For more background on Fetterman (who seems like the real deal to me) and his progressive campaign:
His campaign website: YES you can contribute there! You can also sign up for campaign updates on this link
https://johnfetterman.com/
Philly.com: 'Mayor Rust' jolts PA Senate race
The man whom the media calls "Mayor Rust," who looks like the doorman at a Hells Angels club but talks a man with a master's degree in public policy from Harvard - which is what he is - still faces long odds in next year's Senate contest.
Most pundits thought they had the 2016 race already pegged: A bruising Democratic primary between former admiral and ex-congressman Joe Sestak, the candidate in 2010, and Katie McGinty, the choice of party leaders, ex-chief of staff to Gov. Wolf - followed by an uphill fight against GOP incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey next fall.
But Fetterman sees an opening for an unconventional candidate - a hole so wide that even he could squeeze through. He doesn't have big-money backers or big-name endorsements, but - based on the reporters circling like jetliners to interview him yesterday in Philly - he won't lack free publicity from the media.
Philly Voice:Tall, tattooed, thick-bearded Pa. mayor running for Senate Head of steel town up against Sestak, McGinty
Fetterman, who has a Harvard education under his belt, has certainly taken extreme measures to try to fight for his town. In 2010, he was arrested in Pittsburgh for staging a one-man protest aimed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, pleading that they open an urgent care center in Braddock.
He appeared on "The Colbert Report" in 2009 and was featured in the New York Times in 2011 for his efforts in utilizing nonprofits to try to spur economic development despite opposition from the borough council, which holds most of the town's legislative power.
In 2013, he defied then state law barring same-sex marriages, officiating a wedding.
Short overview video, campaign video, TED talk video.
his Facebook Page
Can Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, a towering figure from a small town, shake up a senate race? Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20150921_Can_Braddock_Mayor_John_Fetterman__a_towering_figure_from_a_small_town__shake_up_a_senate_race_
...Like that election, Braddock is teetering on the edge while the people who live there wonder which way it all will tip. Fetterman, 46, seems right at home in that tension.
And he's bringing all that - the hard work to save a dying town and the national media attention that followed - to the April Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.
Fetterman is a big ball of authenticity entering a campaign where that has been sorely missing.
"I'm as surprised as anyone to be in this position," Fetterman said last week. "Nobody goes to Braddock to start a GED program and says, 'Well, this is the pathway to power.' "
NinetyNine: 15 questions for behemoth U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman
Philly Voice: At Philly dive bar, U.S. Senate candidate rubs elbows with voters Fetterman’s speech to the crowd focused on his own story, from a son of privilege in Central Pennsylvania’s York to a life-changing experience in Big Brothers, Big Sisters. His volunteer service with the non-profit revealed to him the extent of America’s disparities and the price of inequality, made tangible when the child he mentored lost both parents to AIDs.
“I have two graduate degrees and zero student loan debt and that’s not because I was special or super-intelligent,” Fetterman told the crowd. “That’s because I was lucky. It’s the random lottery of birth in this country and that determines how successful you are going to be in education. That’s not fair. Creating more opportunities for young people from communities like mine is a moral imperative.”
Fetterman then fielded questions about Planned Parenthood, gun control, Social Security (he supports lifting the payroll tax cap) and marijuana – which he said he would legalize, to a single, raucous yell from the audience. Despite talk of bipartisanship and the need for dialogue, most of his positions were deeply progressive and would find few, if any, supporters in the national Republican Party.
Wall Street Journal: Steel Town Mayor John Fetterman Enters Pennsylvania Senate Race BRADDOCK, Pa.—With steam billowing from a steel mill behind him, the mayor of this struggling steel town announced a run for the U.S. Senate Monday at an event that also featured a reggae band and a popular Pittsburgh food truck serving tacos.
“If the voters of this great Commonwealth see fit to give me that bigger platform, I will perform that duty the only way I know how, through honest hard work and collaboration,” said John Fetterman, from the rooftop of his house in a converted former Chevy dealership, with U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson steel plant across the street serving as a backdrop.
Recent Poll without Fetterman
Democrat John Fetterman was the last candidate to enter the Pennsylvania Senate race, but he's the first to say how much his campaign raised last quarter.
With his mid-September campaign announcement, the mayor of tiny Braddock only had a little more than two weeks' of contributions to tally. His campaign says they collected $170,000 during that time period.
The bulk of those 2,100 contributions were less than $20 each, according to Fetterman's campaign.
Next year's Senate contest is expected to be an expensive one. Former congressman and retired Navy admiral Joe Sestak had $2.1 million on hand at the end of June, and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's campaign account topped $8 million.
The political outsider just picked up the support of a former insider.
Barbara Hafer announced today that she is endorsing John Fetterman’s campaign for Senate. Hafer served as Pennsylvania’s Auditor General from 1989 to 1997. She followed that with a stint as State Treasurer from 1997 to 2005.
“If John can do even a fraction of what he did in Braddock for other communities in the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania will thrive like never before,” Hafer stated. “While so many politicians were compromising their ethics or engaging in risky borrowing to try to stabilize struggling economies, John attracted millions to his home through simple hard work.”
His campaign website: YES you can contribute there! You can also sign up for campaign updates on this link
https://johnfetterman.com/
UPDATE: 9:37 Sat 10-10 Wow thank you!!!! Diary is on top of the Most Shared List with nearly 300 Facebook and Twitter shares