Pennsylvania Statewide Discussion

[Pheurton Skeurto]

https://twitter.com/JuliaTerruso/status/1633850799364112384

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I have no clue why this is an elected job, and why anybody can have any strong opinions about this.

Because Malcolm Kenyatta rules.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I have no clue why this is an elected job, and why anybody can have any strong opinions about this.

Yup, too many state positions are elected by popular and barely anyone knows that these officers actually do.

Ironically, SoS is an appointed job in PA, unlike in a vast majority of other states.

SoS IMO is probably the only row officer that should be elected.

Hard disagree. Partisan SoS elections gives rise to election conspiracy freaks running to control elections. No thanks. I don't necessarily think Auditor General or Treasurer or whatever should be elected positions, but I see the argument more so than SoS.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I actually haven't seen anything yet about either Garrity or DeFoor announcing for 2024.

Have these 2 achieved anything major in the past 3 years, or just used their pulpit to harp on GOP pet issues while collecting the paychecks ?

Both have largely been silent, I would imagine most normie voters have no idea who either of them are. Garrity was in support of 1/6 / protesters that day though, so she has the most to come back to haunt her. She was way more Trumpy AFAIK than DeFoor, but also could just be because DeFoor is more silent than she is.

Do you think DeFoor will try to attain higher office?

Maybe later, but I would be surprised if he was to jump in this cycle. The problem for him and Garrity is that they've made basically no impact since 2020; no one outside of people like us knows who they are, so they are still very easily definable... which will especially be an issue for Garrity in her re-election (if she plans to run again)

I could see DeFoor running against Shapiro in 2026 and using the fact that he is not an open radical as a way to court moderate voters.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Endorsed!

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Seems weird to run for Treasurer while talking about abortion and J6, but Garrity is indeed an extremist who was probably just using the office to leverage a run for higher office later, though she seems to have forgotten to run for Senate this year.

Either way, Bizzarro would be a vast improvement and he's a tough type of guy who won't try to play nice with the PAGOP. Running him on a slate with Malcolm Kenyatta and whomever ends up being the AG nominee (hopefully not DePasquale) would be pretty impressive for the PA Dems.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Did she take a benadryl right before the camera started rolling?

[Pheurton Skeurto]

18 yo cousin, whose going to school in Bloomsburg, just texted me that they voted for the first time and it was straight ticket 'Dem'.    Let's bring it home boys!

Shout out to your cousin 🤝

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I was voter #442 in my precinct and voted straight D. I’m not sure what normal turnout is in off years, but that felt like a pretty good number.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Looks like Dems swept the Supreme Court seat, Commonwealth Court seat, and both Superior Court seats. Local Dems also swept the Township Commissioner and school board races that were up. Stellar night for PA Democrats, who continue to impress me.

Are you still in Lancaster? Yoder won the 3rd spot on the board of county commissioners and fell about 7,000 votes shy of getting the 2nd most votes. This bit from LNP's article made me laugh:

Parsons, at the GOP celebration Tuesday night, said voters rejected Hollisters’ "angry agenda, violent rhetoric and seemingly unlimited money backing him from George Soros’ dark money PAC and also from liberal donors, including the leadership of LNP.”

He added: Hollister “and those who support him would rather divide us than unite us. Ray and I want to unite us.”

https://lancasteronline.com/news/politics/gop-lancaster-county-commissioners-win-another-term-dem-alice-yoder-wins-third-seat/article_c16a96b2-7df4-11ee-a4bf-fbb1bacfc30d.html

Yes, George Soros rhetoric in a county commissioner race in rural PA. Normal stuff from the Lancaster GOP. Also, Bob Hollister was a Republican until January 6th so it's pretty funny to think he probably voted for Parsons and D'Agostino 4 years ago.

Yoder had a pretty strong ground game from what I saw, too.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Interesting article from the Inquirer here about the Democrats' big wins in the collar counties around Philadelphia: https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/bucks-chester-montgomery-delaware-commissioner-election-results-2023-20231108.html

“I’m a little tired of Republicans — they scare me,” said Drexel Harris, a 78-year-old from Bensalem who had voted earlier in the day. “The national is pushing everybody.”

James Hansen of Levittown, agreed — so much that he changed how he voted this year.

Hansen, 70, said he was supporting Democrats down the ticket, a marked change from the last commissioners race, when he voted for Republicans.

“I’m really upset about the fake election and the insurrection stuff,” Hansen said after casting his vote at an elementary school. “I’m not supporting any Republicans until they get it together.”

Seems like the national environment had at least some impact on the local races and we should not discount these anecdotes. Evidence points to a lot of voter fatigue with the culture war and election denial bullsh-t, so Democrats might be wise to lean into that next year. Democrats did a really great job presenting a united front on the culture war issues in the school board races while Republicans were unsure whether to fully commit or not. That disorganization may have been the nail in the coffin.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

So I was looking further into my precinct turnout and results, discovered this:



Don't want to say I single-handedly delivered my precinct to Dan McCaffery, but...(blocked out the town name for privacy purposes)

Interestingly enough, this was the only race where a Democrat beat a Republican. Every vote counts.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

https://twitter.com/chwolfson/status/1722356136584560918

The one area that voted Innamorato-Carluccio: baby r u doin ok

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Overall statewide turnout is looking to be about 36%, the highest at least this century for an off year election.

