The Sentinel finally ran a story about Keep the Team. John Hilton, the reporter who did the story, did an interesting story on the the two competing “teams” - the endorsed team and the current team.
Read the story here.
I have seen two other descriptions about the forum last night.
The Patriot News did an article, which really doesn’t give a whole lot of detail, except some he said, she said. Matt Miller does have a deadline that forced him to leave the forum early, so it’s understandable.
Our fellow Cumberland County political commentator John McKay over at Both Sides of the Coin also gave his feedback on the forum. It’s worth reading as John always has good analysis of local politics here in Cumberland County. (John, you should have introduced yourself, I would have enjoyed meeting you.)
Update: The Sentinel posted their version of the forum here.
The debate finally happened. Here are my reflections on it, without having read any accounts yet. It appeared to me to be the incumbents versus the challengers. The incumbents did very well, as they all should. They sited awards for excellence, specific examples of how the county has helped people, etc. There were several occasions when one commissioner couldn’t remember a detail, so one of the other commissioners would help him out. It is obvious that this board is comfortable working together.
I won’t comment on Linda C for now, since she’s going to win the second Dem nomination anyway. On the R side though, Karen Gunnison definately appeared more prepared for this debate than past appearances. That’s not to say she hit a home run or anything though. She didn’t give the voters a reason why they should replace either Bruce or Gary. It was odd several times that should explicitly disagree with Gary, but then turn around and be supportive of Bruce. The interesting thing was that Bruce would say the same thing as Gary.
There was one occasion in which Karen whipped out some newpaper ad from NJ to attack Gary over warehousing. It immeadiately reminded me of the Lazio/Clinton Senate debate a few years back in which Lazio whipped out some document, went over to Clinton’s podium and shoved it at her to get her to sign it. Wierd.
At any rate, no major screw ups, and no real reasons to change.
Another article on the complete lack of funding for the parkbarrel express, I mean Corridor One, that Karen Gunnison’s group - MTP is pushing. Read it here. The legislature is having enough trouble looking for coins under the cusions of their lazy boys for SEPTA. How are they supposed to come up with money for Corridor One and get the votes for it too? That would be an amazing magic trick.
Wegmans is coming to town and will be open in September. The company is working on getting a liquor license for its new facility so that it can sell wine and beer. Here’s the story. The company has already obtained licenses for 6 of its 11 Pennsylvania stores.
I hope they are successful - it would bring a much needed dose of the free market into the liquor laws of this state. The laws of this state regarding liquor are crazy. I grew up around Wegmans, as I am from the Rochester, NY area. They are all over the place up there and are great supermarkets. I thought nothing of it as a kid seeing wine and beer stocked on the shelves at Wegmans.
I hope this has a wider effect on the liquor law - mostly getting rid of the ridiculous idea that only the government knows how best to sell alcohol.
I’m turning away from Cumberland County politics for a moment. Yahoo news ran an article about Venezula which starts out:
Venezuela launched a Zeppelin on Thursday to patrol Caracas, seeking to fight crime in one of Latin America’s most dangerous cities but also raising fears that President Hugo Chavez could be turning into Big Brother.
Here the whole story.
Let’s see, a commie dictator who has nationalized almost all industries, hates the US, is imposing Socialist doctirne on his people, had a sham election, etc. Gee, where have we seen that before.
How long until the political purges start, the public executions, the rations, etc.? What a tragedy.
Rep. Sam Smith may not have realized it, but he just helped Cumberland County Commissioner Gary Eichelberger win the Republican nomination.
Rep. Smith was interviewed by the Post-Gazette on funding mass transit projects. Here’s a soundbite from that story:
Mr. Smith said the state already provides $900 million a year for mass transit systems around the state, which he said is a considerable amount. He said the state subsidy already accounts for 75 percent of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority’s budget and about 63 percent of the Port Authority budget.
“Transit agencies already get a pile of state aid,” he said. “It’s time for local or county agencies to come up with additional funds.”
This is what Commissioner Eichelberger, and the other current commissioners for that matter, have been warning about and the reason why they have opposed the Corridor One porkbarrel express. They knew that MTP actually stands for More Taxes Please and the people of Cumberland County do not support increasing their taxes to pay for a diesel train that would have very limited ridership.
It’s now apparent that the state won’t have any money to fund it. The feds don’t have much spare money either. Whose left to pay the bill? Only the local governments, through taxes - your taxes.
Furthermore, the train won’t be like the Metro in DC or the subway in NYC where a train stops at each stop every 10 minutes or so, and more often during rush hour. No, these will be like the current bus system - a few stops each day - if you miss it, good luck, you’re on your own. Trying telling your boss you can’t stay late to help on a major project because if you miss your ride home you will be stuck at work until tomorrow - see how well that goes over. Flexibility matters, which is why the train won’t get ridership.
Gunnison keeps saying that this race isn’t about the train. That’s funny, it’s all everyone else is talking about. Maybe Mrs. Gunnison should get on board, so to speak, with reality. The train is the issue - and more importantly the taxes that would have to be raised to pay for it.
Bill McKay who provides some good commentary on Cumberland County politics over at Both Sides of the Coin had some good insight in to the Cumberland County Commissioners’ Race:
We didn’t pick a winner last time, so we’re going to go with Gary Eichelberger this time. Between Bruce Barclay’s silent but deadly help, and the county chairman aiming the gun at his own foot right now, Eichelberger better start baking pies, because there are a lot of faces in the county committee.
Read the whole post here.
Lowman Henry wrote the following post on Lincoln blog today:
Karen Gunnison picked a bad time to run for Cumberland County Commissioner.
Gunnison is Vice Chairperson of the Modern Transit Partnership (MTP), the organization that is attempting to inflict a costly, unworkable and unnecessary light rail transit system on south central Pennsylvania. She is the only pro-choo choo candidate in the Republican Primary. Incumbents Bruce Barclay and Gary Eichelberger along with the lone Democrat on the county board, Rick Rovegno, all foresee the massive tax hikes the project will require and oppose the plan.
Special interests, being what they are, have interfered in the race and secured the Cumberland County GOP endorsement for Gunnison, leaving Eichelberger out in the cold. Despite losing the endorsement, Eichelberger has continued his campaign for re-election.
Read more here.
Another interesting development is that Karen Gunnison’s website has removed a press announcement that I wrote about yesterday - the reception for her at the Mechanicsburg Club. I wonder why? Could be the irony that I pointed out - that the reception is taking place at a location that Mrs. Gunnison could never be a member of since she is female. I guess we can’t have that irony being public now can we.