By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: After the reforms that followed the 1968 Democrat convention in Chicago, candidates were no longer to be chosen by party bosses in smoke-filled back rooms.
A few weeks ago, the Democratic State Committee was unable to provide the two-thirds super majority necessary to endorse candidates for U.S. Senate and state attorney-general. Normally following such a non-event, party leadership declares an open primary, ready to support the winners in the fall General Election.
But this is politics in Pennsylvania.
Back room bosses are using undue influence and YOUR money to help Katie McGinty beat Joe Sestak. Both Sestak and McGinty are registered Democrats running on the Democrat ballot.
In the back room bosses’ plan, McGinty would then take on incumbent Republican Pat Toomey in the fall.
Some $2.4 million, the latest estimate, in Democrat Congressional campaign funds, originally intended to be spent against Republicans, have been re-routed to McGinty’s benefit in the primary.
Sestak’s once strong lead gets trimmed each week as McGinty TV commercials – funded by YOUR dollars without YOUR authorization — attack his candidacy.
McGinty’s back-room backers are known. Gov. Tom Wolf released McGinty from her key position as his chief of staff in the midst of his losing budget battle to run against Sestak.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell, longtime Philadelphia party boss Rep. Bob Brady, and a bevy of major labor bosses are all part of a cabal acting without consulting rank-and-file Democrats.
U.S. Senators Harry Reid (Nevada), Chuck Schumer (New York), Jon Tester (Montana) and, of course, Bob Casey (PA) are “leaders” acting without your authority.
Here are two more.
Vice-President Biden and President Obama.
This story starts with the late Arlen Specter switching parties after a 30-year career as a Republican U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania. In 2010, he announced for re-election –this time as a Democrat – with the blessing of President Obama, then-Gov. Rendell, AFL-CIO president Bill George and practically every other big wig Dem.
The candidacy of southeastern PA Congressman Sestak to move up to the Senate, once welcomed, was supposed to fade according to the Party leadership. They claimed Specter’s switch was a big deal. Suddenly Sestak’s record as a former Navy Admiral, key military staff member to President Clinton and reputation as the hardest working Congress member in Washington counted for naught.
A majority of Democrats, however, had grown weary of Specter playing the two major parties against each other to advance his personal causes.
Despite Democrats holding a commanding lead in voter registration in the state, Democrat U.S. Senators are rare. The GOP exhibited an extraordinary level of influence on national policy through the two Senate seats they held almost regularly in a blue state.
Labeled as an independent Democrat, Sestak thumped Specter in the 2010 primary.
Sestak, however, had been mortally wounded by this so-called Democrat leadership. The victorious primary candidate began the fall campaign out of money.
Toomey took to the air waves early. By the time Sestak was able to raise funds to compete he had lost too much ground. In a Republican tidal wave year, Toomey only defeated Sestak by two percentage points.
Sestak never stopped campaigning. He began a six-year odyssey that included numerous visits to every county and a thousand miles of walks.
Again, this year it looked like Sestak would have a clear shot to his party’s nomination and solid support going into the fall. Toomey was near the top of the “vulnerability” list.
Sestak has been unwavering in his support of Obamacare and most of the President’s foreign policy and national defense programs, even when other Democrats remain silent to save their own hide.
Reportedly, Sestak and at least one of the Senators now using your money to keep him off the fall ballot, had a heated exchange six years ago. The Senate boss told Sestak that the only response they ever wanted to hear from him – if he became Senator – was “Yes.”
It is unknown if McGinty was ever issued the same instructions. Her Democrat bosses will insure that she is never asked.
The state Democratic Committee changed its requirements for an endorsement to an elective office. Recommendations could no longer be granted by a simple majority vote. New rules hiked the bar to two-thirds majority.
Endorsements by two-thirds majority are rare. This, however, increases the power of the Democrat leadership cabal.
In a scheme similar, the group is directing money and vote-getting efforts to Josh Shapiro, Montgomery County Commissioner running for state Attorney General. They hope to deny Allegheny County District Attorney Steve Zappala from being on the ballot in the fall.
Zappala’s big sin? He once convicted a Supreme Court Justice of campaign corruption, after then attorney-general Tom Corbett had refused to handle the case.
Zappala may have missed the message. Despite being out-registered by a million voters, the Republicans had always owned Federal lawmakers and the state judiciary, perhaps with the assistance of key Democrats.
State Democratic chair, Marcel Groen, a Montgomery County lawyer, remains silent on these matters. He was elected chair last fall with the support of Gov. Wolf.
Bottom Line: Sestak and Zappala can still win their respective candidacies, but both will start the fall campaign underfunded.
(Full Disclosure) This writer supports Sestak and Zappala.
