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Live-blogging the Democratic State Committee meeting

LANCASTER—Good afternoon political junkies. We’re sitting here at a press table off to the side of hundreds of Democratic State Committee members. Their endorsement meeting is set to begin any minute, and we’ll be giving you the full play-by-play. We’ll also be posting updates on our Twitter feed.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out our morning rumor mill.

12:03 p.m.—The regional caucus meetings have been over for a bit, state committee folks are slowly but surely getting seated.

12:14—Party chairman T.J. Rooney is making an attempt to get people settled and start the meeting.

12:15—Arlen Specter, son Shanin, Bob Brady and Jonathan Saidel sitting near each other in the front row.

12:17—Invocation, prays for recovery of Congressman John Murtha.

12:18—Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.

12:21—The committee member who’s supposed to certify attendance and credentials isn’t here. Uh-oh. This could be a while.

12:23—Moving to other business (stuff we’re not interested in) while they figure out this credentials issue. Stay tuned.

12:25—Looks like there’s 287 voters present, proxies included. We have a quorum.

12:28—Still dealing with some other business. Stay tuned.

12:29—Looks like the magic number for endorsements is about 190, but Rooney cautions there might be some more members checked in.

12:31—State Treasurer Rob McCord is speaking. “We are, at the end of the day, family. I know primaries are coming, I know feelings can get hot, but we have an unbelievable cast of candidates.”

12:33—With the final credentials in, the magic number for endorsing is 193 votes. 146 is a majority.

12:34—Group rate at the hotel has been extended for a night! Stop folks from traveling those snowy roads.

12:35—OK, now the official endorsement meeting is actually starting.

12:36—New, actually-final credential numbers mean that you need 201 endorse, 151 for majority. Phew.

12:37—They’re approving the rules. If no 2/3rds on first ballot, there’s a second ballot with bottom vote-getter dropped off. No third ballot.

12:39—Some drama. MontCo chair Marcel Groen wants to forgo endorsement. Says so to booing.

12:44.—This is getting interesting. Chuck Pascal says there has to be a vote. So does Jack Hanna. Without endorsing Groen’s motion, he says it’s in order. But the members overrule Rooney by vote.

12:45—The rules are adopted. They’re doing paper-ballots, not a standing vote. Rooney says that was objectionable to “some parties.”

12:46—Penny Gerber (Mike Gerber’s mother) nominates Arlen Specter to applause.

12:48—Wendell Young (UFCW) nominates Joe Sestak to considerably less applause. “I believe joe is the candidate best situated to win this race.”

12:49—Rooney closes nominations, it’s Specter vs. Sestak (duh).

12:50—They’re collecting the ballots for Senate endorsement. Stay tuned.

12:53—Specter’s standing at the front of the Philly delegation, flanked by son Shanin, political director and chief of staff.

12:55—Caucus leaders are still handing out ballots. Operatives circling. Brady can be heard telling his voters to cast for Specter—with a chuckle, as if assumed.

1:01—Witnessed an interesting scene. Brady briefly tried to change the mind the mind of a Philly committee member. Quickly gave it up. Said no problem. Shanin Specter came over and patted the member on the shoulder. Smiled and said “no problem”

1:09—I could try and keep track of each vote on the live-blog, but this is too much fun to watch. It’s looking for good for Specter so far.

1:10—DelCo gives all its votes to hometown Congressman Sestak.

1:12—Specter wins Lackawanna County unanimously and to applause.

1:13—Sestak wins Lancaster County 5-2.

1:14—Lehigh and Luzerne county go unanimously for Specter.

1:15—Monroe’s three votes go for Sestak.

1:15—Montgomery County goes for Specter, 14-3.

1:15—Montour County win’s Sestak’s three votes.

1:16—Philadelphia goes big for Specter, 44-2. The numbers are getting up there.

1:18—As one-vote Tioga county goes for Sestak, a Specter operative walks passed the press table muttering an obscenity clearly aimed at said county.

1:19—Sestak win’s York’s three votes. We’re at the end of the alphabet here.

1:28—Sorry, folks, had to leave the live-blog for a moment to take some video. Specter won the endorsement. Received a rock-start reception. Sounded very much like a victory speech. Talked about being ready to point out Toomey’s record and face the “Tea-Party gang.” We’ll have lots more on this later.

1:29—Opening nominations for governor. MontCo’s Marcel Groen starts by nominating Joe Hoeffel. “Joe has been a longtime friend not only to those in Montgomery County but to those throughout the Commonwealth. … He’s the only one who I know who’s running who has experience with both the legislative and executive branches.”

1:31—Jack Wagner is nominated for governor. Nomination seconded.

1:34—Dan Onorato nominated, former Pittsburgh City Council prez talks about property taxes and reforming government. Nomination seconded.

1:35—Senator Anthony Williams nominated. This is the most serious move of his guv run so far. Nomination seconded.

1:37—CHRIS DOHERTY’S NAME IS NOT ENTERED INTO NOMINATION. WHAA?

1:38—OK, so now there’s an issue. Williams’ name isn’t on the ballots. But Doherty’s name is. Williams says he’s willing to have people write in his name in the blank space on the ballot, so that ballots don’t have to be reprinted. Votes for Doherty won’t be counted.

1:39—Specter’s leaving the building.

1:40—While they’re collecting votes, I’m going to look into what happened with Doherty.

1:44—OK, I’m being told not to read too much into this Doherty thing. Some say he knew he wasn’t going to do well here, and is still running anyway. But the vibe in the room is that he’s ready to make an LG run. Looking into it more.

1:47—Things are moving really fast. Sestak is holding court upstairs and I’ll go talk to him real quick while they’re counting gov votes.

1:55—Just talked to Sestak. Will update with his remarks later. Back to guv stuff. Philly just went for Anthony Williams big time.

1:57—The final Senate tally we heard is 227 for Specter, 72 for Sestak and 5 abstentions.

1:58—Haven’t tallied it up, but looks like Wagner’s faring well, with a possible second-ballot showdown against Onorato. Stay tuned.

2:00—The first-ballot counts are in. Wagner leads with 142. Onorato’s got 71, followed by Williams with 44, thanks to his Philly strength. Hoeffel’s last with 36, and will be dropped from the second-ballot. Now being distributed.

2:10—Just spoke to Specter. They’re doing the second-ballot guv roll call. Onorato wins Allegheny.

2:12—Wagner’s looking strong in this second-ballot voting. But will it be two-thirds?

2:13—Montgomery county has 12 abstentions, obviously upset that Hoffel was knocked off. There’s some gasps.

2:14—Williams gets 39 from Philly in second-ballot. 3 each for Wagner and Onorato.

2:15—All of Pike County abstains. Some boos.

2:16—Anthony Williams sure came out of nowhere this weekend. Impressive.

2:18—Final vote is in. Wagner still leads with 153, but not two-thirds. So no endorsement. Onorato gets 76, Williams 48 and 27 abstentions.

2:19—They’re doing Lt. Gov. now. Jonathan Saidel is nominated and seconded.

2:23—Saidel wins nomination on a standing vote. Doris Smith-Ribner never stood a chance.

2:25—Been working the room. Both Wagner and Onorato say no endorsement is good news.

2:26—Meeting is adjourned. Now begins the real work.

2:27—OK folks, that’s it for now. I’m gonna be mulling around talking to candidates. I’ll post some  stories, as well as video, soon.

February 6, 2010 at 12:06 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

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