Divid Nir and the folks at Daily Kos Elections are sure to do the full rundown of the Pennsylvania primary election, which occurred yesterday, but I thought I’d highlight a couple items from upper lefthand corner of Pennsylvania.
The most important election, of course, was my own. I won! Somehow, 274 voters in my precinct decided to send me to the serve as Committeeman for the Erie County Democratic Party. After an exhausting campaign consisting of no fundraisers, no press releases, no rallies, no media, no campaign finance controversies, and no opponent, I managed to grasp the brass ring. There was one misbegotten vote, a write-in cast by some joker, but once I deploy my awesome powers as ECDP Committeeman, this joker will be duly dealt with. [Just to be clear, that’s a joke, on multiple levels.]
As it was, I was sleep-deprived yesterday from my regular gig. I got my grades in 5 minutes before the 3 PM deadline and then headed to the polls to vote. Who should be standing in front of the township building but my state senator, Michele Brooks (R), who is up for reelection this year. Why she chose to campaign at all, much less in front of my township building, is something of a mystery, as she was running unopposed. I tried my best to avoid her (as I do with all electioneers on election days), but she managed to ask me personally for my vote. I told her I was a Democrat, but she then quickly asked me to vote for her in the general.
In my mind, I have prepared a short speech to be delivered to any Republican who ever asks for my vote, or asks why I don’t vote for Republicans. I start by declaring that I’m gay, and then go on to state how no Republican, ever, has ever so much as lifted a finger in the interest of improving the lives of LGBTQ+ people. Not even Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), after revealing that his son was gay, and expressing pleasure on the outcome regarding the SCOTUS decision on marriage equality, could find the personal courage to support a law protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations. As it happens, a bill that would grant such protections in Pennsylvania has been stuck in committee for years in the Republican controlled state senate (looking at you Michele). Indeed, Republicans are more apt to bring out hoary old slander and lies about us to incite the bigots to come to the polls and vote for them.
So this would have been the perfect opportunity to apply this speech, but in the moment, it had flown out of my head completely. So I just replied “We’ll talk.” Not likely to ever happen, and even if it did, it’s even less likely to make any difference. In any case, I made sure to vote for the Democrat running against Brooks, Sue Mulvey. You can bet I’ll vote for Mulvey in the general.
Being on the other side of the primary, now is an appropriate time to provide an update on the topic of my last diary regarding the Democrats running for the PA-16 Congressional seat. The short story is that Ron DiNicola won (pictured above), garnering 60 % of the vote. While he was not the most progressive candidate in the race, he has resources the other candidates lacked: money, connections, and name recognition. DiNicola is the most serious candidate to face off against incumbent (of current PA-03) Mike Kelly (R), and hence our best chance of winning in the year of the blue tsunami.
In related news, as Hunter reported yesterday, Kelly spouted off about how Democrats need to shut up about racism, and how discrimination against car salesmen was an obstacle to making America great again ...or something. I think he’s been taking oratory lessons from Sarah Palin. Seriously, after Louie Gohmert, Kelly is one of the bigger embarrassments in the House of Representatives, and he needs to be put out of our misery by voting him out of office. In 2016, Kelly ran for reelection unopposed. Now, PA-16 is rated as R+8, which makes a Democrat winning the district an uphill fight, but Conor Lamb managed to win in old PA-18, which was R+11. DiNicola can do it, too, but he’ll need support from the DNC and other Democratic funding bodies. He also needs to demonstrate that he’s good at fundraising, and I intend to give him a substantial sum. If you’re inclined to help him with a donation of any size, you can do it at his website here. (By the way, the website has improved immeasurably since last week, including DiNicola’s positions on various issues.)
You’ll find the comments below the fold, but first, here’s a word from our sponsor:
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
Top Comments (May 16, 2018):
No nominations tonight—and no highlighted comments either.
Top Mojo (May 15, 2018):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Photos (May 15, 2018):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!