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PA-Sen: McGinty Upsets Sestak, Takes Dem Nomination

Katie_McGintyThe Democratic establishment finally took down Joe Sestak.

Former Chief of Staff to Gov. Wolf Katie McGinty won the Senate Democratic primary according to the Associated Press.

With 99% of precincts in, McGinty has 644,283 votes or 44%.

Sestak is in second with 495,118 (34%) and Braddock Mayor John Fetterman will finish a distant third with 292,380 (20%).

Joe Vodvarka came in dead last with 30,741 total votes or 2%.

For most of the contest, the former Congressman lead but a late surge, likely prompted by President Obama’s endorsement, put McGinty over the top.

McGinty will go on to face Republican freshman Senator Pat Toomey in the November 8th general election.

48 Responses

  1. The Mirror’s Reflection

    1) It’s brought me peace and happiness

    2) A late night call from a friend prompted the posted you commented on

    3) The 3am timing was due to me writing it earlier, but dozing off in my chair, and submitting it when I woke up.

    4) I actually was talking to my friends about needing a new nemesis. Maybe a bald one, like Lex Luthor?

    Same Old Same Old-

    The money McGinty has already spent and the notoriety of knocking “the mighty” Joe Sestak on his ass and sending him packing back to Virginia is now “banked” with higher name recognition for her. So, that investment is still there.

    My theory on money though and being outspent is really a question of “How much money does it take to get your message out?”

    Sestak failed because he had a weaker message. Part of the evidence for this is Fetterman’s performance with the least money and the best message.

    If Bernie had strongly endorsed Fetterman, Fetterman would have beaten Sestak, and come close to McGinty. If Fetterman had another million (still less than Joe) he would have come in second and beaten Joe like a drum.

    Fetterman never got to “critical mass” to reach enough voters.

    McGinty will be outspent by Toomey, but she has several advantages over what Sestak would have and that mitigate Toomey’s advantage

    1) She will raise enough money to get her message out (and to attack Toomey, and to defend herself from attacks). Even if Toomey is 2-1 with ads, people will see hers.

    2) The party, from local to Gov to the President and Hillary, will be behind her as party of a united/coordinated campaign. That is worth A LOT more than the 2-points Sestak whines about losing by, that he self-inflicted by refusing to cooperate.

    3) Toomey (with the rest of the GOP) is terrible on women’s issues and McGinty can highlight them. Women will be tuned in, and are already turned off by Trump.

    4) Joe won’t be around to sabotage the election with his goofy antics. Toomey’s opposition research on Sestak is all wasted.

  2. McGinty will have all the money she needs to defeat Toomey in the General Election. Pennsylvania is one of seven battleground states for control of the Senate. To say Toomey will brand any corporate energy brand on McGinty is totally crazy. Pat Toomey is a Posterboy of Special Interests. The Koch Brothers ( the same guys that want to abolish the Department of Energy) support Toomey. Also Toomey’s past shows no support of Middle Class America. Hedge fund Manager for Chemical Bank , derivative manager on Wall Street, and the one I really like for three years as a private derivatives manager for a Chinese Billionaire. Throw in Toomey’s years as the President of The Club For Growth organization and you will have a hard time separating Toomey from Corporate America. Toomey’s votes in the Senate are consistently against average Pennsylvanians and for Special Interests. Time to make Toomey one term Toomey.

  3. The reality is clear. Toomey will have a lot more money and will not be outspent by McGinty. This race is similar to the Nets when they beat the Toronto Raptors a few years ago to advance in the NBA playoffs only to be thumped by the Miami Heat in the next round. Here McGinty defeated a less funded Sestak but will face a highly funded Toomey who also is a very talented politician. On top of that, he had the PA Speaker of the House at his victory party so Toomey is everyone’s priority in the Republican Party to win in Nov. He will highlight McGinty’s ties to the energy industry amongst other issues and he will do so with much funds. So, like the Nets did a few years ago, McGinty advances to the next level in the “playoffs” so to speak but now faces a far more tougher opponent especially in terms of funding.

