Received this e-mail today from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party regarding Governor Tom Corbett (R. PA) and the voter ID laws:
Pennsylvanians got some great news last week!
The PA courts have once again delayed the implementation of the GOP’s voter ID law, this time until after this year’s election. Remember, this is the law that State Rep. Mike Turzai said was going to “allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”
With your help, we kept his prediction from coming true.
Unfortunately, the court’s decision to delay implementation is only a stopgap measure. If we don’t want the Republicans to steal future elections, we must press Governor Corbett to stop pushing for the law.
Join the PA Dems and the Democratic Governors Association and tell Governor Corbett: Stop the voter ID law, once and for all:
http://www.padems.com/...
Republicans pushed the law through in a callous attempt to win elections, and that’s why they’re fighting so hard to protect it. They’ve admitted as much on the record.
The right to vote is the heart and soul of our democracy. We’ve fought over two hundred years so that every American can cast a ballot. We must protect that most fundamental of American freedoms.
Click here to call on Governor Corbett to stop the GOP voter suppression effort:
http://www.padems.com/...
This is a democracy. We can’t think of anything more important.
Thank you,
PA Dems
You can click here to sign the petition:
http://www.padems.com/...
Corbett and the Pennsylvania GOP's radical right-wing agenda fueled by the Koch Brothers has caused Corbett and the GOP image to take a huge hit in their approval numbers. Hence why they need to continue to both disenfranchise voters. Corbett's handling of the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State sex abuse case has even cost him substantial support with his right-wing base, hence why he has to take on the role of the homophobic bully:
http://www.politico.com/...
Defending a divisive gay marriage ban is probably not the fight Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett would have chosen 15 months ahead of an election he’s widely expected to lose. A majority of Pennsylvanians now support same-sex marriage, a dramatic shift from just a few years ago.
But the issue has been thrust in the first-term Republican’s lap — and the politics may not be all bad for him.
Corbett’s decision to stand by the state’s 1996 ban will help shore up his shaky support among Republicans and all but eliminates the possibility of a primary challenge from the right, strategists said.
But the conflict between Corbett and Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, also prolongs a conversation about an increasingly unpopular law when the governor is struggling to pick up every vote he can. A June poll out of Quinnipiac University said that Corbett, who is in his first term, has a dismal 30 percent favorability rating among Pennsylvania voters.
The legal debate over same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania was renewed two weeks after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s gay marriage ban, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and specifies that Pennsylvania will not recognize same-sex couples’ out-of-state marriages. - Politico, 8/8/13
But the further right Corbett and the GOP go, Pennsylvania moves more to the left:
http://articles.philly.com/...
Perhaps Gov. Corbett and the GOP-dominated, city-bashing, poverty-neglecting legislature is actually a gift.
Well, not a gift, but a galvanizing force for progressives, reformers, civil libertarians, and change agents who are sick and tired of Harrisburg's disdain for the sick and tired, huddled masses, children, women, gays, and basically everyone who doesn't look like the legislators, write checks to them, or own a sizable fracking concern.
"Legislative overreach has created a real focus that we can win some of these battles," said State Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery-Delaware), a congressional candidate. "There's a lot of energy on the left, and also among moderates."
At this moment, it seems as if every registered Montgomery County Democrat who has held elected office or chaired a high school debate society is running for Congress or governor. The hills of Montco are alive with the sound of candidates!
"I think Montgomery County is becoming an incubator for progressive ideas and meaningful reforms," said Josh Shapiro, county commissioners chairman.
The more Harrisburg tries to limit rights, the more the state ACLU fights back - gay marriage, voter ID, and treatment for the disabled are among the organization's many lawsuits. "We spend a lot of time fighting the ridiculous things going through the Pennsylvania legislature," said senior staff attorney Mary Catherine Roper. "The legislature is much more conservative than the people of Pennsylvania."
Supporters of reproductive health have also mobilized after the legislature and governor pushed hard to restrict access. "We've done well with statewide donor support and activist support," said Planned Parenthood's Dayle Steinberg. "When women's rights are threatened like this, people get angry. And when people get angry, they get energized." In the last two years, Planned Parenthood gained 75,000 Pennsylvania supporters, a jump of 30 percent.
The buzzing governor's race is particularly telling, Leach said. In recent history, "it's been hard to scare up a challenger to run against a Republican incumbent," said Leach. "Now, there are all these candidates. All these issues have a cumulative effect of making it a priority to work against these efforts." - Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/7/13
I'll be writing about the Democratic Primary soon. But speaking of Montgomery County, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D. PA-13), the primary frontrunner, was recently in Montgomery County shoring up support:
http://www.montgomerynews.com/...
Standing inside Liz Troy’s home on the 600 block of South Cannon Avenue, Lansdale, Aug. 4, U.S. Rep Allyson Schwartz, D-13, delivered the first of several rallying cries to the 60 or so people packing the living room — and to a video camera she hoped would transmit her message to many more supporters watching on television screens across the state.
“You’re here because you care deeply about Pennsylvania, and you also know as well as I do that we can and should and will do better than this governor is doing,” Schwartz said to euphoric applause.
Schwartz, who currently stands at the front of a Democratic pack of hopefuls angling to unseat Republican Tom Corbett as governor in 2014, was the guest of honor at approximately 40 “house parties” hosted by ardent supporters all over Pennsylvania Aug. 4, designed to “get people to commit early to support Allyson and do some volunteer work on her behalf,” according to Marc Stier, grassroots coordinator for the Pennsylvania for Allyson gubernatorial campaign.
During her prepared speech, Schwartz hammered Corbett on education, jobs, economic development and infrastructure: “Our governor’s not been able to get any of that work done,” she said.
“Education is a huge issue in this state ... we have to make education a priority, it should never be the first thing cut, absolutely not,” she said, spotlighting her support of Pennsylvania’s public schools.
Schwartz invoked one of the biggest successes of her political career — Pennsylvania’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which she helped create more than two decades ago as a state senator and which formed the basis for a similar federal program signed into law in 1997 by President Bill Clinton — to further rally the throng. - Montgomery Media, 8/8/13
Marc Stier, grassroots coordinator for the Pennsylvania for Allyson gubernatorial campaign, had this to say about the excitement for Schwartz's candidacy:
“A lot of it is Allyson is just a really different kind of politician and leader. She’s not part of the ‘old boy’s network’ in Harrisburg — she’s independent and focused on the problems of the middle class and resolving them, not on ideology.”
If you would like to learn more about Schwartz's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.allysonschwartz.com/...