Because of a desire to cast a vote for Fred Thompson some years ago, am still registered as a Republican. I never got to vote for Fred, because he didn’t make it all the way to Pennsylvania. They said he didn’t act like he really wanted the job, which for me is a plus. No sane person would want to be President. But because I did not switch back to Independent, I get the sheer joy of casting my vote tomorrow in the primary. I say that with the upmost sarcasm, but I do have a Congressional primary race I want to have a say in.
For the PA-08 Congressional primary, I am voting for Mark Duome. Andrew Warren got a C on his questionnaire from NRA. Unsurprisingly, Brian Fitzpatrick did not even bother to turn in his questionnaire. His brother was not very strong on the issue, and I always believed him to be a weasel. I believe if the chips are down, Fitzpatrick will betray us, and I don’t have much faith in his brother either. He’ll be way to afraid of Bloomberg’s money.
For the State Attorney General, NRA has not issued any endorsement. Last time John Rafferty ran for his PA Senate seat, he was rated A- and endorsed. Joe Peters has an AQ rating for this race, meaning he answered well on his questionnaire, but does not have a record on the issue. Rafferty probably has better name recognition in these parts, and that’s going to be key to getting the AG’s office back in the hands of someone who won’t muck about with reciprocity agreements, and who isn’t claiming power to ban private transfers of long guns, as some Dem candidates are doing. That probably tips me more into the Rafferty camp. We have to win this one.
Then we get to the big race. It looks like Marco Rubio is still on the ballot, so I will vote for him in protest to the remaining candidates, or I just won’t vote at all. I could write a whole overly long post of all the problems with Trump, but I’ll go with my gut instinct that he’s a swindler. Now, to a large degree all politicians are swindlers, but I get the same bad feeling about The Donald I got about Obama. I think they share a good many weaknesses. I’m also still not convinced Trump isn’t a stalking horse for Hillary, joining the race to put the GOP in disarray, but who has beat all expectations.
Despite polls that show Cruz polls better than Trump against Hillary nationally, Cruz doesn’t change anything. He’s still going to be struggling in the same swing states. He will have to win Florida and Ohio to win, and Cruz has lost everything west of the Mississippi except Maine and Wisconsin. He lost The South to a guy from New York City. I don’t think he’s a naturally likable candidate. The only strength he would have in the general election is that neither is Hillary. That leaves Kasich, who I’ve heard enough stupid crap from to just say no. He’s also only won one state, and it was his home state. Obama has successfully driven Republican voters bat shit crazy. He deserves credit for that. Very well played.
Be sure to check your delegates. Remember, it’s likely to be very very close, and these delegates are not bound on the first ballot. They can vote for whoever they want. So be sure who they say they are pledging to in your Congressional District. For those of you in the 8th Congressional Distict:
- Barry Casper, Trump
- Deborah Evangelou, Cruz
- Jim Worthington, Trump
- Sean Shute, Trump
- Robert Loughtery, Popular Vote
- Marguerite Quinn, Popular Vote
- Gene DiGirolamo, Unknown. He’s the PA rep for the district down from mine.
You only vote for no more than three. I could not find any information on alternates, but you can only vote for three and there are three running. I will vote for Evangelou and DiGirolamo. The ones who are committed to the popular vote are likely to be Trump supporters. This only reflects my preference for Cruz over Trump if things at the convention go down to the wire. This is the only strategic voting I’m doing in this primary.
So that’s my slate. Be sure to head to the state store and stock up tomorrow. You deserve it if decided to pick from this sorry lot!
Well, I guess you yankees would prefer to vote for a uniparty Cubano, like Rubio. I guess you like millions of illegals walking around taking jobs for less than “minimum wage”. Well, there are THREE PEOPLE that have a possibility of being elected president. Cruz, Trump or the hildabeast. I will vote for Trump or Cruz, warts and all. They may be shills, they may be Qship pro-Hillary plants or they could be just what they said they are. But I KNOW if the uniparty tries to parachute in a savior like Ryan it will end the “R” wing of the uniparty. And only allah knows what would happen under a hildabeast regime. Vote accordingly.
Immigration is not really my issue. That could have to do with how far I live away from the border and the fact that Pennsylvania has very few hispanics (about 6% of the population, and a sizable chunk of them are Puerto Rican).
I don’t tend to do strategic voting in the primaries. That’s where I get to vote my conscience. And I can’t vote for Trump, and I think both he and Cruz stand a good chance of losing. I believe Rubio was the best candidate, and he’s still on the ballot even if he’s suspended his campaign.
Not really your issue?? Really?? Ok. This is why we lose folks.
If you kicked every illegal out, and stopped all illegal immigration going forward, it changes little politically. Hispanics are a growing voting block because they are having more kids than any other ethnicity.
