I’d suggest visiting Sestak’s offices early in the morning, late at night, on a Sunday. You’ll rarely find them closed. That’s why he has the respect of his constituents, even many who didn’t vote for him.

But do you think he would have garnered 60% of the vote if PA-7 residents knew that he would be spending most of his time campaigning, rather than serving in Congress?

Allright, David. Enough already. When it was just us local Delaware County political junkies reading the coverage of Congressman Sestak on this site, your personal vendetta against him Sestak was somewhere in the range of irrelevant to comical. Pretty much everyone reading had already been harrangued by you in person, so it really didn’t matter. But with these articles being regularly linked by Politico and other national sites, it’s time to come clean with the readers about your personal vendetta against Sestak, lest they think the slander you throw around day in and day out has some relevance to legitimate political debate.

Here are the facts as I recall them from my involvement in the 2006 Sestak Congressional campaign, as a volunteer from January to July 2006 and a staffer from July to November, 2006. David Diano was a volunteer IT staffer on the campaign early on. Mr. Diano also runs a business consisting of a voter registration database site called voterweb.org. Mr Diano initially made this database available to Sestak’s campaign gratis, but as the campaign gained traction, sought to negotiate compensation for use of the database. Due to normal campaign considerations, as well as behavior on Mr. Diano’s part that could have left the campaign open to potential legal liability, Mr. Diano’s involvement with Sestak’s campaign ceased. That is the end of the story as I know it, but during the three years since, Mr. Diano has pursued a campaign of character assassination against Congressman Sestak, ostensibly under the guise of legitimate political criticism, but really tied to Mr. Diano’s personal vendetta over his failure to secure business with the Sestak Campaign. (David, if you have documentation or witnesses to refute any of this, please produce it. I’ve heard your story numerous times and you’ve never offered anything but sour grapes.)

Therefore I would urge the objective reader to read Mr. Diano’s statements regarding Congressman Sestak with the understanding that they reflect a personal disgruntlement with little basis in reality, and certainly have nothing to do with debating policy.

Joe Sestak is tough, demanding, and can outwork almost anyone his junior. To me, and apparently to the 60% of the voters in his district that elected him, that is exactly what it takes to be the effective Congressman he is. That said, one thing he will never do is ask anyone to work harder than he does. Some staffers thrive in that atmosphere, others can’t stand it and move on. And a few will always resent it and hold it against the man. That is their prerogative, but personal beefs should not be mistaken for relevant political debate.

Sincerely,

Mario Cimino
D – Morton Borough Council
Former Volunteer Coordinator,
Sestak for Congress 2006

Also, Sestak isn’t really competitive as a candidate unless the media fabricates it as a hot race, thus lending artificial credibility to Sestak’s campaign.

Jack-
The support for Specter isn’t just “in-name-only”. When these committees make their endorsements, generate sample ballots at the polls, and provide direction for poll workers, you can bet the infra-structure advantage is real. When they write letters to the editor, and use their titles, it will sway voters.

DAN-
With the new FTC blogging rules, the paid Sestak staffers here will have to start coming clean.

Catch Countdown with Keith tonight?

From my view, it seems like the big papers, mcall/inky/pg, just aren’t interested in the race yet.

From the imagery in this site, it looks like Sestak’s been skipping votes to watch the Mad Max movies.

I’ve seen coverage of this on pa2010, and a few other news blogs, but no mainstream coverage yet.

Bummer for the Sestak camp.. they got more press on the countdown than on the actual site.