How telling. It’s common for the candidate who’s behind to challenge the frontrunner to debates. This is certainly true in this congressional district.

Voters look forward to Lentz trying to defend his budget and tax hike votes as well as his support for the unpopular Pelosi-Obama agenda.

Lentz is in big trouble. He done in the polls and way behind in money. The people of this district want accountablity to the district not pelosi.

I don’t think the public has the appetite for 8-10 debates, and I doubt the press will cover all them. Only the last one is going to get televised, as people make their decisions in October. While the two will have vast policy differences, the last of 8 debates will have little pop, zing, surprises or knockouts as the two candidates will know each other’s moves. Any missteps will be OLD news come election time, with plenty of rehabilitation.

If they did have 8-10 them, I agree with the idea of having them regional to give more people access.

Wow, Lentz wanting to debate. Quite a reversal from when he refused or did little to debate opponents in his State House races.

Maybe during the debate, Lentz could answer the question about whether and what deals he made with former opponent Gail Conner to get her to stand down – it now appears that Lentz promised her a state house seat in exchange for getting out of the Congressional race. Dan, maybe you could look into this. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Lentz participated in a deal for congress/state house seats, right Bryan?

The story everyone is missing is how Meehan got 9 thousand more votes then Lentz when all of the competitive races were on the D side. Lentz should be worried about the enthusiasm gap Dems have.

Boy, I thought Meehan might have his own mind or run a campaign for the voters of Delaware, Chester and Montgomery County…but when I read his statement I swear I could hear John Boner (except Pat does not have the tan). Look, stop talking points and name calling, boys…get to the issues.

@1994 Again–dream on…btw…if you read what was written, it appears Meehan first challenged Lentz..so employing your logic Meehan is losing…:0)

While I agree with David that very few will watch all but the last debate I think it is a good thing that will hopefully focus the race on a discussion of issues.

P. O’Neill-
How can Lentz (or anyone else) “promise” a state house seat to a candidate? He can promise to support her candidacy, but he can’t promise her a seat.
Didn’t the GOP promise Meehan the congressional race if he dropped his governor bid?

J. Hughes-
I didn’t miss that and commented on it elsewhere. Lentz got 72% of the Sestak+Specter total. Meehan got 92% of the Toomey+Luksik total. The Republicans didn’t spend anything relative to the Dems for this primary. Lentz has a harder time now because all the Sestak fans in Delco are not going to be available to Lentz. Lentz won’t get coattails from Sestak’s Republican supporters.

You can bet that if the Sestak campaign identifies any Sestak+Meehan split ticket voters, they will target them for GOTV.
I would go so far to say that if Pat Meehan himself were to walk into Sestak’s office with a list of 5,000 voters who were definitely Sestak+Meehan and say he didn’t feel like wasting his own resources on GOTV, that the Sestak campaign would vigorously pursue the list for their campaign’s GOTV.

Suburban Dem, nice to see that you are in denial about the lefty national agenda being pushed by your party. The new Rasmussen Pennsylvania poll released today shows high unfavorable ratings for the Dear Leader Obama and Rendell as well as lots of support for repealing the socialist healthcare law. Meehan wins in this political environment.

Bye, bye Libs!

One debate, ten debates, no debates… the number is immaterial. Lentz couldn’t even draw enough votes (on a day when Democratic turnout should have outnumbered Republicans by an enormous margin) to beat Meehan in the primary.

If I’m Nancy Pelosi, I’m looking at proven loser Bryan Lentz, and I’m looking at dozens of House Dem incumbents desperate for money to defend their jobs. Where do I choose to put my resources?

Look for DCCC to begin to shut off the tap on the national money, and Lentz to slowly fade away.

