Cartwight opens Wilkes-Barre office

A literately overflow crowd was on hand for the opening of Matt Cartwright's W-B office in W-B tonight. So many people showed up that there wasn't enough room in the building to hear him speak and those who couldn't get in spilled out onto the sidewalk.  I was a afraid the fire marshal would arrive but Mayor Tony George was there so that didn't happen.

Matt Cartwright (D-Moosic) started off by asking a moment of silence for John McCain. He then assured us that there are members on both sides of the aisle who want to do the right thing for our country and tries to work with them everyday. He's proud that many of the bills he has introduced have Republican co-sponsors.

He gave a full throttled defense of Social Security and Medicare and trashed the latest trickle down tax cut bill. He reminded the crowd that the full name of Obamacare is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The protection part is making sure that people with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. A big chunk of the population has some sort of medical condition that used to allow insurers to deny them coverage.  He decried the provisions of the last tax bill that gave away the store to corporations and the very rich with few benefits for the rest of us. Part of it was repealing the the individual mandate that cuts funding for the program and reduces the risk pool so premiums will soar. . 

Defending Tony George

A couple of tidbits I ran across on the intertubes.


TL:

It would appear that the opponents of Tony George becoming mayor of Wilkes-Barre will resort to any means of preventing it!
The present administration knows that when George becomes mayor, many of the activities of the outgoing administration will come out for public scrutiny. There must be a lot of things that the present administration does not want known, or needs more time to bury.
I am confident that our district attorney will not find any willful intent in the accusations leveled at Mr. George.
I’m pretty sure that between now and the General Election more attempts will be made in an effort to muffle the voice and choice of the people.
Ray Arellano

 CV Picture


This was on Facebook:



STEALING OF THE WILKES BARRE MAYORAL ELECTION!


Attention all Democrats, Republicans and Independents: The upcoming election is being attacked, no not by outside foreign terrorists but from within our city boundaries. A small group of people are using all means at their disposal to highjack the upcoming mayoral election in the city of Wilkes Barre. They are attempting to erase the candidate which you chose through your constitutional exercise of voting with their hand picked choice, they want to erase your choice and APPOINT a person to head this city. They are using the courts, the DA's office and the democratic committee to take away your right to choose the person you feel is best suited to become the next mayor of this city. DON"T LET THEM!

Don't be fooled by the charade of certain people who claim to be doing this out of a sense of fairness and justice, these very people campaigned, canvased, attended fund raisers, and for some contributed money to the person they are trying to appoint to the position of Mayor of WB through any means possible. They may have erased their pictures which clearly showed who they supported during the primary and erased all connection to that candidate but some of us are not so dumb as they would like to believe we are. A husband and wife standing together at a campaign fundraiser wearing that candidates campaign button is not so easily forgotten, or a woman who is friends with a relative of the person they wish to appoint as your Mayor. They claim they are doing this because of this outrageous all encompassing disastrous what they call a crime and I call and most people I know call a mistake that was corrected and unlike current office holders admitted to. I wonder were these very people hid when tens of thousands of gallons of taxpayer funded gasoline went missing? Oh could they have been at a council meeting praising the man who some felt should have been charged with something for that missing gas, of course that was "JUST A MISTAKE OF PAPERWORK" it was taxpayers money so we can all overlook that, right? Well the DA said yes we can overlook that, so we move on. I may not agree with the DA on that but it was and is her decision to interpret the law as she feels fit, so I moved on even though the missing gas cost me my tax money. The problem these certain people are so up in arms about is not about yours mine or anyone's tax money being squandered or used in a way that seems wrong, it is about a private persons donation, yes donation to a candidate for mayor, it is not public money it was private money donated to a campaign, it cost me not one blessed penny! I really wish these people got so engaged when it was their money and our money being wasted and squandered, things may have turned out differently.

