After being rebuffed by the Unites States Supreme Court, the Pennsylvania legislature's top two Republicans - Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Speaker of the House Mike Turzai - have submitted a new map to the Governor. This time, they didn't even bother gettojg a vote. That's alright because the map they presented is almost certainly doomed, as is suggested in The Unionville Times. The new map is little more than an incumbent insurance policy, especially in the southeast. But one district it gets right is the 15th Pa. Congressional district. i suspect that portion of the map will survive with little change. And that bodes well for candidates John Morganelli and Susan Wild.
It bodes well for District Attorney John Morganelli because the Lehigh Valley is blue collar Democrat country. He easily won this area against the more liberal Josh Shapiro in the Attorney General race. It's good news for Allentown Attorney Susan Wild because the new map takes her only female competitor, Laura Quick, out of the picture.
It's bad news for Rev. Greg Edwards, whose condemnation of educational apartheid is likely to offend many Lehigh Valley Democrats despite the money he spends from outside the district. There are better ways of improving education than calling everyone involved a racist. Also, the new 15th has already drawn Rick Daugherty back into the picture. He'll be running for the third or fourth time, and he and Edwards will be taking votes from each other.
It's also good news for Ryan MacKenzie and Marty Nothstein because it takes Mike Pries and Scott Uehlinger out of the race. Though they can run, they no longer would be living in the district. It's bad news for Dean Browning, who was hoping for a more crowded field.
Edward has the endorsement of Bethlehem City Councilmember Olga Negron. Wild has been endorsed by former Lehigh county Exec Tom Muller. On Sunday, received the endorsement of the Lehigh Valley Building Trades Council. The Lehigh Valley Building Trades Council includes the Boilermakers Local 13, The Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, Local 5, Carpenters Local 167, Cement Masons & Plasters Local 592, Electricians Locals 102 and 375, Elevators Construction Local 84, Glaziers & Architectural Metal Workers Local 252, Heat & Frost Insulators Local 23 and the Ironworkers Local 420 and Operating Engineers.
Their endorsement was unanimous.
Morganelli has a long history with labor, growing up in a labor household. John's father was a member of the Operating Engineers Local #542, the Laborers Union , the Steelworkers, and Teamsters. His mother was a member of the ILGWU. Before becoming the District Attorney, John represented the Bethlehem Corporation Employees Association and is the only district attorney who has fought to enforce the Construction Misclassification Act.
In accepting the endorsement, District Attorney Morganelli said, "In Washington, I will make protecting the middle class, growing wages, and access to health care my priorities. I have spent my career as a Democratic elected official defending the working man, and I pledge to continue that as the next Congressman from the 15th Congressional District."
Blogger's Note: I support john Morganelli for Congress and home you vote for him anyway.
29 comments:
Don't forget Bill Lenier you muggle. He has been campaigning or two years.
And no one knows who he is.
Hey get your pushing Morganeli but you should at least be factual. You also forgot Dave Wiedman running as well. What's up with you?
I have mentioned these candidates in earlier posts. It seems to me that this boils down to John, Susan and Edwards. The others have done nothing to make themselves known.
Bill Lenier has attended all Democratic Party functions for over two years.
Democrats bitch and whine about district maps. It's "unconstitutional" they say, that the Republicans drew the district lines.. they're "gerrymandered" against us.. Blah, blah, blah..
Now, if the Democrats drew the district maps, would they be "fair" and "balanced"? Sure they would be, uh huh, and hey, I've got this bridge to sell you, are you interested?
Listen Bernie, you know this but it's worth repeating. If the Democrats want to draw the maps and Gerrymander, then let them get the support from the voters and get a majority in Harrisburg. Then they can Gerrymander all they want to their heart's content. That's one of the rules of politics. Who controls the legislature, draws the district maps come re-distracting time. Bitching and whining to the courts to their leftist judges is the way liberals love to get their way.. Never the correct way, but they've invested years in getting leftist judges on the bench and they go to them when there is a problem. whaah whaah whahhh..
Anon 4:10, you sir are a gentleman and a scholar. Your well thought out post is both enlightening and thought provoking.
You missed the IUPAT Painters Local 1269 in the building trades unions that endorsed Morganelli
Morganelli. Democrat, in the bag for unions. Need any more information than that ?
