Good news for Dem prospects for taking the PA-10 House seat in 2020.
PA Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is considering taking on 4 term Republican and “freedom” caucus member Scott Perry.
www.pennlive.com/...
With the court ordered redistricting in 2018, several house seats flipped to Dems. The new PA-10, which included large parts of the old PA-4 where Perry was the incumbent, was not one of them.
BUT IT WAS SHOCKINGLY CLOSE.
The Dems had a great group running in the primary: Eric Yang — Shavonia Corbin Johnson — Alan Howe — Christina Hartman — and George Scott. (although Hartman dropped out before the primary)
What was so great about this group was that, for once, my primary ballot choices actually seemed to reflected the community of voters. These was age, gender, race, and urban-suburban-rural being taken seriously and taking each other seriously. This group also reached out to the immigrant enclaves (Asian and South-Asian) in Cumberland County. I though that was important moving forward.
The primary was won by George Scott. George Scott’s angle frankly was that he could match Perry on Perry’s turf. Scott was an older white man, an ordained minister with a strong military service record and ties to the rural ‘West Shore’ of the PA-10. He had no previous experience running for office but had (along with Corbin Johnson) entered the race BEFORE the redistricting earthquake. It was fitting, i thought, that these two finished at the top in the primary (Perry with 36.3% and Corbin-Johnson with 34.9%)
Depasquale, if he pursues this, will be the most formidable challenger Perry has yet faced. Someone who has won repeated re-election to the state legislature from York County, has won statewide office and is well-known and well-regarded.
en.wikipedia.org/…
But that is assuming Perry even runs for re-election. He is weirdly waffly on the subject. And, as on most subjects, seems to be expressing himself phonetically. And it isn’t entirely clear he won’t face a primary challenger or, if he wanders off entirely, that the GOP primary scramble to replace him won’t descend into an — almost certainly — boys-only shit show. At which point the possibility of a dem pick-up becomes even more possible. I suppose the GOP’s preferred in-case-of-emergency-break-glass choice to step in for an AWOL Perry might be someone like the vacant but smiling Mike Regan current serving in the PA State Senate.
(although such a high profile run by Regan might finally necessitate an explanation as to how a certain Porsche Cayenne came to rest at the base of a tree on flood plain of the Yellow Breeches Creek a few years back)
Someone like that would have a difficult time against DePasquale.
And that leads me to the one observation I would like to make about the PA-10 district 2016 experience. The primary ballot — as I said — was almost a dream of how representative democracy should work BUT in the end George Scott did only win the primary with just over 1/3 of the Dem primary vote. That must have stung some Dem voters and possibly dampened their enthusiasm. And when the fall election arrived, the actual Dem slate of candidates on offer at my district was ALL WHITE MIDDLE-AGED MEN from the governors race down to my state assembly rep. Now that wasn’t the case everywhere, in some neighboring state assembly districts there were solid campaigns by women candidates for the PA Senate and Assembly, but not in mine. So, when I look at what it would have taken for Scott to have gotten the bump in Dem enthusiasm, Dem turnout, or GOP voter persuasion needed to swing 3900 votes in November 2016, I can’t help but think having diversity reflected SOMEWHERE on the ticket might have made the difference.
Something to keep in mind if DePasquale pursues this, especially in a cycle where there will be no PA race for the U.S. Senate.