54 Responses

1. Wow, even if the question was confusing (it wasn’t, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt) she has still taken $20,000 in her Senate campaign.

   Don’t take my word for it though:
   http://earlyreturns.post-gazette.com/home/early-returns-posts/6717-did-mcginty-blow-smoke-on-fossil-fuel-support

   If she misspoke, she could have corrected herself by now. She lied. That’s a fact, and is still lying.

   Fetterman’s ad went way too easy on her, records show McGinty has taken more the $530,000 from energy and natural resources companies. Source: https://www.nrsc.org/press/mcgintys-fracking-tug-of-war-2016-02-03/

   What makes those contributions from her Gov campaign particularly sleazy is that she used those contributions from political cronies of Ed Rendell to repay loans she made to the campaign, so she is literally taking money from them. I guess that amount pales in comparison to the $1,000,000 she took from sitting on energy boards.

2. Keep changing the topic there, wow. Clearer each time you post that you can’t find anything to say to defend Katie on this topic while you bash others instead.

3. She is a good friend of the energy industry. To say she is an environmentalist is a joke. My last choice for US Senate Dem primary.

4. senator cattywampus,
   COME TO BRADDOCK!!!!! NOW FEATURING: STOP LIGHTS YOU CAN ACTUALLY STOP AT!!!!
   great sales pitch….also way to use panacea incorrectly while you tried to sound smart. just a typical bernie bro. thinks he’s smarter than everyone but doesnt have the faintest clue about how government actually functions in this country.

   mario,
   there was one elected official in that video. you said pols. so i guess you’re the liar now? or was that just a small slip up and i shouldn’t discount everything youve said up to this point on account of it?

   and montco,
   thank you for understanding that numbers do matter in this game. id like to see the changes in the last 5 years of course but we wont have good ones until the next census. no matter what i try googling about braddock, every story is about the big weirdo mayor and all of the free stuff he provides people with his family money. nothing about amazing job growth, or higher graduation rates, or an up and coming main st. even camden is showing signs of revival these days and braddock cant seem to get any positive news without shrek taking up 3/4 of the story

5. Per Wikipedia, Braddock has a land area of .5 sq. mi. In other words, this is a flyspeck of a community.

   It had a population of 2,159 in 2010. Interestingly the Wikipedia article also says “Since 2005, colorful mayor John Fetterman has launched a campaign to attract new residents to the area.” The population in 2000 was 2,912. In other words, since Fetterman started working to attract people to Braddock, it has lost more than 25% of its residents. A fine mark of success!

6. Wow, I’ll let his constituents and the local pols who you say he doesn’t work with tell you all about it…

   https://pcntv.com/2015/09/14/tonight-at-1020-pm-john-fetterman-for-u-s-announcement/

   If that’s not enough, just Google it. Parks and basketball courts, urban farm, youth job programs, community center, urgent care center, child care, computer labs, ged programs, businesses, affordable housing, children events, emergency heating assistance program, safer communities, I could go on.

   The fact that you can not only defend a liar, but trash an honorable man like Fetterman shows what kind of person you are.

7. Wow has most of everything wrong. Just two examples…Fetterman works fine with the current Braddock “legislature”, i.e., council. In the beginning, his relationship with council was rocky, but the voters took care of that, and elected people who could work with Fetterman. Also, Braddock is no panacea, but it is much improved from the Braddock of 10-20 years ago, when you couldn’t drive through there without being afraid to stop at the stop lights.

   This story is about McGinty lying. To respond to it by shooting the messenger is disingenuous at best.

8. We get it Dougie. Glad you learned how to copy and paste.

9. THE BALONEY SANDWICH THEY ARE SELLING YOU AS STEAK

   “McGinty served as a managing director at a gas consulting firm that’s a member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.”

   Let’s be clear about what’s behind the Katie McGinty candidacy for the PA U.S Senate seat.

