No to Russell Nigro!

The people of Pennsylvania have made some minor history. For the first time a sitting judge lost a retention vote. Before I get into reasons for the loss I want to point out that the poli sci major in me is overjoyed. Why have an election when the incumbent never loses? Most of us don't know who these people are or what they do and the selection of appellate court judges should be taken out of the political arena. He lost by just over 10,000 votes and the other justice on the ballot Sandra Schultz Newman got a scare. The anti- judge sentiment even spilled into other retention votes. Luzerne County Judge of Common Pleas Mark Ciavarella received a 41% no vote, when the no's are usually around 20% or less.

Since the legislature was not on the ballot in this election the wrath fell on the judges. It was brilliant send them a message politics backed by political groups all across the spectrum. The 2 a.m. paygrab caught the attention of everyone who has an interest in politics and government. In an off year election a well motivated informed electorate can make a difference and we did. This fight is not over, just the opening round of a long challenge. Our lawmakers in the last few days have come up with some repeal measures that are full of this that and the other type of exceptions. That's bullshit. These clowns are now trying to backpedal and be seen as repealing the raise but leaving a bunch of loopholes so it can be still collected. We will see what happens next year when we vote for our members of the legislature.

Voting

Mrs. Gort and I just got back from voting and sadly we were the only one's there when we cast our ballots. As stated earlier I voted no on the judges and cast yes votes for Carolee and Eric Knappman. We also had three offices up for election in our little township that were all unopposed. One of the offices up for election was tax collector and I don't understand why this is an elected position. Some of our tax collectors in Luzerne County have recently been convicted of not turning over the money. It's another bill, mail it in like you do with the electric, gas or water. I know I'm sounding like a broken record saying these positions shouldn't be elected and now I'm watching an ad for a guy who is running for tax collector in Scranton. TV ads cost money for a position that can't pay very well. You wonder about the motivation.

Luzerne County elections

Today is one of two best days of the year for political junkies like me. Local elections are not as sexy as the selection of a president or governor but I have never missed an election since I became 18 years old a long time ago.

Turnout will probably be low in Luzerne County as there aren't any competitive races. I'm sure Jill Moran will be re-elected and Maryann Petrilla will become the next Controller. But I won't vote for them.

The Controller is supposed to keep an eye on the rest of the county government and should be independent. Steve Flood was certainly independent and became a pain in the neck to to his fellow Democrats. He united the local party in their desire to rid of him and Petrilla's list of donors reads like a who's who of area Democrats, including the sitting commissioners. So I will vote for Eric Knappman because he is not part of establishment and is not beholden to them. Plus I think his financial planning background will be an asset in managing the pension fund.

As I've said before jobs like Prothonotary and Register of Wills are clerical positions that should not even be elected positions. Same goes for Jury Commissioner who's only official duty is to once a year hit the print button on a computer to get a list of prospective jurrors. Well if we have to vote for these offices here are my picks. The Register of Wills race is easy since the only name on the ballot is the incumbent Democrat Dottie Stankovic. She has stepped on the toes of the local party leadership and they ran a challenger against her in the primary. But her legion of polka fans came out for her and she won easily. I hate to see anyone be unopposed and the Republicans didn't even put up a token candidate. But Dottie has shown a streak of independence and will get my vote. The Prothonotary race is the only one that has had any kind of debate with Republican Carolee Medico-Olenginski accusing her opponent of rarely being in the office. Then last week it was revealed that someone else was signing Moran's name to deeds when she wasn't around proving Carolee's point. Legal or not, it was pretty stupid thing to do and shows a serious lapse in judgment. I'm for Carolee. Jury Commissioner? I'll skip that one.

Supreme Court retention, Judges Russell Nigro and Sandra Schultz Newman

Lot's of reasons to vote no on these two.

-First of all it never has been done, no sitting Pennsylvania judge has ever lost a retention vote. A few years ago a Lackawanna County judge, I think his name was Eagan, lost a retention vote after he had been idicted for theft. Let's make some minor history.

-Second, the pay raise furor. Sure they voted to repeal it but some technicality still might give it to the judges. We can't vote against the legislature so let's vote no on these 2 and send them a message.

