There was an unexpected development today in the race for the State Senate’s 26th district.
A report by Victor Fiorillo of Philadelphia Magazine highlighted a Facebook post by Stella Holgerson. She is claiming to be Kane’s daughter from a previous relationship.
Holgerson seemed to take offense at one of Kane’s ads, which features his family.
“He [Kane] claims to be a family man, launching his campaign with a commercial with all of his children in it,” she wrote in her Facebook post. “Well, that commercial is missing someone. Me.”
“Let’s be honest: I am upset,” she told Fiorillo. “It really bothers me. He’s this big family man, he’s got his children on TV, it’s crazy to me. The way I look at it, he’s a liar. And I’m not trying to get him back anymore. You can’t miss something you never had.”
According to Holgerson, she never had any relationship with her father and only met him once.
Kane and his campaign have neither confirmed nor denied her claims.
“As a candidate for public office, John may be fair game, but his family and the young woman who believes that she may be his daughter are not,” Kane spokesman Aren Platt wrote. “This is not a political matter, has absolutely no relevance to this election, and does not belong in the public discourse.”
Of course, this is a personal matter for Kane. Yet with the 26th district being perhaps the most competitive and highly-watched (not to mention contentious) State Senate race of the year, it’s impossible not to wonder what effect this could have on his candidacy.
Still, Platt maintains this will be the last time the candidate addresses the issue.
“John, Stella and all the members of the Kane family deserve the privacy to work through this matter on their own. This would be a painful development for any family at any time, but John is focused on helping all involved move forward together as he also fights on in the last two weeks of this competitive campaign, and will have no further comment.”
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32 Responses
@ DD:
Your self-marginalization-process is now complete, and your credibility is in ruins.
Robert-
You and Guzzardi are both right wing crackpots. It’s fun watching you get so worked up when I don’t feel like addressing every tiny pointless remark you make, so that you feel compelled to repost. Have you been diagnosed with observe y compulsive disorder?
As I pointed out, I consider you to be more foolish than the Chris Martinez parody character. I only respond for entertainment purposes and amusement, but so many of your ramblings aren’t interesting enough to bother with, or I have nothing new to add from my previous eviscerations of your claims. I just don’t take you seriously enough to bother, unless I can use you to illustrate some point I want to make.
You are merely a Simplicio to my Salviati.
That fact that you would deny that efforts to repeal ACA are ridiculous goes to the core of your disconnect from reality. The House has wasted 40 – 50 votes on this. Do they think that if it gets past the Senate that Obama will sign it? That should be the new Webster’s definition of ridiculous.
@ DD:
As has been your pattern, you both totally-ignored and partially-addressed distilled challenges, eagerly awaiting the moment when the relevant article “times-out”; your homework has only grown:
1. “Guzzardi was not a legitimate candidate.” Each time you tossed-up a criterion, I showed he had satisfied it [speaking engagements, media input, palm card, thousands of signatures statewide]; your view of him as a right-winger biases your ability to maintain objectivity.
Your reaction [“he’s a crackpot”] is a personal value-judgment hardly qualifies as a documented, professional response.
2. “Your attacks on Obama haven’t been correct.” Start with the universally-acclaimed lie-of-the-year [“You can keep your doctor, hospital, plan, etc.”]; again, your Dem-viewpoint biases your ability to be objective.
{Ignored.}
3. “The ‘word’ has begun to ‘catch-on’ to Obama’s failures.” Note all polls and punditry, plus quotes and behavior of your fellow-Dems; again, your Dem-tilt biases your ability to be objective.
{Ignored.}
4. “Even Republican governors are finally admitting that the ACA is helping people and efforts to repeal it are ridiculous.” You will not be able to unearth a corroborative quotation; again, your Dem-tinged view of ObamaDon’tCare biases your ability to be objective.
Your observation that Kasich acquiesced to the Medicaid-component thereof hardly qualifies as a claim that efforts to repeal it are “ridiculous.”
5. “Articles that have reached page 2 have expired/timed-out.” Cite any other blogger who has self-defined a “dead-thread” in this fashion, ever; again, your inability to admit error biases your ability to be objective.
You attempted, deftly, to shift the burden-of-proof [“demonstrate that anyone else here continues to post or read the dead threads”], a game that empowers me to claim “check…and mate!” because much of our back-and-forth regarding the legitimacy of Guzzardi’s petition-signatures transpired long after the parent-document (Corbett’s filing) had become buried, off of the first page…remember?