  4. I thought this election would bring double D peace and enable him to move on from the campaign he has waged for the better part of seven years. Posting until 3:00am the following day? Perhaps you’ll always need a nemesis…

  5. A friend of mine in Westmoreland pointed out to me the deeper tragedy of Sestak’s journey. As mentioned by others and myself, Sestak spent the last 7 years running for this office. But, here’s the thing: every day he had to smile his fake smile and suck up to local committee people, politicians/officials and voters. All of them were people Sestak looked down on, but now to be nice because he needed them.

    My friend pointed out that this must have taken a piece of Joe’s soul every day, killing him slowly. (There was brief disagreement on whether Sestak had a soul in the first place.)

    Bernie-

    Yes. Sestak was Fetterman’s spoiler. Back when Sestak was in the lead, I had recommended that Fetterman take down Sestak (the same way in prison movies the new guy is told that taking out the baddest guy in the yard will win him acceptance by the other inmates).
    The Fetterman people believed they could take McGinty in a two-person race.. which would have required taking down Sestak hard first.

    DelcoSocialist-
    Fetterman hurt Sestak by winning some male votes and sucking up the Allegheny votes.

  6. berniecrat-

    Toomey can’t even do his 1/100th job to support a hearing for Obama’s supreme court pick.

  7. McGinty is not prepared to be 1/100 Senators. Toomey is going to clean her clock in November.

  8. DelcoSoc, I say Sestak was Fettermans spoiler. Sestak had his chance and messed it up. He should never have been pretending to live in PA.

  9. Long Walk Back to Virginia-

    Drink their tears? I was hoping to drink wine from their skulls!

    (cue SpongeBob or some other idiot acting like I actually want to murder people).

    BTW, Google Maps has the walk from Sestak’s PA campaign storage facility (and registration address) to his real Virginia home as 135 miles, with an estimated time of 45 hours. Since Joe doesn’t believe in sleep, he can be home for the weekend.

    During his concession speech, Sestak’s wife stood right beside him. SHE DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM !!! but, was standing right there staring blankly and trying to remain conscious as Joe droned on and did his fake sing-song voice to act like it was all good.

    Last night, Sestak rambled on about his stupid-f*cking-walk, with tales of how people offered him rides. Yeah. Of course they did. He looked like a homeless vet.
    …. And how he would tell them: “It’s okay. No thanks.” leaving out… my assistant is tagging along in the car, bringing me coffee, charging my phone, taking occasional pictures to post, and all my clothes, computer, etc.

    He exited stage right to Sinatra’s “My Way”. The irony of this was probably completely lost on Sestak, because doing it “my way” was the reason he failed.

    —————————————
    Quote from Caine Mutiny:
    Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg: Mr. Maryk, you may tell the crew for me that there are four ways of doing things aboard my ship: The right way, the wrong way, the Navy way, and my way. They do things my way, and we’ll get along.
    —————————————

    The song that I would have picked to play him off stage: “Hit the Road Jack” 🙂

  10. A lot of crybabies around these parts accusing Fetterman of being the spoiler, as if all of his voters would have voted for Sestak otherwise. I’ve talked to plenty of Fettermaniacs who were McGinty supporters until they heard about Uncle Fetter.

  11. Where is Jerry Politicoff? Where is Revolving Door? Come back to us, Sestak shills! Diano wants to drink your tears!

  12. Montco PA Dem

    I’ll be monitoring the real estate listings and taking a selfie with the For-Sale and Sold signs.

    The listing show the property to be worth less than what Sestak paid for it 9 yrs ago.

    I wonder if those imaginary six and seven figure lobbying jobs are still waiting for him? A lobbyist that no one in congress likes will be lucky to get a four or five figure salary (including the pennies).

    Maybe Joe can get a job with Walmart finding ways to exploit the workers.

  13. Susan, Fetterman didn’t need to ride Bernie. Fetterman is the real life embodiment of the principles that Sanders espouses. Fetterman lives it in a black community while Sanders talks about it from the whitest place on Earth.

