There was an excellent diary a few days ago about Republican electoral scamming in Pennsylvania:
www.dailykos.com/…
and here
www.dailykos.com/...
And of course the Gellman article in The Atlantic
www.theatlantic.com/…
and in response, the PA GOP is clutching their Miss Jane pearls and saying, “why, I NEVER!”
But I wanted to draw attention to just one of the creatures crawling around in this muck. Incumbent Republican State House Rep for the 87th district: Rep Greg Rothman who is now knee deep in this bum-rushed effort to establish a partisan ‘election integrity oversight committee’. Rothman is, to say the least, a peculiar presence in any such effort.
Rothman came up through the GOP ranks as a rat-fucking Santorum-ite College Republican trickster.
And when I say he is a Santorum-ite, well, I mean….let’s just have Rothman himself explain it:
..Walking through the Shrine to Our Lady of Guadeloupe outside of La Cross, Wis., he pointed up on the high wall to the gold-leafed letters that spelled out” SANCTORUM.” “That was my original family name. It means saint in Latin,” he said. Of course it does, I thought, as I looked at the politician most worthy of sainthood...
Here’s a link to the whole filigreed paean, I advise you to pull on some hip-waders before clicking on it:
www.pennlive.com/…
Odours of Sanctity aside, at the VERY ADULT AGE of 27 Rothman plead guilty to interstate election fraud. Specifically involving the U.S. Mail.
www.pennlive.com/…
He was refused a chance at ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition) in the incident because he did not cooperate fully with identifying the other partisans participating in the scheme. I (like Rothman did) will leave you to guess who those bigger fish were. So, Rothman took the fall and was locked up and was never again put in a position of public trust. JUST KIDDING! He received only 5 months probation and a fine. The criminal record was eventually expunged and years later (as Rothman was being groomed for a political career of his own) a sitting Republican governor granted him a pardon. Oh! Don’t we all wish we were “Friend of Law Enforcement” in the privileged style of Greg Rothman!?
In August 2015, he pounced on the chance to fill an unexpected vacancy in Pennsylvania’s 87 State General Assembly District. Turnout for the special election was dismal and he won with support of about 10% of registered voters in the district. He won re-election in November 2016 but even with the benefit of incumbency under performed Trump and was well below the levels of support previously enjoyed by the retired moderate Republican he replaced. In fact, even in this traditionally red area of PA he won over 50% of registered voters in only 12 of the 32 precincts making up his district. There were a striking number of undervotes in his contest. That isn’t to say this district was trending blue. He did, in the end, win about 60% of the votes cast (compared to the 80% regularly won by the former holder of the office).
In office, he’s been tactically performative. Always with one eye on his own interests and ambitions and another on his eternal Renfield-ian service to the project of reanimating the vampiric corpse of Santorum’s political career. Showing up at no-masked, non-social distanced rallies to manufacture public outrage at PA’s democratic governor’s (largely successful) efforts to deal with the pandemic of covid and astro-turfed stupid. Last year, in the midst of revelations regarding another State House rep’s “problems with women”, of course, Rothman championed the incumbent boys-club pro-misogyny side of the argument.
And now he’s back around to ratfucking elections.
Is it a “youthful indiscretion” if you are still doing it 25 years later?
is it “in your past” if you are still doing it 25 years later?
Is it “all behind you” if you are still doing it 25 years later?
vent over.
Although I’m not sure she would condone my tone and lack of civility here. I ought to shout out
NICOLE MILLER www.votenicmiller.com
The Democrat who is running to unseat Rothman in the 87th district. She is a great candidate.
and one more thing:
A while back, a Porsche Cayenne with a University of Miami license plate frame went airborne off an isolated stretch of North Wharf Road and came to a stop in the soft alluvial soil at the base of a tree along the flood plain of the Yellow Breeches Creek in Upper Allen Township. This is in Greg Rothman’s district. Accidents happen. I don’t necessarily think anything nefarious happened or that it should have made the news. Still, a PORSCHE in a TREE in UPPER ALLEN TOWNSHIP? youda thunk it might make the police blotter or the neighborhood grapevine. Was anybody injured? Did the driver remain on the scene? was the driver impaired? Hopefully not. Maybe it was simply an accident or a “youthful indiscretion” -as they say- but you’d think “friends of law enforcement” like Greg Rothman would want to know for sure.
Any hoo, here, apropos nothing, is also a link to another great candidate, SHANNA DANIELSON shannaforpa.org who is running to unseat an incumbent republican in Pennsylvania State Senate District 31 which, as it happens, also includes that stretch of road in Upper Allen Township.