   The Democratic Party aristocracy in PA and in the U.S. Senate (Ed Rendell, Sen. Schumer et al.) are still getting over Joe Sestak’s defeat of Arlen Specter when he ran as a Dem. It was clear Specter would lose to Toomey as an R in the primary. They are still are mad at Joe Sestak for not leaving the race when Specter got in. He’s too independent and not able to be controlled.

   The Establishment D’s desperately tried to recruit a number of people to run in the primary against Sestak. Notably, Josh Shapiro, Chair of the Montgomery Co. Commissioners. was the prime alternative being recruited to run for the U.S. Senate seat. He refused the overtures and he’s now running for the Pa AG’s office – with Ed Rendell’s support. The good-old-boys in PA’s D party and at the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSSC) found no credible candidates to go up against Joe Sestak.

   They then turned to Ms. McGinty, who was COS in Wolf’s administration and pal of Ed Rendell. She’s now officially the D’s good-old-boys front lady.

   At a candidate forum last Sunday in Pittsburgh (I was there) all three candidates were asked this simple “Yes/No” question: Do you take money from from NRA. Pro Life or Oil & Gas groups? After a lot of stammering and, finally prompted by the moderator, “Yes or no?,” McGinty stated, “No.”

   That is a lie. Sestak and Fetterman both said no as well. It wasn’t a “trick question” as some have asserted. She could have easily said, “No (NRA) No (Pro Life) and Yes (Oil & Gas).”

   Candidate Fetterman called her out on this lie today in PA Politics. Ms. McGinty chose to double down on the lie in response. (See: https://www.politicspa.com/pa-sen-fetterman-hits-mcginty-over-contributions-video/72477/)

   According to the campaign records, in 2014, in her failed attempt for Governor, she did receive $120K from a coal executive. If Ed Rendell is raising money for her – you can count on the Oil & Gas money being there for her. Former PA Gov. Rendell, McGinty’s Campaign Chair is now a paid uber-consultant advocating on behalf of the frackers.

   Another of Ms. McGinty’s glaring connections to the fossil fuels industry is her campaign manager, Mike Mikus. Mikus is a veteran campaign manager and was the Mark Critz for Congress (“Pro Life, Pro Gun, Pro Drilling”) campaign manager in 2010. After that, Mr. Mikus took a job with EIS Solutions, which is an astroturfed public relations front group for the natural gas industry. This is the same EIS Solutions that gave Mark Critz a cozy lobbying job during the downtime between his removal from the US House to his bid for Lieutenant Governor.

   Mikus also managed pro-fracking Allegheny County County Exec., Rich “Frack’n Fitz” Fitzgerald (D), who orchestrated the leasing of the Pgh. Int’l airport (Consol Energy) and a county park (Range Resources) for fracking ops over the past three years.

   When Ms. McGinty ran for Governor, she hired (or Ed Rendell hired) communications and strategy giant SKDKnickerbocker. SKDK’s major client is Trans Canada, which was promoting the now dead XL Pipeline.

   Birds of a Feather Frack Together
   Ms. McGinty has no credibility whatsoever as an environmentalist. If she wishes to pose as something else, well that’s fine with me. However, I have no use for liars, posers and shills for fossil fuel corporations and the D-Party’s power mongers in this race. Pennsylvania didn’t get an “F” for integrity for nothing.

   See: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/11/09/18507/pennsylvania-gets-f-grade-2015-state-integrity-investigation

10. sorry, i didnt see anything there refuting it. did i miss all of those links you just posted to stories of major successes in braddock? or were you unable find anything beyond him giving away clothes and building a garden? even his wikipedia page talks more about him building his house than accomplishing anything. guy is a loser. and dont just paint me as “mcginty folk”. i am a rare breed on this site, a democrat who isnt a moron following so savior candidate and actually likes winning elections.

