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.

Play by play from the State Democratic Committee meeting.

PoliticsPA has rundown of what Governor candidates are doing to woo the faithful at this weekends get together.

 David Diano  tells you what really is going on:


At the dessert event, candidates for the 13th and for Lt Gov were trying to give speeches, but the acoustics were terrible and everyone was milling around and talking. It was a waste of time for the candidates, as no one but their own staffers paid the slightest attention. They did better just working the room one on one.

I finally got to meet Tom Wolf. Seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t even bother with the Schwartz staffers who were wearing candidate t-shirts over regular shirts, while mostly everyone else was dressed for success, and just had a few buttons or stickers. Except for the head fundraiser, the staff just seems like amateur hour and like they showed up at the wrong event by accident.

McGinty seems very nice. If she is able to raise enough money, I think she will do well in first-person commercials explaining why she is running. When Kane ran, she explained herself and did well. Murphy had surrogates (the usual suspects) in his commercials. We know how that turned out. McGinty has a similar quality to Kane in the direct way she speaks.

I didn’t even waste my time with Pawlowski and his tiny entourage. No one I talked to could figure out why he was wasting his time running. The two leading theories were
1) that the illusion of a Gov run would give him leverage in backroom deals in Allentown
2) that this was a way to filter money to his cronies by having them pretend they were running a Gov campaign.

If anyone has a better theory, I’d like to hear it, because we are all pretty stumped about what he is really up to. Of course, it’s possible he’s actually dumb enough to think he has a chance, but I doubt it because he does have opposable thumbs and can walk upright. So, it must be something else.
I saw Rob McCord. He was laughing and enjoying himself. I’m guessing the Teamsters endorsement was part of it. People were commenting how Rob timed it just right for his announcement. I think those “McCord for Gov” stickers had been gathering dust for months. 

Rob is pretty popular with Delco and Montco crowd, so he was in his element.
Oh, yeah, and it seems like a lot of people are following Politics PA, because they recognized my name from here. 

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

Who's running for Governor?

Reading the tea leaves of  PoliticsPA reporting of the Pennsylvania Society meetup in New York this past weekend it looks like about 37 people are floating the the idea of running for Governor of Pennsylvania. Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor said he was thinking of primary challenge to Tom Corbett. He is the only Republican name thrown out there so far other than the usual cranks.

Democrat John Hanger has already declared that he is the race .Bob Casey and Allyson Schwartz are not. Former Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper and  PA State Senator Mike Stack said they are looking at the race. PA Treasurer Rob McCord will will be a candidate and possibly Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy. More to come.

A couple events caught my eye.

On Saturday :

Congressman Lou Barletta’s Holiday Reception
2:00pm – 5:00pm
O’Neill’s Irish Bar
729 3rd Avenue
RSVP Required

I wasn't invited and that makes me sad. I'm the biggest non supporter of Lou in these parts who actually likes the guy. I'll buy him dinner at Dominick's Cafe.


The rumor is that the Mean Old Man  and Professor Milburn Cleaver, OPA made it to this gathering.

  5th Annual Bolshevik Dinner
7:00pm
The Russian Vodka Room
By invitation only

The best roundup of the PA Society weekend came from my 2nd favorite state legislator (Phyllis is still in the lead) Daylin Leach.

PA Society Chronicles – 2012

 

= I’m running for Governor, but not of Pennsylvania.
= I’m running for Congress.
= I’m running for the Bundestag.
= Pat Toomey has asked me to be his Vice-Senator.
= Governor Corbett calls me his ‘little minx’”.
= I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
= My CIA nick-name is “Danger Hunk”.

 

John Hanger for Governor

Campaigns keep starting earlier. Sure you start laying the groundwork running for any office but actually making an announcement 2 years out is relatively new.

Pennlive: John Hanger, a 55-year-old Harrisburg lawyer, will make a stop in Harrisburg on Wednesday to announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014. He will start off in Philadelphia then travel to Pittsburgh. A visit to Erie, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Allentown in the near future should be high on his list. 

He works for the law firm of Eckert Seamans:  John served from 2008 to 2011 as the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Chair of the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, the Chair of the Environmental Quality Board, Vice Chairman of the Pennsylvania Infrastructure and Investment Authority, and a Commissioner of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission. He also chaired the Pennsylvania Mine Safety Board. In 2010, for the first time in Pennsylvania’s history, no miners died on the job.

As Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, John was in charge of permitting and regulation of gas drilling in Pennsylvania. He led a complete review of regulations governing gas drilling and enacted major new rules governing drilling of wells as well as the withdrawal of water for drilling and the disposal of drilling wastewater. 

And he's a Blogger!
  
John Hanger's Facts of The Day

Philly businessman Tom Knox has also said he intends to run. 

Other possible candidates include York businessman Tom Wolf; Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski; state Treasurer Rob McCord; retiring state Auditor General Jack Wagner, and former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.

Tom Corbett can be beat.

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 .

Looking to the fall: PA row offices

Other than the Attorney General's race I  ignored the other constitutional offices in the primary.

Incumbent Rob McCord is being challenged by Republican Diana Irey to be the next State Treasurer.

In the the Auditor General's race  Democrat Eugene DePasquale will face off with GOP nominee John Maher to succeeded Jack Wagner.

I should probably smash my crystal ball but that would deprive many of you from beating me up in the comments. Right now I would say that Kathleen Kane is the early favorite to best David Freed in the Attorney General race. My guy, Patrick Murphy,  lost the primary after a hard fought contest. Now is the time for Democrats to close ranks and support Kane.

Luzerne Dems endorse

From the inbox:

At their January meeting this week, the Luzerne County Democratic Executive Committee voted to endorse Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, Patrick Murphy for Attorney General, Rob McCord for State Treasurer, and Eugene DePasquale for Auditor General, the Committee announced.

"We are incredibly proud to support Senator Casey, Congressman Murphy, Treasurer McCord, and Representative DePasquale in their bids for their respective offices. They have all demonstrated their commitment to standing up for middle and working class Pennsylvanians. We strongly endorse their candidacies because of their integrity and their dedication to social justice and equality, economic fairness and opportunity, and for government that works for everyone, not just the privileged few," said LCDC Public Relations director and 2nd District Chair Casey Evans.