Republicans are seeking to turn next month’s election into a referendum on Governor Tom Wolf’s tenure so far.
The best opportunity to do that will be in the special election for the 37th State Senate district. The seat was held by Democratic Sen. Matt Smith before he resigned last May.
Heather Arnet is the Democratic nominee while Guy Reschenthaler is the GOP nominee.
As is to be expected, as the contest nears the campaign is getting more heated. According to Joe Smydo of the Post-Gazette, the Republicans are trying to tie Arnet to Wolf in direct mail pieces.
In response, the Democrat kept her distance from the Governor.
“Ms. Arnet said Mr. Wolf has neither donated to her campaign nor asked for her support,” Smydo writes. “Although the mailer pictures the two together, Ms. Arnet said she has never been photographed with the governor.”
It didn’t take long for the GOP to pounce.
“With a budget crisis continuing and plummeting approval ratings, Tom Wolf is starting to be seen as a liability for some Democrats,” PA GOP spokeswoman Megan Sweeney stated. “Less than a week after nine State House Democrats joined with Republicans in voting against his tax plan, Democrat State Senate candidate Heather Arnet is desperately trying to distance herself from the “Most Liberal Governor in America.”
The 37th district includes parts of Allegheny and Washington Counties. The election will be held on November 3, 2015.
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12 Responses
The Republican candidate will win since he is a veteran and appeals to seniors and pro-lifers, all of whom will vote. By the way, notice how many “military” men now serve in Congress and legislatures?
Ben Wren
The dems in Delaware county were frequently complaining about the lack of support from team Wolf. I also spoke with some political consultants from the inner circle of the Wolf/Stack campaign who said they had opposed the deliberate appeasement strategy, but were overruled on it.
Your case appears to be an outlier. However, I never saw a Wolf ad where he connected Corbett and the GOP legislators, then called for the voters to give him a legislature that would work for his agenda. That’s where Wolf failed (and created the biggee GOP majority that he can’t leverage).
truly a bizarre scenario : tons of Dem machine money pours into Arnet the Dem machine handpicked candidate’s campaign, but the Dem machine candidate disavows support from the Dem Machine’s governor, while the Dem machine funds extravagant TV ads touting the Dem machine candidate’s ‘values’, which are those of the Dem Machine. has anyone forgotten how the Dem Machine forbade an open primary special election where mt. Lebanon Dem chair Michelle Zjimancic would run against Dem machine handpicked candidate Heather Arnet ? Michelle has now got her reward from the Dem machine: being appointed by Wolf to the Commission on women.
David. Your assertion that he didn’t embrace legislative democrats is demonstrably false.
I was a campaign manager for Pat Stefano and wolf made at least 3 stops with Kula in our race. And his democratic campaign chief McGinty made several stops as well.
I’m not involved in the race in the 37th. But it’s a referendum on wolf. A democratic seat in the shadow of the budget battle can’t be viewed as anything else.
Heather will win as she comes from the part of the district where most of her predecessors were the winners (Matt Smith, Mike Fisher, Mike Schaefer and Wayne Ewing).
FYI-
That may be, but was it solid Dem seats? Because Wolf was making a point of not helping in contested seats. The deliberate strategy was: appeasement
This was motivated by the irrational and short-sighted believe that if Wolf supported a Dem, and the Rep candidate won, the Rep wouldn’t work with Wolf out of petty “revenge”.
Of course, this predictably led to more GOP victories, because Wolf did not tie these Republicans to the same failed Corbett policies they were rejecting in the Gov race.
There’s a reason matt smith quit,this is a republican seat.as for wolf 41% approval rating,what would you do.
@DD… not entirely true… Some State House District’s received their highest Democratic vote with Wolf at the top of the ticket.
thanks to GOP #racetobottom ideology, #PA’s in a crisis. wolf’s budget proposal is the best solution i’ve seen.
The irony here is that Wolf wouldn’t help with legislative candidates in 2014, and kept them at arm’s length (instead of tying their GOP opponents to Corbett and asking for a legislature he would work with).
The district is: 78.2K Dem 71.7K Rep and 21.5K other
As a Republican who lives in the 37th, I whole heartedly agree that Arnet should embrace Wolf and his agenda!
Bad move. Remember Al Gore?
Dems should stand with Governor Wolf and be proud of the Democratic values he’s fighting for.
Don’t give in to the Republican rhetoric!