Lou Barletta for Senate

If the reports are true PA 11th CD Rep Lou Barletta of Hazleton  is running for the US Senate against incumbent Bob Casey of Scranton in 2018. After Rick Santorum flamed out in the 2016 primary Lou endorsed Donald Trump and has been a big supporter ever since. Many people say that Trump has urged him to get into the race.

Barletta getting into the Senate race will probably knock out a few of the minor Republican candidates but I doubt he will have a clear field.

On the other hand the next primary  election in the  Pennsylvania 11th Congressional District will be a donnybrook on both sides.

The only declared candidate in the 11th CD until now was Democrat Alan Howe. 
That will change in the next few days.

The Republicans have a deep bench in a district that stretches from Wyoming County to down past Harrisburg and Carlisle. There are many Republican Legislators and County officials that will be looking for a promotion.

Of course some rich guy/girl  who could self finance might  get in on it.


My archive/oppo research on Barletta

Here

 

Pennsylania polls

There are 4 statewide races on the ballot tomorrow.

In the US Senate race Bob Casey (D) sort of fell asleep while Tom Smith (R) spent millions on TV ads singing the praises of coal. If I see that ad with that kid with the southern accent blaming the President and Casey for losing his job one more time because of regulations  I'm going to throw up. The fact that natural gas prices have decreased because of shale drilling is why utilities are switching to gas powered generators and need less coal. I thought Republicans believed in market forces. I think Casey holds on.


Kathleen Kane will be the next Attorney General of Pennsylvania. She has had a double digit lead in every public poll since the primary. I was a big supporter of Patrick Murphy in the primary but poor turnout in Philadelphia and the suburbs sunk him. I had a nice chat with David Freed at the Luzerne County GOP picnic in August. On my way out I told David Freed that I thought the AG's office would be in good hands whoever won. He said he felt the same way after the primary. He respects his opponent. Now that we are in closing days the ads have got tough. I really like that the Freed camp cited my Parking Ticket post in an ad but attributed it to WILK

Incumbent Treasurer Rob McCord, a Democrat from Bryn Mawr,will win big.  Republican challenger Diana Irey Vaughan, is  a Washington County commissioner,
Libertarian Patricia Fryman, the retired auditor of Venango County, is also on the ballot.

Auditor General is going down to the wire. Both candidates are on the air.  Rep. Eugene DePasquale, a Democrat from York County, and Rep. John Maher, a Republican from Allegheny County. I think they are also running for reelection as state reps. I don't think it should be allowed to run for 2 offices like Joe Lieberman or Paul Ryan. This is tossup but it's a Democratic year in PA. DePasquale wins.

 Kevin Blaum backs Maher .

Specter with Bush ad

With the polls closing to single digits in the Pennsylvania US Senate Democratic primary race between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak the long awaited TV spot highlighting Specter's last campaign in 2004 when he was selling himself as a loyal Republican being backed by GW Bush and Rick Santorum finally aired.


It is not on Sestak's website or YouTube channel which shows how incompetent the Sestak campaign has been. Liberal bloggers all over the state and country would link to it if it was available giving them all sorts of free media. Maybe tomorrow.

Blog buddy Dan Hirschorn of pa2010.com has the video that looks like somebody pointed a camera at a TV .





His play by play


It’s the campaign ad everyone knew was coming—and it was only a matter of time.

The latest TV spot by Democrat Joe Sestak’s Senate campaign highlights former President George W. Bush’s support for Senator Arlen Specter during the 2004 campaign, as well Specter’s support for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008. It also twice plays a clip of Specter saying that “my change in party will enable me to be reelected.”

The 30-second spot aired Wednesday night on CBS in the Philadelphia media market, appearing on “CSI: NY” and later on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Sestak has harped on Specter’s party-switch throughout the campaign, but the new ad is the first time he’s taken that message to the airwaves.

“For 45 years, Arlen Specter has been a Republican politician,” a narrator says.

The footage of Bush endorsing Specter—”I can count on this man,” Bush says with former Senator Rick Santorum at his side—is taken from one of Specter’s own 2004 campaign ads.

The ad closes with a shot of Specter standing with Palin. “Arlen Specter switched parties to save one job,” the narrator says. “His, not yours.”

Ballot Challenges

According to the PA Department of State website 11th CD Republican candidate Chris Paige's nominating petitions are being challenged by Wm Maughan, Maureen Ace and Robert Ace. According to pa2010.com One of them is being represented by Lawrence Tabas, a Philadelphia lawyer who also serves as general counsel to the state GOP, which is firmly behind Barletta.

No surprise really because trying to knock your primary opponents is part of the game. I expected the Corey O'Brien camp to challenge Brian Kelly's signatures.


Paige responded to the challenge in the pa2010 comments:

Since I haven’t been served with either complaint, I can’t comment beyond the obvious: this is a deplorable cowardly move that flatly contradicts Mr. Barletta’s frequent comments to the media that he welcomed additional challengers into the race. Assuming this report is correct, we are pleased that discovery will allow us to investigate Mr. Barletta’s own activities.