Now you may say they have the right to do what they are doing, and I guess they do, but let's be honest with ourselves do we really think they are doing this for us? Or for that matter for themselves? I doubt it, I mean after all I would like to think that if the person I wanted to win the election lost I would be disappointed but I can say without a doubt I would not stomp my feet and pound the table like a little kid and I would move on and accept the choice of the majority, after all for the last 12 years I have had to endure the choice of the majority even though I still can not understand how they voted for him 3 times, but I went forward with him as not only the mayor of my city, but as my mayor and I hoped he did well for us, which some things he did, so I accepted the choice of the voters. If I only knew I could have tried to turn a mistake into a crime back then maybe I would have sued to try and steal the election from him.

I want to be clear, I voiced my concern to Tony George about the mistake and like the honest upstanding man he is, he apologized , The character of a man is not how loud he screams his accomplishments but in how honest he is about his mistakes. To try and make anything criminal out of this more common than you know mistake, is nothing but a political stunt. I truly believe this to be the case, just as a truly believe that certain individuals who hold office currently and some who sit on election committees are doing all they can to remove Tony George from the ballot and appoint their chosen one to office of the mayor.

I beg you to not let this happen, we as a society can not have a future if we allow the elected to choose who will follow them into office, we must hold our vote close to our hearts and minds or this tactic being used right now locally will become precedent and you will no longer have a say in even your own vote.

We have two candidates chosen by their peers, Tony George on the democratic ticket, and Frank Sorick on the republican ticket. You have a choice in the general election to elect as your next mayor either one of these fine men, but I beg you to not allow a member of a committee or a disgruntled campaign supporter or even the DA or Courts to take away your choice of who will represent you in this city. If you do you will have in my opinion dishonored the millions of Americans who before you fought for the right and the privilege to have their vote count!

You have the choice in front of you, either man would be a good choice, an honest choice and most of all your choice!
 

Paperwork problem for Tony George

This one has me scratching my head. City Council member Tony George is the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Wilkes-Barre and was previously the police chief of the county seat. He has probably filled out hundreds if not thousands of forms making sure to cross the T's and dot the I's as a police officer as a mistake could screw up a prosecution or wrongfully deprive someone of their liberty. He has also been a candidate for election before and had to file campaign finance reports.

He claims he tried to do the reports himself and screwed it up. TL: “What was I trying to hide? My problem was I kept poor records,” George said Friday. He has brought in professional accounting firm to fix the problem and file an amended report. He also said he he would have help running the city "The mayor has a controller and finance office. I’m not going to run the whole city myself. That’s why they have all the department heads,” George said. OOKAY.

The reports are so screwed up that county election board is referring the matter to the District Attorney . Solicitor Mike Butera said The District Attorney’s Office will be asked to determine if the mistakes were an intentional attempt to deceive the public, which would be criminal. " Not that Stephanie Salavantis  will find time to deal with this before the election.



Bob Caruso, who has been involved in elections for decades, told the board George’s campaign reports are “the most irregular election reports I’ve ever seen.”
Amended reports should be permitted in cases where something must be added — not to redo and replace a significant portion of the information, Caruso said.

 Republican candidate for Mayor Frank Sorick and writer of local bog Wake Up Wilkes-Barre
  was surprisingly restrained.
Sorick accepted George’s explanation. “This was a multitude of honest mistakes,” he said.
Still Sorick said voters should be concerned and ask themselves which candidate is most capable of running the city.
“Voters should look closely at who has the best opportunity to serve the city residents, who has been doing the best job and doing it without asking for a dime in return,” he said.
He contrasted his campaign to George’s saying it’s more of grassroots effort with less focus on raising funds because with school district, county and city taxes people in the don’t have the money give.

This is coming from a guy  who refers  to present Mayor as Tom Lie-A-Ton


 Sources:

Election board calls for criminal probe of W-B nominee's campaign finances

 

George: Campaign finance mistakes expected to be issue in Wilkes-Barre mayor race