-Third is there expense account spending. Nigro likes $400 dollar dinners and Newman charges back nickel and dime stuff as outlined in this Daily News article.

-Fourth is why do we elect judges? The Court of Common Pleas is the one that people who turn to legal system encounter so that should be an elective position. But the judges on the the Superior and Supreme court's? They are elected in pointless statewide elections were the candidates can't answer any questions about the issues of the day so we usually get bio ads that tell us how tough on criminals they have been and end by saying they will lock up all the drug dealers.

Anyone with an interest in this subject, and I you are out there, is welcome to comment

Ryan Howard Named NL's Rookie of the Year

Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, who led all first-year players in the major leagues in home runs with 22, was elected the National League winner of the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award today. Howard, batted .288 and drove in 63 runs in 88 games and 312 at-bats, including 11 homers and 27 RBI in September/October. Howard is the fourth Phillies player honored, joining Scott Rolen, Dick Allen and Jack Sanford.

He had 22 homers and 63 RBI's in half a season.

Now what to do about Thome?

Redistricting

One of my favorite PA political analyst LVDem at Keystonepolitics links to a story in the Centre Daily Times that outlines a plan to establish a redistricting commission in Pennsylvania. It is probably a non-starter as I can't envision the politicians giving up the power to draw their own district maps. But is worth a try:

Rendell said a redistricting commission would allow an independent citizens commission to do what is now the highly partisan process of redrawing legislative district boundaries after every 10-year census. The process now gives lawmakers of the party in power the ability to gerrymander districts to maintain power.

"I think that redistricting has created so many safe seats in the Legislature that people aren't as responsive to the public as they should be," Rendell said.

"Generally, we should have a process that ensures public input," he said. "We can't be afraid of the public. If the idea's worth passing, we ought to listen to the public."

Similar plans are on the ballot in Ohio and California tomorrow, the polling I have seen suggests they will both lose. That's a shame, the founding fathers intended the House of Represenatives to reflect the mood of the people every two years. I think every district should be drawn as closely as possible and eliminate unopposed elections wherever possible. But it is a tough nut to crack as the recent uproar in Wilkes-Barre over a redistricting plan shows.

The West Wing live debate

I had a dilemma last night, either tune into my favorite political show or watch the Eagles lose again. Of course I couldn't resist the West Wing debate. It started off with both candidates agreeing to throw out the rules and have a real exchange of ideas. Congressman Santos and Senator Vinick covered the positions of the Democratic and Republican parties right out of today's papers. By the end, it was clear that Santos had won. Some highlights from MSNBC:

The first question went to Vinick:

"What would you do to seal the Mexican border (to illegal immigration)?"

"Enforcement first, that's my policy," said the California senator. "I would double the border patrol."

"I don't know how you're going to find room in the budget to double the border patrol with the tax cut you're proposing," fired back Santos, a Texas congressman.

A bit later, Santos promised a million jobs would be created in his first term.

"How many jobs will you create?" Sawyer asked Vinick.

"None," he replied. "Entrepreneurs create jobs. Business creates jobs. The president's job is to get out of the way."

And, inevitably, the term "liberal" was debated, as well.

'Republicans have tried to turn 'liberal' into a bad word," said Santos. "Well, liberals ended slavery in this country."

"A Republican president ended slavery," Vinick retorted.

"Yes, a LIBERAL Republican, Senator. What happened to them?"

If only the real debates were this good.

Note: I found a really good roundup of coverage at the West Wing News Blog.

The future of television

With more video content being offered on the web it is only natural to tie it to TV sets. Many cable companies already have video on demand for movies and NBC announced the Nightly News will now be available to download any time on MSNBC. The New York Times has the latest on the attempt to merge the internet and television:

Yahoo and TiVo plan to announce a deal today that will connect Yahoo's vast online service to TiVo's set-top boxes, which, in addition to recording television programs, have a largely unused capability to connect to the Internet.
The deal will allow TiVo, which has been struggling to differentiate its service from generic video recorders offered by cable and satellite companies, to offer a range of content and services linked to the Internet.

