As a condition of Endorsement, did he have to promise to continue the John Murtha process of lying about the U.S. Marines in Haiditha that John Murtha smeared?

Michael Monsour

Mar 6th, 2010

I was there today when the votes were cast and I have never seen a more broken system in my life. The public would have been interested to know how entire committee blocks from Washington and Fayette, decided to vote in a block per their chairman’s endorsement handing Mark nearly 30 of his 46 votes, that is not a direct representation of thir democratic constituents in those areas and the memebers know it.

There has been too much emotional voting and support through out this three week circus and it needs to stop, the state committee and the govorner must step in.

I believe Mark Critz is a very nice and compassionate person, but he needs to be vetted and he hasn’t. I thought it was grossly unfair that Mark took Barbara Hafer’s comments as an attack on Congreeman Murtha’s legacy and his own, when all she did was bring up facts that the Republican Party will not only bring up, but use to destroy Mark in the general.

It is important not to blame the committee members, but the system itself. The facts are simple, women voter’s are stronger than ever in both the 18th and 12th Districts, Independent voters act as a major swing in both districts, and Hafer represented both parties which is a huge advantage amongst our conservative democrats and independents.

If this is what we have to deal with then I will support whomever candidate or candidates come out of the May 18th election as long as they are the right candidate, Unfortunately though after witnessing those rediculous voting blocks setup by a system that spits in the face of our American democracy, I would presume Mr. Russell and the Republican party are licking their chops right about now.

Voters are smarter now than ever they are doing their homework, I have a feeling if the state committee can not clean up this mess, then the voters of the 12th district will.

It was Rendell and Co. that made sure they had the votes for Critz, and they told him he had 50 days ago, and Critz was telling everyone who would listen that he had the votes to win. Is that fair? No, it’s just the way Rendell and Co. do business. I hope that Hafer beats the pants off of Critz in May. She’s the best qualified candidate, not Critz.

O.K. what happened to this story:

http://www.pa2010.com/2010/03/critz-was-bookkeeper-for-company-with-multiple-tax-violations/?utm_source=PA2010.com+First+Read+Opt-In+List&utm_campaign=b0c2ce14da-NEWS+ALERT+3%2F5&utm_medium=email ??

I’m with Hafer.

Critiz is a hack, plain and simple. He’ll get chewed up and put thru the ringer in May.

Rendell and Co will be going out of business soon

Anyone who says this process is corrupt obviously does not have any clue of how the process worked. There were only 3 counties in which the Chairman was to select the appointees via their rules, Allegheny, Armstrong and Fayette.

Of those 3 counties, Allegheny and Armstrong both voted as a block for Hafer. Fayette voted for Critz. All of the other counties either appointed via their executive committees or their county committees.

So lets look at the 3 counties and the methods for selecting their delegates. Allegheny, only had one vote, so the chairman named himself as he did not have any State Committee members who lived in the 12th. By the way he voted for Hafer.

Next was Armstrong. None of the State Committee members in Armstrong County actually live in the 12th. So their delegation was 2 State Committee members and 4 appointments, one of which was not even a county committee member. All 6 voted for Hafer.

Finally was Fayette, the one county that everyone has pointed to as being “corrupt.” Fayette’s county bylaws allow the chair to make the recommendation to State Committee. So by all rights, Mr Lebder could choose anyone he wanted. So lets look at his 11 choices.

First was State Senator Kasunic, next the 2 Democratic County Commissioners, Vicites and Zapotosky. He then picked from his Democratic Row officers. Snyder, Lally, Winterhalter, Malosky, and Brownfield. So 8 of the 11 appointed delegates were countywide elected officials. So who were the other 3 “mystery delegates”, Boni, Miller and Fike. Well the answer is quite simple. Boni and Miller are supervisors in large Democratic townships and Fike is the mayor of the largest city in the county.

Am I to believe that appointing 11 elected officials is stacking the deck? I hardly think that the State Senator, 2 county commissioners, 5 county row officers, and 3 municipal elected officials constitute stacking the deck.

When you criticize the process you at least have the obligation to get the facts straight. All of this crying about the process is nothing more that sour grapes. The process was setup to give local elected Democrats a voice in selecting their nominee.

It has also been touted by the Hafer campaign that the vote by State Committee Members was 16 to 16. This is true, but it should also be noted that of her 16 State Committee votes, only 3 actually live in the 12th Congressional district. And 1 of the 3 had just been appointed in the last month or so. So what about the other 13? They all live in other Congressional Districts and were added to the process by Jack Hanna, a Hafer supporter. If anything the process was skewed to favor Ms. Hafer. She counted votes and knew she did not have it, so she attacked the system.

So what is her remedy? Her campaign has suggested that the Executive Committee ignore the recommendation of the local convention. This should not come as a surprise since she does much better among those outside of the district.

Here is my advise to you Ms. Hafer. Fire your campaign team because they really did do you a disservice by attacking the process. Attacking Mark Critz and his baggage is one thing, but you do not attack those that ultimately have to vote for you. Josh Morrow’s press release cost you at least 10 votes on Saturday and perhaps any chance that you had of winning the nomination.

Fred Lebder… sleazy block voting. Over before it started.

Hanna didnt appoint state committee folks to vote. Obviously you have a problem recognizing right and wrong. 30-7 is an obvious rig. The delegates were selected well before the list went out to all campaigns, and wrapped up according to… Mark Critz.

Hey Baffled,

You long written and long winded explanation is just corned beef hash, and I would rather est the real thing, then read it. Repeat after me, the process is Corrupt, the process is Corrupt, the only thing that matters is the people’s vote in May.

Brett,

Please by all means tell me where the process was corrupt? The truth is when the facts are known and rumor does not rule the day, then well reasoned people will agree that it was not corrupt. You can speculate all you want, you can spread lies and half truths, but in the end, this was as open as it could be.

West-

Look at Hanna’s memo to State Committee in another post. He is the one who wanted State Committee members who did not live in the district included in the voting. Facts are facts. It is in his own Memo.

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