Luzerne County government

In the recent election the Luzerne County GOP did well. Dick Hughes will now be a judge and Stefanie Salavantis kept hammering the kids for cash scandal topping Jackie Mo in the District Attorney race showing what a ton of money and a savvy media campaign can do.

The race for the new County Council was the most unpredictable yielding a somewhat surprising result with only 6 Democrats winning seats in a county with a big Dem registration edge. There will be 4 Republicans and an Independent rounding out the newfangled 11 member body. Kingston Mayor and study commission chairman Jim Haggerty told me before he wrote the new charter that he wanted to try to minimize the influence of campaign contributions For the most part each candidate ran a solo effort with a few alliances that at times crossed party lines but didn't work out. My good friend David Yonki said that name recognition would be a key in this race because of the crowded field predicting that Urban the Elder and Urban the Younger would top the poll. It was good to see that the CV quoted a real political expert in addition the Captains Obvious college professors. I would add that the Independent Rick Williams TV spots raised his name recognition contributing to his win. I expect (hope) that party loyalty will be put on the back burner and our new Councilors will do what is best for us all. It will be interesting to see what alliances and deals that will be made in the coming months and years.

Now the hard part.

Members get applicant details

The first job of the new council is to hire an unelected county manager but this story tells us that they can't even agree on the ground rules on applications.

In other news the present Commissioners have decided to spend $1 million to tear down the Hotel Sterling after pissing away $6 million trying to save it. The place was wreck even before the recent flooding.

Another boondogle on the horizon is the Market Street Square property that the county bought from Thom Greco for $5.8 million in 2006. They voted to sink another $2 million into the place to clean it up that will let the county put a senior center and the tourism bureau office in the station. $7 million plus for a senior center and tourist office for this place ? Another property that should be bulldozed and start from scratch. I worked at the Station years ago and it was an eyesore and hazard even then. There was some entertainment value when Greco and the owners of the Woodlands owners the Cornfelds got into a pissing contest that resulted in some expensive cars getting towed all over town.

Greco and Greg Skrepenack should enjoy the show on TV.

Big upset

Stefanie Salavantis defeats Jackie Musto Carroll for Luzerne County District Attorney.

Stefanie J. Salavantis (REP) . . . . 31,776
Jackie Musto Carroll (DEM). . . . . 30,811

Wow!

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

Luzerne County DA

Stefanie Salavanits campaign has tried to make the Luzerne County DA's race into a referendem on the kids for cash scandal. It seems she is not running against the present DA as she is running against Mark Ciavarella trying to tie or smear her for his association to him.

It just may work.

Peter Paul (PPO-2) lost a rentention vote because of this and the Luzerne County Government looks different after the kids for cash scandal.


I have never seen a slash and burn campaign like this locally.


Another hard hitting commercial:

Robocalls

Another way to annoy people with unwanted telephone calls. I've only received 2 so far, today it was from Joe Sestak asking me support Democrats on Tuesday. The one on my machine on Friday was a real hoot. A woman's voice saying Jackie Musto Carroll did nothing to stop the kids for cash scandal and even worse denied it even happened in a radio interview. She ends by saying it's time finish cleaning up the courthouse. Pittston Politics got the same call and observes It, however, did not have a “paid for” disclaimer. A violation of election law.

The call came from a number in Utah 801-410-7248. I did a google search to try to find the owner of the number but I couldn't nail it down. Reading the reverse lookup sites it appears to be from a telemarketing firm that ignores the do not call registry trying sell some product or other.

Luzerne County DA

The hottest race this cycle has unexpectedly been the contest for Luzerne County District Attorney. In the spring incumbent Jackie Musto Carroll looked like a shoe in without a primary opponent and no Republican had circulated nominating petitions. She even mounted a write-in campaign trying to also snag the Republican nomination but Stepahanie Salavantis got into it at the last minute and secured enough write-in votes to become the Republican nominee. Like most political junkies I hate uncontested elections and welcomed her entry, I always like a choice in an election.

To the surprise of most political observers Salavantis is running hard spending some big bucks on radio and TV ads. Her campaign finance reports show that she has received some financial support from individual donors but most of her money has come from her parents. Carroll also got money from her folks but not as much. I didn't find the name of her Uncle Ray in any of the reports.

Stephie Sal has had 3 spots on TV so far trying to tie Jackie Mo to the Juvie Brothers (cash for kids) scandal implying she could have somehow prevented or stopped it. DA Jackie Mo is not on the air yet that I have seen but I'm told that will change shortly. She has hired local legend Ed Mitchell to do her media.

PittstonPolitics.com has been all over this race and even made an ad for Carroll.





Update: Jackie Mo on the Air

Salavantis hits Jackie Mo hard

Republican challenger Stephanie Salavantis is trying to make Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll a part of the kids for cash scandal that resulted in Judges Conahan and Ciavarella going to jail. She has been running an ad the last few days that says Jackie Mo could have made a 3 minute journey to juvinile court to find out what was going on and thus end it. The spot is not on her YouTube channel even after I asked her to post it. That request was posted on her Facebook page and was deleted within minutes. Her facebook page has been chopped up with everything before September being deleted.

Nice try, but David Lupas was the District Attorney for most of the time when all this was going on. It's ironic that Lupas is now the judge in charge of the Juvunile Court. With Hugo Selenski back in the news I'm reminded how many times Lupas dropped the ball and couldn't get a murder conviction for someone with at least 5 people buried in his back yard.

Musto Carroll faces aggressive challenger

What the hell here is the Majestic ad




Update: The "Three Minutes" spot has been added to Salavantis' YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/salavantisforda