Ken, Thanks, the information supplied to me was obviously incomplete.
4:10, Hey partisan R, when I first wrote about gerrymandering last year, I told you this would happen, but you were smug and unwilling to change the way this is done with an independent commission. So now you suffer exactly what I told you would happen. It is time to change the way maps are drawn to remove the politics as much as possible. If Dems take over, you will be a sudden convert.
"Bill Lenier has attended all Democratic Party functions for over two years."
Actually,he hasn't but it does not matter bc no one knows who he is.The election does not go to the person who attends the most Dem meetings, but to the person who gets the most votes. This is a guy who suddenly resigned as a LC Comm'r and went to Texas. So his website is a blatant lie when it claims he spent his entire life here. He suddenly resigned from his job at LV Hospital and took off to Texas. Why? What happened? He should tell the truth. We have enough liars in Congress.
Ray Nemeth, This post is about the 15th, not the Democrats or Rs. It is not the place for you to engage in your usual identity politics. So your slur is deleted. By the way, you are the rocket scientist who defended gerrymandering as part of the spoils system. I told you then that you were being stupid bc the court has become Democratic and will not stand for it. You should have supported changing the way these districts are redrawn every ten years to make it as fair as possible. But you wanted to be a partisan.
So now a partisan democratic court will decide the district rather than a partisan republican legislator. It is the still the spoils system.
The Dent/Browne machine will get their golden boy MacKenzie elected. They have been grooming MacKenzie for years!
Ray, That is exactly what I warned you about when I said an independent commission was needed, but you knew better. Ready to reform the gerrymandering now?
I really believe in today's political climate there is no such thing as independent or non partisan. That was my point. I have not seen anything to change my mind. The commission will be picked by partisan players.
Because it is impossible to remove the politics completely, you would make it completely political. So then you have no basis to complain. You want to make the perfect the enemy of the good and use that as a basis for partisan gerrymandering, but only if it benefits Rs. This is foolish.
@8:01 Who would lead this "Independent Commission" ? A Democrat ?
Try reading the proposals before making your snide remarks. Just bc the Donald to read, that’s no excuse for you to be ignorant as well.
I deleted your second comment bc you engage in identity politics like a partisan hack as usual. Do that elsewhere. If I want lemmings, i’ll Go to the zoo.
Mr O'Hare. you show me a true "non-partisan" and I'll show you a $3 bill.
The Independent Commission would have rules as to who can/can't be a member, one of which would be no direct or indirect affiliation with national, state or local parties. It would have equal representation of Reps and Dems, plus registered independents.
More importantly it will be conducted in the open, with clearly established guidelines and parameters that EVERYONE will be able to see and verify when maps are created.
My suggestion is that a computer program is created that outputs multiple maps based on criteria that prioritizes keeping counties intact and/or limiting the # of districts within one county. Granted this might be difficult with Philly and Allegheny County populations. The independent commission members would then have the ability to review and remove one map that they feel is too biased leaving 3 or 4 neutral maps to be voted/chosen from.
What I truly don't understand is Turzai and Scarnati putting out a map that they know has to be approved by Wolfe and Dem Supreme Court. They just wasted their time along with everyone else in the state by privately rejiggering the lines to create the same result they had previously.
Like it or not the state is roughly a 50/50 party split. The congressional representation should at least attempt to approximate that. Geographically Republicans do well in the more rural and less populated "T" of the state, which in general reflects where the party does well on a national level. Densely populated cities trend more towards Democrats and the surrounding counties are where the true "battlegrounds" are at.
They should have put together a map that at best gave them an 11-7 advantage to have any argumentative high ground. The map they put together just shows them to be party hacks grimly attempting to hold onto power for as long as they can with little care for what the average citizen wants.
In the end they represent ALL Pennsylvanians - not just Republican or Democratic Pennsylvanians. Time to get rid of anyone who can't see past what's best for them versus whats best for us.
"defending the working man"
John M. I'm with you, but don't EVER leave the hard working woman out again.
bERNIE IS a cuckservative
Susan Wild will never get past her professional and political association with the criminal Mayor Ed Pawlowski.
Her campaign is dead in the water.
Even know the lines are being redrawn it's not going to matter too much. Because someone is not going to like who they get in there new assigned district. So for me "it is what it is"
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