which party has the bigger problem?

[TeePee4Prez]

I think supersoulty and danwxman give good points here.  I have only passed western PA, so I have to give soulty the judgement there, but also Max Power as well.   danwxman hit on the South Central/Southeast to a tee however I am getting a little skittish about Bucks County. They barely elected Kerry and upgraded to a hard right Mike Fitzpatrick for Congress over the moderate libertarian Jim Greenwood.  Had the Dems a Peter Kostmayer or libertarian leaning liberal, they would have picked up PA 8.  I have good feelings about Montgomery, Delaware, and northern Chester counties and think Lois Murphy will win PA 6.  I will have to admit PA is getting pulled in every which way and the deciding factor where I'm from will be will the Bucks Dems pull their collective heads out of their asses?  Most of the younger people I know from that area are quite liberal so there is promise.   

[TeePee4Prez]

I think supersoulty and danwxman give good points here.  I have only passed western PA, so I have to give soulty the judgement there, but also Max Power as well.   danwxman hit on the South Central/Southeast to a tee however I am getting a little skittish about Bucks County. They barely elected Kerry and upgraded to a hard right Mike Fitzpatrick for Congress over the moderate libertarian Jim Greenwood.  Had the Dems a Peter Kostmayer or libertarian leaning liberal, they would have picked up PA 8.  I have good feelings about Montgomery, Delaware, and northern Chester counties and think Lois Murphy will win PA 6.  I will have to admit PA is getting pulled in every which way and the deciding factor where I'm from will be will the Bucks Dems pull their collective heads out of their asses?  Most of the younger people I know from that area are quite liberal so there is promise.   

I would imagine that Lackawanna County and the Lehigh Valley are strong Democratic places purely from an economic standpoint.

Talk to Keystone Phil about the Lehigh Valley.  He'd disagree with you strongly.  They did elect Pat Toomey to Congress, however, it was mainly because the Dems put up morons.  We also took two recent blows in special elections, but they were also GOP held seats to begin with.  I think it's temporarily pulling right due to exurbia, but will pull back left again when it becomes suburbia.  The steel industry is dead there.  Mack Truck in Allentown is also not doing so hot either.  The GOP smelled blood there and capitalized bigtime.  Our last two hopes there are Jennifer Mann and T.J. Rooney and the first one lost a State Senate special election when Charlie Dent when on to Congress.

[TeePee4Prez]

I think supersoulty and danwxman give good points here.  I have only passed western PA, so I have to give soulty the judgement there, but also Max Power as well.   danwxman hit on the South Central/Southeast to a tee however I am getting a little skittish about Bucks County. They barely elected Kerry and upgraded to a hard right Mike Fitzpatrick for Congress over the moderate libertarian Jim Greenwood.  Had the Dems a Peter Kostmayer or libertarian leaning liberal, they would have picked up PA 8.  I have good feelings about Montgomery, Delaware, and northern Chester counties and think Lois Murphy will win PA 6.  I will have to admit PA is getting pulled in every which way and the deciding factor where I'm from will be will the Bucks Dems pull their collective heads out of their asses?  Most of the younger people I know from that area are quite liberal so there is promise.   

I would imagine that Lackawanna County and the Lehigh Valley are strong Democratic places purely from an economic standpoint.

Talk to Keystone Phil about the Lehigh Valley.  He'd disagree with you strongly.  They did elect Pat Toomey to Congress, however, it was mainly because the Dems put up morons.  We also took two recent blows in special elections, but they were also GOP held seats to begin with.  I think it's temporarily pulling right due to exurbia, but will pull back left again when it becomes suburbia.  The steel industry is dead there.  Mack Truck in Allentown is also not doing so hot either.  The GOP smelled blood there and capitalized bigtime.  Our last two hopes there are Jennifer Mann and T.J. Rooney and the first one lost a State Senate special election when Charlie Dent when on to Congress.

Not only that, but the valley has been tettering on the edge towards the GOP since 2000.  Both Gore and Kerry barely made it past in the Allentown area.

What about Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and the anthracite coal districts?

They've been holding steady largely due to the fact they do not have MCMansions like the Lehigh Valley.  The economic situation in that area is quite glum.  My younger sister goes to the University of Scranton and it is a depressing area to be in except for maybe the ski resorts.  My guess is it will stay Dem for a while.

