Courage of Conviction

The County GOP Committee is blowing its savings on this race instead of saving it for what it should be used for - the fall campaign.  I’ve never seen the committee spend so much on a primary, and spend it so poorly.  The committee has sent out a few mailers, none of which have been impressive - they’ve all promoted Vic Stabile, the chairman.  One mailer was a long letter from Stabile to Republicans.  I would guess that the only people who have read the entire thing would be Stabile and the other sick junkies like me who are directly involved a campaign.  The normal voter wouldn’t waste their time with such a long letter.  They are now doing TV ads on cable, which I have not seen since I don’t have cable, but I heard are poorly done.  I understand there are some robocalls going around also.  I’m not sure it they are from Gunnison’s campaign or from the committee.

The letter from Stabile is interesting because it barely mentions the other endorsed candidate - Bruce Barclay - he’s more of an afterthought.  In fact, it appears to me that the committee is openly hostile to Bruce - so much for the endorsed team.  The irony is that the people behind Gunnison’s campaign didn’t give a damn about Bruce to begin with and now that he has been running his own campaign and avoiding Gunnison, the establishment people are openly criticizing Barclay now.  They will certainly not be supporting Bruce, only voting for Gunnison. 

All this effort by the committee points to one thing - Stabile recognizes that if his girl Gunnison loses, which all indicators are pointing to, then he is done as Chairman.  This election is turning into a referendum on Stabile and the establishment within the Cumberland GOP, more so than it is about the commissioners.  When Gary and Bruce win on Tuesday, I hope that Stabile does the honorable thing and resigns as chair for poor management of the county party’s funds by throwing so much into the primary.  I won’t hold my breathe though - he’s the type of person that will have to be thrown out the chairmanship. 

Next year’s committee people elections ought to be interesting.

Which tax would Cumberland County Commissoiner candidate Karen Gunnison support to pay for funding for mass transit - especially the diesel train that she wants to come to Cumberland County. 

The Post-Gazette ran an article about legislature exploring taxing options to close the gap on funding deficits.  The subtitle alone lists income, sales, and “sin” taxes as a means to fund mass transit. 

So which tax would you support Karen?

The Cumberland County Republican Committee Chairman did a mailer on behalf of the endorsed “team.”  At the bottom was a listing for the committee website.  I decided to visit it.  You can too - here.  Why am I giving the committee free publicity?  Simple - take a look at it - it’s a poor site and looks like it was thrown together sloppily.  I don’t know who created it.  I can’t imaging that the committee would have spent a great deal on it, so obviously they got what they paid for. 

Half the pages lead nowhere or are under construction.  The biggest thing that I noticed though was a small, but important error - they mis-spelled Carlisle.  It’s on the top of every page.  I already know that it pains many in the party leadership that a west shore address isn’t listed, but geez - atleast spell the town correctly.  ‘

I’d love to your thoughts on the matter.

I’m not exactly sure how the Gunnison campaign is able to do the two step on the whole issue of being part of the endorsed “team.”  Here’s the reason why - check out the letters to the editor on the Patriot News’ website and read how they are supporting the endrosed team.  What I see is a bunch of angry women with their panties in a knot and only planning on voting for Gunnison.  They don’t give a damn about Barclay.  The fact is, they never did.  These folks didn’t run anyone against Barclay because they knew they couldn’t beat him because he is well liked and well funded.  Now that the Gunnison campaign is derailing and in desparate mode, we see their true nature.

The state lawmaker delegation here in Cumberland County along with the county DA and Treasurer appear on an ad endorsing Karen Gunnison for Commissioner.  Most of them have been contacted about this and their response has been that they “didn’t know” it was an endorsement photo.  They are all “mad” at Chairman Stabile for supposed misleading them.  I guess they aren’t too mad though since none of them are willing to get a spine and do something about it.  And these are the folks that supposedly want to reform Harrisburg - How on God’s green earth are they supposed to reform Harrisburg when they can’t even stand up and say they were misled by their county chairman?

The attached picture says it all about the Cumberland County Commissioners’ race.  Take a look through Gunnison’s financial report and you see a host of special interest money.  Maybe this Gunnison sign is a foreshadowing of how Gunnison would plan on voting should she be elected.

In case you can’t read it, it’s a for sale sign with a “Gunnison/Barclay” Republican Committee paid for sign attached to the for sale sign.

The expected onslaught of pro-Gunnison advertising came today.  Nothing like waiting until the last week to act like you are running a campaign. 

My target tonight is on one ad - in the voters’ guide.  It’s an endorsement by the state delegation.  What makes me laugh is that these same weenies all voted for John Perzel for speaker of the House in January.  They all claim to be reformers, but that one vote alone tells me they aren’t for real.  And now that they have shown that they can’t even stand up to one of the most ineffective and weak county GOP chairmen in the state just confirms how pathetic these guys are.  It’s obvious these guys are more concerned with making nice with the party insiders than they are with standing with the voters.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve lost all respect for the party establishment here in Cumberland County.  It’s as if they are a bunch of kids fighting over the backyard sandbox after a dog took a crap in it.  I’ll be glad when this race is over and I’ll be glad when next year comes so I can vote against the weenies again.  I only hope the voters remember who stood with them and who stood with John Perzel and the establishment.

