About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

NorCo Dem Boss Walt Garvin Makes Republicans Emrick, Hahn, Look Good

Incumbents Marcia Hahn and Joe Emrick
The undercard for the big Presidential debate last night was a state house debate for the 137th and 138th legislative district seats currently held by Republicans Joe Emrick and Marcia Hahn, hosted by the Northampton - Monroe County Farm Bureau. I thought Emrick and Hahn were running against Joe Capozzolo and Leslie Altieri. Somebody should tell Northampton County Boss Man Walt Garvin. He was among the 25 or so people there, and posed a rambling and argumentative question, supposedly about partisanship, that made Emrick and Hahn look pretty good, while Garvin looked petty. In the process of doing so, he hurt the real challengers, who were doing just fine without his "help."

You can see the video here.

I gotta' tell you that I was about 15 minutes late. I always get lost on the roads around St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Plainfield Township. But I arrived just in time for the Walt Gravin show. His ranted about partisanship, fracking, voter ID and education cuts for over two minutes, refusing to allow any of the actual candidates to respond to his tirade.

"Is this the Walt Garvin show or is this a state house candidate debate?" I finally asked. The moderator then shut Garvin down. But the damage had been done. Garvin had just opened up a door that both Emrick and Hahn could drive through with a Mack truck.

Hahn was able to defend her own record.

"I was called to task with one of the newspapers even though I voted against the Congressional redistricting plan and went with the Democrats. I was still chided for it because they said, 'Oh, well, they gave me a bye.' Well, if you were there, and you would know how it worked, we didn't get a bye.

Emrick got in the best shots.

Challengers Leslie Altieri & Joe Capozzolo
"Thank you for demonstrating partisanship," he told Garvin. He could have ended it right there. But he instead corrected the party boss on his education claims.

"The reason that Republicans swept the state, to a large degree, is because they got sick and tired of the people in office, especially Ed Rendell, who increased spending 40% over 8 years, $8 billion, didn't out a dime in the transportation funding, we still face a $3.5 billion transportation shortfall. Mr. Rendell also took $4 billion in federal stimulus money, which is where that budget gap came from that we had to close. While he was taking a two year revenue stream of federal stimulus money that was supposed to be for shovel ready job creation, he was gutting the state's contribution to K-12 basic education, backfilling it with federal stiulus money that they knew was going to disappear in two years, the day he left office. So we come into office with a billion dollar gap in basic K-12 education finding.

"We had to back fill as much of that money as we could, knowing that we're in the heart of a brutal recession. ...

"How irresponsible was that? How do you spend $8 billion and not address the transportation needs of the state? So you want to know why the Democrats were swept out of office?"

Garvin: "No. That was not my question. That was not my question."

Emrick: "You don't have a question."

Joe Cap tried to deflect the damage Garvin had done.

"I don't really know what your question was, Walt," he said, as everyone started laughing. Cap pointed out that he has a history of bipartisanship. "I don't think either party is always right or the other arty is always wrong, he said, noting that his own family is split between the two major parties.

But after the debate, Cap was a little worried that Democratic photographer Michael Laws would snap a picture of him talking to me.

Leslie Altieri pledged she would be bipartisan, but unlike Cap, has no record of it one way or the other. She did agree that her opponent, Marcia Hahn, voted about redistricting,. But Leslie also pointed out that Hahn agreed to send the measure to the House floor.

Garvin? He took off. After his failed attempt to monopolize the dialogue, he lacked the courtesy to stick around and actually listen to what was being said.

Maybe he was giving Obama advice.

Then Joe Cap and Joe Emrick demonstrated their bipartisanship with this little exchange about Voter ID ... in Klingon.

Alrighty then.

Then they all agreed they love farmland preservation and oppose Sunday hunting.

Emrick and Hahan both support reforming prevailing wage laws, with Emricjk adding it would result in lower bids. Altieri is opposed to this, while Cap said he needs to study the issue.

Updated Wednesday, Midnight: Removed the videos and replaced them with links because they awere causing problems for some readers.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was Ron Angle there supporting his boy, Joe Cap?

Anonymous said...

Ron was with your momma.

Anonymous said...

Walt has a so-called "Dream Team" to run for County Council next year. Word is Bill Wallace and Charles Dertinger figure as the standard bearers. Supposedly he won't support any candidate that doesn't get his permission to run.

Anonymous said...

Walt is not a serious player. He's a noisy little parrot with poor manners. Nice work shooting your candidates in the foot.

Anonymous said...

The last "great" Northampton County Democratic Chairman was Justin Jirolanio. He was a close friend and ally of Bernard O'Hare (former District Attorney of Northampton County). Do you remember him Bernie?

Anonymous said...

Walt has words for everything and that's OK because he's just plain ignorant!

Bernie O'Hare said...

I remember Justin. He is a man from a different era, when the Dem party truly was a machine, and needed to be one.

Anonymous said...

