Good read.
Goofy. It will shake out in November. The Crats are crowing about this???
Burns still has a shot in November, when the Indies come out to vote
If I read this article correctly, the Governor set things up so that the special election was, in effect, being run like a primary. Democrats had no choice but to vote for a Democrat.
You may remember the trick of providing a pencil attached to a string in each voting booth. The powers-that-be could then note which way the string was angled to tell who voted for whom. Since, in this case, the polling records indicate who asked for a given ballot, the “secret ballot” principle was eliminated, for all intents and purposes.
Voter intimidation without the New Black Panther clubs.
Independents don't vote in PA unless, PA is a closed primary. I agree at a high level with his premise but there is no crossover voting in PA for a primary unless you change parties before the election with that purpose in mind.
November may end up being a little different - by this time, Critz will have a record that may be used against him, if he's toed the Obama/Pelosi line, or he may lose Demecrat Party enthusiasm and support if he hasn't. There will also be no Sestak/Specter race heading up the ballot to get Dems enthusiastic. Toomey may have some coattails. Burns won't be hurt by a concurrent primary battle within his own Party.
Who knows.
It'll still be a trick to win it in November, and I'm personally doubtful, since PA-12 is NOT, despite the efforts of some to cast it as such, a swing district by any means.
So only about 8000 Independents ended up voting.
I knew burns was finished when I saw the first commercial saying that Burns advocated a 23% national sales tax on everything. Showed what people would pay for food and medicine. They kept running ‘em and it was all over. People must have thought he was nuts.
Good analysis. Another reason Tim lost is that organizations like the GOP, ALG, and others that brag about their “grassroots organizing” are too busy playing games to get down to the business of registering voters, counting heads, and turning out the vote. What we really need is some “Tea Roots” organizing. The Tea Party folks will definitely do it right!
One important lesson here...if you support the Fair Tax, the Dems will use it to beat you into the ground with brazen demagoguery. (the truth on this issue cannot be explained in 30 second ads) Sad that we’ve entered an age where constructive ideas can’t be sold to voters if they don’t fit into a 30-second jingle.
ping
Scott Brown and Tom Corbett headlined a rally in Washington, Pa.(my hometown) for Burns on Friday. It drew 75 people. Counting media, Burns volunteers, local cops and security for Corbett and Burns, the headcount was about 125.
Apparently, the support just wasn't there for Burns, for whatever reason. Hopefully he can work on his strategy in the coming months.
Burns was appointed by the state check pants Repub committee to run in the special election rather than Col. Bill Russell, the Conservative Republican that ran against murtha in the last election.
Such was the animosity between state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason and Col. Russell that Gleason, a good buddy of murtha, refused to endorse Russell in his 2008 run against the incumbent.
Word on the street is that Burns was chosen as he had the finances to support his own campaign. These shenanigans raised a lot of ire in the Russell camp with, I would guess, probably a few staying home in disgust.
Also AFSCME and some others were running adds saying that Burns wanted to raise sales taxes to 23% (part of the Fair Tax) without telling voters anything about the rest of the plan.
Burns did little to counter this, running no adds that I saw to educate voters on his position.
Nathan, another big reason why this race was an anomaly and should not be considered a bellwether.
This is an interesting explanation...
I hope this is not a omen come Nov. for FR’s sake. Things can still go the Obama and Dems way this Nov.
More important, the KY race put a Tea Party favorite in over an establishment picked candidate in a landslide. If team Bam Bam is smart they'd be very concerned behind the scenes.