It becomes more apparent everyday that the Lentz camp is scrambling to garner some much needed positive media attention after being floored by Meehan’s resounding 9,000 vote victory in Tuesday’s primary. It comes as no surprise that Mr. Hirschhorn fails to make a single mention of the results from Tuesday’s congressional primary in the 7th district, showing that he is just like every other reporter readily fueling the liberal fire. Be it poor research, slanted journalism, a memory lapse, or a combination of the three, Mr. Hirschhorn leaves out the blatant fact that Pat Meehan has more support in the district because hard working Americans of both parties are tired of Washington’s continuing radical progressive agenda despite the desperate need for economic stability and job creation. In a political climate where an acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise, Mr. Lentz’s unwillingness to deviate from a platform of radical spending, excessive government, and false promises, will ensure that Mr. Meehan will continue to have the support of Americans from all over the country.

It looks like Meehan got the Corbett-who-attacks-Twitter voters in Ches and Del.

Lentz just needs to get out more around the counties with a major campaign – like I am sure the DCCC will do.

Meehan is in trouble if he is just getting help from PA Repubs – and the too-tanned Boehner and the RCCC is useless – as shown in PA-12.

I do think Lentz will be the better debater – speaks better about issues than Meehan who doesn’t have any policy background.

The Meehan camp will rue the day they accepted so many debates. Pat is a notoriously uninspiring public speaker- he fidgets uncomfortably, delivering Republican party pablum in a leaden monotone. Bryan’s charisma and policy knowledge will shine through, I have no doubt.

On a slightly different note, it’s quite hilarious to see posters here talking about a supposed 9,000 vote ‘victory’ in the primary for Meehan, even though neither he nor Lentz had any opposition on Tuesday. So the Delco GOP machine was able to orchestrate the coronation of their hand-picked candidate- what a surprise!

The 9,000 vote gap in the primary doesn’t mean that much. There were more Dems who voted in Delaware County than Republicans if you look at the Senate race. Lentz didn’t get all those votes, because people haven’t started hearing about him yet, whereas Meehan picked up most of the Republican votes. That will change as the election gets closer, so Lentz will make up the gap in the Dem voter area. Also, it’s got to be nothing but a positive for Lentz that Sestak is on the ticket for Senate. Sestak will drive turnout in the 7th district from his supporters, most of which will be Dems, who are more likely than not to then cast their votes for Lentz.

@1994 Again-isn’t that the same poll that has sestak ahead by 4 points? Anyway, I would not put too much into polls right now…

Glad that Pat wants 10 debates…great for insomniacs…seriously though, can’t wait to hear how Pat feels about the civil rights act? I am sure he will do a great job answering those questions and his views on the tea party…he’ll just need to get his talking points from the NRCC and Leader Boner beforehand.

Another way of looking at it…: Republican registration in PA-7 is 49%, Sestak was able to get huge numbers of Republicans to split their ballot and vote for him, I don’t think Lentz will be able to do that when he is only getting 72% of the Democrats to start.

I don’t think Lentz is going to be splitting the Republicans like Sestak did, at least not at this point. But the fact is that Sestak’s going to draw out large numbers of Dems in the 7th district who want to vote for him, and their votes are likely to go To Lentz. Lentz’s name recognition isn’t as good as it could be right now, which explains why he didn’t get all the democratic votes in the district that Sestak did. With additional news coverage closer to the general and advertising, that situation can only improve going forward, so he’ll be closing the gap on the name recognition front, while at the same time there will be a larger pool of Dems and independents who like Sestak to draw from…which is likely to wind up boosting Lentz…

Suburban Dem, to answer your question, no, it’s not the poll you are referring to. It’s the poll that shows Corbett beating the tax hiker Onorato by double digits.

Frank-
I object to your characterization of Dan Hirschhorn. There are 19 Congressional districts, and it was an uncontested primary. The gap is certainly interesting, but hardly a priority as Dan is getting some well deserved rest after a very busy campaign season. Cut him a break.

Pat Meehan’s support is not from “hard working Americans” but from lazy political cronies packed into county courthouse jobs like sardines in a can. Meehan’s unwilling to deviate from a GOP platform that caused the economic crisis.

