PA Progressive

About a month before the end of my Junior year at the University of Pittsburgh, I got a call from a friend at the Pennsylvania College Dems convention asking me if I had heard of the 31 year old, Iraqi War veteran named Pat Murphy. My response - no. This friend then went up to list a few other qualifications - West Point professor, served in Bosnia, Bronze Star, and the final point - he was running in the PA - 8th Congressional District - my district, as a Democrat.

Overcoming my initial shock at the idea of an Iraqi war vet Democrat, I decided to drop his campaign manager a resume - another friend of mine had worked with his campaign manager during the Kerry elections, and I had just had my summer plans fall through. Thirty minutes after I sent in the resume, I got a call asking me to come intern with the campaign. Perhaps a bit blindly, I said yes. A day after I came home from school, I met with the campaign manager, and that week I was brought on board, working for Patrick. It wasn’t until two weeks later that I actually met Patrick in person.

I attended a Bucks County Democratic fundraiser at a winery in the county, and was told that Patrick would be in attendance. A bit later, Patrick came in, and I just knew this was a guy I should be working for. Looking at Patrick, you can feel the charisma and confidence roll off him. Meeting him was the same way - almost a shock to my system, and an amazing first impression. After a bit of talk, and a few questions on policy (just so I could be sure of a few things), I was hooked. Later on that night, we went out as a campaign, at least the members who were at the event, to talk things over. Patrick was just as comfortable to talk to in that small group as he was working the crowd at the fundraiser. At the end, he made sure to wish my mother Happy Mother’s Day.

That’s why I’m working for Patrick, and I will keep on working for Patrick until he is elected to the Congress of the United States of America.

if the author of this article is supporting or cautioning Ginny Schrader on her run for Congress.

I talk about girl power, but that’s not what I was thinking about when Democrat Ginny Schrader caught my eye from the steps of the Lower Makefield municipal building this week.

She was announcing she’d take another shot at beating Republican Mike Fitzpatrick out of the 8th Congressional District seat. I was thinking she didn’t look congressional-like.

Let that be our secret. I need to keep up the illusion that I’m smarter than people who think a congressman has to be a backslapping man in a shirt and tie.

Still, Ginny, in a pantsuit with salmon-colored blouse and open-toed sandals, looked like my aunt, not my U.S. representative. Bright, assertive, but maybe too soft.

I felt ashamed later.

Now, I personally am not supporting Ginny in this race, but I did vote for her last election. I just don’t feel she brings the right qualities to the table, especially when viewed against several other candidates that have already entered the field. If the author means to support Ginny, it’s definitely an interesting way to open up the article, at the very least. Aside from her announcement, this is the first press coverage that Ginny has really received. Will be interesting to see how other writers treat her candidacy as the race goes on.

PoliticsPA is now stating that Andy Warren, a former long term Republican Bucks County Commissioner, recently (this summer), turned Democrat, is ready to announce his candidacy for the Democratic side of the PA-8th Congressional district. In addition, PolPA is reporting that Andy has quietly had meetings in D.C. with Democratic officials.

Now, as happy as I am that Andy has switched parties, especially considering what a coup that is for the Democratic party in the County, it really disturbs me that there might be some democrats in DC that are encouraging Andy to run, or even Democrats in Bucks that are giving encouragement. Currently, Mike Fitzpatrick is so far right that he doesn’t even come close to representing the politics of the 8th CD, and that’s a moderate district, generally. It’s quite worrisome that some democrats, somewhere, might think that a lifelong Republican just turned Dem might be an improvement, especially given the slate of candidates we’ve already seen declare. Even more worrisome is the idea that someone in DC is encouraging this. Personally, it sounds like something out of the textbook of the DLC, pandering to the idea that we need to be more moderate to win seats.

At some point, I’ll try to do a detailed run-down of why Andy just doesn’t make sense - and also analyze the other candidates. But not till after I stop shaking my head.

Due to a lack of internet connection at my house, I’ve been offline during some critical news cycles for the PA - 8th. I’ll try to do a brief wrap up here.

1. Robin Weismann decides not to run - Robin, wife of Rendell fundraiser Ken Jarin, has decided against running for the seat, “citing family and business reasons”. This eliminates one of the major possible candidates, and also what many initially termed as the “Money” candidate, due to her connections with Rendell. The above article mentions that Andy Warren hopes to have her endorsement.

2. Ginny Schrader has pulled out - according to her website, Ginny has decided that she has other paths to follow, instead of running for the seat. Although many people I have talked to did not consider her to be a large factor, it’s interesting to note that she had a large blog backing, especially in some of the larger philly area blogs, like mydd.

3. Patrick Murphy has added staff - According to a press release from the Murphy campaign, Murphy has hired a campaign manager and general consultant. Josh Nanberg, former political director for the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, and staffer for two presidential campaigns and several house campaigns, joins as campaign manager. Pete Giangreco joins as general consultant. His former positions include working with Sen. Obama, Gov. Wagner (VA), Gov. Easley (NC), the Clinton-Gore ‘92 campaign and the Edwards and Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaigns.