11. None of that is accurate, wow. McGinty folks seem a little too comfortable lying.

12. done plenty of research, mario. no job growth. no huge influx of millennials like they claim. same poverty. same crime. subverts the town’s legislature. just a giant who runs his own private welfare program and expects everyone to pat him on the back while he lives like a king on the family dime.

    please, enlighten me if i am wrong, but i have not found one shred of evidence of tangible success there in the last 10 years. he has all these cutesy little programs that sound lovely, but nothing that gives any indication of improved living conditions for his constituents.

13. Wow: you clearly have no idea what Fetterman has done. Do a little research, you sound as ignorant as the McGinty spokespeople. Nobody said Braddock is pretty and it will never look like McGinty’s neighborhood of million dollar homes. It’s sad that that’s all you can see from your comfortable perch.

    Regardless, you and the McGinty campaign may be the biggest hypocrites in the state right now.

14. lying is strong word here. the question made no sense. do you take money from the nra, pro-life groups, or the energy industry? i dont believe she has any energy pac donations and it’s only been from individuals. for the question to make any sense it would have to be any nra members, supporters of the pro-life agenda, or people involved in the energy industry. granted, she gave the bad quote. but accusing her then of this horrible lie that shows what a terrible person she is ridiculous. im ok with the response becuase this is politics and im an adult so i choose instead to focus on real substance and the opportunity to win rather than a 15 second hit piece from a floundering campaign.

    short story: i like mcginty because she has worked in various roles of government and would be able to do the job in dc. fetterman is a giant fake who hasnt done anything in his life (braddock still sucks as much as it did 10 years ago, ask any pittsburgher with the misfortune of driving through), and because sestak is a total nut for all the reasons that diano loves to remind us.

15. “McGinty served as a managing director at a gas consulting firm that’s a member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.”

    McGinty: THE BALONEY SANDWICH THEY ARE SELLING YOU AS STEAK

    Let’s be clear. The Democratic Party aristocracy (Rendell, Sen. Schumer et al.) are still getting over Sestak’s defeat of Arlen Specter when he ran as a Dem. It was clear Specter would lose to Toomey as an R in the primary. They are still are mad at Joe Sestak for not leaving the race when Specter got in. Too independent and not able to be controlled.

    The D’s desperately tried to recruit a number of people to run in the primary against Sestak. Most notably, Mr. Shapiro of Montgomery County, who refused and entered the AG race. They could find no takers. So, they then turned to McGinty, who was COS in Wolf’s administration and pal of Ed Rendell. She’s the D’s good old boys front lady.

    At a candidate forum in Pittsburgh last Sunday all candidates were asked this “Yes/No” question: Do you take money from from NRA. ProLife or Oil & Gas groups? After a lot of stammering and, finally prompted by the moderator, “Yes or no?” She stated, “No.”

    According to the campaign records, in 2014, in her failed attempt for Governor, she did receive $120K from a coal executive. If Ed Rendell is raising money for her – you can count on the Oil & Gas money being there for her.

    Former PA Gov. Rendell, McGinty’s Campaign Chair, is now a paid uber-consultant advocating on behalf of the frackers.

    Another of McGinty’s glaring connections to the fossil fuels industry is her campaign manager, Mike Mikus. Mikus is a veteran campaign manager and was the Critz for Congress (“Pro Life, Pro Gun, Pro Drilling”) campaign manager in 2010, and after that, he took a job with EIS Solutions, which is an astroturfed public relations group for the natural gas industry. This is the same EIS Solutions that gave Mark Critz a cozy lobbying job as downtime between his removal from the US House to his bid for Lieutenant Governor.

    Mikus also managed pro fracking Allegheny County County Exec. Rich Fitzgerald (D)(Frack’n Fitz) who orchestrated the leasing of the Pgh. Int’l airport and a county park for fracking ops, with Mikus working the manipulation behind the scenes.