The Patriot News endorsed the Barclay and Gunnison for Commissioner.  I suppose everyone is expecting me to comment on it, so I feel obliged to comment.  First off, thankfully newspaper endorsements don’t mean much.  The Patriot isn’t necessarily interested in picking the candidates that will win, as evidenced from this endorsement. 

Second, they gave Eichelberger a pretty strong compliment -

Eichelberger is articulate, knowledgeable about the issues and has a wealth of experience as a former Mechanicsburg Borough councilman, executive director of the West Shore Council of Governments and as a private consultant. He has been deeply involved in bringing performance-based budgeting to county government.  

The crazy thing is that they could have just as easily wrote the same thing had they endorsed Gary.

Their assessment of Gunnison wasn’t necessarily all that great. 

Gunnison is a graduate of The Dickinson School of Law, who practiced law for eight years before retiring to raise a family. In that role she was involved in her children’s schools and an array of community organizations, including serving on the Board of AAA Central Penn and Modern Transit Partnership, the latter the moving force behind the Corridor One rail transit project.

Here’s the basis of the endorsement:  The commissioners have a shared vision and that some controversy would be nice because it sells papers.  Here’s the other part of it:

Gunnison also reflects an approach to working regionally that more closely parallels the positions advocated by this newspaper over many years. We remain concerned that Cumberland County no longer participates in the regional tourism and economic development programs. The commissioners insist they had good reason — Cumberland was paying more than its fair share — for withdrawing from these, but we believe there is greater strength in regional unity.

That’s right folks, it’s the same argument that the Gunnison supporters have been making - so what that Cumberland was getting screwed, it’s all about the region.  We should be asking to pay more and bow down in worship that we even got scraps from the table from special interests in Harrisburg. 

The other amuzing part of this “endorsement” was their compliment of Barclay and Rovegno for their vote for a tax increase.   

The big problem with this endorsement is what Eichelberger supporters have been arguing all along - Barclay and Eichelberger share the same record for the most part - so why endorse one over the other?  That makes no sense.   

So here’s the full assessment of the endorsement - they support the candidates that are willing to raise taxes, who are ok with Cumberland getting screwed in the holy name of regionalism, and who bring no experience to the table.  What a great endorsement.  The Republicans in Cumberland County will see through this, they aren’t stupid. 

I’ve never been a fan of hate crimes in any sense - from the committing of the crime to the idea that you can double punish someone for not only the crime, but the thought and intention behind the crime.  Orwell called that thoughtcrime.  Four Republican Congressmen in PA - Dent, English, Gerlach, and Platts essentially voted to endorse the idea that we can criminalize thought.  Of course thought is one thing, the behavior is what we truly end up punishing.  The thing is, we already have laws on the book punishing these crimes.  Why are we putting more value on the murder of one person over another.  If people are not equal based on our birth, then our nation’s basis for it’s law is no longer valid. 

Murder is murder, crime is crime.  I, of all people understand that our beliefs and expectations lead us to act.  I also believe that we have a choice as to whether we take the next step in going from thought to action though.  Our laws punish behavior, not thought.  Hate crimes are in this weird middle ground - not strictly punishing thought, but not strictly punishing behavior either.  It’s a mix and in my mind that is a dangerous leap. 

The Sentinel’s John Hilton wrote an article about the Cumberland County Republican Commissioners’ race.  Here is how the artrcile starts:

With each passing day, Karen Gunnison is looking more like she is running a solo campaign for Cumberland County commissioner.

There are two interesting things about this article.  GOP County Chairman Vic Stabile gave plenty of evidence why PoliticsPA ranked him as the worst county chairman.  Here are some of the highlights of Stabile’s comments:

Current GOP Chairman Victor Stabile said the breakaway group does not represent mainstream county Republicans.

“There’s a reason why they’re gone,” he said of Gwin and Lewis. “The kind of politics that they practice is the kind of politics that the people of Cumberland County and America no longer want to tolerate. It surprises me that two people who were former chairmen would so cavalierly ignore the endorsement process.” 

Don’t worry it gets better:

The PAC members “should carefully weigh the accusations and what they’re saying. This was an open and fair process” to endorse Gunnison/Barclay.

During his public remarks to committee members, Stabile said the turncoats will be remembered post-election.

“I am proud to support our endorsed candidates. To those who don’t — raspberries to them,” he said to chuckles. “And there will be an accounting once this is over.”

I hope Chairman Stabile will be the first to line up when the accounting comes after Gunnison loses.

The other interesting part of the article was AG Corbett’s comments:

But even AG Corbett could not ignore the “Barclay/Eichelberger” signs dotting the Carlisle Pike.

“I’m not wild about seeing those signs. I think that’s just sour grapes,” he said to a crowd of about 50. A primary campaign “is like a battle among family. I believe the endorsement means a lot. If we don’t do endorsements, what are we going to be as a party?”

I’d like to take a stab at answering Mr. Corbett’s question - First of all, it’s not what the party is going to be, the grassroots of the party has their head straight on their shoulders.  It’s the party leadership that is the problem.  Maybe the party leadership could give up endorsements, especially for poor candidates.  The party would be better off for it.  It would be nice if the party leadership and certain elected officials starting trusting the judgement of the grassroots instead of trying to tell people what to do and how to think.