If this was happening anywhere but Montgomery County, it would make no sense. But Montgomery County is home to Ken Davis, Bob Asher and Jim Matthews, otherwise known as The Three Stooges of Pennsylvania politics.Matthews decided to ignore the wishes of 85,000 Republican voters who wanted a GOP majority running county government and voted for Democrat Joe Hoeffel as the county's new commissioners' vice chairman.
Davis and Asher are responsible for giving away dozens of county and statewide offices to the Democrats by their incompetence.
The latest attempt to screw up the Republican Party is in the race for the 17th District Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Sen. Connie Williams.
Republicans have a good candidate in attorney Lance Rogers, a Lower Merion township supervisor who was an independent until he switched his party registration to Republican. Rogers is the type of candidate would could appeal to independent, moderate Republicans and Democrats. He could win the 17th District Senate seat for the GOP.
Enter Davis and Asher, who are pushing another candidate, Montgomery County Sheriff John Durante, who won for re-election to a new four-year term in November.
Only one glaring problem with Durante. He lost most of the communities in the 17th Senate District in the November general election.
Durante lost to little-known Democrat Ed Cheri in Lower Merion, Upper Merion, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Narberth and Norristown, and narrowly won in East Norriton, Plymouth and West Conshohocken.
Durante was 3 for 9, losing in the 17th District by a total of 18,743 to 14,253 votes. Cheri took 57 percent of the vote to Durante's 43 percent. There's no way Durante can win.
Here's the 17th Senatorial District breakdown in the 2007general election in the race for Montgomery County sheriff:Voter registration in the 17th District consists of 46% Democrats, 40% Republicans and 14% independents or third party. A conservative like Durante can't win in this district, especially against ultra-liberal Daylin Leach, the Democratic Party candidate.
East Norriton: Durante, 1,626; Cheri, 1,162
Lower Merion: Durante, 5,557; Cheri, 9,257
Plymouth: Durante, 1,880; Cheri, 1,608
Upper Merion: Durante, 2,506; Cheri, 2,692
Bridgeport, Durante, 239; Cheri, 340
Conshohocken: Durante, 702; Cheri, 750
Narberth: Durante, 471; Cheri, 801
Norristown: Durante, 1,109; Cheri, 2,014
West Conshohocken: Durante, 163; Cheri, 119
TOTAL: Durante, 14,253 (43%); Cheri, 18,743 (57%)
A moderate/independent candidate like Lance Rogers could win, especially if he carries his home turf of Lower Merion by a large margin.
Will Montgomery County Republican Party Committee members follow their "leaders" over the cliff and support Durante or will they endorse Rogers and have a shot at winning in 2008?
10 comments:
Tony-
As far as I know, Ken Davis has personally been chauffering Lance Rogers around since last year as his hand-picked candidate to take the 17th.
You might want to call the Sheriff and clear that up with him before you make a blanket statement that he is an Asher-Davis guy...and really tank his chances of winning this seat.
Why would Ken Davis appear interested in Lance Rogers along with Tracey Specter, if he really wants John Durante? In Lower Merion, the memories of Ken Davis aren't good because he was pro-eminent domain once upon a time. Being anti-emininet domain got Lance Rogers elected once already. Seriously WHY would Ken Davis try to sabotage a candidate from where he lives? Or is that part of some grand plan? Where is Tracey Specter on this? Is it possible that your info is wrong and it was say SOMEONE else who put Durante up? OR, is it just Durante himself doing this?
Why is Ken Davis still in power if he seems to be even more divisive in GOP politics as he was as an elected official in his home community? When it comes to GOP politics, is Montgomery County as bad as Delaware County and are we all screwed no matter how we choose to vote?
And what of Durante - check out his bio here: http://www.montcogop.org/gopteam_durante.htm
and see this post:
http://www.wheremostneeded.org/2007/01/treasurer_loots.html
Is John Durante still affiliated with Plymouth Ambulance?
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmtpi/is_200601/ai_n16023644
http://publicsafety.com/article/article.jsp?id=2790&siteSection=19
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16231970&BRD=1672&PAG=461&dept_id=33380&rfi=6
http://www.timesherald.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily;jsessionid=sqnYHNGGyG3wWGhJH0dhrhQnx2SNYFnPKpGrtj7Nnd1p8KsshYpp!628382216?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FNTH%2FHome&r21.content=%2FNTH%2FHome%2FTopStoryList_Story_1416608
Tony, while I normally enjoy your posts, this one is way off the mark. John Durante is not the Asher-Davis candidate, and as bil with one l noted above, Ken Davis and Tracey Specter have been pushing Lance Rogers for this office since last summer (interestingly, while he was still a registered Independent.) John Durante is his own man, running on his own very successful record, with the support of his many friends throughout the district. Please do your readers a favor and do some research next time instead of simply parroting what your biased "sources" tell you.