    When she ran for Governor, she hired (or Ed Rendell hired) giant communications and strategy firm, SKDKnickerbocker. SKDK’s major client is Trans Canada, promoting the now dead XL Pipeline.

    Birds of a feather frack together. McGinty has no credibility whatsoever as an environmentalist. Hey, if she’d like to run as something else that’s fine with me. But, to pose as an “environmentalist? You’ve got to be kidding.

16. According to Wow here, pointing out that someone is lying is a worse offense than actually lying.

    I’m shocked that you’re okay with McGinty’s response that ignored the point of her lying and then tried to muddy the issue with completely irrelevant information.

    I don’t care who you support, I don’t see how any progressive can condone lying and then spewing a bunch of false information about the other candidate. That is not how progressives operate.

17. it clearly was a trap question for mcginty. they could have easily expanded it to fetterman’s charity that he uses to play god over lowly little braddock which is bound to have some gas connected donors from western pa, but they focused instead on just the campaign, where he raises next to no money and its all from his rich family. it’s so funny how we dems think we are the smarter, more noble party, yet play the same stupid primary games as the r’s with the hardcore base pushing away candidates that can win in favor of ideologues who will bring more division and stagnation to our dysfunctional government. sestak is despised by his would be colleagues in the senate. fetterman has never been willing to work with the braddock legislature. this isn’t american idol where you want a weirdo with a cool story, this is the us frickin senate. elect someone who can actually win and do the damn job properly. or go find your own ted cruz and watch the country burn.

18. Those of you who think that the question was poorly worded, fine. Then that should have been Katie’s response. “I misunderstood the question” or “I misspoke”. Then actually answer the question in her response. You know, given that the debate was on the date of the FEC filing deadline, it isn’t a hard question to respond to…or to answer in response to the Fetterman video, rather than an inane off-topic counterattack, non-denial.

    Whoever the communications folks are over at Team Katie should be fired.

19. Bucks for Bernie:
    How naive are you? Can’t you see a liar right in front of your eyes? McGinty lies and will be trounced by Toomey. After she or Sestak spends all their money against each other, Rendell and his fracking buddies will be happy to have Toomey in office. McGinty is not a Dem—she is a corporatist. She and Rendell are shills for corporate fracking interests. Don’t give Bernie a bad name by your extraordinarily naive political knowledge! Really!! Follow the damn money………..do some research and get some common sense.

20. It was a very strange question. Have you taken money for one of two PACs/organizations or an entire industry.

    If she said yes the ad would imply she took money from NRA or the pro life PAC.

    I hate when Dems go negative in a primary and set up the Republicans for an easy attack

21. From what I saw, it was a poorly phrased question. Was the question about this campaign for Senate (which one would assume, since that’s what these candidates are running for) or was it about any contributions ever? I’m assuming that McGinty answered truthfully in terms of this campaign, not one two years ago.

22. Actually Dem guy, we prefer our senate candidate to not be a liar.

    Politics PA, please do a follow up and explain how you allowed the McGinty campaign to completely ignore the whole point of the video and respond with a bunch of completely irrelevant false-equivalent nonsense?

    The issue isn’t whether she took money, it’s now that she got caught lying about it.

    Seriously, what the heck does ONE attorney from a large law firm giving money to Fetterman, or his family’s insurance agency have to do with McGinty getting caught lying about taking contributions from big energy? How does a reporter let them get away with that?

23. If the commenters here had their way they would repeat 2010 and beat a candidate who can win in the primary and watch toomey laugh his way into a second term. Fetterman is a lightweight (ignoring the irony in that description) who proved he isn’t close to ready for primetime and Sestak is just plain crazy. Say what you will about her environmental track record, McGinty would be immeasurable better than Toomey, and in a state built on the energy industry, is actually in a great spot to appeal to real moderate voters and win something.

