Did you get a chance to relax and sleep in this morning, Tom Smith campaign? Good. Hope you enjoyed it. It’s your last time before November. The PA Dems wasted no time in launching an assault on the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate Wednesday.
The PA Democratic party had already issued two memos before noon, on top of their statement last night.
Said party spokesman Mark Nicastre today in a memo titled, “Lackluster PA GOP Senate Primary Ends With a Flawed Candidate”:
“Tom Smith emerged from one of the lowest turnout primaries in Pennsylvania history, damaged by the race’s divisiveness and hindered by Sen. Casey’s strength in the state. With little voter or institutional enthusiasm for Tom Smith, he faces a tough uphill climb in the race.”
The party has been laser focused on the Senate race since Rick Santorum dropped from the presidential contest and rendered that primary irrelevant.
In another memo, the Dems hammered Gov. Tom Corbett over the third-place finish of his endorsed candidate Steve Welch.
“Despite all of Gov. Corbett’s work for Steve Welch, the Republican endorsed candidate still came up short in one of the lowest turnout primaries in Pennsylvania history. It’s clear: Gov. Corbett doesn’t have any juice. National Journal said a loss by Steve Welch would be an embarrassment for Gov. Corbett, and indeed it is,” Nicastre wrote.
Casey himself offered a lower-key response.
“There will be a clear contrast in November between who has stood up for Pennsylvania working families and who has proposed more unaffordable tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, between who has fought against trade deals that will ship Pennsylvania jobs overseas and who supports the flawed trade policies of the past, between who will protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security and who wants to dismantle these vital promises,” he said.
In a quirky demonstration of the new lay of the land, Smith’s campaign deferred to the PA Republican party for a response. Executive Director Mike Barley blasted Casey and Democrats for their low turnout Tuesday, as well as the 133,000 votes (19 percent) against Casey in the primary.
“If Senator Casey is so confident about his reelection campaign, than I challenge him to start traveling around the state talking about his accomplishments while in D.C. I challenge him to embrace his support of President Obama 98% of the time or his votes for Obamacare or the stimulus. I challenge him to explain his out of touch record with the people of Pennsylvania,” said Barley.
“We look forward to working with our Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Tom Smith to expose out-of-touch Senator Bob Casey.”
Smith hasn’t been taking it easy today, himself. He’d already conducted 7 interviews by lunchtime with more on his schedule.
Nor are national Republicans been sitting back. The National Republican Senatorial Committee slammed Casey for his record of voting with President Obama 93 percent of the time or more.
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13 Responses
It is if you’re expecting something for it. Check out who Mr. Guzzardi has financially supported.
He flip flops all over the place. What is in it for him, John?
Rendell, Street and Casey, Jr.
I guess they are folks the Republicans wanted to support, right?
As a side note, I didn’t realize that having money, especially money that you earned, was a negative in either America or the republican party.
When I grew up and we saw people who had realized the American dream it was a goal , not something to be envious or bitter about.
If it had not been for Tom Smith having realized that american dream and coming into the race with enough money to fight the pa gop advertising machine, we may have ended up with another cycle of the party muting the base.
Hats off to all the candidates who ran and for all the supporters who help make this such a spirited contest. Now our sights are on the progressive agenda Bob Casey has carried the bucket for the past five years and compare it to the fraud he pulled off on PA Voters. Remember, it was Bob Casey who strongly supported Obama in the 2008 cycle ad urged PA to support BHO.
Obviously you’re the MONEY puppeteer, and the grassroots’ folks fell for it. Wonder if you would have as much pull if you didn’t have money like the rest of us.
I am independent of any campaign, party or organization trying to do find out what is best policy for Pennsylvania and doing what I can in my small way.
and you?
Mr. Guzzardi – are you a Democrat or a Republican?
It’s apparent that Bob Guzzardi likes to financially support the Democrats. He supported Folmer back in 2006. Folmer was a Democrat turned Republican. Guzzardi’s support of Folmer became a campaign issue when Brightbill accused the two of running a “stealth Democrat campaign,” because of Folmer’s past Democratic voter registration and Guzzardi’s past support of Democratic candidates.[6] Brightbill noted that Guzzardi had financially supported Ed Rendell, John F. Street, Bob Casey, Jr. in the past. How much longer are we going to let these folks infiltrate our party. Folks, you need to follow the money!!!
The bottom line is that the R’s are beginning to equal the D’s, and that my friends is something to worry about.
And then we have the convicted felon.