Another way-
I agree the hope is that Sestak will drive turnout of voters for Lentz, but that is not likely. In 2008, Sestak and Obama won by close to 20 points, yet we didn’t not gain a single St. Leg seat in the 7th district. Considering the GOP’s registration advantage, Sestak got lots of GOP votes. However, since his 2006 campaign, Sestak has targeted split-ticket republicans and distanced himself from St. Leg candidates in Republican districts. There is no push for “straight-Dem” voting, but rather all Joe, all the time. The 2006 Field Director even said to me once “Screw the other candidates. Joe’s the only one that matters.”
I think the extra “Dems” that Sestak will bring out election day who will vote for Lentz, will be canceled by the Republicans for Sestak that come out and vote for Meehan. Also, Joe’s going to be campaigning in 18 other congressional districts, so it’s not like he and Lentz will be doing a lot of joint events.

Joe’s never shown any coattails. Lentz will not have access to the hundreds of volunteers from Sestak’s congressional campaigns, because they’ll be working on the Senate campaign (which they will all claim is “more important”). So, stuffing envelopes, making calls, etc. will be a bigger struggle for Lentz. Bryan is tough-as-nails, so he’ll work hard to win, but his job just got harder.

Diano–u r still at it against sestak…give it a rest and go back to playing atari

@1994 Again…oh…just wanted to make sure…corbett’s numbers will drop like a rock on the heels of his intimidating critics with grand jury subpoenas for political purposes…abuse of power…US Attorney should investigate that…now that Meehan’s NOT in that political job maybe a republican will get investigated for abuse of power?…
To all those worried about lents getting 72% of sestak’s vote…I am a dem voter in the 7th and so is my wife…I will confess that we were focused on voting for sestak and democratic state committee, governor and lt. governor…basically anyone who had a primary…the people without a primary were not a concern to me…unless you’re an idiotic republican worried about using it for some kind of irrelevant bragging rights? enthusism gap…please…

David D,

I would imagine as you get further down the ticket, the coattail effect drops off, because people are less likely to care about voting local races, unless they are hardcore voters, so the additional voters bought in by a top of the ticket candidate are not as likely to have as great an impact on those races, although I’m sure they help. I also don’t think finding the amount of volunteers that he needs is going to be an issue for Lentz. People realize it’s an important congressional race in its own right and will want to volunteer.

sick-
Stop playing with yourself and do something useful for a change. Try covering the keyboard the next time you get “excited” by one of my posts.

suburban dem-
It’s not a question of enthusiasm, but rather of discipline. The Delco GOP makes a point of getting their voters to vote the whole ticket. Sestak has never emphasized the whole ticket in his GOTV efforts. It’s “Vote for Joe”, not “Vote for Joe and the whole Dem ticket”.
Sestak had the rare opportunity in Delco to get Dems to pay attention to him. He squandered (or avoided) the chance to educate the county Democratic voters to pay attention to the rest of the ticket and make the connections with him.
Now, Lentz is suffering for that lack by Sestak in educating the voters and promoting party discipline.

Another way-
I respectfully disagree. Except for Sestak with his hundreds of eager volunteers, I’ve never seen a Delco campaign with more than a dozen people working on it. There just really aren’t that many people around who will volunteer. Joe’s going to keep the hundreds he has in the 7th district. Where is Lentz going to find another hundred for himself? Meehan’s going to have thousands of Delco county employees to tap to work on his behalf in some capacity.
The Delco GOP is going to put more resources into Meehan than Toomey. This is the opposite of the Lentz/Sestak resource dynamic.

Now, if Sestak had lost the primary, his volunteers would have been available for Lentz to hold the seat.

My point here is that a GOOD top-ticket candidate should work to build up the party and the down-ticket candidates. Whenever I’ve suggested such a philosophy to a Sestak fan, I invariably get the same responses, “Why should he?” and Who cares about the other candidates?“.

Seriously, when you meet Sestak fans, ask how much effort they think should be spent on the down-ticket candidates. Volunteer at their office and talk about your interest in “the coordinated campaign” or how Joe can help other candidates on the ticket.