24. montco, you may be missing the point: ” The only place that getting money from oil and gas could possibly hurt Katie McGinty is in the primary.”twice she publicly obfuscated about, then denied taking the energy o and g money , (– not to mention the dirty coal money, which is of course also ‘energy’—) She now has been caught lying by the Fetterman campaign and proof positive of taking the money is in published reports with FEC. lying to people still gets one in trouble, even in politics.

25. $120,000 from dirty coal plant guy, $1.1 million from NRG Energy, fast-tracking dirty coal plant—this is her partial past history. Wait till all her revolving door activities come out. She’s possibly getting the same 7% of the vote she got when she ran for Guv—another job she was not qualified for and a light-weight. She seems delusional. PA does not need more of her kind of politics!!!!!

26. I’m not sure that I care that she took $200,000 from the oil and gas industry. It’s her response that I find most troubling.

    If you watch the actual forum, she initially dodges what was a very simple yes or no question without providing an answer. The moderator follows up and asks the question again, to which she emphatically says “No.”

    This video points out that obvious inconsistency. I find her campaign’s response the most troubling.

    The McGinty campaign doesn’t deny that she lied, they try to obfuscate the issue by referencing a relatively small donation from one attorney at a law firm that did work for the Koch brother 5 years ago. And then they try to smear his family who runs a small insurance agency in Pennsyltucky.

    That is truly shameful, revolting behavior.

    Shame on you Katie McGinty.

27. Mc Ginty is not an environmentalist. she is the unimpressive PA DEP secretary who in 4/05 ‘fast tracked’ certain DEP applications for coal burning power plants so they could beat the EPA strict deadline. (including one for major campaign contributor the bolognas, who gave her 120K$…) check the NPR article on her, google ‘fast track’ “Bologna Coal” ” Robinson Power”. she’s a joke as an environmentalist. And ‘League of Conservation Voters’ is nothing but a dark money PAC who obviously does not do a very thorough investigation….

28. * Katie’s, not Marie’s. Damned autocorrect.

29. Attacking lawyers as the equivalent of their clients is juvenile, asinine, and stupid. Marie’s minions get major points deducted for that one.

    Fetterman is not running to take votes from Sestak. He takes about equally from both. I, for one, would never vote for Sestak in a primary.

30. Negative campaigning in a primary is what’s asinine. Candidates (and their supporters) need to find a way to tout their own resume without tearing down their opponents. Attacks breed more attacks and create divisions that won’t heal. It’s self-defeating.

    Toomey is the enemy and the focus should be squarely on his tiny, mealy-mouthed head.

31. McGinty is a lightweight. She has a bad resume and terrible political instincts. No one cares if a couple lawyers who gave Fetterman less money than I make in a month represented the Koch brothers at one point in time. That’s asinine.

32. Get out of here with that “filthy ties” crap. No Democrat is as filthy as Toomey, by a factor of 10, 20, or higher. The only place that getting money from oil and gas could possibly hurt Katie McGinty is in the primary. I am not nearly as concerned with whether she got money from energy interests two years ago when she ran for Governor as I am with getting us a candidate who can win. Fetterman has a good heart, but he has zero experience (being mayor of a 2,000 person town, no matter how needy, is not enough, nor is living for a decade on a trust fund). Fetterman would get steamrolled in November.

33. with the fundraising numbers sestak and fetterman realized today, mcginty really is the only shot we have. jesus the mayor couldnt even keep up with house candidates last quarter. politics is about a bit more than sitting around and high fiving each other about sweet web videos. bill ayers must be embarrassed to have his name attached to that tire fire

34. Montco –
    Besides ad hominem attacks (“blue collar trust fund baby”) and his current fundraising, what grounds do you have to say Fetterman can’t win? He’s from outside Philly with cred in the SW, appeals to youth in a presidential year, and talks directly to concerns of working class and African American voters. What’s more, he’s the rare Dem who can comfortably navigate gun ownership issues and forge middle ground on the issue.

    Sounds like the ideal candidate for PA to me.