When I say it’s not my issue, I mean it’s something I’m willing to compromise on for the sake of having a viable political coalition against the left.
“This is why we lose folks.”
You’re right. Immigration fanaticism is among the reasons the gun rights movement lost me, as an activist, anyway. My g-grandparents were immigrants and the Know Nothings were saying the same things about them that the anti-immigrant folks are saying about immigrants today.
Plus, it is a distraction. I recently did a little test, and Googled “immigration” at the website of one of our longtime “gun rights” organizations in the state. I got over 160 hits — at a gun rights website.
If I didn’t know they were closely held by a legislator-patron who is among the most radical xenophobes in the nation, I’d be puzzled. I guess he’s protecting us from the barbarian hordes coming across the borders of Ohio and West Virginia.
Your ignorance is astounding. The U.S. has more LEGAL immigrants per year than the rest of the world COMBINED. And no one is complaining about “immigrants”. What I am talking about are ILLEGAL immigrants. Of which there are TENS of MILLIONS! That work for lower wages and the ESTABLISHMENT, like Koch, lets TAXPAYERS give them free welfare, housing, medicaid and education while the ESTABLISHMENT makes money off their lower pay.
Yeah, I remember how when the high school football players beat to death an immigrant on the street of the same town where my immigrant grandparents once lived — and the “authorities” tried to cover for them — they had thoroughly checked his papers first.
You may want to fellow-travel with the people who feed that bullshit, but I don’t. I hope you can find enough economic justifications to salve your conscience.
Wow. So are you against “high schoolers”, “football players” or “authorities”? Hard to tell what you mean with that meme. So open borders floats your boat, eh? I guess not many “immigrants” live in your neck of the woods. Maybe you should “immigrate” back to the part of the world your “immigrant” grandparents left? It would no doubt raise the standard of living in both parts of the world. I didn’t use “countries” since that would be so “right wing”.
You guys are too easy.
Every time I hear an argument like this I think if this bit from Doug Stanhope:
https://youtu.be/Z_iBOEDb7PM
So why don’t you just say you want open borders, are for “One World”, think “citizenship” is an old outmoded model and don’t see any difference between “legal” and ILLEGAL immigration?
Okay. Don’t care about the borders. Have no problem being a human with my fellow humans and don’t care about immigration either way since I don’t want to scrub toilets, pick vegetables, or slaughter chickens for a living.
I do want clean toilets at work, inexpensive vegetable and cheap chicken.
Immigration is not an issue of mine, and before I moved to Filthadelphia I was the only doctoral educated white dude in my neighborhood in Virginia. It was a great place to live and my South American neighbors, some legal and some not, were awesome, nice hardworking and quiet. I would trade them any day for the over indulged white college kids that live in my current neighborhood.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree.
While he was not my first choice, I’m voting for Cruz. He has a great gun rights record and history- there is a video of him shooting an M249- in addition to his other pro-Liberty records and stances. He gives this best chance of beating Hillary and appointing a replacement to Scalia. If you are a single issue voting on gun rights, you must vote Cruz.
Trump gives me the same cult of personality vibes as Obama. I don’t trust him at all.
Does anyone know the background on delegate candidate Jim Worthington? He seems to be running a pretty expensive campaign, for a mere delegate. What’s up?
I’ll only be allowed to vote for the referendum questions, since I’m “No Party.” I used to switch registration so I could vote for certain Republican candidates I liked in the primaries, but gave that up as a bad deal a long time ago.
I’m sort of wishing I had switched to D, this time, to cast a vote for Fetterman for U.S. Senate, as probably the best we can hope for after Toomey loses in November. I liked the story about Fetterman, as mayor of Bradford, pulling a shotgun out from under the seat of his truck and holding a guy he saw running down the street after he heard some gunfire, at gun point until he determined he wasn’t a suspect. That seemed to say he had the right attitude about the role of the armed citizen.
“Andrew Warren got a C on his questionnaire from NRA.”
Forgive me, I spend too much time down memory lane these days, but friends who were there tell me I one time had to be physically restrained from taking Andy Warren apart with my bare hands during a campaign a couple decades ago. I don’t remember that myself, but they tell me I went pretty nuts.
The point of that story being, Andy Warren can do that to you.
I’ll make sure to make note of your whimsical choice for president come November when it’s another Debbie downer day… ;)
Cruz is my first choice. For a neocon he’s the least worst option.
Personally I think it’s mostly rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. If the GOP has any chance of rebuilding after November it’s going to have to coaslesce around libertarian ideals. Those ideals are not reflected in any of the present candidates. Oh yeah, and he GOP is also going to have to be all about peaceable resistance.
I’m not making a choice for President. I’m making a choice for the GOP nomination. When it comes to that, I vote my conscience.
And I should note I prefer Cruz to Trump. But I think Trump will win PA comfortably enough I can lodge a “not either of those two” vote.