Neil Oxman is working for both Joe and Bryan. Watch out Toomey and Meehan for the last two weeks of the campaign. As far as sharing resources, Neil will insist on economies of scale for Sestak/Lentz in the 7th CD. So, their $ will actually go farther. These two vets will have adequate $ to run game changing ads against investment banker Toomey and Rove/Specter/Santorum’s U.S. attorney who was never previously in a courtroom. Should be a fun late October!

Rick-
How’s Neil going to achieve economies of scale unless he puts them both in the same commercials, or attacks Toomey and Meehan in the same commercials?
Besides, wouldn’t that cut into Neil’s profits?

Many of Joe’s volunteers will be working for Bryan this year, I’ve heard many say they expect the general election against toomey to be an easier contest than the primary against Arlen was,so they will be working for Bryan,also Joe Sestak endorseing and campaigning for him will help in Nov.

Bill-
I’d be surprised to see Sestak give Lentz the salt off a pretzel. But, I’ll play along….
Oh, yes. Toomey will be easier to beat. You Sestak workers just run along and help out Lentz. Joe will see you plenty of times when he goes around campaign with Bryan. Toodles.

Let me know when you and your wife spend time making calls for Lentz instead of Sestak. I won’t hold my breath.

David-
The volunteers of the 7th are not chess pieces to be moved, or ‘given away’. Many volunteers support Bryan and Joe, as they are both outstanding candidates. I look forward to an increasingly coordinated campaign now that the Primary is over, and hope that all 7th District Dems will pull together.

DD-I am shocked at the lack of class you are exhibiting here…better watch you’re not tossed out of the basement…anyway, tired of reading your sophomoric analysis which is clouded by your hatred of Sestak…please find something else to talk about…and pass the cheetos!

C Guiney-
Volunteers and resources have been hogged in the past. Sestak’s shown not coattails in the past nor done much in the way of “coordinated” campaigning.
I would love to see Joe (finally) participate in a coordinated effort to help Bryan as well as the St. Leg candidates in the district. I’m not going to hold my breath.
To his credit, Bryan is actually working with St. Leg candidates for a coordinated campaign. Let’s see if Sestak joins the party.

sick-in-the-head-
Really? Shocked?
Well, I’m not shocked that you continue to toss up nonsense about a disgusting snack like “cheetos” (which is less appetizing that packing material), and never offer anything of substance to the discussions.

Gee Dave, the wife will be going into Bryans campaign to work the phones shortly,were kind of worn out from all the running with the Sestak campaign,I will most likely be in Bryans office for some calling or data entry or mailings or whatever,but expect to spend the bulk of my time working to get a democrat elected Senator.

Dave volunteers means volunteer,noone can hog them they choose for themselves what campaign to work on and when. The Sestak campaign can’t control where and when vols work any more than they can control loose cannons like yourself.

Bill-
During the odd-year municipal elections, Sestak refused to share volunteer lists to help the party, township chairmen, and other candidates.
This is despite Sestak’s 2006 campaign being seeded with existing volunteer lists (and the promise that updated lists would be returned to help the future). Also, volunteers have been referred to the campaign, but the references have been in one direction.

It’s a one-way street.

Again Dave they are volunteers,free to choose who they are willing to work for. Seems to be the same people all the time anyway. When do you go in to work the phones for Bryan?

Bill-
I don’t “work the phones”, though I do plan to donate some more money that will actually help pay for phones.
I’d be happy to help out the campaign with their computer network, or other specialized technical needs (beyond the capability of people like you).
Of course, I’ll also be maintaining my computer database that will be used by dozens of committee people in Bryan’s district for their various canvassing and GOTV efforts.

Lentz doesn’t really want to debate, he just wants it to look like he does. He’s getting creamed in popular support and in fund raising and he hopes this will get him back in the light. Either he backs out and looks like a coward, or he debates and is exposed as the left-wing Pelosi/Obama puppet that he is.