{https://www.scribd.com/doc/236915758/Action-Item-Compilation-VI…start reading on page 499.}
6. “Obama has gone after terrorists, worldwide, with drone strikes, as well as direct and indirect military action.” He can’t even define “terrorism” for, even after Harper discussed two recent events by using that term, he claimed insufficient-data have been ID’ed [and, of course, he still views Fort Hood as “workplace violence”]; again, your adherence to extreme-ideology biases your ability to be objective.
{Ignored.}
7. “I defended McCaffery only against the manner in which he was attacked.” I demonstrated that Castille exhibited the proper self-policing of a trusted governmental entity, initiating a process that immediately triggered McCaffery to do the opposite of your desire [dropping a defamation suit instead of filing one]; again, your Dem-loyalty biases your ability to be objective.
You restated your global approach [“I’ve got no loyalty to McCaffery. I’ve repeatedly said that I expect him to be convicted. But, he still deserves a fair hearing before that.”] rather than proving (due to what Castille did) he would be denied a fair hearing before the ethical-entity charged with the responsibility to oversee judicial conduct. {The word “proving” was used–instead of “showing”–because you are advocating litigation that would necessitate this be demonstrated.}
8. “I’ve gone after Dems as well, criticizing their campaign strategies, priorities and motivations.” My focus is on your errors herein and not your magical ability to claim honesty elsewhere; again, your self-referential nature biases our ability to be objective.
{Ignored.}
I was first-board on the Cheltenham High School Chess Team [Class of ’69, before you were born] and admired Bobby Fischer for his ability to play simultaneous-games; I can multitask with the best of them so, surely, you will be up-to-the-task of defending ALL your wild assertions, right?
DelcoRes-
I read the entire article, several times. Her mother never asked for child support, so your charge that he didn’t provide for her is not valid. He may well have offered support and being in her life 32 years ago, and was refused. It seems pretty clear that her mother and her family kept them from meeting for 20 years and didn’t want them in each other’s lives or any type of shared custody.
What does this girl hope to gain? Does she want to hang out at the family barbecues as a cautionary tale for safe sex? Is she operating as political pawn?
The long and short of it is that she is a effectively a stranger and both her own family and Kane’s family made that decision to be separate over 30 years ago. She should take the hint and stop trying to inject herself into the lives of people that have no interest in her.
Robert-
He wasn’t legitimate because he’s a crackpot.
“Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is expected to cruise to reelection this year and then seek the Republican nomination in 2016, recently told the Associated Press that repealing the Affordable Care is “not gonna happen.” “The opposition to it was really either political or ideological,” he said. “I don’t think that holds water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives.” ”
Robert, demonstrate that anyone else here continues to post or read the dead threads. I only respond to you to deconstruct your foolish arguments and because my friends enjoy watching me kick your ass and can’t believe how stupid you are. It’s entertainment, and pointless on dead threads. I’m not trying to convince you, since you are too thick for facts to penetrate. I’m just publicly embarrassing you.
I’ve got no loyalty to McCaffery. I’ve repeatedly said that I expect him to be convicted. But, he still deserves a fair hearing before that.
@ DD:
The “refrain” for each of the eight points is “biases your ability to be objective”; there are many other concerns [such as noting the sorry-state of the Middle East [as well as everywhere else in the world] after BHO’s unilateral retreat…but I don’t want to tax your limited cognitive abilities by threatening to cause sensory-overload.
David is your computer in your room or in your parents living room. Your post on this webpage holds no legitimacy anymore.
@ DD:
Lotsa documentation needed on this not-yet-dead thread [in your parlance], so please comply promptly rather than engaging in a lengthy back-and-forth that would be interpretable [again] as c/w BHO’s propensity to run-out-the-clock.
1. “Guzzardi was not a legitimate candidate.” Each time you tossed-up a criterion, I showed he had satisfied it [speaking engagements, media input, palm card, thousands of signatures statewide]; your view of him as a right-winger biases your ability to maintain objectivity.
2. “Your attacks on Obama haven’t been correct.” Start with the universally-acclaimed lie-of-the-year [“You can keep your doctor, hospital, plan, etc.”]; again, your Dem-viewpoint biases your ability to be objective.
3. “The ‘word’ has begun to ‘catch-on’ to Obama’s failures.” Note all polls and punditry, plus quotes and behavior of your fellow-Dems; again, your Dem-tilt biases your ability to be objective.