@Ryan- I would study the democratic primary results very closely before coming to the conclusion Casey is unbeatable . Tom Smith can take his record to him and marry him to Obama. Casey was THE endorser of Obama selling him to PA 4 years ago. In most primaries the Presidential race gets the most votes. Over 100,000 voters did not vote for Obama in the Democratic Primary. His opponent drew 20% of the vote and spent approximately 5000 on his campaign. How much was a protest vote and how much was a vote for his candidate? Not sure. But even his race drew less votes than the attorney generals race. The attorney generals race was also very telling because of the Kane victory. It was Bill Clinton Democrats w/ Kane vs. Progressive Democrats with Murphy.
@SteveFromUnionTown – Having the proper funds to run a US Senate primary campaign is basically considered a prerequisite. In the case of Sam, he entered the race knowing Tom Smith was in the race and that Tom was adequately funded and he was not. The issue is why with the 30% of the vote from the previous election and name recognition why Sam was unable to raise funds for April Media.
Governor Corbett really looks weak here. Whether his decision to weigh in for Welch was his own or at the urging of others, he is the one who takes the political hit. Corbett is from Western PA. Somebody had to explain the dynamics of SEPA GOP politics to him. The only story out there that makes logical sense is that people trying to block Montco Sen. John Rafferty from being endorsed for AG sold the governor on Welch from Chesco so that SE State Committee members would go along with the rest of the program. Nobody is going to beat Casey, so Welch was never going to become a US Senator and thus never would become an important political player. Rafferty on the other hand, is well-liked and had backing from his state senate colleagues, is friends with labor and with law enforcement including DAs. Rafferty, if endorsed and nominated for AG, actually would have had a good shot to win. He would have become an important player in statewide politics from his SE base. Who has shown time and again that he will block any qualified Republican from the SE from ever achieving a position of importance in statewide politics? Bob Asher. Over and over again, Asher has backed weak candidates from the SE who never had any chance to win, but never backs strong ones that might actually pull it off. That is the real story here. Asher pushed Welch over Smith to make sure Rafferty was boxed out. The move worked perfectly. No matter what happens this fall, Asher is still the man in the SE with no peer. Even the governor now knows Asher will use anyone to accomplish this overarching goal. Asher has used Corbett up. He now moves on to Romney. Still the driving force in GOP politics because of his dominance in the SE.
It doesn’t matter which “D” wins the election in November, Casey or Smith, they are both D’s. Shame, Shame, Shame on the people of Pennsylvania. It proves that if you have enough money, it is possible to elect an orangutan . Smith is a Democrat, he NEVER was a Republican or a conservative and mark my words, if he is elected in November, he will flip faster than you can say Arlen Specter. There were three other true Republican candidates running, Christian, Rohrer and Scaringi, any one of those true Republicans would have been a better choice than Two “D’s”. How people fell for Smith’s advertising that said a whole lot about nothing proves that by far the America people are STUPID. It demonstrates the years of indoctrination to indifference by the public education system and the liberal/communist media.
God bless Pennsylvania and America, because we need all the help we can get. This may be the last time in American history that we will freely be allowed to voice our opinions, because if Comrade Obama wins, and the balance of the House turns back to the ‘D’s’ we will all be celebrating May day and Chairman Mao’s birthday.
America’s greatness was the past, we are on a slippery slope to being an irrelevant, third world, socialist/communist country.
Get your comments in now before Bob Casey censors the internet. He is, after all, one of the cosponsors of PIPA.
It’s not hard to tell the Democrats are nervous this year. When Bob Casey attempts to distance himself from President Obama, the man he so enthusiastically supported four years ago, you know things will get interesting. I’ll take Tom Smith over Bob Casey.
Trillions have been spent. Where are the jobs?
Who is better off now than three and half years ago? Obama and his crony capitalist fund raisers like Brian Roberts and David L. Cohen of Comcast.
Note both Bob Casey and uberlib Allyson Schwartz voted for Keystone XL pipeline.
Please clarity “lackluster”. To whom were the Ds referring?
Note that nonunion endorsed Kathleen Kane won. This will play well in red part of state as will “prosecutor, not a politician”.
Tjhe CaseyObama record of spending TRILLIONS with little to show for the record debt and deficits will be focus of Smith campaign.
It is not possible to demonize Tom Smith.
The early remarks from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party expose their own grave concerns.
709,253 people voted in the Democrats Attorney General race, their race of interest.
Using the Democratic attorney general race as a barometer (709,253 total votes) 14% did not vote “for” Obama and 21% did not vote “for” Casey..
These three races; Kane’s victory , combined with the wavering of support for Obama and Casey indicate Pennsylvania Democrats are more concerned about policy than party and are rejecting the Obama/Casey progressive agenda.
On the Republican side,.low turnout almost always favors the endorsed candidate. (Welch) Most reports indicted that Mr. Rohrer had the largest grassroots network and certainly had the most name recognition. With all those factors Tom Smith’s core message resonated with Pennsylvania republicans.
Pennsylvanians are sending a very clear message that they are tired of party politics and are interested in kitchen table issues.