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Divernan

(15,480 posts)
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 06:24 PM Mar 2016

Sestak increases lead over McGinty!

In my latest e-mail from the Sestak campaign:

With less than 50 days until the primary election, we're widening our lead:
“Joe Sestak continues to lead the Democratic primary race for Senate, earning 33% of the vote. Katie McGinty has fallen into a more distant second (17%), followed by John Fetterman (15%).” – Harper Polling, 3/9/16


I've heard him speak to small groups (under 40) twice - once at Veterans Place (a non-profit residential/rehab/training program for homeless vets. Did you know 20% of the homeless are vets?
The second time was at the Pitt Law School where he presented his positions on foreign policy. At both events, he stayed until all members of the audience had asked every question; and then he stayed and talked informally.

If you haven't had the chance to hear him speak in person, take the time to read this very well-written piece from Penn Live. Once you learn about him, I hope you agree with me that he will make one of the finest senators Pennsylvania has ever sent to Washington.

Walking with Sestak: 'Joe marches to his own drum' in Senate race

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/02/joe_sestak_senate_walk.html

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Sestak increases lead over McGinty! (Original Post) Divernan Mar 2016 OP
Fetterman endorsed Sanders--did Adm. Sestak? MisterP Mar 2016 #1
Not that I know of; McGinty endorsed Clinton Divernan Mar 2016 #2
Excellent news! femmocrat Mar 2016 #3
I like Fetterman, hope he runs for another office. Divernan Mar 2016 #5
2010 Debacle Undone corbettkroehler Mar 2016 #4
Thanks for your support! Divernan Mar 2016 #6
I wasn't aware of that - thanks, Divernan Number9Dream Mar 2016 #8
Get the word out to all the vets you can. Divernan Mar 2016 #9
Graterford Prison has a chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America. Divernan Mar 2016 #10
I am a Sestak fan. Curmudgeoness Mar 2016 #7

femmocrat

(28,394 posts)
3. Excellent news!
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:17 PM
Mar 2016

Thanks, Divernan!

I have been waiting for some polls to make my decision between Sestak and Fetterman.

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
5. I like Fetterman, hope he runs for another office.
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:45 PM
Mar 2016

As a mayor of a small Western Pennsylvania town, I don't think he really thinks he has a shot in this primary. I think he's running to get his name out to the public, to get coverage on the issues he cares about, and to position himself for running for another office in 2 or 4 years.

Good luck to him.

Meanwhile, out of state Super pacs are giving McGinty big bucks for radio, TV, internet ads. Interestingly in the last Senate race of Sestak v. Toomey, Toomey outspent Sestak by about $7 million, yet Sestak lost to Toomey by just 2 points in a year that brought sweeping victories for Republicans across the country and across Pennsylvania.

The total spending of the race was $20 million, the most of any other federal election in 2010. After the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, conservative Political action committees and corporations broke the record for outside spending, airing ads on Toomey's behalf, causing Sestak to be outspent 3 to 1.[71] Sestak responded to this outside spending at Philadelphia Constitution Hall, arguing, "It is we the people. Not we the corporations; nor we Wall Street."[72]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sestak

The gap between pro-Toomey and pro-Sestak ads was the largest of any Senate race in the nation. There were over 21,000 ads that Pennsylvania residents got to see or hear either promoting Pat Toomey or attacking Joe Sestak. Only about 11,700 ads were pro-Sestak.
http://www.politicspa.com/corbett-and-toomey-had-twice-as-many-ads-as-onorato-and-sestak-en-route-to-victory/20147/

Interesting info about Sestak's successful run for U.S. Congress:
Sestak began laying the groundwork for a Congressional run in his home district in Pennsylvania as a Democrat. However, he was approached and told that he had to first receive the endorsement of the "DCCC." Confused, Sestak first thought DCCC meant his hometown's Delaware County Community College.

Eventually, he was steered toward the correct DCCC, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and informed its head, Rahm Emanuel, of his run for Congress.[13] Emanuel told Sestak he was not ready for such an election. Pennsylvania's 7th district is heavily conservative, as Republicans outnumbered Democrats 2:1. Sestak decided to run anyway and turned to his brother Richard and sisters Elizabeth and Margaret, who served as his campaign manager, top fundraiser and treasurer, respectively.[14]

Sestak challenged ten-term incumbent Curt Weldon in a race for the seat. Sestak proved a capable fund-raiser. In the second quarter of 2006, he raised $704,000 to Weldon's $692,000; in the third, $1.14 million to $912,000. As of September 30, 2006, Sestak had $1.53 million cash on hand, while Weldon had $1.12 million in the bank after making a $500,000 TV ad buy that had not started as of the close of the third quarter.[15] Sestak received campaign funds from famed people around the world, including performer Jimmy Buffett, John Grisham, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and many Naval officers.