4. “Even Republican governors are finally admitting that the ACA is helping people and efforts to repeal it are ridiculous.” You will not be able to unearth a corroborative quotation; again, your Dem-tinged view of ObamaDon’tCare biases your ability to be objective.
5. “Articles that have reached page 2 have expired/timed-out.” Cite any other blogger who has self-defined a “dead-thread” in this fashion, ever; again, your inability to admit error biases your ability to be objective.
6. “Obama has gone after terrorists, worldwide, with drone strikes, as well as direct and indirect military action.” He can’t even define “terrorism” for, even after Harper discussed two recent events by using that term, he claimed insufficient-data have been ID’ed [and, of course, he still views Fort Hood as “workplace violence”]; again, your adherence to extreme-ideology biases your ability to be objective.
7. “I defended McCaffery only against the manner in which he was attacked.” I demonstrated that Castille exhibited the proper self-policing of a trusted governmental entity, initiating a process that immediately triggered McCaffery to do the opposite of your desire [dropping a defamation suit instead of filing one]; again, your Dem-loyalty biases your ability to be objective.
8. “I’ve gone after Dems as well, criticizing their campaign strategies, priorities and motivations.” My focus is on your errors herein and not your magical ability to claim honesty elsewhere; again, your self-referential nature biases our ability to be objective.
I wonder how many other were aborted…. She mentions he had a drinking problem. I guess that will resurface after this. Take care of your kids even if you wanted to abort them or write them off in your life
Davey and Delco observer do your leaders ever take responsibility for anything. Let’s recap
1. Hughes Costa and Brady recruit this big oaf
2. They don’t do a thorough background check of they did theybwouldnhave found this out. This isn’t some woman from California. She was in Ridley for 29 years. Then the big Lummox begins to disappoint the three aforementioned stooges. He is lazy he doesn’t raise money and he can’t speak English with out des dem and dos at least six times in the same sentence. In other words. A UNION BOSS
3. She starts posting weeks ago the above mentioned geniuses know about it and can’t come up with a better campaign statement.
4. Kane can’t deny it is his daughter because if you read the Philly mag and daily news story he met with her acknowledged who she was and then in a moment of true character revelation he changed his phone number
5. Then the big oaf hides and hangs out in Philly.
Game set and match losers!
DD — I think you underestimate the amount of Democrats that care about family values. You’re obviously not reading the article or the woman’s FB post from phillymag.com — she made attempts to be in his life, he chose not to be in hers, and yes, she’s coming out now b/c there was never a platform for her to do so before. He hid her in his closet and refused to acknowledge her even after she came out to two of his children.
No matter which way you try to spin this, one thing is for certain; he is in the wrong and people will change their vote. He did not provide for his own flesh and blood and then he assumed that running on the family-man route was a good idea when he knew he had another daughter.
Mike- I’ve haven’t kept up with the other races you mentioned. Are they doomed?
Robert-
You don’t need my permission to make a fool of yourself. Every time you refer to Guzzardi as a “legitimate” candidate, I can’t help but shake my head at the level of your delusions. Your attacks on Obama haven’t been correct, nor has the “world” been reading them to :catch on”. Even Republican governors are finally admitting that the ACA is helping people and efforts to repeal it are ridiculous.
Articles that have reached page 2 have expired/timed-out. I’m sure if Guzzardi had managed to get a debate with Corbett, you’d be advising him to remain on stage hours after the cameras were off and everyone else had left to continue his ramblings. Then, complain because Corbett wasn’t responding. That’s the model/analogy here (which I predict you will fail to comprehend, and instead continue to expect responses on dead threads).
Obama has gone after terrorists, worldwide, with drone strikes, as well as direct and indirect military action.
Robert, of course I’ll stand by fellow Dems when they are wrongful attacked. I defended McCaffery only against the manner in which he was attacked (as the charges themselves need to be vetted through the proper channels and not as part of Castille’s vindictive agenda). But, I’ve gone after Dems as well, criticizing their campaign strategies, priorities and motivations.
Observer- The girl should be referred to as “alleged” daughter, pending paternity test.
Radnor Voter- Abortion isn’t murder. And from the article, it sounds like Kane’s parents suggested the abortion to the girl’s parents. 20 year old Kane making such a suggestion to the girl’s parents is not even credible scenario for a meeting like that.
MY Aren complaint is on the overall body of work. We could have won this race, but instead we wasted money against Tomlinson and Scavello. Now we lose those two, this one, and Kula. Poor leadership and poor choices.