35. Montco PA Dem, you don’t think Toomey is going to take his $10MM+ (probably $15M by the general plus pac money) and clobber McGinty will all of this? The Fetterman ad doesn’t even scratch the surface on the filthy ties she has to the energy industry.

    They’ll get Sestak on his residency or lack thereof. Besides, Sestak already lost back when Toomey didn’t have an eight figure war chest.

    Fetterman is the only shot at getting rid of Toomey.

36. Catty – Fetterman is a good man from what I’ve seen. But PA voters will never dump Toomey for him — it’s magical thinking to believe otherwise. He is in this race (and got Marcel’s thumbs-up) for one reason — to siphon votes from Sestak. I hope it works out that way.

37. Montco…Fetterman is our shot at Toomey. Marcel even said so. I do agree on your assessment of Sestak.

38. You gather incorrectly, my Cat-centric friend. I want to give Dems the best chance to win in November and (most importantly) get rid of Toomey. Sestak is nuts. Fetterman can’t win. But Katie McGinty could beat Toomey, especially if she’s on a ticket with Hillary.

    But that’s only if McGinty’s fellow Dems don’t destroy her between now and April. We tend to do that, and then wonder why people don’t want to run for office.

39. *car

40. Montco… I’m guessing from your ridiculous comment that you’re a Sestak fan…since his mode of transportation is aimlessly wandering on foot across Pennsylvania. Until he gets in his cat and commutes home to Virginia.

41. Katie lied, and isn’t denying it. She can’t deny it. The real question is why she lied. If she told the truth, this wouldn’t be an issue.

    What else isn’t she telling the truth about?

42. Wow, the article keeps being updated and adding more counters from McGinty’s campaign without denying the facts presented in the video. I guess she did take hundreds of thousands of dollars and then lied about it.

    Truly disgusting dirty politics from the McGinty campaign. Admit you lied and move on.

43. Fetterman bragged the other night about “driving 328 miles” to get to the Bucks Dems meeting. I love it when people who depend on oil, gas and electric in a million different ways then turn around and crucify people who are trying to forge some sort of sensible alliance between the companies that fill those needs and the citizens who deserve to have clean air and water.

    I think it’s a damn shame that our Blue Collar Trust Fund Baby feels he needs to attack McGinty over this.

44. you can fact check a lot about mc Ginty by looking at the website corporatekatie.com and their verifiable claims that McGinty was found guilty of ethics violations (for husband’s firm getting million $$ contracts from DEP while she was DEP secretary), and also NPR stories about Katie ordering the ‘fast trackin’g of the DEP applications of Rendell supporters in order to let them get approved before having to comply with a stricter EPA deadline . and of course she was the chosen (7th) choice pick of Rendell, ‘Oil and gas’ best friend in PA,’ for this US senate seat . choose ‘corporate katie,’ mouthpiece for the dem establishment? no thanks. it’s too bad the characters ‘running’ the debate in Pgh. were too interested in furthering their own political careers than in asking tough questions of the 3 US Senate contenders on stage. maybe they’ll get rewarded by rendelllWolf, too?

45. McGinty, pseudo-environmentalist who milks that lucrative revolving door between politics and industry. This is the “people’s candidate” that Brady, Rendell, and Wolf have chosen for you, folks.

46. I’m not clear how a law firm is connected to the oil and gas industry.

    It sounds like the McGinty campaign isn’t denying Katie lied.

    Didn’t Katie also just pocket a cool million from sitting on a gas company board?

47. Ask PennEnvironment and PennFuture – the real environmental groups in PA – what they think about Katie.

48. Katie has been the Fracker’s Best Friend since her days working under Gas Pimp Fast Eddie Rendell.

49. Boooo Fetterman! Big energy companies and energy donors are your friends!

    It’s time to stand up for dirty coal plants and giant energy companies and vote for Katie McGinty!

50. This should be very easy for PoliticsPA to fact check.