PA GOV 2022: Stick a fork in it

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Get your merch:

https://shop.joshshapiro.org/

Not gonna lie, that logo is pretty awful. $25 is a steep price to walk around with that thing on a t-shirt.

Agree, but I guess it checks the box for being "patriotic" but it invokes an old school feel. It appears his branding is centering a lot around the classic, constitutional values of PA. It's not too flashy, which I think is deliberate. I like it enough that I snagged a shirt and a sticker pack.

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Larry Krasner could be the state's next AG
Both Shapiro and Krasner are Missouri born people that is the most recognizable to Pennsylvania folks

Shapiro and Krasner have had a notoriously rocky relationship. Not saying that necessarily impacts Krasner’s chances of going for PA AG, but it definitely hurts his chances of being appointed to that position.

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https://twitter.com/WillSimons_94/status/1450786329562914817

He's going to win. Book it.

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This isn't exactly pertinent to the Governor's race, but a very interesting primary just opened up in State House District 96, which covers Lancaster City. Lancaster City Council President Ismail Smith-Wade-El has launched a challenge against incumbent Mike Sturla, who has represented the district since 1991.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/politics/lancaster-city-council-president-smith-wade-el-announces-his-primary-challenge-of-rep-mike-sturla/article_95561de8-41bb-11ec-b581-cb7beec12e16.html

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This isn't exactly pertinent to the Governor's race, but a very interesting primary just opened up in State House District 96, which covers Lancaster City. Lancaster City Council President Ismail Smith-Wade-El has launched a challenge against incumbent Mike Sturla, who has represented the district since 1991.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/politics/lancaster-city-council-president-smith-wade-el-announces-his-primary-challenge-of-rep-mike-sturla/article_95561de8-41bb-11ec-b581-cb7beec12e16.html

That is a fascinating last name. Anyone know the story behind it?

His mother was a professor at my alma mater before she passed away, and I believe it is a hyphenation of two last names (Smith and Wade-El) but I could be wrong and Wade and El could be separate last names. I know Smith was her maiden name, though.


I'm not sure how this went under my radar, probably because it was announced just after election day, but Doug Mastriano formed an exploratory committee to run for Governor:

https://twitter.com/StephenJ_Caruso/status/1456576178832257026?s=20

and a recent poll conducted by the Democratic Governors Association found him leading the GOP primary field:

New poll shows Mastriano leading potential GOP gubernatorial field

The survey, sought by the Democratic Governors Association, found that 18% of Republican voters listed Mastriano as their first choice out of eight candidates seeking – or expected to seek – the GOP nomination, which also included former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman and former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain.

While Mastriano led the pack of GOP hopefuls, Barletta came in second with 14% of Republican voters saying the former congressman was their preferred candidate. No other candidate received support from more than 4% of voters, with Corman coming in third at 4% and Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale and state Sen. Scott Martin each received 3% percent.

Notably, 56% of voters said they are “not sure” who they’d support for the Republican nomination, showing the wide open nature of the race a little over six months out from the 2022 gubernatorial primary.

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Charlie Dent might as well get in at this point. Heck, let's get Gerlach and Tom Corbett in as well!

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Very excited for this. I was hoping that I wouldn't be voting just for white men for every office on my ballot in 2022. Hopefully Austin wins the primary.

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I'm not as familiar with this race as the PA posters, but I have the impression Shapiro is running very strong. Hot take: He's more likely to be gov in 2023 than Whitmer and Evers.

Not a hot take. Shapiro has a track record of running pretty well statewide.

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I'm not as familiar with this race as the PA posters, but I have the impression Shapiro is running very strong. Hot take: He's more likely to be gov in 2023 than Whitmer and Evers.

Not a hot take. Shapiro has a track record of running pretty well statewide.

Never had to run in a midterm year unfavorably to his party

He ran ahead of Biden in a year that Biden barely won PA.

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With Rick Saccone running for Lt. Gov, PA’s insurrectionist caucus is well represented in 2022.

Lord help us.

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The clown car continues to grow:

https://twitter.com/VanOsdol_WTAE/status/1482015433091952641?s=20

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Josh Shapiro endorsed by Meek Mill

https://twitter.com/MeekMill/status/1483877990513655809

LET'S GOOOOO

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https://twitter.com/Owens_abc27/status/1483899310190350346?s=20

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Can we talk about Shapiro trying his damnedest to railroad the state and county parties into endorsing/supporting his Lt Gov pick?  Like, I understand endorsing someone and saying “hey”, I would like to work with this person if elected”, but Davis doesn’t even have his own campaign team or infrastructure.  Shapiro is literally running everything for him at the moment.  Shapiro has also asked several county parties to cancel other non-Davis Lt Gov candidate appearances, and cancelled his own scheduled appearances when they refused to put their thumbs on the scale like that.  It will be interesting to watch two items: first, whether or not Davis emerges out of the State Committee meeting with the PA Dems endorsement, which will require a two-thirds vote out of the full endorsement committee.  And second, if Davis does win the May (June?) primary, what do the margins look like outside of Pittsburgh/Montgomery?

It’s just really strange to me that Josh and/or Josh’s team are being so coercive; had he just endorsed Davis and let the primary play out, I could see Davis winning on his own.  At this point Josh is making it harder for him.