Emily’s List has just announced that they are endorsing Murphy, the presumptive democratic candidate in the PA-6th. This is a repeat of their endorsement in 2004, and at least to me, doesn’t come as much of a surprise. That being said, this is yet another boost to an already strong Murphy campaign (she started campaigning to run again pretty much right after she lost the election), and should help to boost this seat’s profile even more. Jim Gerlach is widely considered one of the weakest Representatives in the country, with Murphy only losing by 6,371 votes in 2004.

Now I’m just waiting for Murphy (Lois)- Murphy (Patrick), fundraisers.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Philly for Change endorsed Patrick Murphy in the 8th Congressional Seat. From the e-mail sent out about Patrick:

He wowed members at our August Meetup and Social Security picnic: Not only is Patrick a well-spoken Iraq War
vet, a former Constitutional Law professor, and a real progressive — HE HAS THE ABILITY TO SPARK THE NATIONAL GRASSROOTS IMAGINATION TO TAKE BACK THE HOUSE IN 2006. (He’s also running in a district that Kerry won and is facing a well-funded former Republican commissioner — an “R” as of July 2005 — in the Democratic PRIMARY!)

Last — seeing how Patrick Murphy has recently electrified our local grassroots — we think he has the ability to ignite a wildfire of interest in all of Pennsylvania’s congressional races — and thus catapult our efforts to massively turn out the vote to DEFEAT RICK SANTORUM and TAKE BACK THE HOUSE in 2006.

This is a nice pick-up, although most of Philly is outside his district. It will be interesting to see if he can pick up endorsements from any of the completely Bucks County groups (Bucks makes up most of the 8th seat).

DFA has just started a Grassroots All-Star competition to try to pick out one of the most deserving house candidates (either in a republican held or open seat), to recieve a DFA endorsement and fundraising e-mail. The process will begin with 50 candidates, with online voting knocking that number down to 10, and finally down to the one winner.

PA and California each have six candidates on the list, the highest of all the states. PA’s candidates are:

Chris Carney (PA-10)
Lois Herr (PA-16)
Lois Murphy (PA-06)
Patrick Murphy (PA-08)
Steven Porter (PA-03)
Paul Scoles (PA-07)

As of the writing of this entry, 3 of the candidates are in the top 15. Lois Murphy is 3rd, Patrick Murphy 4th, and Paul Scoles isjust outside at 12th.

Pretty good showing by PA, I’d say.

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If you live in PA and haven’t been living under a rock, you know that in a rather underhanded, late night manner our state legislature gave itself a pay raise. With the state so often having money issues, this has set off an uproar across the commonwealth. Surprisingly, the media doesn’t seem to want to let the issue go. Brian O’Neill of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette writes about an interesting proposal on how to deal with the current state legislature.

Apparently O’Niell was at a presentation by Tim Potts, a former director of communications for state House Democrats, and currently a leader in the group Democracy Rising PA at Point Park University. O’Niell talks about the presentation:

His group is called Democracy Rising and its Web site is democracyrisingpa.com. It’s a coalition of lefties and righties and in-betweenies, with organizations ranging from the conservative Commonwealth Foundation to the liberal Common Cause.

“We check all the things that divide us at the door,” Potts said. “The only thing we talk about is what’s good for democracy.”

The Web site offers solid information on why the post-midnight, no-debate pay grab by America’s Largest Full-Time Legislature was an affront and a challenge to all Pennsylvanians.

While certaintly an interseting idea, I at least am always unsure of how effective groups like this will be. Even more interesting is their proposed solution to the almost hereditary rule that is going on in the legislature:

He suggested that to become relevant to the powers in Harrisburg, people should change their party registration. If Democrats and Republicans begin losing loyal party members, “that’s the teachable moment.

“We’re saying, ‘You don’t get to take my vote for granted anymore. You’re going to have to earn my vote and the way you earn it is by showing some integrity.”‘

O’Niell then goes on to explain how to change your party registration. Now, I’m all for shaking up the PA state legislature - we need it, especially in light of this pay raise, and many other pertinant issues (minimum wage, for instance). That being said, I don’t know if removing our ability to vote in the primaries is the proper way to go about doing things. Rather, finding capable, likable candidates who support views that progressives agree with is much more important. Getting them to run in every district, and forcing what has become old party cronyism to defend itself is more important.

Dean’s 50 state strategy can apply on a local level just as well as it can on a national level.

The AFL-CIO has just announced that they will be endorsing Bob Casey in the 2006 Senate race. The Patriot-News article includes the interesting tidbit that it took the AFL-CIO until 2 months before the 2004 election to endorse Specter, but in this race they are more than a year ahead. This allows the AFL-CIO to legally get involved in the race earlier, which could prove to be a useful boost to Casey.

Of course, this means that the Union is endorsing a candidate for a race that he hasn’t even won the primary for. Most analysts and political operatives don’t think Chuck Pennacchio has a chance against Casey, but this smacks of the field-clearing Rendell was guilty of to remove most of Casey’s primary challengers. Although I agree Santorum is particulary bad for the state and needs to be removed, I wonder if we are taking this a bit too far? When does politics overrun the party electoral process?