Of course, he ran afoul of the Clintons when he refused to drop out of his first Senate primary race, to hand it to Arlen Specter. Katie McGinty has endorsed Hillary this time around.

corbettkroehler

(1,898 posts)
4. 2010 Debacle Undone
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:42 PM
Mar 2016

Yes, it's true that 2010 was a Republican year because Obama folded like a cheap suit time after time. Even so, Sestak could have won. Toomey was weak (still is). Given the corrections he's made this cycle, I'm happy to support Sestak with $ even though I live in Florida. The fact that VoteVets.org asked me to donate only intensified my resolve.

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
6. Thanks for your support!
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:56 PM
Mar 2016

Last edited Sat Mar 12, 2016, 06:07 AM - Edit history (1)

Do you know that, in addition to his support for and involvement with homeless vets, Sestak meets with vets in the Pennsylvania state prisons every year? They can't vote of course, so there's no gain for him in the campaign. He does it because he's a very decent man. Don't think I need point out the probable correlation between PTSD and ending up in prison, or homeless?

I also note the ethical contrast between Hillary Clinton, whose super PACs are still taking money from private prison operators, who depend on keeping their facilities full at all times for maximum profits, and Admiral Sestak who literally "visits the imprisoned" (who cannot vote).

There's no tougher audience than a roomful of incarcerated veterans who've endured two hours of bloviating academics, judges and wardens. By the time Joe Sestak stood to speak, the wooden pews of the chapel at Graterford Prison had thinned. The lunch call came a half hour earlier and the 70 or so men who remained were sacrificing cafeteria privileges.

The retired Navy admiral sat alongside them through the Veterans Day speeches, occasionally leaning in to commiserate with the men beside him in brown D.O.C uniforms. When it was finally his turn, Sestak bolted up and politely waved off the microphone and the podium. "I thank you because that's more than this country has ever done for you," Sestak said, in a near-shout over the din of floor and wall fans recirculating the chapel's stale, hot air.

Some of the men, particularly the older ones, nodded along as the onetime U.S. congressman paced the aisle in jeans and a fatigue-green flight jacket emblazoned with the George Washington Battle Group he commanded during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His hands, like his feet, kept moving, adding kinetic energy to his words about drug sentencing, prison reform and PTSD.

Most of the men already knew about Sestak's 2016 run for the U.S. Senate, but the candidate failed to mention it in this particular stump speech. Afterward, he quipped amiably: "It wouldn't have helped much here."

Sestak has visited a prison every Veterans Day for nearly a decade, even after losing to the now-incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey in the Republican wave election of 2010. And each year, the men continue to send him a formal invitation. "I don't want them to think I've forgotten them," Sestak said.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/02/joe_sestak_senate_walk.html

Number9Dream

(1,558 posts)
8. I wasn't aware of that - thanks, Divernan
Thu Mar 10, 2016, 09:17 AM
Mar 2016

I've passed this along to veteran friends. Meanwhile, Toomey consistently votes against veterans.

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
9. Get the word out to all the vets you can.
Thu Mar 10, 2016, 09:44 AM
Mar 2016

Meanwhile there's about a $million in out of state PAC money coming in next week to run internet, radio and TV ads for McGinty. God knows who the donors are to that PAC, but I suspect they are the long time, Big Energy friends of hers and her husband's. Iconic Pennsylvania environmentalist, Rachel Carson (A Silent Spring) is rolling over in her grave that McGinty bills herself as an environmental candidate.

Here's one of many examples.

Weston Solutions

This consulting firm received $8 million in state contracts during McGinty’s tenure in Harrisburg and after they began employing her in 2009. They additionally received over $860 million in federal contracts after the federal Department of Energy, who McGinty was also advising at the time, gave them the prerequisite approval.

Right after she resigned from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in 2009, Katie McGinty joined the board of directors at the environmental consulting company Weston Solutions, and subsequently accepted a paid position as managing director.31 It should come as no surprise that Weston Solutions received a $3 million contract from the DEP in April 201032 and close to $2 million in contracts from another Pennsylvania agency.33 After McGinty was named Governor Tom Wolf’s chief of staff in 2015, Weston Solutions was awarded another $3 million contract from the PA DEP for “general technical assistance.”34

In November 2010, McGinty was appointed to the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advisory Committee while maintaining her position on the board at Weston Solutions.35 Three months later, McGinty announced that the Department of Energy designated Weston as a “qualified Energy Service Company,” a sweet gig that made Weston eligible for federal contracts on the taxpayer dime.36 Since that time, they have been awarded a whopping $896.8 million in federal contracts!37

Divernan

(15,480 posts)
10. Graterford Prison has a chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America.
Thu Mar 10, 2016, 09:59 AM
Mar 2016

"He's a very admirable man," said Commer Glass, 70 and nearly blind, who leads the prison's Vietnam Veterans of America chapter. "It feels as though we're a part of him and he has a special place in his heart for the incarcerated veteran."

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
7. I am a Sestak fan.
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 09:29 PM
Mar 2016

Not so much McGinty. I might like Fetterman better, but he just isn't known at all in my area of PA. I have also seen Sestak speak, and he is incredible. His caring for people, PA, and this country are obvious.

I only wish that I knew who could beat Toomey to a pulp.

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