Remember Bernie, Walt is a protege of Joe Long. He continues the proud tradition of the Long Dems like Barron, Dertinger and Callahan, who you support.

Anonymous said...

Bipatisanship ended in the Slate Belt with Craig Dally and Rich Grucela

Anonymous said...

I'm a Dem but I will vote Emerick. Can't vote for the Ron Angle guy, Joe C.

Anonymous said...

Dont you see what you are doing when you say that? For starters you dont spell Emrick correctly!
You are telling Repos who support angle to vote for Cap. you are helping Joe Cap, and it was a long day for you, up at 2:06 am. how's your mom?

Anonymous said...

Joe Cap has no chance of winning this seat! He is only token opposition as the D's have no clue as to what they need to do to truly challenge an incumbent do nothing like Emrick. Garvin couldn't do any better than Cap? He should give up the chair to somebody who actually knows something about politics.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I don't think Joe Cap takes his orders from Garvin, or anyone else.

It was a nice evening, and the Farm Bureau did an outstanding job. The candidates all did well, but Walt Garvin pretty much ruined it for the Ds, and then took off. Bizarre.

Anonymous said...

IF..you want to be the KING maker..you better know what the H you are doing. Garvin is giving legitimate,thinking Dem's a bad name. No wonder the county D party is a mess. The days of machine politics is over! Anybody who gives this guy money would be better off flushing it down the toilet. Just walk away Walt.

Anonymous said...

Bernie what is wrong with your freakin' blogspot? It takes 20 seconds to load and on at least three occasions started populating my screen with dozens of windows that I could only stop by ending the program. It is almost like someone is sabotaging your site.

Bernie O'Hare said...

First, I'm sorry this is giving you trouble. This sometimes happens when I inert too much from third party sites. I have loaded a few youtube videos in recent days, and this sometimes mucks it up. If the problem persists, let me know and I will remove the videos and replace them with a link.

Anonymous said...

Garvin is a boorish lout and the reason why Dems took a beating in the 2010 election. If Dirtinger oozes out from under the garbage heap he crawled under to run for county council again it will be a sign that Norco is damned for the next four years.

Anonymous said...

I've had the same problem, on and off, as 10:47.

Not sure if it is the video, but trying to navigate back to your home page sporadically launches a new browser window barrage that I can only stop with a hard shut down. Weird.

Good news is that, so far, my scans reveal no virus or spyware issues.

-Clem

Bernie O'Hare said...

OK. I will remove the video and post links instead.

Anonymous said...

Can't support Ron Angles guy, Joe Cap.

Anonymous said...

According to the Express times website poll, joe Cap is beating Emerick by 16 points. It Looks The Republicans underestimated him. Or it was an Angle conspiracy to buy the poll. Joe Cap is the better candidate and over 51% support him.
2:45 am dude is a hater.

Anonymous said...

When watching the video of Joe VS Joe, Hahn has the bobble-head goin on.

Anonymous said...

Since when does anything the ET's touch..turn out to be true? I'd call that the kiss of death for Capper. Emrick wins a yawner..

Anonymous said...

If what you say is true, What about the endorsement? Emrick loses a close out. "No Show Joe"

Anonymous said...

Even a broken clock is correct..twice a day!

Anonymous said...

I will make a bold prediction and write this down..Cap will not even carry the boro of Bangor. Sad..

Anonymous said...

Bold prediction Mr anonymous! Put your name to it.

Bernie O'Hare said...

They are both pretty popular in Bangor. Emrick is originally from bangor, and played football there. Well. Joe Cap was Mayor for 8 years, It is a Democratic borough, but has a R Mayor. Emrick seems a little more knowledgeable and prepared than Joe, but is more abrasive than Joe.

That's a tough one.

Anonymous said...

The eastern SB has a long history of reelecting incumbents..ask Grucela and Gruppo. Emrick will coast for now and really would have to screw up to lose the seat he now occupies.

Anonymous said...

Cap's perceived ties..if any..to Angle are only going to take votes away from him. The Parsons election signalled the end of Ron's run of popularity here in the SB.

Anonymous said...

i have a bold prediction. Emerick loses in Upper Nazareth twp. he was supervisor and screwed up our budget!

Anonymous said...

Lehigh Valley Live.com update:
10/25/12 9:30 am

State house poll rsults:
District #131 Simmons 54% Deely 46%
#133 McNeill 64% Molony 29%
#137 Capozzolo 57% Emrick 40%
#138 Altieri 50% Hahn 45%

Any Surprises?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Dude, You have to know that these polls can be and are gamed. If they had any validity, Ron Paul would be President.

Bernie O'Hare said...

7:17, That's where I'd hit him. He raided the reserves in U Nazareth and they had to raise taxes after he left. I did not feel comfortable asking more than one question, so I did not ask about this, but I sure would like to hear him explain it.

Anonymous said...

So would we!!

UNT taxpayers