With recuperation from Annual Meeting now fully underway, I nearly forgot that I came back to primary day in Pennsylvania. Who am I going to vote for? I’m undecided, believe it or not. Might not decide until I’m in there. Let me explain my conflicts.
Governor: Without a doubt, Sam Rohrer represents my values of limited Government much more closely than Tom Corbett does. But Corbett is proven in a statewide race. I have my doubts as to whether Rohrer will be able to raise enough money, win enough independents in the general election, and beat whoever the Democratic nominee is. I also don’t think Tom Corbett is a bad candidate. Given the choice, I’ll probably go with the guy I think can win in November.
Congress: Mike Fitzpatrick is the presumptive winner in the race, and is carrying an NRA endorsement. I like Gloria Carlineo philosophically, but much like the situation with Rohrer, I’m very concerned about her ability to raise money. That’s not a small concern, because Patrick Murphy is a fundraising machine. If Carlineo loses, I really hope she doesn’t disappear from politics. She should really consider a stab at State Representative, or maybe a County Row Office. I am by no means happy the GOP reanimated Fitzpatrick to go after Murphy, but it is what it is.
In both cases, I will back whoever the eventual nominee is. We have to get Murphy out, and we definitely need to prevent any of those Dems from getting in the Governor’s Mansion. Ed Rendell has convinced Democrats in this state the NRA can’t beat them. Its only so much time before the General Assembly starts believing that too, and when that happens, we’re screwed.
It’s a difficult choice. Do you vote for someone who is with you 90% of the time who can’t win over someone who is with you 70% of the time who can? These are the compromises you make along the way. All politics is compromise. It’s the only way we all live together without killing each other.
At least we have a candidate we like for State Rep.
“Do you vote for someone who is with you 90% of the time who can’t win over someone who is with you 70% of the time who can? ”
Politics is about the possible. If you nominate the 90%er, then you end up with no voice in the final government. Better to take 70% now and hope to come back later for the other 30%.
With Rohrer, there’s always the standard “he won’t win, but let’s send a message to the party” line. I’m sticking to it.
Yeah… I would agree. But you know, what if we all do that and he wins? Then we’re stuck with a candidate who might not beat the Dem. Granted, I’m 100% behind Rohrer if he wins, but I sure hope he can raise a lot of money quickly.
Rohrer’s people totally turned him off for me. The way that they have tried to butcher Corbett’s statements & turn them into something else, even claiming he’s anti-gun. What BS. I was going to send a message to the party with a vote for Rohrer, but after watching how they’ve played the game, I’m going to vote for Corbett. I also question some of the things that Rohrer has spent money on in this campaign – I don’t think it was the greatest management of resources. That’s not a mistake we can afford in November, and it’s not something we can afford the next few years, either. I think the party has gotten some things very wrong this year, but after watching this go down, I think Corbett was something they got wrong.
I’ll send my “I am pissed at the party” votes through Lt. Gov. and Congress.
One possibility voting strategy, which I think I’m going to undertake today would be to vote for the endorsed candidate for Gov/US House, but vote against the endorsed slate for the party committeemen. Hopefully this leads to no repeats of the Fitzpatrick re-nomination.
We actually have “reform” platform candidates for that role that even created a sample ballot to print. I should probably do this for the NRA-endorsed candidates in November. Anyway, we’re taking it with us. I’ll also pick up the official GOP sample ballot to see who not to support for those offices. Very good idea, I agree.
That’s not a bad idea
Here I sit waiting for my other half to come home. Need to vote!!
I am still unsure on the big choices. BUT I know for sure any local hacks on the lower portion of the Repub ticket are NOT get ting my vote.
I am sure turnout is down across the state. Murtha’s seat favors Republicans in the rain. Weather wise, I hear the turn out more in rain.
Murtha’s seat is going to be ugly if it is close. An election worker who wasn’t properly trained figured out that she messed up the ballots this morning – almost 200 of them. Those folks were allowed to double vote.
While I understand the need of evaluating “will my candidate be able to win in November?”, I have also come to the conclusion that whoever I vote for, must be able to convince me that I should vote for that person.
I voted for McCain in the Presidential Race, because I didn’t want Obama to take Utah. I should have voted Libertarian or Constitutionalist, though, because voting for McCain made me feel dirty. I liked how he’d make ads making fun of Obama as the Messiah (among other things), but then I’d see an ad that tried to convince me to vote for McCain, and I didn’t want to vote for him anymore!
Something similar happened in the primaries, actually: by the time we voted in Utah, Fred Thompson dropped out, so I decided to vote for Mitt Romney instead (of those remaining, he was the one I disliked the least as a candidate)…but I wish I had voted for Fred anyway.