@ Observer(s)- Do Democrats accept responsibility for anything?
HAHAHAHA Yeah of course Aren doesnt think this is a campaign issue. In the Philly.com article (politics pa conveniently leaves it out) the daughter says Kane wanted her mother to abort her. Yeah, a candidate lobbying for murder is not an issue.
I agree this smells like the usual Delco GOP dirty tricks, right down to the insincere denials of any involvement by the McGarrigle campaign published in other publications. We all know that there are numerous major, long-time supporters of Mr. McGarrigle, some of whom have ties to persons implicated in federal corruption probes and that have access to private security firms and are great practitioners of the dark art of digging up dirt on people and twisting facts to advantage their interests – and also trying to cover their footprints.
The headline perpetrated by Victor Fiorillo and Philly Mag is one of the worst excuses for journalism, completely prejudging the veracity of the claim that Ms. Holgersen is in fact John Kane’s daughter, cheapens any claim that Mr. Fiorillo and Philly Mag proposed a fair and accurate news report. She does claim to be his daughter…there is no admission or proof.
What the timing of this makes me wonder is how bad are the McGarrigle Campaign’s internal polling numbers for Tom McGarrigle? In a district where there is a aizable Republican registration advantage (around 10% and almost 13000 registrations), the race must be very close and the GOP needs to resort to such slime-ball tactics in a desperate effort to put it over the line?
Don’t get me wrong – the petty feuding here is hilarious, but is the blood business really that slow?
Lets Be Honest. Take a Look at that Commercial!! If I was his Daughter and he was never in my life and I was forced to watch this add saying he is a “Great Father”, Holy Crap I’d Be heated, how unfair and sad!! I don’t even live in Delco but he should of never air that knowing that this young women would be forced to see it!!
@ DD:
Thanx for “permission” to raised concerns regarding your credibility, documented on other pages of this website; you can run, but you can’t hide.
Guzzardi was a legitimate candidate, the world is finally catching-on to the correctness of my concerted attacks on BHO, and the quality of my prose [which you have justifiably praised] is superseded by the points conveyed.
You declare I’ve “lost” just as you declare you won’t reply to comments once the article has been dropped from the PoliticsPA front-page; both are unique and unjustified [except within your world of Obama-sycophancy despite — for example — worldwide Islamic Terrorism, which your-guy refuses to acknowledge by-name].
In the instant case, having read through the hyperlinks elsewhere on this website, you have demonstrated the same dogged commitment to a fellow-Dem that I’ve detected; you therefore project your partisanship upon other innocent bloggers.
It seems a correlate of your adherence to all-things-Dem is your reflex coronation of anything-union; you [and your candidate] may wish to sit-back and allow a debate on the issues to bubble-to-the-surface instead of engaging in negativity.
Robert-
You can keep bringing up all the past threads where I handed you your @ss and pretend you won the arguments, but that doesn’t change that you lost. Your foolishness is legendary from your support of Guzzardi, to your attacks on Obama, and your support of right-wing buffoonery and failed policies. When you are losing an argument, you try to divert attention with false claims of victory in dead threads.
You are worse than the fake Chris Martinez character being posted with his insistence on a Corbett win, as his “logic” is superior to any I’ve seen you demonstrate. Your ONLY advantage over Chris is your spelling.
Please stop being so dumb. It’s tiresome.
Robert-
Kane is a family man and the ad was with his actual family. Of course he approved the ad. It’s not a “gaff”.
He has had no relationship whatsoever with the girl beyond meeting her once in 32 years, and she admitted having no interest in being part of his family. I doubt he’s given her even the slightest thought in years, as her paternity appears to be in question, and the mother never made a claim for child support.
She doesn’t qualify as “family”, despite an alleged (and unproven) claim of a biological connection, and her admission that she wasn’t abandoned. Clearly her mother, uncle and grandmother who raised her wanted to be a separate family and not part of the Kane family.
For this girl to complain about being left out of a Kane “family” ad is ridiculous, petty, contrived and vindictive. She never complained about decades of Kane family Christmas cards or the like.
But, now she suddenly shows up two weeks before the election? I wonder if she approached the McGarrigle campaign seeking a “payday” before putting this story out.
