17 Responses

1. Saw this in the City Paper:

   http://www.pghcitypaper.com/general/graphics/Em-Demarco-John-Fetterman-v2.gif

   Seems to sum up Fetterman pretty well from what I know of him. Juxtapose that to McGinty living in a $1,000,000 home and taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from coal and gas executives that went straight into her pocket, then quitting her Chief of Staff job after 6 months in the middle of a budget impasse to office shop. There is just no comparison.

2. Kanye, that article is almost 5 years old and you’re tearing down a strawman. I’ve done a fair bit of research and Fetterman doesn’t claim to be any kind of messiah. He is extremely humble and pragmatic while McGinty is a massively hypocritical empty suit regurgitating polled canned lines fed to her by Mike Mikus. It’s a fact that they don’t allow her to speak to the press. What are they afraid of, and if she is so qualified, why don’t they let her talk to the press?

   The worst part about McGinty is that she has put hundreds of thousands of dollars from special interests like coal and gas directly in her pocket. That’s a fact. I don’t know how anyone could vote for someone like that.

3. Billy (sorry you aren’t a fan, some did not have the good fortune to develop better ears through the evolution of our species)

   Lot of things to address here.

   I struggle to see how you can so casually say that Fetterman, A) could have risen to a Three Star Admiral in our military and been elected to Congress (never been more than Mayor of his hometown), or B) could have easily become a top advisor to the US President and subsequently a Cabinet Secretary for the PA Governor. The Sestak residency issue is a separate matter from his resume qualifications for the job. Ethically and legally it could be problematic, but not an issue with his ability to do the job. And you’re really breezing through McGinty’s career. She’s done quite a few things in and out of civil service.

   Now onto the claim that the other two could never have done what Fetterman has done. Im a bit fuzzy on what exactly is so great. Im not sure if you have been to Braddock, but it is not this new, up-and-coming, vibrant spot for millennial. The work against violence is good, and the community stores and gardens are nice, yet I haven’t seen anything that says big time job/wage growth. I get the novelty of the whole thing, and his commercials are tremendous, but he’s been there over a decade. The following is a long article and a few years old, but even in 2011, 6 years into his administration, when they counted the number of people who had come to Braddock to join the revolution, “The actual number is currently 23, in 10 households.” That to me smells of false messiah.

   Source:
   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/magazine/13Fetterman-t.html?_r=0

4. Billy-
   “They both live in million dollar homes.”

   Sestak can afford to have two houses, one serving as mailstop (and makeshift campaign HQ) for his candidacy.

   Sestak’s family hasn’t lived here since he took office in 2007. He bought the house in Edgmont, changed his registration to there, and his wife dropped her registration. Sestak’s been on the ballot 6 times and his own wife didn’t vote for him the last 4.

5. @Kanye (Not a fan of your music btw)
   I would submit that Fetterman would likely have been capable of doing what McGinty or Sestak have done, while I can say with certainty that they would not be able to accomplish what Fetterman has done. They both would have been chewed up and spit out.

   Sestak and McGinty are both campaigning on ‘fighting’ for the middle class, yet their backgrounds don’t show any of that. They both live in million dollar homes.

   Sestak’s resume in the Navy is most impressive, but I’m not sure that qualifies him in any special way to be a Senator. My biggest issue with Sestak is that his family wasn’t even living in PA as of last year. McGinty has never held elected office and quit her job a Chief of Staff six months into it in the middle of a budget crisis that is still going on.

   McGinty and Sestak both claim to be champions of the middle class, yet their resumes don’t back that up.

6. Honorable Senator Cattywampus and Billy – I feel a bit childish debating “who is the smartest” of the three or validating a candidate’s qualifications with his or her school, but I imagine much of your claim is tied up in Mayor John’s Harvard degree (It’s the Kennedy school to be clear, easier to get into than undergrad, law, biz, etc). Remember Sestak has the same Harvard degree along with his undergrad at Annapolis, McGinty went to Columbia Law, and Toomey went to Harvard for his bachelors. All in, Mayor John may have the least impressive education, the smallest amount relevant experience having done nothing outside of Braddock, and fewer examples of taking policy stances as a result of his sheltered life in the small community.

   I do not mean this as an attack on the mayor, just a reminder that the details count.

7. It is impressive fundraising.

8. Wow, I knew this was a subtle hatchet job by Nick Field, but comparing it with the gushing coverage of Naughton’s fundraising, it’s quite an obvious and appalling example of a journalist allowing his own biases to come through in his writing.

   We have two stories of very similar successful fundraising, yet one comes off quite negative while the other comes off extremely positive. It’s all in the careful choice of words.

   Nick, I’m pretty sure they taught you in Journalism 101 that this kind of biased reporting is unethical. If not, here’s your official notice.

9. Hung wun– your comment is idiotic. $10,000 a day is a pretty good start. And in terms of you calling him an imbecile, I’d like to see you debate him. He is smarter than Katie, Sestak and Toomey combined.

   And yes, Nick Fields, stop the snark.

10. Hung wun lo-

    $170K exceeds what Sestak raised for several full quarters. So, for a virtual unknown (and mayor of a small town) to jump in the race, that’s a very good initial haul.

    Whether it’s a sustainable pace or merely a ramp-up is a complete different question. At that pace, he’d raise $4 million by Nov 2016, but of course, if he won the primary, he’d be getting money without competition from McGinty and Sestak.

    To gauge the threat to Toomey, we need to look at total going to these three candidates as an indicator of Democratic commitment to replace him. Of course, a costly/bloody primary helps Toomey’s financial advantage. If the candidates run a POSITIVE campaign against each other, and NEGATIVE against Toomey, the primary money could damage Toomey for the General.

11. Nick, I see you didn’t put a negative spin on your latest fundraising article on Naughton: https://www.politicspa.com/pa-8-q3-naughton-raises-283k-has-441000-coh/69771/

    Fetterman has only been at this two weeks, yet the best you can say is that they are incredibly impressed with themselves, while gushing over Naughton?

    Let’s stop playing favorites, Nick.

12. Gotta agree with Ben, this is more of a hit piece than a news article. Nice smear job, Nick.

13. Hey Hung wun, $170,000 in two weeks is impressive, particularly when you’re going up against two well established candidates, one of which has been running his campaign for 7 years and the other who just ran for Governor and has the backing of the state party.

    As far as calling him an imbecile, I’m willing to wager that don’t have a degree from Harvard. You’re just a sad cowardly internet troll hiding behind your keyboard. Sorry to break it to you, but John > You

14. Must be a slow news day or something. This tattooed imbecile raises a mere 3% of what he needs to be viable, and it’s supposed to be a big deal? Even that blithering idiot Diano has to shake his head at this.

15. Hey Mr. Nick Field, what’s the snark for?

    “The Fetterman campaign is incredibly impressed with their fundraising haul.”

    That’s not an appropriate start to an article from a supposedly impartial news source. It is impressive and record breaking.

    Kindly stick to reporting the facts and not introducing your own personal bias.

16. That’s a pretty good haul to start a campaign against two establishment candidates. (Joe may be out of favor with the party, but after 31 years in military he’s “establishment”)

17. Does anyone know if Mr. Fetterman has “Barbara Hafer” tattooed on the back of his head?