Pennsylvania 2014 Discussion Thread

[DemPGH]

It will be a travesty if the state party cannot get it together just enough to oust Corbett. Thing is, Rendell isn't exactly popular either and went out with numbers that were just a bit better than Corbett's. I'm at this time hoping for Sestak, but admittedly I don't know a lot of them.

Corbett is unpopular amongst non Tea Party GOPers (and of course everyone else) for trying to completely decimate the university system's budget. I mean decimate it, destroy it, evaporate it. Administrators in the system have said that they will not be able to function if Corbett were to get all the cuts he wanted. But Corbett probably did not / does not really want all of them because what the Right wing does when it negotiates is it starts so extremely far out in right field that with modest concessions from the Left, the Right still wins by a lot.

Corbett is also generally unpopular, as I see it from here, for trying to privatize the turnpikes, the lottery, and the liquor stores - at least there's been a lot of opposition, but his cuts to education and the university system are far and away hurting him the worst.

In addition to what Snowstalker said about the PA Dem party, Pennsylvania has vast numbers of NRA members in the "Pennsylbama" or "Pennsyltucky" region - the woods, basically. So, the Dem party here is a bit milquetoast compared to other states. I would have switched to Green were it not for the primaries, in which I do vote, and that's for national reasons mainly.

[DemPGH]

Why is Corbett unpopular?  Usually, PA gives incumbent governors a second term.

Very deep cuts to education have ticked off most everyone center right to left, privatizing the lottery has ticked off the older people, and his views on women are actually terrifying, and I can't imagine that if I were a woman that I could bring myself to even consider him. As a man I can't bring myself to even consider him. He's effectively a nightmare.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/15/tom-corbett-ultrasound-bill-pennsylvania_n_1348801.html

[DemPGH]

I'm all in for Sestak - I hope he runs. I'll just vote against Corbett if I have to, but Sestak is a known quantity, and I think he might do well in the western part of the state. He's far left of the rural areas, but the Navy background will blunt a good portion of it. I'm guessing he will run (waiting till 2016 for a Senate run is far too uncertain), and I think he would demolish Corbett in a general election, which would be cause for a party.

[DemPGH]

Yeah, I need to get tuned into this. There's a great chance I'll vote for Wolf on Tues. I've perused his website and certainly find him acceptable. There's a lot on economics (where I find him infinitely preferable to the awful Corbett), Education (where Corbett has tried to gut the state system of higher education - our dozen or so small state universities that produce a lot of teachers and business degrees, I imagine), and some some stuff on Marcellus Shale, where I find him meh, but at least he thinks that it should be taxed. Not much on social issues beyond the big picture rhetoric, but he can't be nearly as bad as Corbett.

But! Wolf stands the best chance to beat Corbett? He's got my vote, then.

[DemPGH]

Voted for Wolf and Stack first thing this morning, and I have to say that what little I've read of Mike Stack I liked. I also voted for one local person who I actually want to win and left the little bit that was left blank because I didn't know anybody.

Here's my impression: It's one thing to have teachers and academics and unions and women and pipe fitters and bus drivers and so on against you, but when you start making angry the old people, you're in trouble. Corbett has pissed off too many old people, mostly lower or middle income.

I imagine that what's left of the tea party, the old money types, and a number of white men in, say, their 40s who hate unions and 'Big Gubment' will be the bulk of Corbett's support. At this point Corbett can't even play the tax card because of the gasoline tax increase.

[DemPGH]

Smith would be perfectly fine. He actually looks kind of close to Stack, but Stack makes it clear throughout this that he's basically opposed to Corbett on everything. I said almost verbatim what he said on higher education and education.

On issues

I actually didn't research the LGs much because I agree that Wolf is likely to be in for the haul, but I found myself in really broad agreement with Stack.

And yeah, Critz just seems very old school and I didn't find his "on the issues" page very compelling. 

[DemPGH]

My guess is that no one is really going to care about that; in fact, it puts "Sandusky" and "Corbett" in the same sentence again when people around here would love to forget about both of them as expeditiously as possible.

[DemPGH]

The debates are just a chance for Wolf to get known a bit, and no, I don't think anyone is particularly going to be influenced by them. Seeing Corbett is enough to remind most how awful he has been across the board. The only thing Corbett can possibly say is, "He'll raise taxes!" - never mind that Corbett raised the gas tax - and that line won't work, to say the least, this time.

[DemPGH]

Corbett signs exist out here on the frontier in western PA. You mainly see them along the road or at an intersection, although I actually saw one in a yard on which the house had a washing and and old fridge sitting on the porch alongside a big garbage bag or something. Yeah, seriously.

As to this photoshopping - yeah, it's a "campaign error" alright, of the deliberate-and-hope-no-one-says-anything variety.

[DemPGH]

I think Phil meant that obviously Corbett wasn't the one who was shopping the pics. It was probably a staffer or something.

Oh, I agree! I'd just be shocked with both his approval and reputation in the tank that he would have staffers who would just do something like that without his knowledge.

[DemPGH]

I'm now seeing more of both Wolf and Corbett signs popping up in yards and here and there, but the edge is to Wolf. I'd get a Wolf one, but I'm honestly mixed on the whole yard sign thing. I've been seeing ones for local politicians going back to August.

[DemPGH]

And Corbett has reason to be assured that he would win over Obama?? Oh man.

Interestingly, my mother is a lifelong Republican of more the '60s mold who normally sits out an election if the Republican is too much of a nut, but she informed me last evening that she will be voting Wolf (she voted Corbett in 2010 and said it was a vote she actually regrets). Shocked I was, shocked I tell you.

[DemPGH]

I think they'll wait an hour or hour and a half to call it to at least make sure that Wolf has enough of a lead where he's supposed to have it that it's insurmountable, and also out of respect for the position of the incumbent. Then they'll call it.

I'll be voting tomorrow morning sometime before 8:00 a.m., probably about 7:30 or so. At worst Wolf is ahead in high single digits and at best around 18, so I'll say 57-43 or 58-42 sounds about right to me.

I've received a number of calls from the Wolf folks; I got a "robo call" (I think that's what they're called) from Clinton today. GOPers I know have not been called a single time by the Corbett folks. 

[DemPGH]

This was a nice gem in the rough - historic, in fact. But it's kind of weird, because it's like succeeding at your first objective as a PA Democrat, which was get rid of the bozo, and then failing at all the rest! Bad night as predicted, but this was a good one that got lost amid everything; I don't think CNN even mentioned it, which is what I had on. John King was great, though, but Blitzer was Blitzer.

And I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone, especially a red avatar, would even want to see Corbett again - unless you want Wolf re-elected!