Stop me if you heard this one before. Twice a year, when the voter registration numbers are updated, the story is the same in Montgomery County: "Democrats gain edge in voter registration"
The once-dominant Republican Party in this sprawling Southeastern Pennsylvania county is on life-support. There's no other explanation for the steady inroads Democrats have been making in Montgomery County other than inept leadership on the part of the GOP.
And I use the word leadership loosely in the same sentence as Montgomery County GOP Chairman Ken Davis and the man who pulls his strings, Bob Asher.
Equally at fault are about half the 700 members of the Republican Committee who supported Davis for country chairman and inexplicably re-elected him to a second term at the same time Democrats were pounding down the door.
If Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. hadn't launched his insurgency earlier this year to prevent the Davis/Asher hand-picked candidates from heading the GOP ticket for county commissioner, Republicans would probably lose control of the courthouse.
How bad have things gotten for the GOP in Montgomery County?
Democrats now have a voter registration edge over their Republican counterparts in Abington, which not too long ago was solid Republican.
Final tallies of registered voters for the May 15 primary election show Democrats with 18,311 registered voters to the 18,003 registered Republican voters in Abington, according to Margaret Gibbons, who has been covering Montgomery County politics for decades.
Montgomery County Democratic Chairman Marcel L. Groen told Gibbons the dominoes are falling throughout Montgomery County.
In addition to Abington, Groen said his party is "just as pleased" with the "incremental, consisted increase" in the number of registered Democratic voters all over the county, Gibbons reports.
Take Cheltenham for example, which Gibbons notes went Democratic a half-dozen years ago. Now, there are about 2.5 registered Democratic voters to just 1 registered Republican voter in that municipality, according to Groen.
"We don't stop just because we are the majority," Groen told Gibbons.
On the other hand, the Davis/Asher brigade has rolled over. They're in full retreat.
Democrats are now the majority party in 12 of Montgomery County's 62 municipalities, according to Gibbons.
In addition to Abington, communities already in the blue column are Ambler, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Jenkintown, Narberth, Norristown, Pottstown, Cheltenham, Springfield, West Pottsgrove and Lower Merion.
Here are the final voter registration tallies heading into the May 15 primary. Montgomery County has 538,770 registered voters, broken down into 247,080 Republicans and 211,913 Democrats.
Overall voter registration is down 5,038 from last November's election, but the alarming numbers are these: Democrats dropped 232 voters, but Republicans lost 4,303 voters.
Unlike his comatose counterparts on the GOP side, Groen is not satisfied with gains in voter registration totals. He wants to win elections, too.
Groen told Gibbons that Democrats have an ambitious plan to whittle the county GOP advantage down to less than 30,000 voters by the November election.
If you still haven't figure out why Castor forced incumbent Montgomery Commissioner Tom Ellis off the GOP ticket, consider this interesting tidbit from a recent Gibbons' article.
Four years ago, when elections for countywide offices were held, Republicans had a 70,000-vote edge in registration and the Democratic county commissioner candidates lost by only 14,000 votes.
And the body blows keep landing on Montgomery County Republicans.
Gibbons reports that the Democrats have raised $150,000 in campaign contributions so far as they prepare to make their strongest bid in years for commissioners' seats with Ruth Damsker and Joe Hoeffel at the top of the ticket. Republicans have raised about $75,000 in the past two months and Castor has an uneasy truce with runningmate Jim Matthews, who is connected to the Davis/Asher calamity.
And where did all the GOP money go? Gibbons reports that Montgomery County Republicans spent more than a combined $250,000 fighting each other for the GOP's two commissioner endorsements.
That should never have happened. It never would have happened if the party had competent leadership. Instead, the party is saddled by the Davis/Asher team at the helm. As long as those two have any influence over the party, the Democrats will always have the upper hand.
2 comments:
his situation did not develop by accident.
There is a failure of leadership to advocate for core Republican values of
limited government, open and accountable government, government for the people and not for private gain. "no bid" contracts are an anchor destroying the party.
Let's start with Montco Chair Ken Davis and his patron Bob Asher. This slide has been occuring for years and voters are moving to independent, evidencing disgust
with incumbents of both parties. The Ds are not winning the Rs are losing because of things like Ken Davis' $300,000 no bid, no benefit, no work fee, welfare for the rich. Ken Davis is a Welfare King and does not deserve to lead the party and yet....where is the movement to oust him. Jon Fox, Robert
Griffith, Joanne Ayer and others in ATRO leadership are failing to petition Ken Davis to resign. What Republican, other than Bob Sklaroff and I, have spoken out about this? Publicly, only to be denigrated. and, as a result, Montgomery County
will be turned over to collectivivists who will increase scope of government,increase spending and increase taxes. each tax diminishes personal opportunity
and deprives individual of opportunities to spend his or her money in way he or
she thinks best.
The inside vote on Xpand contract, and the inside votes on other 'no bid' contracts have evidenced the Montco Republican party's lack of interest in ideas. This illustrative of other problems in Montco and I think Eric Kretschman
may be doing the party a favor by listing all the no bid contracts and the payees on the Montco Controller's web page.
The choice of the very flawed Jim Matthews was Asher's doing. Matthews contributed $5000 to Asher in the weeks before the March 15th endorsement and it is easy to infer that Matthews wanted Asher to support his candidacy even though
Matthews had voted for the Davis $300,000 no bid no benefit no work fee, had voted for 38% increase in his own salary, had voted for and given information to no bid provider because Mark Schweiker called him. see attached petition with detailed references to e-mails.
Ken Davis must go if Montco Republicans are to revitalize. In fact, probably, all of present Montco Republican leadership, including and, in particular,
Abington Rockledge leadership must be replaced with practical idealists who
understand the power of compelling idea of Limited Government, Pro Growth, Economic Freedom, personal autonomy and individual initiative. There is a difference between Freedom and Slavery and dependence on government enervates and diminishes personal autonomy, personal freedom. Taking what an individual owns deprives that individual of personal choice and opportunity. Recovering the
lost opportunities of which taxation deprives the individual has to be a core
value.
It is a disgrace that the Republican leadership have not talked about this. the
party of Lincoln and Reagan; the party of freedom and free markets. the party of the taxpayer; the party of the individual. the party that creates and innovates,
innovative and inventive businesses that create jobs that produce the goods and provide the services people want and need and willingly and volunatarily pay for
with money they earned and create the revenues for government to provide services it needs to provide.
Throughout the ages, the few have ruled the many; America is the exception
relying on the "wisdom of crowds", the stock market model, government of the
people, by the people and for the people. Not a government of elite experts and
concentrated political and economic power; not arrogance but service.
How do you gain momentum? Why did 4k people leave the party instead of ousting the corrupt? what does the viable solution look like? Does the party have a leader who can rise up and take over as chairperson?
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