It has started. Petitions have been filed and the campaigns are officially launched with a place on the ballot for the primary, and possibly, general elections.
With that deadline passing, a new post just went up at PAGunRights.com looking at all 18 Congressional races in Pennsylvania for this year.
There’s the candidate who wants to force all gun owners to carry liability insurance that doesn’t exist (that’s in our district – yay), and there’s a candidate who tells the media that gun control laws will be one of her top priorities if she’s elected. Then you have a Bloomberg-ally gun control-supporting former mayor running for Congress who holds the distinction of leading her city to the first ever municipal SEC securities fraud charges for misleading investors on the state of public finances.
Future posts, which I’m sure I’ll link here, will focus on the statewide races and state legislative races which feature quite a few retirements of pro-gun votes.
Glad I live in PA-18, though it’s not by much. Maybe I’ll throw a few bucks Rothfus’s way since it looks like he may actually be running against an anti-gun candidate this time (in 2012 I believe he challenged an NRA-backed Critz).
I’ll be intrigued about how the state-wide races shape up, since I see any immediate attacks coming on that level. Since Corbett isn’t looking too hot the key would be to maintain dominant control of the GA, effectively making a possible Democratic Governor a lame-duck off the bat when it comes to gun control. I’m thankfully represented by an A-rated Dem rep and I believe a B-rated Dem senator.
The PA-12 race will be interesting. As the incumbent, Rothfus will have the endorsement even if the challenger is pro-gun.
If the Dems vote for Hugya, then he’ll probably return a pretty good questionnaire. Hugya used to be a Murtha staffer, and he at least likes shotguns because he once bought one at a Friends dinner. However, I didn’t mention it because it doesn’t really give us a great picture of his policy positions and it also was a rather complicated matter since he used campaign funds to buy it and then claimed it as a gift from the campaign, a move that generate quite a few ethics concerns. It made it less clear on the purpose, whether it was really more about spending money on Murtha’s behalf. I figured I’d link the many articles on it if he wins and then let readers decide until his grade comes in, should he win the nomination. If he doesn’t, then it’s irrelevant and the woman who has declared in favor of some gun control will be the focus.
The state races will be my next post. We have some good news, some bad on that front. I need to start that post because it does take a while to gather up the links and do the searches for any new statements from the candidates on our issues.
My state senator (Matt Smith) isn’t up this year but my state rep (Bill Kortz) is, though I’m not sure if he’s even being challenged. Both seem to be pretty cut-from-the-mold Dems on other issues despite being pro-gun.
Out here, Rep. Erin Molchany being re-districted into Rep. Harry Readshaw’s 36th district and now running against him in the primary is an interesting story. Readshaw seems to be a long-time pro-gun Dem which is a little surprising considering he represents some Pittsburgh Wards and very close-in suburbs. It would be a great opportunity to hold the line in an urban area as well as knock off an up-and-coming progressive that I can only assume is anti-gun.
I saw Joe_in_Pitt and thought “Holy crap! my Congressman reads SNBQ!”
But then I read it again and realized you are not Joe Pitts. Too bad, that would almost make me overlook his whole Christian Taliban thing.
Anyway, I look forward to Bitter’s rundown on the State-wide races.
Oh boy, I was hoping for some calm.
Merle (in western PA)
In Western PA, it’s going to be somewhat calm. In theory, Rothfus should probably be more safe than the previous numbers show. The fact is that he managed to win in a year when Obama took the state, and that is impressive for what is technically a pretty friendly Democratic district. With Critz on the ballot again in another race, there may be high turnout for him, and that could boost Democratic votes for whoever wins that primary. So that’s going to be a race to watch polling numbers. Rothfus has done a great job at local constituent events, and his social media presence indicates a pretty solid constituent service effort. That goes a very long way with voters. Beyond that, I’m not sure what PA-3 will hold for Mike Kelly. That should probably be pretty safe this year, so I’m not worried about that seat yet.
The real issues for Western PA will be the statewide races and the retirements in the state house. Like I said, I’ll link those posts when they are done. It’s gonna take a while though because we have a ton of retirements.
Though, if you have a few bucks to throw toward NRA-PVF so they can help out in various races around PA, that would helpful.
The former mayor of Harrisburg may have been able to fool her uneducated urban block of ‘D’ voters 5 years ago, but anyone in the surrounding area watching local TV coverage knows better than to ever vote for Thompson! God help us on all fronts if she ever achieves another political office in this state…
I don’t think she’s really a risk. That seat is considered safely GOP, but I thought she was worth mentioning because she is a Bloomberg ally running for higher office. We’ve warned about that being the eventual “payoff” in investing in mayors when they are in lower offices. In a state senate election a few years ago, it was a difference between an A rated Dem and a Bloomberg-allied mayor. We try to keep an eye on them so we can keep them out of higher offices.
300,000 Connecticut gun owners REFUSED to
register firearms..
Lets pray that never happens in PA, and if it did,
it could be up to 1,000,000 gun owners that
will say – Helll No
What dont these traitor politicians understand about–
“Shall NOT be Infringed”