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Suburban Snapshot goes to Harrisburg

HARRISBURG—The words “Republican State Committee” make you think of elephants, excitement and elation at GOP victories. Those things happened in Harrisburg this weekend, but “Iowa” T-shirts were popping up all over the Hilton here, as if the Hawkeye State’s caucus had moved to Pennsylvania. Either people want Rick Santorum to go run for president there, or they were enemy fans in Penn State’s weekend game.

Football aside, attending a state committee meeting is a great way to network, meet candidates and elected officials and chat with party leadership. The fall 2009 meeting did not disappoint.

Once the meetings were done, people from all over the Commonwealth were talking politics, punditry, and prospects, meeting old friends and making new ones, in all of the 67 counties—from Adams to Westmoreland.

For those of you who have attended a political dinner, you know the drill—chicken and chat. State party chairman Rob Gleason and vice-chair Joyce Haas welcomed everyone. The ubiquitous deputy chair, Renee Amoore, told everyone to enjoy this evening. Gleason’s remarks included the vow that Republicans will be united this fall.

Gleason poked fun at the party’s overflowing slate for Lieutenant Governor, joking that he might throw his own hat into the ring.

State Supreme Court candidate Joan Orie Melvin gave a rousing speech. She also thanked everyone and was deeply grateful for their commitment to her primary victory.

“People are hungry for all three branches of government to be reformed,” she said.

Her three focal points were reform, accountability and transparency. She then welcomed her fellow judicial hopefuls, including Superior Court candidates, Judy Olson, Sallie Mundy, Temp Smith and Judge Paula Ott, along with Commonwealth Court candidates Patricia McCullough and Kevin Brobson.

Former Congressman and current candidate for U.S. Senate, Pat Toomey, also addressed the crowd, and had some excellent words for the Republicans in the room.

Special mention was made to the people from the 24th Senatorial District—which includes the counties of Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton—to get out and push for Bob Mensch in this Tuesday’s special election. It may not seem important to others, but this seat has been Republican for quite a while. This vote is critical to the GOP keeping the Senate, and the outcome will undoubtedly impact the 2010 elections.

Speeches were the order of the day, but for the 400-plus attendees, the highlight was Dana Perino, former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush. Perino had the audience in the palm of her hand when she was sharing some extremely funny Bush/White House moments. Then the conversation turned serious when she talked about the Tony Snow crisis. Snow was the former press secretary who was fighting cancer when Perino was asked to step in. It was a very emotional time, as Snow and President Bush were very close, and Perino was part of that triumvirate. Moving on to the future, she said not to worry about the Republican Party. She finished by telling everyone in the room to reach out to those different than you. Remember, we are a big tent.

After the dinner, there were receptions with candidates Toomey, Jim Gerlach and Tom Corbett, while Chester County GOP chair Skip Brion and County Commissioner Carole Aichele were having a reception for the judicial candidates. People went from reception to reception, chatted, had some good food, occasionally hearing good music, and talked about victory in November.  People were surmising if national money from the NRCC and the RNC would be put into the “winnable” seats in ChesCo and DelCo.

The Republican Party is ready. We have the message. We have the candidates. We have the passion.

We have the pulse of the people in Pennsylvania.

We will win

September 28, 2009 at 1:07 pm

--Beth Hegedus

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