On the higher side was:
Bucks - 43%
Chester - 43%
Montgomery - 42%
Allegheny - 41%
Delaware - 38%

Impressive. Wish Philadelphia was higher though. Would have raised the margins for the judicial elections even higher but a win is a win so im not complaining.

I'm actually looking at it the opposite way: if we can get this kind of turnout in the collar counties around Philadelphia in 2024, we may not need to rely as heavily on Philly and Pittsburgh to deliver a statewide victory. Of course you want to maximize turnout in Philly as much as possible, but it seems like the higher the turnout in those collar counties, the more favorable it is for Dems.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Kenyatta is under fire for calling Pinsley racist for some reason.

Oh, weird. Because there does seem to be a reason but you conspicuously didn’t include it:

Two years ago, Pinsley found himself in hot water for racially tinged remarks he made during a Legislative Redistricting Commission meeting.

“Nor should you allow a map that allows one district that packs Allentown and Bethlehem into one super district. I hope Senator Costa will hold the line on that. We don’t need a ghetto,” said Pinsley, according to WFMZ-TV.

Anyway, the state party is already behind Kenyatta and Pinsley is an also-ran who will easily be dispatched in the primary. But hey, you know, blue no matter who, right?

I may well vote for DeFoor again

Oh. Weird.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

PA Dems - who are you voting for AG?

Since Kenyatta and Bizzarro pretty much have their primaries wrapped up, the AG race still seems open. Originally I was thinking Depasquale based on name rec, but I do like that Solomon is from Philly and he seems to be gaining some traction.

I'm supporting Joe Khan. I think Soloman and Bradford-Grey will split the vote in Philadelphia and Depasquale will be able to slip through and win the nomination. I wish he hadn't run though, going from Auditor General to running for Congress to going for a different row office feels opportunistic.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I won't consider DePasquale only because he strikes me as an opportunist, but I got Bradford-Grey and the more I read about her, the more I like her. I was planning on voting for Khan but I'll have to think about that now. I may not really decide until I actually go to vote.

Excellent resource though. Spotlight does great work.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Speaks for itself on why the PA GOP bench is so horrific.

https://twitter.com/John__Cole/status/1776654654341873681

It's almost comical a state party is so dyfunctional and with such a horrible bench in an actual swing state (or at least one that is winnable for the GOP under the right circumstances).

Am I reading this slide correctly: outside of unhinged Stacey Garrity, the GOP base won't even consider their only moderately sane statewide officeholder, Tim DeFoor?
Why, if not the colour of his skin?

I think you answered your own question.

Also, who tf put Josh Hawley? Lmao

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I think I’ve all but decided to vote for Khan for AG. Might give it one more once over on Tuesday morning. I do kind of wish I’d switched to vote in GOP primary because the race between Brian Fitzpatrick and Mark Houck is interesting. I would have voted for Houck of course.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

#TwitterIsNotRealLife

https://twitter.com/nick_d_laughlin/status/1782408198437158931

Even my parents, who are diehard Trump supporters, have given him his props. They don't like him and would never vote for him, but they never say nice things about Democrats.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Honestly, the discourse around Fetterman on Twitter specifically has been rather unhinged imo. You can disagree with him being more pro-Israel than what you'd like, but the people who go as far as to say that he's 'disgusting' or Joe Manchin or whatever is just delusional. Fetterman aligns 98% with every other mainstream Democrat on the issues. Because he disagrees with you on Israel, he's suddenly a turncoat? It's all so exhausting

My personal gripe has been the extent to which he has made his support for Israel a response to the online left. Like he intensifies his support in response to the online backlash. That bugs me a little bit, but certainly not enough to call him a genocider or "basically a Republican" lmao.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I ended up writing in Elizabeth Warren for President as I planned to, wrote in Malcolm Kenyatta for Senate, then Khan/Bizarro/Kenyatta. My precinct was pretty busy at 6 pm, but everyone else voting at that time was a Republican lol. Didn’t ask what number I was.

Mark Houck had quite a presence there, he even had a sign that said “Trump for President, Houck for Congress” almost like it was an endorsement lol. Truly crossing all my fingers and toes that he pulls it off, though I know he won’t. But man…the seat would definitely flip without Fitzpatrick running lol.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Mark Houck had quite a presence there, he even had a sign that said “Trump for President, Houck for Congress” almost like it was an endorsement lol. Truly crossing all my fingers and toes that he pulls it off, though I know he won’t. But man…the seat would definitely flip without Fitzpatrick running lol.

What are we expecting here? Will Fitz be held under 60%?

I would be shocked if he got below 60%. If there’s even a remote possibility that Houck wins, and I think there is, it would take the stars aligning exactly right for it to come to fruition. I haven’t seen any polls in the race, but my sense is that Republicans aren’t stupid enough to throw away their only member in SEPA. Houck appeals to the absolute looniest, ultra MAGA types. I just don’t think enough of those exist here to tank Fitz.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Ugh, DePasquale’s early lead is making me nervous. I really don’t want him to win this primary off name recognition alone.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Hey, uh…what’s going on in the Treasurer primary?