressional District versus Democrat Matt Cartwright from Moosic.

The only Republican to make the ballot is Laureen Cummings who started off running for US Senate.

PA Electoral College votes-NEPA reaction

Bill O'Boyle has the reaction from some of our local legislators on Republican State Sen. Dominic Pileggi's (pictured at right) idea of changing the way Pennsylvania awards it's Electoral College votes. In short the Republicans like the idea and the Democrats hate it.

Congressman Lou Barletta: For me, it doesn’t matter, I’ve been targeted since the first day I was elected. It’s an interesting idea; I’m staying open minded on it.”

State Sen. Lisa Baker: “The proposal is an interesting attempt to find a middle ground between those who want to eliminate the Electoral College and those who want to keep the existing system.”

State Rep. Gerald Mullery: “It’s intended to rob many Pennsylvania voters of one of their most fundamental rights of citizenship – the right to have their vote for president count,”

State Sen. John Blake: “Job creation needs to be our number one priority and unfortunately, the proposed changes to the Electoral College will not put anyone back to work.”

State Rep. Phyllis Mundy: “This is an unfair attempt to stack the deck against Democrats,” she said. “I could never support it.”

State Sen. John Yudichak put it best: “It appears Republicans are not satisfied with comfortable majorities in Harrisburg,” he said. “They want a permanent majority beyond the approach of elections and will employ partisan tactics like gerrymandered districts, voter suppression measures, and now an assault on Pennsylvania’s right to vote for a president of the United States to achieve their ends.”

Predictions: Home Rule Yes and some state legislature races

I have been doing an informal survey of office holders, fellow bloggers and other political watchers over the last few days and we pretty much agree on the following races.

The Luzerne County Home Rule Charter will win big. Unlike 2003 there has not been a very organized effort against it and people are so fed up with what has been going on for years that just has recently been exposed that they are willing to take a chance on another form of government. The charter is not perfect but the biggest objections about an elected county executive and council elections by district can be addressed in 5 years by amendment instead of going through the whole process of electing another commission and writing another charter.


The PA 14th Senate race will be won by John Yudichack(D). The district has an overwhelming Democratic registration and Yuddy has been a good state rep. I like Steve Urban (R) and think he has been a good county commissioner. The Libertarian candidate Betsy Summers will eat into his vote but even if she wasn't in this Yudichack would still win big.

In the 118th State Rep District incumbent Mike Carroll (D) will be returned for another term.
Carroll has pleasantly surprised me with his desire to overhaul the campaign finance laws (there aren't many) of Pennsylvania and reform the redistricting process. His opponent Terrance O'Conner likes to dress up in 18th century garb and stand in the bed of his pick up truck yelling into a bullhorn. Today is Halloween so O'Conner should fit right in. One of his campaign planks is repeal ling the sales tax on ammunition. It's hard to win an election when you make yourself into a cartoon character and a joke.

Karen Boback (R) will win big in the overwhelmingly Republican 117th District. I have to congratulate Richard Shermanski (D) for running a energetic campaign.

James O'Meara (R) is my favorite underdog in this cycle. He has stayed positive in his uphill challenge to unseat Eddie Day Pashinski (D). He came to every blogger event and he married a great girl. I have never cast a straight ballot so this is one Republican I will be voting for. Pashinski wins big.

Yuddy and Urban club each other in debate, Summers along for the ride

Senatorial smackdown

Urban, Yudichak fire off at one another in debate

Yudichak and Urban go after each other in 14th Senatorial debate

Watch it on WVIA

I wanted to embed it but kept getting an error

It's a gas,tax

The PA House of Representatives finally got around to passing a Severance tax on the Marcellus Shale drillers that are in the process of creating a slow motion environmental disaster in Pennsylvania.


TL: The Pennsylvania House on Wednesday approved a bill that would impose the state’s first-ever tax on natural gas extraction, advancing a plan to split the proceeds among the state’s general fund, environmental programs and local governments....The 104-94 vote was a major step toward collecting revenue from the drilling boom in a wide swath of the state that overlays the Marcellus Shale gas formation.

