Wednesday, January 6, 2016

How I Plan to Vote at State Committee, as of 1/6

In 17 days, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee will meet in Hershey to vote on our 2016 endorsements for statewide office. This year's primary will include races for President, Senate, Attorney General, Treasurer, and Auditor General. I have no advance knowledge on whether we will vote on all of them, some of them, or none of them. With that said, here's my current plan:

  • President- I will be supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Primary, and at state committee if we vote on the matter. I like Bernie Sanders a lot, but I do not believe he would be as good of a general election candidate, and I believe she would do a great job in office.
  • Senate- This is the one race in which I am currently undecided. Katie McGinty seems to be the establishment pick for the job, and she seems fine to me, but i'm not convinced yet. Her not-so-hot performance in the 2014 gubernatorial race is still fresh on my mind. Joe Sestak is the perfect candidate, on paper, but I was around for his 2010 run, and it left me with doubts that need answering. As for John Fetterman, he intrigues me right now. I just have my doubts about his viability in a statewide race, and about his current experience as a small town mayor. I like them all infinitely more than Pat Toomey though.
  • Attorney General- I will be supporting local and extremely qualified District Attorney John Morganelli for this job. This is not to say that I dislike any of the other three candidates, all of whom have wonderful plans and aspirations for the job. I just feel that at this time, we need an experienced, qualified, frankly non-Kathleen Kane type of candidate to fill the job moving forward. This is a law enforcement job, and sometimes that puts the position up against our values and hopes, but I trust the position most in the hands of a veteran prosecutor for the next four years.
  • Treasurer- I remain open on this race, but at the moment I plan on supporting Joe Torsella. With the new endorsement of former Governor Ed Rendell, and with his impressive fundraising totals so far, I feel comfortable giving Torsella my backing. I'm not closing the book yet on his opponents, both of whom seem qualified and capable, but I'd have to hear how they plan to win.
  • Auditor General- I'll be backing incumbent Eugene DePasquale. He's done a good job.

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