My congrats and thanks to Bruce Bailey and all the folks who have been supporting Joe here. Hoping that the party in Wayne is going well!

This is an exciting opportunity for not only change in DC, but change within the state party machine. I hope there will be others at the state committee level who will work toward the change we need there. For too long the arty leaders pick people the Democratic voters don’t support. It’s time the state party listened to the people.

After we counted votes and got all our local stuff squared away, I met the Upper Providence and Area 4 Dems at a local tavern. We watched Specter concede, hugged and high-fived and smiled.

We smiled a lot, actually.

Ex-Montco Area 4 leader Larry Greenley asked if I wanted to ride over to VFMA for the Sestak party. I opted not to; instead, I picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and headed home to watch Joe on TV.

The ice cream was sweet.

This win was sweeter.

Colleen, thanks. Sestak/Lentz victory in November will be incredible.

DAVID DIANO!!! Where are you? Crying like a little girl? Come out and take your beating like man!

Bruce-
Congratulations on getting the Primary outcome you wanted.

Unfortunately, I believe that Sestak’s victory is ultimately cancerous for the Democratic party, and will damage down-ticket races throughout the state this November.

My efforts for the Fall will be to help the down-ticket candidates that are now going to suffer.

Specter has always been two-faced.
It’s long past time to send him packing.

I’ve met Sestak twice.
He actually remembered me the second time, although there’s no real reason why he should have.

I have a good gut feeling about him.

I agree- Sestak is a good man.

There was a lot excitement about Sestak today in the burbs at that will carry over to the fall and help the down ticket races.

The better man won!!! Now, on to November!!!

Congratulations to Pennsylvania’s Democratic voters. You should be proud of yourselves — you have redefined your party!

To celebrate, I’d like to re-post something I wrote here two months ago…I think it rings very true tonight:

Mar 21st, 2010

The outcome in May will define who we are as a party in this state.

If enough Democrats buy into the TJ Rooney vision of what this party should be — i.e., a collection of voters who mindlessly listen and do what they’re told — it will not change for a long, long time.

The party bosses have said that a person’s past makes no difference. That there is no such thing as a commitment to Democratic party ideals. That the only thing we should care about is latching onto a guy who used to be “Theirs” and is now “Ours,” like we just picked up a new starting pitcher on the free-agent market.

But this isn’t baseball, and it’s not a game, not as far as I’m concerned. Democratic values and what you’ve done in the past count for something, and Specter fails there. Fails miserably.

I have never claimed that Joe Sestak is an ideal candidate. But he is a Democrat and his voting record in Congress is nearly 100% in line with what the party supports. I know we will be able to count on him once he is elected and regardless of the character assassination that goes on here in these comments, he will be a Senator I can be proud of.

And I know that the only loyalty Arlen Specter feels is to himself.

So no, I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The primary IS that important.

===========================

And the only question I have left tonight is this:

Has TJ Rooney resigned yet?

Dave – Why would the down-ticket candidates even want your support. Go away quietly.

Interesting to take a look at the Sestak/Specter vote by county. Sestak lost Dauphin and Lackawanna counties 49-51. He also lost Philly. But, he won all the rest of the counties in the state. That is amazing. My county he got 66% of the vote.

This shows me more than ever that the state “leaders” are out of touch. How could the beating be this widespread and the Democratic leadership still believes they know what is best?

Is it time for a significant change of leadership in the party? Yup.

The word I got is the Gov asked TJ to stay another year while the Governor’s race is fought. That would be a huge mistake. TJ has such a bad attitude that he’d pull down the entire ticket just out of pique.

We have to vote on this at our next meeting in June. I for one will vote against keeping TJ on. We need serious change in the party structure and now is the time to do it.

Link for county by county view:
http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/94019294.html

Ridley Sestak Fan-
Why? Because they aren’t going to get any support from Sestak. Ridley Twp is 2-1 Republican. Joe’s going to court and GOTV them, like he did in 2006 and screw the local Dem candidates.

Bruce should have joined us at VFMA we had a great night, now I can’t wait till Nov. for the Victory Party over Toomey. Worked the polls in N.Philly all day partied all night.

Hope to get a photo of Ed Rendell with Shoe leather hanging out of his mouth.

I live in Joe’s congressional district (PA 7). We were living under GOP rule for what seemed like forever. In 2006, Joe was able to knock off Curt Weldon, an entrenched incumbent. He is pretty much running neck-and-neck with Toomey in the polls, so I have confidence that Joe will prevail in November. Critz already did it in PA 12. Here’s to Pennsylvania’s next Senator, Joseph Sestak Jr!

