6 Responses

1. Scoop-

   I don’t think they are that effective. The problem is that Wolf is a weak governor who abandoned the house candidates in 2014, and is suffering with an insurmountable GOP advantage in the legislature. He can’t pull/entice enough R’s to his side, and they risk punishment from the GOP leadership.

   The best way is to shrink the GOP control gap to something manageable.

   But, let’s supposed that control of the state house was at stake, and Taylor would give the GOP the majority? His vote would give the GOP control of the agenda.

   So, EVERY seat needs to be fought for. The party and the HDCC should have gone for a Howard Dean style 50-state strategy and put up a candidate for EVERY seat, instead of leaving 4 dozen GOP seats unopposed. In a presidential year, with record Dem turnout, and a terrible candidate like Trump, it was the best opportunity the Dems are going to get.

   F*ck Taylor and the union traitors who support him, because they foolishly weaken their hand by increasing the GOP majority and hurting the state.

2. David Diano-

   Don’t count Martina White out. While I’m not supportive of her, she’s done a real good job of throwing some red meat out to the district that has a lot of more conservative, Catholic Democrats. Trump is actually doing well in polling in the 170th. Matt Darragh needs to work hard to wrest the seat away from White.

   As far as Taylor, the proof is in the pudding on why unions support him. While he and other Repubkicans damage unions in the caucus numbers, they also uphold their end of the bargain to hold back bad labor votes. And if the Southeast Republican moderates are replaced, there’s no guarantee they’ll be replaced by Democrats. That said, in Taylor’s district, he would be. But on other issues the city faces, he and White are the only means of getting state funds back into the city (even though the city provides far more revenues than it gets back from the state). Why would unions and city Democrats want to give Daryl Metcalfe or Scott Wagner a chance to rob the city of more money?

3. But, DD, nepotism is fundamental for elections in PA. Look how many Flaherty’s got elected in Allegheny County after Pete the pervert and womanizer got elected Mayor. Some were not even related to him. Just had the NAME.

4. The HDCC can “tout” all it wants, but they are completely f*cking useless as an organization in helping Dems get elected. This past spring/summer they REFUSED to help candidates struggling to get on the ballot, particularly against unchallenged GOP incumbents. They are mostly a conduit for nepotism and funneling money for mailing, since they have the bulk mail access and can bully the candidates. The only Dem organization PA more useless is the SDCC.

   It’s because of these two piss-poor operations that the GOP has a comfortable election year with dozens of unchallenged seats to keep their stranglehold on Wolf and the commonwealth. Totally blown opportunity by the Dems to make gains in the house. This is a mostly good crop of candidates who need to win these races.

   The 170th is absolutely going to flip back to the Dems. It’s a 2-1 Dem registration advantage, in a presidential election year. It won’t even be close. The only reason the R’s have the seat is the special election and Dem infighting (that has since been resolved).

   The 177th is a 2-1 Dem majority as well, that’s been held by Republican John Taylor. This is due to foolish thinking by the Unions that Taylor helps them with Republicans in Harrisburg, when in fact, he just makes their majority stronger. Bob Brady has no made any real effort to oust Taylor. There is a lot of speculation behind why. Maybe all the FBI wiretaps, investigations, and plea deals in Philly politics will shed some light on this. If Bob was doing his job, he’d make his “walking around money” to committee members and ward leaders contingent on their support for Hohenstein. Wolf gave Brady a black eye by showing that the Philly machine was worthless in 2014. Brady should show he’s got some mojo by taking this seat for the Dems, instead of being embarrassed that he can’t win in a 2-1 Dem district. Brady needs to be replaced by a good chairman that can get the job done.

   KSDF-

   No. There are bunch of candidates needing endorsements, who did not get them.

5. Because every Democrat is better than the GOP they are running against.

6. What a joke. This endorsement is not even on Obama’s letterhead. The list was essentially a blanket endorsement of every Democrat running for a swing seat.