[TeePee4Prez]

Are McMansions popping up?

Social conservativism is still pretty strong there, too.

I'm sensing that the Repubs up there are more along the lines of Charlie Dent, not Santoomey.  The economic populism is dying there I'll admit, but I'm also sensing a libertarian trend in that region in general.  That's why I think the Dems are holding on there at the presidential level.  Remember, I have said this before and I'll say it again- Democratic districts are by and large more Democratic than Republican districts are Republican.  The PA GOP can spead itself out better while the Dems are more dense.  Look at PA 132 (Mann) and PA 131 (Beyer, used to be Browne).  Mann's district is incredibly Demcoratic, say 75% while Beyer's is even, lean GOP.  This trend also holds true in Philadelphia.  You based NE Philly on being pro-life on 6 out of 8 districts having pro-life Reps.  Well, you can spaghetti string Crestmont Farms, Morrell Park, Parkwood, the more conservative areas of Somerton down to Fox Chase in one district thus effectively forcing O'Brien, Kenney into a primary battle and neutralizing Fox Chase at the same time.  You could also plop Perzel's base and spaghetti string a corridor down Harbison/Aramingo Ave to Taylor's base creating a Perzel-Taylor primary.  You do that I guarantee you will have 6 out of 8 pro-choice delegates from NE Philly in Harrisburg!  Boy would that be fun if we were to ever take back the PA House.

[TeePee4Prez]

I can't stand DeWeese and a number of others but I don't think the body itself is all that bad.

Yes it is both Dem and Rep.  DeWeese is a moron and is killing us Dems.  The entire Northeast Philadelphia delegation should be booted out barring Mark Cohen as well.  I know he has a bit of a speech impediment, but I admire Cohen for his balls and speaking his mind.  I'll even include John Taylor plus his 3 other GOP clowns in this equation considering they have been in there 20+ years and have done very little.  I am also not sparing Democrat Bill Rieger who should have retired 20 years ago for he needs to be carried in with an oxygen mask and should be in a home plus I am no fan of Mike McGeehan.  And of course Alan Butkovitz, who I kinda like, is going to be Controller of Philly.  Time for some young blood in there! 

I want more of Josh Shapiro, Mark Cohen, Mike Gerber, and Jennifer Mann in the PA State House.  On anotehr note, is it just me or are Jewish politicans just better? 

[TeePee4Prez]

I can't stand DeWeese and a number of others but I don't think the body itself is all that bad.

Yes it is both Dem and Rep.  DeWeese is a moron and is killing us Dems.  The entire Northeast Philadelphia delegation should be booted out barring Mark Cohen as well.  I know he has a bit of a speech impediment, but I admire Cohen for his balls and speaking his mind.  I'll even include John Taylor plus his 3 other GOP clowns in this equation considering they have been in there 20+ years and have done very little.  I am also not sparing Democrat Bill Rieger who should have retired 20 years ago for he needs to be carried in with an oxygen mask and should be in a home plus I am no fan of Mike McGeehan.  And of course Alan Butkovitz, who I kinda like, is going to be Controller of Philly.  Time for some young blood in there! 

I want more of Josh Shapiro, Mark Cohen, Mike Gerber, and Jennifer Mann in the PA State House.  On anotehr note, is it just me or are Jewish politicans just better? 

Rieger is scum. The guy lives just a few minutes from me yet represents North Philly and is notorious for his ghost voting.

Are Jewish politicians better? Since they tend to be liberal, of course you'll think they're better.

I don't mind the NE Philly GOP delegation. I like O'Brien and Taylor. I don't follow/just don't care about Kenney that much. It'll certainly be pretty weird when they all retire and we get some new representation. We've grown up with these Representatives, most of which have been in office for over twenty years. Whether you like them or not, it'll be difficult getting used to them not being around.

Rieger should retire.  I would have liked to see Raphael Collazo win that seat.  Actually his seat tweaked its way into Northwood/Frankford area since Perzel vacated that area.

As for the Irishmen representing NE Philly well, economically they aren't all that far off from me but socially, I think they are waaay to parochial for my liking.  I will include Mike McGeehan(D) in this, but that's only on social issues.

I was just pointing out about Jewish pols Cohen, Butkovitz, and Shapiro being fairly close to me politically both economically and socially.  I just checked my nose size, not Jewish!