What Does Severance Tax Mean?
A tax imposed on the removal of nonrenewable resources such as crude oil, condensate and natural gas, coalbed methane and carbon dioxide.

But they came up with a convoluted formula on how to use the proceeds as this chart from the Commonwealth Foundation documents. This should be a lot simpler with money going into the general fund and the remainder being dedicated to the DEP to deal with the inspection, regulation and inevitable clean up operations from this activity. But just like the slots money that was sold as a way to reduce property taxes our salons in Harrisburg look on this as another pot of gold to be spread around.

Predictably, Republicans are objecting as their world view seems to be there should not be any taxes on businesses of any kind. Nobody likes paying taxes but as a wise man once said "Taxes are the price we pay for civilization." I think the Yonk would agree with that.

The industry has no problem spreading around campaign cash instead of paying taxes. Since 2001 they have dropped $3 million into political campaigns and spent another $5 million for lobbying.

According to the website Marcellus Money, the top recipients of driller campaign cash during the past decade include: Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett ($372,000), Lt. Gov./Senate GOP leader Joseph Scarnati ($117,000), Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell ($84,000), Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato ($74,000).

Local lawmakers receiving contributions include Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Peckville ($7,000), Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township ($1,500), Sen. John Gordner, R-Berwick ($1,300), House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township ($1,250), Rep. Ed Staback, D-Archbald ($500), Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke ($250) and Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake ($250)

Boback gave back the money. Good for her.

The production of gas from the Marcellus Shale has exceeded the expectations of the industry itself so these warnings that a tax on them will drive them out of the state is nonsense. The gas is under our feet and if they want it they will pay a fair premium to the people of Pennsylvania.

Meet the 119th State Rep District candidates

119th District State Represenative John Yudichak(D) has his sights on the 14th Senate District seat held by retiring Ray Musto. He had a fundraiser on Sunday that was well attended but was not announced on his website or Facebook pages. His campaign hasn't updated his online outlets since the primary. Get on the stick guys and use every tool available to communicate your message.

Democrat Gerald Mullery hopes to fill his shoes in the 119th and has a meeting planned today at Mil & Jims Parkway Inn, 24 W. Kirmar Ave., Nanticoke starting at 7PM.

I spotted a sign at the Plymouth Kielbasa Festival that said GOP nominee Rick Arnold will be at Happy Pizza in Plymouth, Friday, September 10th at 6PM. I'm not sure if this is a go because it's not listed on on his website or Facebook.

The Libertarian candidate Brian Bergman doesn't have any events listed this week on his website or Facebook page but will be at the NEPA Libertarians Monthly Meeting Sunday, September 19th,
2pm at Grotto Pizza in Edwardsville.

Note to the candidates, send me a reminder of your upcoming event and I will plug it.

Update: The Rick Arnold camp confirms that he will be at Happy Pizza on September 10th and also has a shindig scheduled for Sunday, September 26, 2010 from 4-6 at the Alden Manor in Nanticoke.
Visit his website for the details.

To keep track of all upcoming local Republican candidate events visit the calendar page at the Luzerne County GOP website.

Libertarians make the cut

It looks like the local Libertarian state house candidates have enough signatures to spare to get on the November ballot and survive any challenges.

14th District Senate candidate Betsy Summers needed 1063 and got 2279. Brian Bergman's goal in the 119th State House District was 389 signatures and he too filed almost twice the minimum with 625. Tim Mullen's number just blew me away. Mullen has been working hard going door to door on the west side needing 436 signatures and was able to convince 2279 of his neighbors to sign his petitions. Remember that the Democratic and Republican state house candidates only need 300 signatures to get on the primary ballot. Signatures don't necessarily translate into votes but the Lib's have to be happy with these results and the Republican candidates should be worried. I doubt they will mount a challenge to the petitions but anything is possible. The local GOP's best signature challenger in the past, Liz Sichler, has other worries.

Links to candidate websites.


Senate 14


Steve Urban (R)

John Yudichak (D)

Betsy Summers (L)



State Rep 120th


Phyllis Mundy (D) incumbent

Bill Goldsworthy (R)

Tim Mullen (L)



State Rep 119th


Rick Arnold (R)

Gerald Mullery (D)

Brian Bergman (L)