    It turns out Bernie is no different than the rest. It’s coming out that Sanders made a deal with Schumer to stay out of several Senate races in exchange for a plumb committee assignment. Sanders does have a price and it wasn’t that high.

  14. Our long statewide nightmare is over. Now hopefully Sestak will get the hint that Pennsylvania doesn’t want him and he’ll go home to Virginia to be their problem. This man is the worst and would have made this straight-ticket D voter vote for Toomey in the general had he won. All the rumors you’ve heard about how he treats his staff, women especially, are true. We are a better Commonwealth for getting rid of him.

  15. Well, at least we don’t have to listen to Fetterman ride Bernie’s jock anymore either.

  16. David may be crazy, but I’m enjoying his excitement today. Go ahead and be happy dude.

  17. Diano, will you be keeping your promise to help Sestak pack up the Delco house? Let us know when it hits the market, OK?

    Meanwhile, David, take a look at some of the people working behind the scenes for Fetterman: Adam Bonin and Brendan McPhillips, for example, and of course John Hynes. They didn’t just wind up there. Again, I’m not saying that Fetterman was a puppet or false front, just that his candidacy was helpful. I hope there’s a Congressional slot for him next time around.

  18. Last night all I kept thinking is David Diano be having the equivalent of multiple orgasms right now.

  19. Isaac L.

    And let’s not forget making the workers pay their own employment taxes and benefits by falsely labeling them “outside consultants” and making them sign non-disclosure agreements to keep quiet about it. I suspect the agreements are non-enforceable as they don’t cover illegal activities.

    Sestak is the kind of employer that unions were formed to oppose.

    BTW, in case the readers haven’t caught on: I’m going to be insufferably smug on the Sestak issue for a few days. 🙂

    This has a been long overdue. The whining of the Sestak lemmings “but..but.. Sestak would have beat Toomey… only lost by 2 points last time.. wahhhh” is music to my ears.

    Sestak couldn’t beat the girl they belittled as a 4th place lightweight. Sestak barely beat newcomer Fetterman, who would have cleaned Sestak’s clock as well if he the money Sestak had (including Sestak’s own Washington super-PAC).

    Sestak’s now wasted $25 million in Dem money and 7-8 years of his own life trying to satisfy his own ego and desire for a title next to his name. Here a are few: loser, has-been, reject.

    I think the DSCC should spend a few more dollars on Sestak for bus-fare back to Alexandria, VA.

  20. Toomey angered a lot of R’s by not supporting Trump. That will be to Katie’s advantage.

  21. It’s no surprise that Labor dropped Sestak after finding out how horribly he treated his employees. No one working 60-80 hours a week on average should be paid $12-18,000/year, let alone be subject to regular verbal abuse and belittlement. It’s just wrong.

  22. Belle Avis-

    Sestak was the straw man. If it wasn’t for VodVarka, Fetterman would have pretty much tied Sestak, and with a few more dollars (or the endorse of Sanders), he would have beaten the “mighty” Joe Sestak.

    Joe’s supporters can whine and cry and bitch and moan and blame everyone else, but the fish rots from the head down, and it all falls on Joe and his lack of message, poor ads, phoniness, tired cliches, micro-management, ego and failure to heed sound advice.

    We are finally done with this blight on the Democratic party.

  23. McGinty is a pathetic commentary on our times. She got her nomination the old fashion way- paid for by special interests and Democratic left wing. Clearly she is not qualified by either accomplishment or experience to serve in Senate. Having said that she will clean Toomey’s clock in November. At least she stands for something – which you can’t say about one term Toomey. His problem isn’t Trump- it’s his support of republican establishment and a weasel named McConnell. Democrats will romp in out Keystone State

  24. It’s amazing what $4.5m can buy. But it’s not enough for the straw woman to defeat Toomey.

  25. Ed-

    Sestak pissed away $20 million in 2010 take out Specter, who would have been a MUCH stronger general election candidate.

    So, please stop acting like the DSCC did something worse than what Sestak did in 2010.