As Yahoo and most other major media and Internet companies rapidly develop video programming, users may want to watch some of it on big screens in their living rooms, rather than on PC monitors. David Katz, Yahoo's vice president for entertainment and sports programming, described the deal as a first step as Yahoo explores TiVo's technology.
"Our core business today exists on the computer because that's where the majority of our users are," Mr. Katz said. "Our goal is to provide our users on any platform with whatever content they are most interested in."

It's just a matter of time before new televisions being sold are hybrid machines with computer capabilities that can access the web.

Sunday

I enjoy Sunday. Read the papers and watch Meet the Press and the other news shows, then NFL football. I rarely get to do it.

Today the sports news is dominated by soap opera that has become TO and the Eagles. First I heard he is suspended for conduct detrimental to the team and now CBS and ESPN radio is reporting that he will play tonight. Whatever, I doubt if the birds will make it back to the Super Bowl this year. The biggest problem is they are too pass happy. If Donavan has a bad game they are sunk, they need a big bruising back to take the pressure off of him.

Back to Sunday. I cut the grass for the last time this season and attempted to organize the shed when it started raining. The dog got a bath and he is still pissed off about it. I was disapointed that Coughlin lost to Valley West.

Penn State had a great game yesterday beating Wisconsin 35-14 and moved up in the polls to No. 6. PSU could beat anybody right now. But the pecking order of the polls will work against them. They are headed to the Fiesta Bowl and hopefully a matchup with Notre Dame or Florida State.

Enough of this rambling, I'm going to blast U-2's Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Wilkes-Barre Area School Directors

There are five candidates running for four seats on the W-B Area School Board. Two incumbents, John Corcoran and Brian Dunn, received both the Democratic and Republican nominations. Mr. Corcoran is rumored to be on the short list to succeed Dr. Hudock as Coroner and says he is interested in the job. The other two were not as fortunate. Jim Height received the Democratic nomination and is running as a team with with Brian Dunn. Charles Luce was the odd man out and received the Republican nod. As I pointed out before he has sent out a mailer reminding voters that he is a Democrat running on the Republican ticket. They all claim to be opposed to tax increases but they raise them every year. Dunn and Height say they are against closing any of the schools and Luce wants to look at consolidation.

The newcomer in the race is Lynn Evans who received a duel nomination and was the second highest vote getter in the primary. I met her a few months ago and she came across as very knowledgeable about the challenges facing the district. She wants to take a look at these tax free KOZ zones to find a way to get some revenue out of them and she opposes closing any of the high schools. She also addresses the way the board does business and nepotism in an article in The Citizen Voice:

"I don't play the whole political game very well," Evans said. "I hope that just being me works."Evans hopes to bring more urgency to the board and to get rid of what she considers to be "secrecy." She vows to be open about the board's decision making and will not make decisions behind closed doors, she said. Evans also wants to work to keep the district's three high schools in operation. Bringing in money to the district is important, Evans said, and she wants to work toward squeezing money out of tax-free KOZ zones in the district. To really dig in Evans wants to enact "some kind of fair hiring system," she said."That seems to be a biggest thing people talk about," she said.

"People have had enough with nepotism."

Amen to that.

Sugar Notch

Only in Luzerne County can a Mayor be forced to resign over a backhoe incident. This guy has all sorts of financial problems and his friends tried to help him out. Today's Citizens Voice has the story:

Last week, three council members learned the other four - Ellis, the mayor's brother, James Mullin; Herman Balas and David Balakier - had arranged a private vote to give the mayor $2,500 in advance for backhoe work. He was to work 250 hours for $10 an hour.The check was written to Mayor Mullin, but was disguised in the March treasurer's report as a payment to Lenahan Oil Co. Namey said she did that because council members George Gushanas, Matthew Lukachinsky and Dolores Gegaris were unaware of the situation.

He also has some legal problems. So the guy resigned and the only other candidate on the ballot is the Green Party candidate Mario Fiorucci. The Republicans don't even have a candidate. If this Green candidate can actually get more votes than the disgraced Mayor he will take his place. I hope the voters of Sugar Notch vote him in and send a shock wave throughout the county.

Erik Knappman for Controller

The local elections are only a few days away and the most important job up is the County Controller. There are two candidates that I don't know much about. But from what I know it's an easy call. From the CV:

The only issue in the race is the lawsuit over over the pension fund.

