Today's Delaware County Daily Times endorsement of Joe Sestak over Curt Weldon is a bit of a shocker, given that Weldon has been a favorite son of the Delco Times for awhile. Just a few weeks ago, shortly after the FBI raids on Oct 21, in the
Times' Darts and Laurels section (written by the editors) said: "LAUREL: To U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon. Nothing much else has gone right for him this week. Yes, the timing of the probe stinks. But it is what it is. Hang in there, Curt." At
PA-7 Watch blog, we were shocked at this blatant support for a candidate caught in the middle of a criminal investigation.
Following the
Philadelphia Inquirer's endorsement of Sestak earlier this week, this is a sweep of the major area newpapers' endorsements for Joe Sestak.
The Delco Times endorsement is somewhat surprising. They have backed Weldon for as long as we can remember here in Delaware County. Even in the face of the investigation back in 2004, they backed Weldon, even though
they said:
And, let's face it, this congressman has his warts.
...
Then there is the matter involving his daughter, whose firm received consulting business from several Russian firms with close ties to the congressman. A wounded Weldon insisted he had done nothing wrong and urged the House Ethics Committee to fully investigate the matter. The congressman now indicates he has a new policy in place to prevent a similar situation form occurring. He insists he never asked anyone to do anything to benefit his daughter. That leaves one question lagging: How did he ever possibly think this was going to look like anything other than the shabby affair it was?
So the DelcoTimes switching to Sestak here is a bit of shocker, as they are a relatively conservative paper with long time associations with Weldon. After saying "Hang in there Curt", they hung Curt out to dry.
Maybe they see the wheels falling off the Weldon wagon and don't want to be the last one off.
Maybe it was the FBI raids that caused the DelcoTimes to realize that Weldon's warts finally had grown too big to ignore and they couldn't stand to be going to the dance with him any more.
Whatever it was, it's a bit of a watershed and hopefully a portent of things to come on Nov 7.