The Times-Herald in Norristown is reporting that Montgomery County Sheriff John P. Durante has decided to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination to run for the 17th District Senate seat being vacated by state Sen. Connie Williams.
Durante failed to receive the Montgomery County Republican Committee endorsement for the race. The committee voted 112-57 to back Lower Merion Township Commissioner Lance Rogers.
Rogers, an independent who recently switched his party affiliation to Republican, was seen by GOP committee members as a more electable candidate in the 17th District, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans.
Another factor in the committee's decision may have been the fact that Durante did poorly in the 17th District communities when he won reelection for another four-year term as sheriff last year.
As I mentioned in a previous post, "Durante already lost the election," Durante managed to win only three of the nine Montgomery County municipalities in the 17th Senate District.
The 17th District includes Norristown, West Conshohocken, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Narberth, Upper Merion, Plymouth, East Norriton and Lower Merion in Montgomery County and Haverford and Radnor in Delaware County.
The Democratic candidate for Williams' seat is state Rep. Daylin Leach, D-149th Dist., who is regarded as the most liberal member in the state House of Representatives.
12 comments:
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
Why don't you ask Lisa Paolino to comment on what Ken Davis did? Here's her contact information from her website:
"If there is something anyone would like to discuss, please contact me personally at my e-mail, lisapaolino@gmail.com or call me directly at 610-716-1078."
http://paolinoforsenate.blogspot.com/
Oh yes, Tony, please call her...when you do call her, ask her if she has endorsement from anyone?
And why should have Ken Davis had her there Monday night? Not a Davis Bobble head, but just cuz she wants to go somewhere and speak, it doesn't mean she's gonna get what she wants, eh?
And let's chat about female GOP candidates: how many have fallen short for this seat? As in REALLY short? Is she winnable in your opinion? Or just in hers?
And Tony? Don't forget about this: http://lisapaolinoforsenate.blogspot.com/2008/01/second-post-that-was-deleted.html
Where there is smoke there is fire?
Oh and this one: http://roundradnor.blogspot.com/2007/12/so-maybe-it-was-tie.html
And the last question: is it true Sherrif John is going to get all law abiding and help Ms. Lisa? Now that would make for interesting bedfellows, huh?
Also, ever heard of the Khian Sea?
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/120
according to people in Delco it was no great secret that the Delco GOP was going to defer to Montco GOP, so why are we discussing this? Is Paolino endorsed by anyone, even her own township at this point? or is that yet to come?
In a district where one county has the clear majority of the district, it is not so unusual for what happened to have happened, is it?
And you know what gets to me in this whole thing? People are allowing their ire at Ken Davis muddy the waters. No one really likes him, but technically, what he did was not wrong, even if the phone call was King Ken speaks to serfs :<}, right?
And why does everyone have to contact this Paolino personally to speak to her? LOL, maybe "King Ken" has met his "Queenly" match?
Can we all start to judge the candidates as candidates and leave dysfunctional county party politics out of it? (Face it, Delaware County isn't exactly healthy, either)
Thanks
tony - what is it about these people who think delaware county cmte people should be allowed to vote in a montgomery county endorsement? its not an issue of whether you like or dislike ken davis, its politics 101. if anything, this is very poor planning on the sheriff's part who i dont think has ever run a split-county campaign, and now that he screwed up he's lashing out and saying it was fixed..that doesn't help the Party at all by attacking the well known process.
Tony -- you are so right about Ken Davis messing up the GOP. His phone call on www.writemarsh.com is priceless. It proves that he thinks he doesn't have to answer to anyone.
What does Ken Davis think about having to answer to a Court of Law for allegedly violating the Voting Rights Act?
Here's what's posted on www.writemarsh.com (see below).
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are state actors under U.S. law. Neither party may issue rules designed to exclude a female candidate or a minority candidate in the nomination process. Such discrimination violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the United States Constitution.
The United States Supreme Court has rejected the argument that a "political party is not a 'State or political subdivision' within the meaning of Section 5" of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia, 517 U.S. 186 (1996).
The Supreme Court likewise stated that "We have previously recognized that Section 5 extends to changes affecting nomination processes other than the primary." Morse v. Republican Party of Virginia, 517 U.S. 186 (1996).
A copy of the High Court's Morse opinion can be viewed at Cornell Law School's website at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/94-203.ZO.html
The problem is, Ken Davis' Monday night meeting at the T.K. Club 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)
Hey in my book Ken Davis is just below Hilary Clinton and Daylin Leach, but in this case I don't think he was completely wrong. Ken does not represent the 17th district, he is in charge of the Montgomery County and they should not have their endoresement watered down or changed by delegates outside of MontCo. yes, maybe they could have taken a straw vote and compared them to the 17th district DelCo votes and come up with a consolidated endoresement, but he didn't. Now the idea that he did not let Paolino in the mix of nominees is wrong. so what if she is not from MontCo, she is republican and lives in the 17th District so the MontCo Republicans should have had a choice. As far as women voting for her and the female vote...please...is that her only "selling point"? that she is a woman... Ken did not exclude her because of that. The Dems don't endorse Leach because they too are perverted morons...I listened to the phone message, and did not find it that "scandalous". This always happens at endorsement time, if you don't get picked for endorsement, cry that the system is fixed and start kicking and screaming.
Davis’ actions are unconscionable and undermined competition, which would benefit the GOP in the 17th district. Instead Davis actions guarantees Rodgers is the endorsed candidate.
Why did Davis support Rodgers? I think Davis believes Rodgers is the only GOP candidate — although I disagree– who can win the seat. A Radgers’ win in November will BENEFIT Davis as a LOBBYIST. Again, Davis conflict-of-interest rears its ugly head.
Another comment on the Tony Phyrillas blog asks a very important question:
Would you feel the same way if Ken Davis deliberately excluded an African American candidate or a Hispanic candidate instead of a woman?
And what if Ken Davis referred to a minority candidate as "that... Black" or "that... Hispanic" and as a "problem"? (For those of you who haven't heard the Ken Davis phone message yet, Ken Davis referred to the only female candidate as "that... woman" and as a "problem")
Think about it.
Listen to Ken Davis' phone message and see how a Court might see it. Here's the link to the phone message:
http://writemarsh.blogspot.com
(click on the link on the right side of the page which says Ken Davis phone message)
"This was a 17th district endorsement, and traditionally, Delco has always been included. (note the Lita Cohen endorsement, when she embarrassed herself…) this was a Montco endorsement only because Ken Davis said it was."
http://writemarsh.blogspot.com/2008/02/its-question-of-fairness.html
Ok, this is all silliness. If Lisa Paolino believes she has a grievance, tell her to file suit or file a grievance with the State or National GOP Party. But she won't do that, will she? Why? Because she knows she doesn't have a case. If she had a case, you would hear from her, not just posters on a blog.
If she is sooooo independent, she can just run her race and win. But it is highly unlikely she will win, and even if she did squeak by, she would get squashed like a bug by Camp Daylin.
And again, for Montco to have done the endorsement process without Delco, Delco would have HAD to have agreed. So why not someone get Delco on the record?
Why didn't Lisa go to the Lincoln Day Dinner recently held in LMT if she so believes she is the right choice? It would have been a perfect place to make herself known. But instead, can it be said she is making herself known in other ways? And that is what we want more of in Harrisburg because why?
This is all a joke. Just like the claims on the press releases. Someone should check the records on a LOT of things, shouldn't they?
And as for "if Ken Davis deliberately excluded an African American candidate or a Hispanic candidate instead of a woman?" that is an interesting point. Can it be said the fuss isn't because a woman was excluded, just this particular woman?
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