Petrilla is non committal:

The board manages the $185 million pension fund and is the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages. Petrilla wants to meet with the board's lawyers to learn the nuances of the suit. She has not decided whether the board should proceed or try to settle.

Eric Knappman supports the suit:

Knappman said he understands the importance of the controller's vote on the retirement board and the board's management of the $185 million pension fund. He supports the board's racketeering lawsuit that seeks millions of dollars in damages against former county commissioners. "The court has found merit with that lawsuit," Knappman said, adding that he would compare the suit's legal expenses versus its damages as it proceeds..

In other words she would do what she is told and drop the suit. If we have Deomocratic Commissioners we should have a Republican Controller.

Lisa Baker for State Senate

From her press release:

For nearly 20 years, Lisa Baker has been serving the public interest with distinction. She has held various leadership positions within Pennsylvania state government, including Deputy Chief of Staff to Governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker; Director of the GovernorÂ’s Northeast Regional Office; Chief of Staff to State Senator Charles D. Lemmond; and Research Analyst to Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer.

What she wants to do in the state government was not addressed.

There is another candidate to succeed Charles Lemmond that announced previously:

On Oct. 4th, David Maderia announced his candidacy for State Senate at the Pierce St. Plaza in Kingston. The text of his speech is available here.

But there is another potential candidate out there on the GOP side. A well informed Luzerne County Republican operative gave me the scoop. Mayor Haggerty of Kingston will announce he is running for the seat after the new year.

It is disappointing that no serious Democrat has come forward.

Sherman Hills

There was another shooting at the Sherman Hills Apartment Complex. How many times have we heard of some crime being committed there? Shootings, stabbings and drugs. The place is a magnet for trouble. Maybe the place should be shut down and bulldozed. It may not do any good and just move the problems somewhere else. But it is worth a try. I don't know about the zoning laws and all that but a few single family homes on that site would be welcomed by the neighbors.

Phillies have a new General Manager

"We have somebody older than me, and that's good, too,"said manager Charlie Manuel, with a laugh. "He's going to do a good job for us. I think his experience speaks for itself."

This guy has the experience. He was the GM of the Blue Jays when they won the World Series in 1992 and 1993 and the team took 5 division titles when he was there. He was in charge in Seattle when they won 116 games in 2001.

I caught him on Daily News Live on Comcast last night and he actually answered the questions posed to him. The Phils have gone from being a bad team to being a pretty good team that just misses the playoffs. He said his first thing to do is re-sign Billy Wagner and reconized that he is a free agent and teams like Boston and the Mets are willing to throw a lot of money at him. He conceded the Phillies can't compete in a bidding war but said the club will make him a fair market offer. He also said the Thome/Howard situation is a good problem to have and conceded the solution will not come until spring training.

We have a veteran baseball guy running the show now.

George Pataki at Wilkes tonight

New York Governor George E. Pataki will present the Allan P. Kirby Lecture in Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Wilkes University Thursday, November 3rd at 7:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center for the Performing Arts. The focus of Governor Pataki's address will be the "National Cry for Political Leadership."

Sounds kind of dry, but I'm sure I will see a few other political junkies there tonight.

Pay raise

The Pennsylvania State Senate just voted 50-0 to repeal the pay grab, it now goes to the house and I'm sure they will agree. Wow, our elected officials actually listened to the people. I'm glad they did it but they are not off the hook. They are hoping we will forget about this stunt when they are up for election next year. They did it out of fear of losing their jobs and they still deserve to be booted. They passed the original bill in the middle of the night with no debate or hearings before hand. Then Rapid Edward signed it and talked out of both sides of his mouth about his reasons.

The credit for bringing the heat can be spread around. Chris Lilik, who authors GrassrootsPA the best PA politics site around led the charge. He and his fellow Young Conservatives set up a website InformedPA.com , bought billboards and ran radio ads in the districts of the leadership. Russ Diamond started Operation Clean Sweep with the goal of getting rid of every member of the legislature. And the anger even spilled over to the Judges up for retention that I wrote about previously. GOP candidate Jim Panyard leads that charge.

In one of the few times of my life the voice of the people was heard by our elected officials.

No thanks

My blog buddy Dr. Rick invited me to join his endevors at the The American Check-UP.

