OK, it was a nail-biter, but I'm going to call it. With 100% of the votes cast and a 1.5% margin of about 650 votes, Manan Trivedi has defeated Doug Pike in the Democratic primary in PA-06!!!!
Why should you care?
Because of this:
"That’s [Trivedi] the kind of guy you don’t want to run against," one GOP insider told pa2010.com. "It’s plain to me to see why he’s come from nowhere."
Oh yeah.
Join me over the fold for more.
UPDATE: Pike has still not conceded, notwithstanding that the numbers are pretty clear. He is permitted to ask for a recount under PA law, but only if he pays for it himself. source Given that he put $1 million of his own money into the race, he might consider it worth the gamble. But I highly doubt the result is going to change.
UPDATE II: n/t Nitetalker. Trivedi now leads by 772 672 votes, all having been counted except provisionals and absentees. source
Pike was the early, easy Democratic establishment favorite. He had money, political connections, political family, the whole deal.
A lot of people were thrilled at first when Pike announced. Democrat Lois Murphy has come close to unseating Jim Gerlach in this District that was drawn for him in 2002, but she has not been able to do it. Maybe Pike - notwithstanding that he didn't seem to have any particularly unique qualities- could?
But people started to get disenchanted with Pike. He's not especially charismatic, he is not very appealing to voters in the outer regions of the District (furthest from Philly, where Murphy always had trouble against Gerlach), where he is viewed as an outsider. And some horrendous and embarrassing sexist commentary from Pike's earlier work as an journalist in Orlando surfaced. In 1987, he wrote
"[t]he best looking women ... tend not to identify with have-nots," and asked: "Why are women who look like models virtually incapable of developing the compassionate liberalism of, say, stubby Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland?"
And writing about the affair between Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Pike wrote, "[i]f a woman handicapped by blond hair came to my home, I too would want her to wait way past sunset and sneak out the back entrance."
Plus he had some baggage suggesting less than ideal commitment to choice.
And on top of that, he is the son of a former Long Island congressman who only moved to the district months before declaring his candidacy.
In short, Pike was pretty much of an uninspiring, machine hack. (His campaign manager was banned from DKos for sock-puppetry, by the way.)
And then Manan Trivedi entered the race and put together a true grassroots campaign. Trivedi is our guy, the grassroots guy who came out of nowhere. A young primary care doctor and Iraq war veteran. A real progressive without money or establishment connections. Son of immigrant parents who worked in a juice factory, Berks County native, father of a newborn baby girl. Likable as all get-out. Although Pike way outspent Trivedi on media - tapping into his personal fortune (he had about 10 times as much cash on hand early this year) - Trivedi outraised him and showed he knows how to raise money, knows how to run a grassroots campaign, and most importantly knows how to energize voters. He earned the endorsements of two county Democratic committees.
And folks, I think he can take this seat for us. I think we can get rid of Jim Gerlach and finally get the kind of representation here in PA-06 that we deserve.
If Manan Trivedi could inspire voters here to come out and hand him this primary, then the CW about how Democrats are in the doldrums is pretty much bullshit.
Because you know what?
I'm feeling fired up!
I'm feeling ready to go!
How about you???
Please help me help Manan Trivedi to beat Gerlach in November and get us another seat in Congress.