Blogger's Note: I am discussing unofficial results. They will not be official until certified by the Elections Comm'n.
As I made you aware late yesterday afternoon, there will be a contested District Attorney's race this November. Steve Baratta secured the Democratic nomination after defeating Terry Houck, 12,943 to 10,799. But Houck won a write-in campaign on the Republican side of the fence. He needed 250 votes minimum, and secured 1,468 of 2,118 write-in votes. There were 650 "not assigned" write-ins.
Terry Houck remains a centrist Democrat. He refuses to switch parties just to appease some party machine. He will be driving the red car, but it will be fueled by blue gas.
Baratta will be driving the blue car, but as his expense report makes clear, it will be fueled by red gas, That red gas includes $20,000 from Republican NIZ developers J.B. Reilly and Joe Topper and a whopping $47,900 in cash and in-kinds from Norris, McLaughlin lawyer Ray Lahoud,
Isn’t Ray Lahoud a Republican? At your debate, he fell over some well-known Rs, yet he is all-in with Baratta, a liberal democrat. Really, what is in this for Ray? I can’t imagine he wants a job in the DA’s office, as that salary would be a fraction of what he now makes, but he is definitely playing some sort of angle. It would be nice if the paid reporters, who read your blog for news tips, would do some digging and write a lengthy piece on the people pulling the strings behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteRay Lahoud is a hottie.
ReplyDeletei think ray is a moderate who supports candidates he things are good people. others may disagree with who he supports but in the end he supports candidates that he thinks are good people and has every right to do so and to donate to them. it can be called red money or blue money but the red and blue arent ray for sure. i can that i personally know that baratta was a mentor to ray for years and he looks up to him a lot. baratta's dad was law partners with mr george baurkot who was a pillar in the lebanese community until he died. the respect for mr george baurkot is something that raymond holds dear because mr george baurkot was like a father to ray and ray worked with mr george baurkot for many years after he started practicing law. from my point of view, ray could care less about houck. its just that he likes baratta. hate him or love him but in the end he gives money to who he thinks are good people and he made a decision here to support baratta. dont fault him for exercising his first amendment right. if you have issues with contribution limits then fault the election finance system in pennsylvania. maybe you should talk to your democratic and republican state legislators about changing the campaign finance laws.if you dont like money in politics then call your local pa representatives to finally pass limits to campaign contributions. this is something that has been needed for a long time but until then it is what it is.
ReplyDeleteWhen are we going to be able to post memes on here? Asking for my friend, Patricia.
ReplyDelete