I'm not ready to do that yet. I wander off into national issues once in a while but I try to stick to what is going on locally. I'm one of the few that do that. In fact, the only bloggers that deal with W-B and Luzerne county are me, Bill Fitz and the Blogfather.

Lately we have had some great post counter post debates. I think it's great! I will probably vote for the Republican candidates in the county elections because I think the Dem's have been there too long and have become corrupt and arrogant. The same thing in Washington. The GOP is running the show and they have made a mess of things. Time for a change. I have always been a registered Democrat but I think I'm more of a goo-goo. I want good government. The people who are in charge of the county government have not served us well. The Commissioners had to borrow money this year just to cover operating expenses and they had to that the year before. Plus they have floated bonds for all sorts of improvement projects. That's a lot of debt folks. The games with jobs being created is still going on.

About Washington. How about managing the country's finances. At the end of President Clinton's term the government was taking in more than it was spending. When the surplus was building instead of coming up with a bunch of new spending programs it was used to pay down the national debt. Of course a tax cut was warranted but they got carried away. Common sense tells you you can't have enormous tax cuts and a massive increase in spending. If you and I ran our households like this we would be sleeping in a box on top of a grate.

Nobody is asked to make a sacrifice. When we are at war no one is asked to pay for it. If the Army can't meet it's recruiting goals, no one is asked to serve. Everything is free. Mr. Bush is the worst occupant of the White House in my memory.

Luzerne County Prothonotary

A few days ago Democratic incumbent Jill Moran said this in the Citizens Voice:

"If you're a good manager, you can run a good office and you don't have to be there all the time,' Moran said. "I haven't had any complaints about the way my office is run. I'll be in the office as much as I need to be."

This was in response to the charge by her Republican opponent former Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski that she is rarely in the office. One of the joys of politics is when your opponent proves your point for you, it has been revealed that a clerk has been signing Moran's name to official documents when she is not around. The Times-Leader has the details :

The fine print says Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill A. Moran was present when Sheriff Barry Stankus signed a deed of sale and declared the facts contained in it were true. The document even bears Moran's signature. But Moran acknowledged Monday she had her office clerk, Lana Bidwell, sign her name on that deed and others sheriff sale deeds when Moran was busy or out of the office. Moran said she had Bidwell sign so the documents wouldn't miss deadlines.

Everybody has deadlines and are usually aware of them so they can schedule their time accordingly. The lawyers will determine if this is legal but the other county officers do not allow other people to sign their names. Legal or not, it shows a serious lapse of judgment, especially for an attorney. Carolee makes some good points:

"Whether she gave Lana permission or not, those are legal documents, and I don't believe she has the legal right to have someone else do that for her." It would be less suspicious, she said, if Bidwell had put her own initials after Moran's name or had written "Lana Bidwell on behalf of Jill Moran." Medico Olenginski said she believes the signing of Moran's name was an attempt to cover up Moran's lack of presence in the office. Moran says she's in the office as much as she needs to be and constantly communicates with staff when she's not there. "Obviously Jill Moran is never there because I'm sure the sheriff would accommodate her schedule," she said.

Inflatable dam in Wilkes-Barre

The inflatable dam in W-B is in the news again. When I first heard about it my first reaction was this sounds like pie in the sky. After reading up on the project, it still does.

When I was a kid I went fishing between the the Market St. and Pierce St. bridges. We would throw our lines out and reel in sucker after sucker with an occasional carp. We didn't even use bait, not much has changed. The last time I was near the river it smelled like a sewer. From what I understand, when it rains the storm water runoff overwhelms the treatment plants because they are tied to the same drainage systems. Some action has been taken to isolate the systems but it will take a long time and much money. I remember seeing these orange things in the water and a buddy explained they were "Jimmy Floaters."

The Jimmy Floaters are a result of sewage mixing with mine water and the rest of the poison in the river. I think congressman Kanjorski should at least be credited with trying to come up with an idea to improve things. But a river has to flow and building a dam is not a viable option.

When I wrote about his opponent in the upcoming election who's main criticism was the dam, Joe Leonardi the Republican candidate made it a centerpiece of his campaign. It's probably a minor issue for most people but the cleaning up the river is important to all of us.