Nah, I think it’s good that he chose the person he wanted to work with and is actively campaigning for him. It’s stupid that PA even has a primary for the Lt Gov position because if the electorate has enough faith in the person they’re electing as Gov, they should have enough faith in the person they’re electing as second in command. It was certainly an anomaly to see Fetterman upset an incumbent Lt Gov specifically because Wolf chose not to put a thumb on the scale. That ended up working out, but if Shapiro decides he’d rather work with Davis than Sims, that’s his prerogative. Shapiro is the de facto nominee and therefore the de facto face of the PA Dems at this point anyway.

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Nah, I think it’s good that he chose the person he wanted to work with and is actively campaigning for him. It’s stupid that PA even has a primary for the Lt Gov position because if the electorate has enough faith in the person they’re electing as Gov, they should have enough faith in the person they’re electing as second in command. It was certainly an anomaly to see Fetterman upset an incumbent Lt Gov specifically because Wolf chose not to put a thumb on the scale. That ended up working out, but if Shapiro decides he’d rather work with Davis than Sims, that’s his prerogative. Shapiro is the de facto nominee and therefore the de facto face of the PA Dems at this point anyway.

Huh.  Gonna have to disagree with you; I think it would be stupid to diminish the input of PA voters by reducing the Lt Gov to just another appointed position that party leadership has control over at the end of the day.  I’m generally against reducing voter choice, though, so this just isn’t an exception for me. 

I also think that it’s incredibly entitled and petulant of Josh to essentially say “yeah, I know this is an elected position, but this is who’s gonna be my Lt Gov; if you don’t cancel events with the other candidates, I’m not coming to your events.”  It would be one thing if Shapiro had just endorsed/campaigned with Davis, but flat-out trying to coerce county committees into cancelling appearances by other candidates is way too far for me.  If you want proof, let me know; I’ll put you in touch with the Lycoming County Dems, who can tell you a thing or two about Josh’s recent bullsh**t.

Honestly, as much as I feel bad for Sims and Sosa, I feel even more bad for Davis.  He’s a young legislator who doesn’t have a ton of experience under his belt yet, and was clearly picked because A, he’s geographically what Josh is not, B, he’s demographically what Josh is not, and C, he won’t outshine Josh.  He’s super friendly and I think he has a good career ahead of him in the House or wherever else he wants to go, I’m just worried that Josh/Josh’s team is going to damage his future by acting the way they are while trying to push his candidacy.

I'm quite into politics and even I haven't seen what you're saying. I think sometimes we overestimate the inside baseball stuff. To the average person, Josh has endorsed him and is his running mate, that's pretty much it.

Ctherainbow has been a pretty reliable source for some of the inside baseball stuff, though. I wouldn't doubt his connection to some of the folks he's talking about. And while, yes, it is off-putting that Shapiro is essentially blackballing counties who won't go along with his handpicked candidate (and I believe his diagnosis for why Shapiro chose Davis is accurate) it doesn't exactly cause me to think less of Shapiro because the primary is so uncompetitive. For a long time, Sims was the only serious candidate running and Patty Kim was the only candidate who was seriously considering running, and she ultimately decided not to. I don't particularly like Sims (though I can't say I particularly dislike him either, I'm very meh about him) but there are certainly better candidates and Davis is one of them. He just happens to be the one that was selected.

Sometimes you have to elbow your way into getting the Lt Gov you want to avoid, as we've mentioned, a repeat of Mike Stack. I think it's smart of Shapiro to see past the immediate future and I think Davis is a worthy candidate to elevate. It's obvious that Josh has wanted to be Gov ever since he was getting his start in PA politics, so I guess he's just trying to make things go as much according to plan as possible. I trust him either way.

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Hardly a surprise, but the PA Dems endorsed Shapiro for Governor and Davis for Lt. Governor.

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No update of substance, but I wanted to just give an anecdote that I've seen quite a few Mastriano yard signs in Lancaster and Berks Counties over the past few weeks. I have not seen a single yard sign for any other candidate for any other statewide race (except my own Malcolm Kenyatta sign outside my apartment)

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I saw a sign in my town in Montco that was for Rick Saccone for Gov. I didn't even know he was running lmao.

I think he's going for LG.

Correct.

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Any reason why there hasn't been nearly as much discussion about this race?

It seems as if the state GOP and the media have been focused on the Senate race. Especially odd since I think Barletta and Mastriano are both horrible candidates for a very winnable race like PA-GOV in a Republican year.

Is Shapiro just that strong of a candidate that people just expect him to win in spite of the political winds?

Combination of a completely uncompetitive D primary and a completely stupid GOP clown car primary, minus the interesting personalities like we have in the Senate primary. Nobody gives a sh*t about Mastriano or Barletta or White. They're all boring. At least there's been some fun jabs between Oz and McCormick.

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https://twitter.com/Laurenjmayk/status/1511365640241745925

Jesus that's a lot of money

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and Corman likely OUT

https://twitter.com/Owens_abc27/status/1513904470224216065

Down goes McSwain.

https://twitter.com/JonathanTamari/status/1513890088102645774

LMAOOOO

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https://twitter.com/jonathantamari/status/1513982978262769666?s=21&t=Za0Lcnv...

What a stupid asshole.

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Have been hearing rumors Trump is planning on endorsing Lou Barletta pretty soon.

Why? He got his ass handed to him in 2018. He's a proven loser. Trump should endorse Mastriano, who will win the primary anyway.

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Anyone think the Philadelphia mask mandate will affect the race?

No.

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Legitimately the coolest piece of campaign merch I've ever seen:

https://twitter.com/JoshShapiroPA/status/1514590943239933952?s=20&t=r4m1Lwv3...