IN LEHIGH VALLEY WILLIAM HALL III JUMPS INTO DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY-- SUPPORTING MOST OF THE GOP POSITIONS
>
The Blue America community has really taken to Sam Bennett. Since she spent some time blogging with the community September 22, nearly 100 of us have donated just over $4,500 to her campaign. That's a great clip and it indicates that she's destined to be one of our priority candidates for 2008. I've spoken with allies at People For the American Way, at the pro-choice groups and to Rep. Patrick Murphy about helping her out. She is so ready to thrash Republican rubber stamp Charlie Dent (running around in fake moderate drag) and just as ready to play a leadership role in a Congress filled with more and better Democrats.
So wasn't I surprised today when I noticed a couple of newspapers from the Lehigh Valley (PA-15) talking about a much worse Democrat. I mean if you think Chris Carney is bad... just wait 'til you hear about former presidential candidate William Hall, who is now challenging Sam for the Democratic nomination.
Why's he so terrible? I mean how bad can a Democrat be? Well... let's start with the fact that he may call himself a Democrat all he likes but on the issues he's a Republican. Hall's violently anti-choice and very much backs Bush on the occupation of Iraq. How's that for a start. At least Democrats in the Lehigh Valley are going to have a nice clear choice!
Sam is backed by both the establishment and the progressive grassroots. Hall-- who has been a gadfly candidate in a number of elections (from Northampton County Council to the presidency... of the United States)-- seems to be trying to appeal to Republicans with his positions. A xenophobe who's watched a little too much Lou Dobbs, he's running around yelling about building a wall around the country. Most people wonder why he doesn't just run against Dent in the Republican primary; he's probably further right than Dent on many issues.
According to yesterday's Allentown Morning Call Hall claims he has 3 volunteers including a blogger from Nazareth, Bernie O'Hare. Meanwhile, Sam is going to need help at Blue America before she can take on Dent and help him into a well-earned retirement.
Labels: Charlie Dent, Pennsylvania, reactionary Democrats, Sam Bennett
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 6:32 AM
4 comments
|
Reddit
4 Comments:
I don't know what it's like out there now, but I went to college in the Lehigh Valley in the 1970's and found it to be the most bigoted, narrow-minded, provincial place I've ever been.
"Lehigh Valley" . . .
The problem with Sam Bennett is that she is being shoved down our throats. As far back as January, party bosses decided that she is the heir apparent to the Dem nod, and that's not the way democracy should work. Since the name of your blog is Down With Tyranny, I'm sure you understand local Dems being upset at being deprived of a choice. The time for machine politics in the Lehigh Valley is at an end.
And Bennett is a walking disaster. Bennett has been tagged with two failed mayoral campaigns, a drunken concession speech (preserved on videotape), a lackluster performance at Mayfair, a botched financial disclosure, an excessive salary at her nonprofit, and the embarrassment of losing a $10,000 grant from Lehigh County. She is widely perceived as an opportunist. In her statement at the capitol a few days ago, she claimed she was there to speak to special interests.
She is such a bad candidate that she will actually draw votes away from other Dems seeking office.
While I disagree with nearly every position Hall espouses, his candidacy gives voters a choice. And it might spur some Democrats who could really make a difference into action.
Bennett is a waste as a candidate.
Although I'm not going to support Hall, Bernie is right about Sam Bennett. She is a disastrously bad candidate, for the reasons he mentions as well as others. Almost nobody takes her seriously except would-be king-maker Joe Long (who himself has an abysmal track record, and no real support) and Blue America.
Leads me to conclude that Blue America doesn't know what it's doing when it identifies candidates to back.
For heaven's sake, Bennett can't even win a Democratic primary for mayor of Allentown. Her fundraising, which she and Joe Long had predicted would be phenomenal, has instead been extremely weak. She raised only $28,000 during the third quarter, presumably including the $4,500 that the netroots rather precipitously gave her.
At Firedoglake's fundraiser for her I noticed only a single resident of the Lehigh Valley. And therein lies the problem. Blue America is identifying progressive heroes without bothering to investigate whether anybody in the area thinks all that much of them. In this case, I think the answer is "nope". The lousy fundraising totals ought to underline the point. Bennett is a perpetual candidate with a love of the limelight and a small group of admirers, that's all.
Howie, you'd better take five long steps back from your Blue America activities and have a good long look at them and at yourself. You're doing no good at all backing a candidate like this who (a) has little chance of winning, and (b) is not widely trusted in the area.
If you want to help in PA-15 (and yes, I'm a resident), then help us to encourage a credible and genuine progressive candidate to run for the Democratic nomination. Somebody without all this baggage that Bennett brings.
Charlie Dent has a terrible record and is running scared. But Dent was scared two years ago, and yet Joe Long's previous candidate (Charles Dertinger) flopped badly. We don't need a repeat, which is what Bennett is going to serve up if she's nominated.
Post a Comment
<< Home