He's angry that the League of Women Voters has not just fought against gerrymandering dragon for years, but has managed to slay it. Our state court has ended an undemocratic system in which your legislators pick you, instead of the other way around.
Gerrymandering has been a wrecking ball to good government in Pa. It is both an incumbent insurance program and a magnet for ideologues rather than people who are willing to work together. It is also a two-headed monster. Democrats are just as capable of gerrymandering districts as Republicans. They have done so in other states.
The effort to end this disgraceful system has been bipartisan. Numerous Republicans in the state house and state Senate, including Lisa Boscola, Pat Browne and Mario Scavello, have endorsed an end to a system in which the majority party draws the boundary lines for legislative and Congressional districts.
The League of Women Voters and Common Cause spearheaded the effort here in Pennsylvania. The League of Women Voters exists primarily to make sure that your vote matters. It has historically opposed poll taxes, racial gerrymandering and efforts at voter suppression. It has supported attempts to educate voters, which is why this group always tries to host debates.
Nothstein has derided this group as a "partisan, liberal organization allied with the interests of the Democratic party." If his attack were really true, the League would have lost its tax exempt status decades ago. It's false.
Nothstein is skipping a debate designed to educate you about his positions. Instead of being honest and just admitting that he is in the lead and does not want to give any exposure to Dean Browning, he embraces a system that is wrong and that has actually led to the very partisanship he now decries.
The proof of Nothstein's hypocrisy is his willingness to participate in a League of Women Voter debate in the general election, where he claims to be "open to an invitation." If he really felt that the League was just a tool of the Democrats, he would boycott them completely.
In one news release, Nothstein has demonstrated that he stands for bad government, is intellectually dishonest and just a tad arrogant. He has just assured his own defeat in the general election.
Dean Browning told me, incidentally, that he is "willing to debate anybody, anytime, anywhere."
John Morganelli told me he is willing to debate Nothstein, too, but draws the line at bicycle races.
The League of Women Voters debate, for all candidates, Democrat and Republican, is on May 2, 7 pm, at Northampton Community College's Alumni Hall.
Nothstein news release:
he is
21 comments:
The League of Women Voters is the real deal. The LWV is everything that the yuppi fake Lehigh Valley For All (party hacks) is not, open, honest and open to all.
When you say you will debate anyone at anytime it really means I am the unknown and I have no money, please notice me. Browning is a wannabe.
Make no mistake, gerrymandering is wrong. But so is the way the PA Supreme Court hijacked the process just before an election. Two wrongs don't make a right, and the League actively participated in the second wrong.
The League of Women Voters HAS been hijacked by the left-leaning individuals, and is no longer non-partisan. That's a shame, particularly because of the group's history and the past accomplishments noted in the post.
But with it's current bias, the League cannot be a fair arbitrator for a Republican primary debate.
Marty is playing straight from the beginning!
I found a advertizment in my box yesterday and threw it away.
humanist by design
republican redd
not a party favor
I agree with most of the posters. The LWV is a left leaning organization, however, Marty can score some points by debating the facts as he sees it. After all, if he wins, he will have to face these leftists all the time.
Marty Nothstein is afraid to debate Dean Browning b/c Dean will expose Marty as being an empty suit who is a shill for Wayne "my way or the highway" Woodman.
Not surprised Nothstein is avoiding debates and trying to win on his name recognition. Wasn't he featured in the Morning Call investigative report as an example of a landowner gaining the benefit of reduced property taxes through an open space loophole? At least I know who Browning is and where he stands on the issues. I know nothing about Nothstein's politics and I'm concerned that he is being evasive about who is funding his campaign.
Browning is a joke. He's become the Republican version of (perennial Democrat candidate) Rick Orloski, only instead of doing it to promote his business (as Orloski does), Browning continues to delude himself into thinking that by running for office he is somehow politically relevant.
I'm sure Browning's hoping that by running for a higher office, there will be enough people who don't know him and will believe his lies. I suspect the opposite, and predict that voters will see through him and again reject his tired playbook.
He's lost multiple elections by large margins. The one time he managed to get elected, he rewarded taxpayers by siding with 4 democrats to hike Lehigh County taxes. He can't tell the truth about that, and now is saying that he cut the county deficit. I guess that's better politically than saying you raised taxes.
Browning also runs around fictitiously calling Lehigh County a "sanctuary county". He knows that isn't true, and that Lehigh County cooperates with ICE, but continues to try to spread the lie.
This is a no-brainer for Republican voters. It's a two-person race between someone who believes in conservative principles and has cut taxes, and a proven tax-hiker and liar.
All Republicans, from moderate to conservative, should be behind Nothstein in this primary. Besides being the only one they can trust, Nothstein's the only one who can win in the general.
Not anymore.
"Marty is playing straight from the beginning!"
Then why participate in a LWV debate in the general? If he wants to be consistent, he would skip the debate in the general election. But he's not being consistent. he has now placed himself with the very worst elements of the GOP, and hos words will comeback to haunt him, as they should.
"Then why participate in a LWV debate in the general? If he wants to be consistent, he would skip the debate in the general election."
When the democrats have FoxNews, the Heritage Foundation or the NRA moderate their primary debate, get back to me with that question.
The fact is the LWV has a partisan agenda.
He may or may not have to live with that in the general, but he sure doesn't have to accept it in his own primary.
Continue making the argument that ending the gerrymander is a partisan issue. Please. This will lose Nothstein votes that he needs.
Again, ending gerrymandering shouldn't be a partisan issue. But the power grab by the state court that changed the map just before the election wasn't right either.
Also, the court ruling didn't end the gerrymander, it was just the judges who were doing it this time. The end does not justify the means.
But the issue is whether the LVW is a partisan group, and it's clear that it is. They don't need to be moderating the Republican debate. There are plenty of other groups that can hold a Republican primary debate that won't bring a bias to the event.
"and it's clear that it is"
Really? Only to the tinfoil alt-right wingers.
Want to see courage....introducing Charlie Dent. Well done.
Sorry, but we have no partisan agenda. Our purpose is to educate and inform the voter. There ARE Republicans in the League.
Beverly Hernandez, NCLWV VP
The debates must include both ( or all) parties or we won't hold the debate. Nonpartisan.
Anonymous cowards have no basis for talking about courage.
I am shocked that a campaign manager for Marty Nothstein would allow him to go after an institution like the League of Women Voters. Not only is he hugely misinformed and completely wrong; but he has insulted people who work tirelessly year round to educate, inform and protect the voting rights of all citizens from all parties. And these people (men and women ) have been doing this for years for us, the voting population of the Lehigh Valley from all parties!
Perhaps he should: join the League, attend some meetings, help interview legislators from both parties, organize the Voter's Guides, voter registration efforts, hold candidates forums and debates, research voter reforms and redistricting reforms and help organize the yearly Government Directory that I am sure he has used often. Then I challenge him to make those same claims...
If he wants to go after someone, perhaps he should go after those who were originally responsible for drawing an unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandered map in the first place, in 2011. Who might that be, Mr. Nothstein? I can guarantee it was not the League of Women Voters. This will hurt his campaign going after such a well-respected institution with facts that are erroneous and false. Maybe have a nice long talk with his campaign manager about acting like a grownup and having your facts straight! And maybe he will join the League. He has divulged a side of himself that is very spiteful and nasty and boy oh boy, I believe everyone would agree we don't need anymore of that in Washington, DC! And maybe, just maybe he will be man enough to apologize!
Bernie, I like the Massachusetts graphic. I lived in Beverly a long time ago and recognize Elbridge Gerry's district.
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