To anonymous, these are good articles and you bring up a good point. John Durante was appointed President of Plymouth Ambulance after the scandal and has done a great job cleaning up corruption and restoring the financial support and public confidence in the association.
John Durante is a man of integrity with a lifelong, selfless commitment to public service. All factions of our splintered party will tell you he puts the public first and gives short shrift to political infighting. He deserves to be our next Senator in the 17th District.
Have you seen this blog posting from pawatercooler.com? Looks like more evidence that MontCo GOP chairman Ken Davis has been Lance Rogers’ de facto campaign manager:
Durante for Pa-Sen 17th
Montgomery County Sheriff John Durante has decided to throw his hat in the ring for the 17th District seat, which Senator Connie Williams is giving up.
He’s looking to go against State Rep Daylin Leach (D-Clown). But first he must get past Lance Rogers on the GOP side. Recently an independent, freshly minted Republican Rogers is on the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners.
Coincidentally, Lance will be addressing a Tuesday dinner meeting of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion & Narberth. Along with Jim Matthews.
http://pawatercooler.com/?p=3197
Ken Davis has been seen in the company of Jim Matthews many times. That doesn't make either of them a Republican. Durante has no reason to run for state Senate. He likes being the sheriff. He's not that ambitious. He's doing it because Ken Davis wants to muddy the waters.
Mr. Phyrillas,
Have you ever spoken with John P. Durante? He is a very open and honest man.
John Durante is undisputedly a person with clear direction and a deep sense of public service, as his 30+ year career serving the public demonstrates. Anyone who knows him knows that he is his own man and a person that you can believe in.
He has risen thru the ranks and wants to take his public service to the next level. He can bring real reform to Harrisburg.
Ken Davis excluded 100 votes from the Delaware County GOP committee, refused to include the only female GOP candidate on the endorsement ballot, and wouldn't even let the female GOP candidate attend the endorsement convention. And there's more...
Check out the information and Ken Davis' phone message on:
http://writemarsh.blogspot.com/search?q=durante
hey anonymous, 3:30 - how stupid are you? Please give me one good reason why DELAWARE COUNTY cmte people would vote in a MONTGOMERY COUNTY endorsement? Poor planning, bad attitude, now lashing out at the process because your guy got smoked. I don't have a horse in this race, but jeesch...atleast lose with your integrity intact.
Here's your one good reason why ALL of the Committee people from the 17th District should have been invited to Monday's endorsement meeting and why all of the candidates should have been on the ballot.
The issue has nothing to do with the individual candidates. Durante immediately dropped out of the race and Paolino has no chance of being endorsed because she was excluded from 2/3 of the potential votes in the 17th District.
The problem with Ken Davis' Monday night meeting at the T.K. Club was that it was the only endorsement convention for the 17th District Senate Seat. Anything held after that night would be nothing but a sham.
There are important constitutional and statutory rights involved here.
Ken Davis deliberately excluded one third of the Committee people from the only 17th District Senate Seat endorsement convention. Even more importantly, a female candidate was not allowed to attend and was not placed on the only ballot for the 17th District Senate Seat GOP endorsement. Do the math -- approximately 50 female Committee people were excluded by Ken Davis when he excluded the DelCo committee people as half of the DelCo Committee people are women.
If a woman was on the 17th District Senate Seat ballot, there was a chance she would have garnered many votes from the women of the Montgomery County GOP Committee. Half of the MontCo GOP committee are women, after all. If she wasn't such a threat, then why did Ken Davis consider her a problem.
Well, we'll never know how a legitimate vote would have turned out. Ken Davis made sure of it, as his phone message posted on www.writemarsh.com makes clear.
(Listen carefully to how he refers to Lisa Paolino in that phone message)
In case people are having a hard time finding the audio of Ken Davis' phone message on the Writemarsh blog, here's the correct address:
http://writemarsh.blogspot.com
There's a list of blog articles on the lower right portion of the screen.
Lisen to the phone message carefully, and decide for yourself.
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