Even as the 2016 elections rage on, some Republicans are keeping an eye on what the party should look like after November.
PA GOP Chairman Rob Gleason’s term expires at the end of the year and Chester County Chair Val DiGiorgio is interested in taking over.
“Right now my focus is on 2016,” DiGiorgio said before clarifying that he is still interested in the top job. He also stated that he would not be averse to running even if Gleason changed his mind and sought another term.
When asked what his goals would be, DiGiorgio responded that the party needs to get back to its roots.
“My appeal would be to work with the grassroots and unify the party,” he said. “We need to do a better job reaching out to party activists and committeepeople.”
Additionally, DiGiorgio cited the need to focus on statewide races and not be solely concerned with the presidential contest.
That message was reiterated by one of DiGiorgio’s prominent backers, State Senate President Joe Scarnati.
Sen. Scarnati pointed to the fact that the PA GOP had won zero out of the last nine major contests as a reason to change tactics.
“I’m head of the SRCC and I’d be out of a job quite frankly if I ran the SRCC the way state committee is running right now,” Scarnati stated.
He went on to say that more needs to be done for candidates running this year in the Senate, Attorney General and other down-ballot races.
“I challenge them to say what they’re doing in those contests.”
Most of all, though, Scarnati seemed to still be upset about the Democrats winning such a large majority on the State Supreme Court last year.
“We can’t dismiss that the last round of fundraising was horrible and has left us with the most liberal Supreme Court in state history,” he said. “Somebody’s got to be held responsible for all these losses.”
“We can’t keep on the same course, we need a new course,” Scarnati concluded.
We reached out to the PA Republican Party and they sent the following response: “Chairman Gleason’s top focus is helping our Republican candidates win this November.”
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14 Responses
Gleason is a hard working but mostly ineffective leader. The issue goes beyond him- Republicans in this state reflect mediocrity and arrogance beyond those in some other states. If Ridge, Corbett, Costello, Gerlech , Dent are Republicans we are better off with any Democrat. Real Republicans should cast a protest vote this year and defeat Toomey and the rest of these hacks! They deserve to lose- issue isn’t Trump– issue is a Republican Party that stinks up the Commonwealth- Vote Democratic and send a message. This Chester County flash will be even worse than Gleason- who at least stood for something.
Interesting! Senator Scarnati and other Republican elected leadership need look in the mirror instead of “cursing” the current PA Republican Chair. When elected Republican leaders failed to recognize the need for and pass a strong payroll protection during the first 100 days of the Corbett administration they set the stage for the Republican state wide losses and in particular the Supreme Court Republican losses. When elected Republicans continue to allow Democrats to force taxpayers to collect millions from public sector unions to use against Republicans and Pennsylvanian taxpayers, they should not be allowed to change the subject by throwing mud at the current Party Chairman. Stop throwing mud and explain to me exactly what a “Chairman DiGiorgio” is going to do when the public sector unions and PA Trial Lawyers bury the statewide Republicans with millions in misleading ads.
Val DiGiorgio would make a fine PaGOP leader. He and a few others in the generation behind Gleason are ready to lead.
It’s way past time for this to happen. Because there are very talented people in the generation following DiGiorgio who are ready to lead also. They need someone like DiGiorgio to show them the way forward.
Onward for the sake of survival and relevance. But for the love of life…Onward.
He looks like he hangs out w Seth @ Union League
DiGiorgio would be far and away better than Gleason, he runs Chester County fairly and is considerate of conservative and moderate factions. To say otherwise just show’s ignorance of how the county is run.
The Repervlicans are screwed. And they have only themselves to blame.
That won’t stop them from blaming Obama though.
DiGiorgio cares only about himself. He will abandon candidates on a whim if it means something better for him. He will change his positions. He will do whatever it takes to gain power. People talk about Trump being like Hitler and other dictators because of his bombastic style, but that’s a show. It’s the quiet dictators like DiGiorgio people need to worry about.
There needs to be a youth movement in the Republican party. I’m from a predominantly democratic area and have been told the majority of my life that the Republican party is strictly for the wealthy. There needs to be a movement out there to use social media and the Internet to let young adults know this isn’t true. TV ads are not the way you connect with people anymore. Most people if they still do have some sort of cable they have a DVRED and fast forward right past them.
Chris, we lost because the unions bought the election and we couldn’t raise enough money to even play in the same ballpark.
DiGiorgio looks like a sick child molester who preaches rightwing dogma. Wants to go back to yesteryear, like when KKK was openly hailed as defender of (white) racist society.
Who will be the King of the Monkeys?!?
Digiorgio is a register lobbyist. Of course Scarnati is backing him. LOL
One of the reasons the Republicans lost the State Supreme Court race was because of the poor candidates they chose to endorse. The Southeast Caucus supported Covey, who had no business being in the race. This is DiGiorgio’s fault because he tells everybody who to vote for and the sheep follow. He needs to change his dictatorship style of leadership.
It’s difficult to think of the last election that Gleason won…..