Dear David Diano,

Suck it! Go Joe, Go!

Diano:
It’s a good thing you had that Sestack sticker on your back, you can use it on your subaru.
Are you going to support Sestack as the democraticly elected nominee or are you going to pout and mutter about your petty personal grievances.
Maybe you do the sore loser and flip parties and carp and whine with the shriviled up war board zombies in their country club back rooms.
I think your wierd screeds were an immense help to the Sestack campaign and also helped demonstrate a need for change.

Dave…..do you need a hug?

DIANO…Oh sooooooo sweet…see ya loser boy…Oh and where is all your so called support on these posts?

I already saw David Diano with a “Club for Growth” bumper sticker on his Prius. I think he will be destroyed when he finds out that Pat Toomey won’t let him near his campaign office. Maybe Dave can campaign for a 3rd party instead. Perhaps the Socialist Workers’ Party is running a candidate for Senate?

Pat will kick the snot out of that liberal out west.

Congrats Sestak campaign – obviously the better candidate won!

Hopefully this win is the end of Dems like TJ Rooney – that are too concerned with candidates that vote against the interests of PA constituents and let the corporate interests rule – we are tired of being sold out by PECO, Comcast, etc. Goodbye TJ!

It was sad seeing Nutter, Brady and Rooney trying to do political CPR on Specter on the Matthews show.
Wake up and tune back into the voters please.

David D. – “Cancerous”? Ha, ha. That’s a real scream, what with Sestak’s daughter having cancer and all, not to mention your best bud Arlen’s lymphoma. You, sir, are a true wordsmith.

Taj-
Sestak’s running close with Toomey because Joe’s been running tons of commercials and is less of an “unknown”, while a lot of people don’t know much about Toomey. This is actually typical after a primary, where one side got a lot of exposure.

alpa-
If you think Sestak won’t be sucking up to PECO and Comcast for $$$, you’ll be disappointed.

Laughing-
Did you recognize Sestak’s daughter at the podium with him? She looks so different than the sickly (and exploitative) images Sestak used in his campaign. Sestak exploited his daughter’s and Specter’s illnesses.

To all-
You guys are under the mistaken impression that I liked Specter. I made it clear numerous times that he was the least objectionable of the candidates, and the best shot for stopping Toomey. Last night, Toomey and the GOP got handed a gift.

It was a great night for Sestak supporters who worked hard for a well-earned victory in this primary. Congrats to all. Now it’s time to work for a Sestak victory in Nov.

I also call on my fellow Haverford Dem Dave Diano to stop the pointless and poisonous tirade against Joe Sestak. Very simply, Dave cannot continue to profess to be a good Democrat while continuing to express the venom he has constantly spewed.

Dave, I publicly call on you to either change parties or shut up. It’s time to decide.

Larry Chrzan-
While I won’t support Toomey, I won’t lift a finger to help Sestak. I have no objections to Dems calling for voting the full straight-party ticket, but I will not participate in the kool-aid drinking love-fest of all things “Sestak”.

The very idea that those opposing “Holy Joe” phoniness need to “change parties or shut up” is the very antithesis of democracy and the Democratic party. You are one demonstrating how Sestak is hurting the party.

I’m a “good” Democrat because I’ve tried to expose a “bad” Democrat like Sestak who will damage the party further.

You might want to turn your passion into helping Lentz hold onto the 7th. It just got a lot harder for him.

Taj,

Sestak won the 7th for three reasons:

1. If you want to win in the 7th as a dem, you have to have been in the military. Hence Sestak and Lentz

2. 2006 was a realignment year. If you don’t know what that means, you shouldn’t be on this blog discussing politics.

3. Curt was full of curruption and that was made perfectly clear. Sestak has a lot of bad qualities about him. He completely ignored Lentz at a rally in Media, and doesn’t speak to young voters because he assumes he has their votes. He’s also one of the worst members of Congress to work for on the Hill. Toomey has a great personality, and in Pittsburgh, where they are not fond of eastern politicians, they were not found of Sestak. Toomey will win. Don’t be surprised if people start putting their efforts and money into house races that will be more competative.

To David, agreed. Lentz is a good person and a stronger candidate than Sestak is against Toomey. Sestak said it himself that Bryan Lentz will be a better Congressman than he will be.

@David Diano
By continuing to bash and insult Sestak you ARE supporting Toomey. That does not make you a good Democrat. So yes, you should change parties or shut up because you’re not a good Democrat and you embarass us. Anytime a Democrat attacks a fellow Democrat the Republicans are provided fodder for their campaigns. Your personal vendetta against Sestak has fouled your claim to be a Dem supporter. And do not insult me by calling me a kook-aid drinker. Over 550,000 Democrats voted for Sestak yesterday. We had good reasons to choose the better candidate yesterday.

