The Washington Post

pa2012.com is proud to partner with The Washington Post in bringing our originally reported insider political news to a wide audience of decision makers and opinion leaders across the country.

Close it

Michael Livingston's Blog

Michael Livingston's Blog

Purple in Pennsylvania

5 questions for 2010

Next year Pennsylvania will choose a new governor, decide whether or not to keep its U.S. Senator and pick all manner of new members of Congress and the General Assembly. So it’s hard to pick out a few special questions that stand out from the rest.

Here’s my attempt:

1. How long will it take Jim Gerlach to start getting nasty—and I mean really nasty—in his gubernatorial primary against Tom Corbett? Gerlach loves a fight, but so far Corbett is on cruise control. How many people do you think are doing “opposition research” in the Gerlach suite right now?

2. When will Pat Toomey say anything mean about anyone? There was an episode of Gomer Pyle USMC in which Gomer bet the sergeant that he couldn’t go 24 hours without losing his temper. Can Toomey go 24 months?

3. What will Josh Shapiro do to begin attracting attention to himself again? The presumptive future governor has been practically unheard from since the debacle of his cellphone ban bill (which was of course the right thing to do but who’s counting?). How long can this continue?

4. Will C0ngressmen Bob Brady or Chaka Fattah do any campaigning? Sure, they win anyway, but so do the Eagles, and they still stay in shape. What if they need to run for mayor again, and forget how?

5. Just how much redder a shade of purple will Pennsylvania—and the country—be one year from now?

Happy New Year, and see you in 2010.

share001btn 5 questions for 2010

December 29, 2009 at 6:07 pm

--Michael Livingston

comments

comments [9] | post a comment

  1. demberger

    Dec 29th, 2009

    You forgot one — at what point will the establishment of the Democratic party realize that Wagner is the only chance to beat Corbett? I’m hoping sooner rather than later.

  2. Stosh

    Dec 30th, 2009

    demberger, Wagner is nothing but a grand stander. While that may play well in a campaign, he would be a disaster in the governor’s office. I haven’t seen much to like about him at all.

  3. David Diano

    Dec 30th, 2009

    Stosh-
    You never seem to find much to like about any Democrats.

    What a shock you don’t like Wagner. Glad I was sitting down when I read your comments.

  4. GOPHAWK

    Dec 30th, 2009

    The best person to send against our prosecutor is Dan Onorato.
    Onorato raised taxes the most of anyone in Allegheny County history, rewarded his campaign contributors with no-bid contracts (like his friend, Ed Spendell) and oversaw the largest cost overruns (170%) on the smallest construction project (one mile tunnel) in Pennsylvania history. The public deserves a clear choice. Onorato versus our intrepid prosecutor who fought corruption and opposes taxes on beer, parking and everything else is that clear choice that the people deserve.

  5. Stosh

    Dec 30th, 2009

    David,

    You may want to sit down before reading this.

    I didn’t make any comments regarding the other Gov. candidates — I really think Wagner is the worst of the bunch (with the possible exception of Knox). I think either Onorato or Hoeffel would be a better Governor than Knox or Wagner.

    As a far as other Dems I could say nice things about, I prefer Trivedi over Pike in the 6th (comes across as less arrogant and more honest) and Specter over Sestak for Senate (Sestak is an egomaniac).

  6. Steve

    Dec 30th, 2009

    Think the Gerlach team will attack Corbett for his close association with Bob Asher? That criminal is in charge of Corbett’s campaign for Heaven’s sake! Talk about a liability for Corbett.

  7. Adam

    Dec 31st, 2009

    The last thing Jim Gerlach needs to get nasty is “research”. He usually just makes things up. Take, for instance, the 1000 times he sent a mailer explaining Lois Murphy’s “tax plan” even though she never released one and was never on the record about raising taxes. Since 2002 that guy has been the Old Faithful of misinformation.

  8. Anonymous

    Jan 2nd, 2010

    do you have jerry morgans email address and phone number thanks need to ask him a question> we worked together on manions camp for a brief while

  9. Dudley

    Jan 3rd, 2010

    A late addition to the PA Governor race is Sam Rohrer a state House Representative from Berks County. As most people are tired of both parties, Sam is a Republican who does not always follow the Republican line. He has been trying to replace the school taxes with a sales tax, and he wants to control spending of our money. An independent thinker who is for less government.

Leave a Reply


- will not be published