Happy Halloween!
As promised, my pumpkin that accidently looks like Vice President Dick Cheney. I decided not to add little glasses, a shotgun or piles of bad intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions to our outside display — I didn’t want to make it totally scary.
I caught a strong political spot by Lois Murphy this afternoon — and I must say, I’m impressed. She comes across as smart, warm and ready to go to Washington to make changes. If she has enough cash to keep in on the air for a week, it’s a strong positive play — and the best spot produced by her team during the last two cycles. I hope it’s enough, as I note, the numbers are terrifyingly close here in PA-6.
This could be a tough time to be a Republican in Southeast Pa. — looking at the new poll numbers, it looks likely that PA-7 and 10 are going to flip from Republican to Democrat congressional seats, with Murphy in PA-6 in a dogfight, and even Patrick Murphy having a solid shot in PA-8. If all four of those seats go Dem, it should be an indicator of races elsewhere and mean the house flips by more than 30 seats and the senate by at least five.
What seemed so unlikely a year ago, a Democratic house and senate are a very real possibility.
More locally, look for at least three state house seats to flip in the southeast: 156, 167 and 161. I don’t think the Democrats will take over either house in Harrisburg — and they shouldn’t. The Democratic leadership has throttled candidates — prevented them from talking about the pay raise — and it has hurt a number of local races. It is — Bill "thesarus" DeWeese, here’s a word for you — unconsciable.
Until the Democratic Party can look voters in the eye and tell them it leadership is not corrupt, insulated and part of the problem in Harrisburg, the party is not going to get anywhere in terms of taking over the Assembly and shaping the future of this state. Reform, in the county parties as well as the state party must become the no. 1 priority of the state’s rank and file Democrats. The pay raise issue is evidence enough that the fish has rotted from the head — and it is time to cut away the rotten, stinking, putrid flesh.
2007 must be a year of internal reform for Pennsylvania’s Democrats. We must root out corruption and create a clear difference for the voters.