Dave, Sestak served to protect your right to free speech. If you want to exercise it and continue your ridiculous tirade, go ahead. But don’t pretend to be a loyal Dem and do what you are doing. You look like a fool and you are also embarassing the Haverford Democrats.

I agree with everything Victoria said!

Thank you Dave Diano for the internet tools we have used in Obama’s election and the local supervisor election (2009) in Upper Merion. Your dedication to upgrading these tools for the grassroots volunteers who work in these campaigns is amazing and so appreciated (has anyone out there seen the street lists the UM Committee provides? pathetic).

All you Sestak supporters must start raising money for this guy. He is far behind Toomey and the party dollars will be spread thin. Got any clever ideas to entice me to give him money? I’ll vote for him but that’s it!

@Lou – keep in mind that Diano’s tools are provided at Diano’s whim, and as such, are inherently not reliable. He can allow or disallow access as he sees fit. You get what you pay for.

Victoria-
Good analysis. I hope that Lentz can overcome the sucking up of 7th-CD resources by Sestak’s senate campaign. You know Sestak will be targeting Sestak+Meehan voters.

Lou-
Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad my system was helpful to your efforts.

Larry C. = Larry Chrzan = the guy behind PA7Watch blog
You are not only drinking the Kool-aid you seem to bath and swim in it, when it’s not being pumped into you intravenously while you sleep.
At our October 2009 committee meeting, when we were making plans for the November elections, Larry was trying to bring up an out-of-order motion to have the committee endorse Sestak. That’s the attitude of the Sestak supporters “Joe Uber-Alles”.
Anyway, what really has Larry panties in a bunch is that during my post-election cleanup in December, I had cut his access back from full township to his own ward. Larry discovered this only a few weeks ago (proving that he didn’t really need full township access in the first place). The township chairman didn’t want everybody running around with full access and had NO problem with Larry’s restriction to his proper access level.

All this got Larry onto the false argument that I was capricious and my system unreliable (even though the State party is not on it’s third system since I created mine 6 years ago). Also, the state party tends to refuse access to their system to incumbents and doesn’t give out freely to committees.

Larry is all about “control” and suggested that the committee should vote to abandon VoterWeb, and if need be, spend money to purchase a system. Now, since Larry is the next computer “guru” in line (after me), he’d be the likely point-man in selecting a new system and the administrator of it. Of course, a Haverford-only system wouldn’t cover the Legislative and Senate districts that are shared with adjacent townships.

Anyway, yesterday, Larry came up with a NEW argument to mask his motivations. He convinced several members of committee and the likely next chairman to have a vote about staying with my system, but choose to make the basis of his argument my opposition to Sestak. The “threat” was that either I stop making public posts against Sestak, or the committee would vote to disassociate itself from me.
The ironic thing was that after this week, I was going to focus my efforts elsewhere anyway. But, I don’t like threats, especially those attempting to stifle my free expression.
So, thanks to Larry, as of yesterday evening, the entire Haverford committee had their accounts terminated. This is the outcome that Larry sought, and now he’s has to live with the consequences.
Despite my dislike of Sestak, I never made support for/against him a condition of having an account for Larry (or anyone else). Some of Sestak’s biggest supporters use my system on a daily basis (and have a lot more access than Larry because they work to help the party, not just one candidate).
Anyway, Larry shot himself in the foot by trying to have the 36-precinct Haverford committee dictate terms for a service that I’m freely providing in a State with 9,200 other precincts.

The selection of the next Haverford chairman has yet to come to a vote. That’s something the committee CAN vote on. If the next chairman agrees with Larry, they can vote on how they will replace my system. If the committee makes a choice who appreciates my services, that chairman and I can restore the previous status quo that has been successful for the past 6 years.

Sestak’s pre-primary interview on Wilk Radio’s morning show was the most transparent, pandering spiel I have ever heard. The lack of substance in Sestak’s plea for votes was almost alarming. It was like someone was giving random, nonsense responses to direct, pointed questions. He repeated two things ad nauseum:
1. He was in the military.
2. A family member survived a terrible illness.
Bringing innocent family members into a debate of this sort is tacky and I don’t even like to repeat it, but Sestak has no qualms about exploiting a tragedy to the hilt. It’s a sad story but it’s also completely irrelevant and crass.

Congratulations Joe Sestak, you ARE a winner!!