@ DD:
I discounted your attack on Castille [again], adding to the list of websites where you have attacked but failed to defend.
https://www.politicspa.com/breaking-pa-supreme-court-justice-seamus-mccaffery-suspended/61182/#comments
Your devoted readership will be well-advised to recognize how consistently you type wild undocumented assertions and then evade when challenged; this isn’t a benign process, for you attacked “Bob” of racism merely because he’d challenged AG-Holder–chief defender of “Precious”–absent having quoted anything that would remotely justify this claim [despite repeated requests that you do so].
@ DD:
It is truly amazing how much you’ll spin a datapoint to rationalize-away a problem for a fellow-Dem.
Recalling that your input remains suspect following superficial scrutiny on myriad pages of this website, you now proffer a truly absurd claim {“I don’t agree that Kane should have volunteered this to Aren or [to] anyone else”} when it is obvious that the candidate must approve all ads.
Specifically, when presented with the prospect of introducing himself as a “family man” arose, he could have quietly advised adopting a different approach without having felt compelled to explain why.
Thus, the candidate must assume responsibility for this gaffe, and your “spin” cannot alter that intuitive conclusion.
ABCDEF –
I’m no defender of Aren, but I agree that he wouldn’t have any reason to have known. According to the girl, she had no relationship with Kane, and had met him only once, and it was over a decade ago.
So, I don’t agree that Kane should have volunteered this to Aren or anyone else. This is true especially if there had been no paternity test, because he could be opening a can of worms, when there was doubt about the relationship.
As for Aren, it would be fair to judge him on the quality of his response and how effective/ineffective it was at defusing the situation (which may take a few days to determine).
As a campaign operative, Aren was forced to make the best of a sh*t sandwich. All he can really do is pick a nice bread to go with it and surround it with some garnish.
But, ultimately, will the voters care two weeks from now? McGarrigle and his campaign aren’t likely to put out an ad on this, because it could easily result in voters rejecting it (and McGarrigle) as over the top and to personal. If it turns out she’s not even Kane’s daughter, then McGarrigle would be in a worse position.
Not sure why the criticism of Aren Platt. Obviously Kane didn’t tell him about it, and without being told about it by Kane (or a family member) how would Platt ever find out about something that happened 32 years ago? There was no child support claim so there would be nothing to find in oppo research. So….Kane knew (apparently) that this was a potential issue and didn’t share it. Supposedly his adult children knew and didn’t share it with SDCC or Platt.
If someone is to blame here it’s Kane, not Platt. That is,if there’s any truth to this (which, from the campaign’s statement, it appears to be).
It’s not clear that this woman is his daughter. My understanding is that Kane had a brief relationship with the girl’s mother, that could have produced a child. However, I also heard that Kane requested a paternity test, and the mother refused. If that is the case (and I don’t know that it is), then that would lend doubt to the claims of the mother. I can’t think of any legitimate reason for the mother to deny Kane a paternity test, if she wants to be believed.
So, there are two questions here:
1) Is Kane the father?
2) Did the mother not want a relationship with Kane (ie, not abandonment, but rather her decision)?
The article is clear that she didn’t seek child support. Had she sought that, and Kane fought it, then there might be a reason to bring up abandonment. The (alleged) daughter is quoted saying she doesn’t feel abandoned.
She and Kane have no relationship, so she shouldn’t expect a political ad about Kane’s family to have an asterisk about an illegitimate child that might not be his.
The timing of this is more than strange.
Muuuuhahahahahaha! Game over suckas!
It seems pretty obvious that Kane’s consultants had no idea about this, you don’t run that ad otherwise. But the full statement from the campaign (which is strangely not posted here) is wholly absurd.
It starts off by claiming that Kane is a dedicated family man who has “done nothing wrong except to have entered the public arena.” In what world is abandoning your daughter “doing nothing wrong”, and still trying to push the family man narrative?
This is a prime example for politicos of how not to handle those skeletons in your closet.
Hahahahahaha
Johnny Doc, Call Your Office.
The end of Aren Platt as a legitimate consultant. Great job Aren. We had the chance to take back the Senate. Now we may be in a 20-30 minority. Can someone send this idiot packing???
what moronic consultants allowed it to come to this? how can they have run those ads knowing this? or did they not know at all? incompetence all around. sad for the family.
Having a discourse about such deeply personal issues is never easy and is unfortunate for those involved. Hopefully all involved can handle these personal issues and the truth of the matters can be put to rest.
That all being said, the timing of this story, when coupled with the extremely negative, desperate, and otherwise slimy tone of the GOP campaign to date certainly makes you wonder if Delco GOP dirty tricks are afoot here…again,