    Sestak was always a fundamentally weak candidate. He’s uncooperative because he thinks he’s better than everyone else, and that they’re all a bunch of losers, who should follow/serve/bow-to him. He has wacky ideas and “gimmicks” instead of real messaging and strategy. He’s brute-force working harder-not-smarter. He’s a terrible debater who can’t think on his feet or take a punch. He doesn’t know how to capture the center from Toomey.

    Oh, yeah, and he’s f*cking crazy.

  26. Tim-

    You are a strange, pervy tea-party dude. (that is very redundant).

    Sestak was a completely unacceptable choice. I would be even happier if Fetterman won. And, I’d really be laughing my ass off if VodVarka had won. If a dead cat was on the ballot, I would have picked it over Sestak.

    So, I’m just happy Sestak lost and LOST DECISIVELY. He’s got no one to blame but himself for piss-poor ads and campaign. Joe lost the support of Unions he had last time. (Word got out how he treats his workers.) Joe continued his tired and offensive exploitation of his daughter.

    McGinty (or rather supporting PAC) did run a negative ad against Sestak, but the rest of her ads were positive. There were plenty of glossy mailers that were positive as well.

  27. The “Chosen One” – The “Party Hack”. All the Clintonistas voted for this babe! Step in line Obamatons, you mindless robotz!

  28. Too bad when Hillary strokes out or has a coronary, there will be no one to fill her shoes except maybe Woopie Goldberg! TRUMP16 Lads – It’s in the Bible, a book which you libs never read.

  29. McGinty is Diano’s Dream Gurl! he hopes to work for her someday just so he can be near her!

  30. Toomey is sure to get re-elected now. Meanwhile Diano is fapping to Mcgintiny nude fakes he phooshopped! Take that Dave!

  31. Nick-

    BTW, I really like the double-meaning in the title: “McGinty Upsets Sestak” LOL

    I’m sure Sestak was plenty upset.

  32. Montco PA Dem-

    Fetterman was his own man and not the tool/agent of any conspiracy. Groen’s off-hand remark didn’t make a difference, though it provided a nice talking point for Fetterman.

    Mike –

    Sestak has waste 1/9th of his life pursuing a “promotion” he didn’t deserve by experience, temperament, or dues paying. And, it’s probably about 1/4 to 1/3 of the life he had remaining to him when he started.
    I feel sorry for his poor wife who has to put up with that violently moody bastard underfoot for the next 20 years.

    jjcnpa-
    Sestak’s been exploiting his daughter’s illness for years. Glad we don’t have to see any more of that.

    Joe doesn’t listen to nor believe in professional political operatives and strategists. He’s too busy listening to the man in the mirror and the sound of his own voice.

  33. I want to say congrats to you Katie McGinty and the reason is I did not supported you for the US Senate race in 2016 because I have family members named after Bob and Pat, please don’t be mad at me of me supporting the Incumbent US Senator Pat Toomey for reelection and not you because I don’t want my family dystanty losing this race and you will have a tough election ahead of you and I’m hoping of we can be friends.

  34. A solid showing for Fetterman who was not taken seriously. I hope we see more of him. Sestak ran the worst ads I have seen. They were very hokey–“I got your six” and using his daugther’s illness for political gain was over the top.

  35. @David Comes tree hugger? Ask the folks who work at the DEP about that. McGinty was on the side of energy

  36. Hillary + Katie !!!!!

    They are both going to win.

    Can’t wait to see you Clowns lose your shit.

  37. Sestak can sell his house in Pennsylvania and go home to Alexandria Virginia. Joe’s 7 year quest to be a Senator is finally over. Sestak can now get on with his life. He might just decide to walk across Virginia.

  38. Marcel Groen, January 7, 2016: ““I think Fetterman is more competitive than people think he is…I think he’d be the toughest candidate in the general [election]. In a society looking for different, he could catch on.”

    I love Fetterman, but I also believe he was Marcel’s secret weapon for pulling votes from Sestak. Without Fetterman in the race, Sestak very possibly beats McGinty. Marcel is still a centrist and as establishment as they come, but he plays a mean game of politics.

  39. January 2017: “Congratulations on your reelection, Senator Toomey,” said Minority Leade Schumer…

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