McGruff admits that the Barletta campaign has information that provide the basis for the challenge.

In the Senate race Joe Sestak wants Joe Vodvarka off the ballot so people don't have 2 choices in voting against Arlen Specter.

Joe Sestak was in town yesterday

Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) was at Wilkes Unversity in Wilkes-Barre yesterday and the first I heard about it was a message on Facebook from a student the night before. I've been bitching about the poor advance work of the Sestak campaign for months. Maybe I'm getting a big head but I think they should let the the local bloggers know when Joe will be in the neighborhood especially since we want to support him. One wag made the observation that he wants to be the Senator from MSNBC instead of Pennsylvania.

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Sestak is taking on party switcher Arlen Specter in the 2010 Democratic primary for US Senator from Pennsylvania. The President , Governor and the other Senator are backing Arlen after he realized that he couldn't win a Republican primary election against right wing darling Pat Toomey who came close to knocking him off in the 2004 Republican primary. In that election his biggest boosters were White House occupant George W Bush and our junior Senator from Virginia Rick Santorum who is now looking at running for President. There are many Democrats like me that have never voted for Specter and never will. Scottish Law, Anita Hill, single bullet, Ira Eichhorn the list is endless.

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Anyway, we have a report from Wilkes student Tony Thomas about Sestak's visit:

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On October 2nd Congressman Joe Sestak visited Wilkes University for an intimate town hall meeting with college students. Sestak spoke for about and hour and a half on the job market, economy, and his ideas for helping college students. Joe stated he supports investing 85 billion in small businesses through the Small Business Administration which he argues would improve economic recovery and help stem job losses.

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While in Congress Joe voted to increase the maximum for Pell Grants, he voted to increase eligibility for Pell Grants, he voted to increase unsubsidized Stafford Loans by $2,000. He also voted to give parents more time to repay those loans.

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Students and faculty were given the opportunity to ask Sestak his opinions on a variety of issues. Healthcare and the Public Option were the first issues that were brought up in questioning. “I got in Congress for his healthcare bill”, he told the audience. Sestak supports the House bill that mandates all Americans get health insurance or risk a fine for not doing so.

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As for the Public Option, Sestak said that he strongly supported it. His response was met with applause from the audience. He clarified that the plan would not be subsidized by the public, but would be paid for by money the insurance companies receive from premiums paid by the insured. Sestak said that the plan would save money because the government would not have to pay advertising costs and would not be paying tens of millions of dollars for a CEO to run it. Instead Sestak said that the government would have an individual similar to a Cabinet official run the program for a salary of around $200,000 dollars.

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Other questions were on the war in Afghanistan, gay marriage and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, marijuana legalization, and Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill.

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War in Afghanistan:

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Sestak acknowledged that the war in Afghanistan is a very difficult issue and he said that if the goal is to eradicate al-Qaida in Afghanistan and along the Pakistan border, then he does support continued efforts. However, if the goal is national building, he stated that he does not support continued efforts. He does support a timetable for withdrawal, but stated that there should not be a mandatory date as of yet to withdraw.

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Gay Marriage and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell:

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Sestak stated that he believes all Americans are equal. He highlighted his support for repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. Joe clarified that he believes marriage is up to a church, but he said that if a church wants to perform same-sex marriage they should be allowed to do so. On DADT, Sestak highlighted his 31 year career in the Navy and told the audience that he strongly supports repealing DADT. Joe stated that he believes that the Obama Administration must do something for equality by the end of the year and he suggested either ending DADT or DOMA.

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Marijuana Legalization:

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Sestak stated that he does not support legalizing marijuana even for taxing the substance. He suggested that perhaps a generation difference contributed to his opinion being different from the student who questioned him. Sestak did point out that he supports medicinal marijuana.

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Audit the Fed:

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Joe was asked about Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill and stated that he supports the bill 50%. He believes in transparency of government and accountability, but pointed out that a truly independent investigation is needed and he wants to avoid a political investigation of the Fed.

Joe concluded the event by thanking all those in attendance and said that he in this race for Pennsylvanians and not for political interest. He criticized Arlen Specter’s conversion to the Democratic Party and said that Specter is a flight-risk if elected. Sestak slammed Specter for putting politics above governing by highlighting when Harry Reid recessed the Senate so Specter could attend a fundraiser and not be criticized for missing votes. Sestak said that he would never put politics above his elected duties.

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Thanks to Tony for covering this event. I can't make it to everything so I am asking my readers to help me out. Please cover and write-up anything to do with local or state politics and send it to me. Maybe I should offer a prize like a tee shirt for being a front page guest poster on Gort42. The Mean Old Man will probably just shoot the thing with a shotgun.

The Rodney Dangerfield of this race is State Rep Bill Kortz. He gets no respect.