Checking the Balance

The Mysterious Dave Huffman

Usually when we get this close to an election, the public knows pretty much everything about the candidates.  Well, somehow Dave Huffman, candidate for the 83rd, has avoided answering a couple of critical questions.

"I had hoped we could conduct the campaign as gentlemen and could discuss issues," he said. "He can say what he wants. I have a job and don't own property."

He said he didn't see the necessity to be specific about his job and suggested the fact he doesn't pay property tax is irrelevant.

How can Huffman not own property in the 83rd district?  How can his job description only be "businessman?"  Don't voters deserve to know what Huffman's professional history is? 

If Huffman doesn't own property, then he doesn't pay property tax.  If he doesn't pay property tax, how can he relate to most voters in his district?  That's my main issue with this whole deal; there's no possible way Huffman is in touch with his voters, which means he shouldn't represent them.

Week 9 Picks

Well, there we go, I'm back below the .500 mark.  Luckily, it's only one game under.  It shouldn't be difficult to get back into the positive side with this weeks games.

Week 9 picks (56-57-3 through Week 8)
New York Jets -2.5 over Buffalo
Chicago -8.5 over Detroit
Jacksonville -5 over Cincinnati
Baltimore PK over Cleveland
Tennessee -2.5 over Green Bay
Tampa Bay -7 over Kansas City
Arizona -4 over St. Louis
Minnesota -1.5 over Houston
Denver -1.5 over Miami
Atlanta -4.5 over Oakland
Dallas +8.5 over New York Giants
Philadelphia -6.5 over Seattle
New England +1.5 over Indianapolis
Washington PK over Pittsburgh
Obama -3.5% over McCain

The Perzel Plan

I briefly touched on Rep. John Perzel's involvement with House candidate Matt Taubenberger, but now there are more details on the candidates negative campaign against opponent Brendan Boyle.

The controversy is based entirely on a city bookkeeping error, according to an analysis by the city Revenue Commissioner Keith J. Richardson.

When the Boyles bought the property last year, their settlement included $778 to cover the 2007 real-estate taxes. The city got the money, but mistakenly credited it to the property's water and sewer account instead of real-estate taxes.

That led to an unpaid balance that Taubenberger discovered this year on a Web site set up by the Board of Revision of Taxes. The site itself cautions that its information may be inaccurate.

Well, a Perzel political-action-committee funded full newspaper advertisements proclaiming that Boyle was a "tax deadbeat."  Unfortunately for Perzel and Taubenberger, the whole controversy was merely a mistake by the city.

Two days ago, the city finally took responsibility.

"It appears the real-estate payment from the title company last year was applied to water-sewer in error by the department," Richardson told the Boyles in a letter. "The problem has been resolved with regards to your real estate taxes and the file has been cleared."

The city takes full responsibility for the Boyle tax error, so, you would think Taubenberger would stop with his attacks and apologize for misleading voters.  Wrong.

But Taubenberger refuses to apologize. "This is all highly questionable and suspect," he said. "Commissioner Richardson's letter is not worth the paper it's written on."

Taubenberger is straight disrespecting city Revenue Commissioner Richardson.  To my knowledge, Richardson was an elected official and by stating that his word isn't "worth the paper it's written on," Taubenberger is spitting in the faces of every single voter.  But, I guess when you take your lessons from a politician like Perzel, disrespecting voters is rule number one. 

Drowning DeWeese

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review put their support behind a few more candidates; Bill DeWeese was not one of them.

State Rep. Bill DeWeese is much like an actor who, blind to his miserable performance, refuses to relinquish the stage; he must be yanked off with a long hook. In the 50th Legislative District, it's time voters gave Mr. DeWeese the hook. For he's offered one pathetic excuse after another in legislative scandal after legislative scandal. Republican challenger Greg Hopkins, 36, works on the family farm and knows more about sweat and toil than DeWeese ever will. Elect Greg Hopkins.

I haven't seen a newspaper slam a candidate that hard in a while.  But, they're exactly right.  DeWeese is fumbling his way through his term and his campaign.  It's clear that DeWeese no longer has the respect of most of his colleagues and, most importantly, voters no longer trust the Majority leader, which means it's time for him to relinquish his leadership role and get voted out of Harrisburg.

Guy's hot air balloon

The Wayne Suburban offers up a piece outlining the political views of the 157th candidates, Guy Ciarrocchi and Paul Drucker. 

A Ciarrocchi quote from the story that really irked me is the following:

“Everybody in some way should try to help in their community and in their neighborhood,” Ciarrocchi said, adding that he has tried to do so both as a volunteer and as a professional throughout his life.

So, Guy is saying that he's tried to help people as a professional, yet he noted that he was Director of Public Affairs for the Archdiocese in Philadelphia on his campaign biography, only to remove it when the sexual abuse scandal started getting mentioned again.  Ciarrocchi has yet to mention what he did to help the many children who were taken advantage of. 

Two minute drive

In a late push by both parties, it was announced that interviews with John McCain and Barack Obama will air during halftime of Monday night's game between the Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Monday Night Football averages 12.2 million viewers each week, so this is almost like another national debate.  This will likely be the final messages from the two candidates before the election is officially settled.  Theoretically, if the elections are as close as some critics are saying, a positive appearance coupled with a misstep by the other candidate would make MNF the determining factor for the President. 

To make MNF a key to the election seemed to be ESPN's plan all along.

"We worked with our partners at the NFL to schedule a Monday Night Football game in Washington on this special night, and this presents a unique opportunity for John McCain and Barack Obama to reflect upon the last few months and address a large primetime audience on the final day of the campaigns," Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production, said in a statement.

To make this personal, I think these developments could have the most impact on Pennsylvanians.  The Steelers have extremely loyal fans, which means a huge number of Pennsylvanians will tune into the game.  Pennsylvania isn't a strong Obama state yet, so a strong showing by McCain might be enough to take PA's 21 electoral votes.

Costello keeps climbing

The Bulletin offers a terrific piece relating to the race for the 172nd and focuses on candidate Rich Costello. 

I like the push the Costello camp is making, as I've seen a lot more press relating to the former FOP President than I've seen for his opponent John Perzel. 

"When he first started out (Perzel) was a hard working, dedicated public servant," Mr. Costello told The Bulletin, adding the local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) sometimes supported the Republican's electoral efforts, even when Mr. Costello headed the union.

But the Democrat, who retired from his FOP post since 2002, said the former speaker eventually got into the habit of using taxpayer dollars for purposes that served his own interest more than that of the public.

"I think that he has seriously blurred the line between personal spending and public spending," Mr. Costello said. "I would say that public funds belong to the public not the legislator."

Costello feels like a genuine person and I respect the way he handles questions regarding Perzel.  There are a lot of things Costello could directly bring up against Perzel (his redistricting policies, being on the board of Geo Inc. responsible for the Republican computer system), but he takes the high road and speaks about Perzel's shortcomings very respectfully. 

The Philadelphia City Paper also offers a short profile of the race for the 172nd seat.

State Representative in District 172

Where is it? The Northeast, but the district is so gerrymandered it's impossible to say for sure

Who's running? John Perzel (R, incumbent), Richard B. Costello (D)

What do they stand for? Costello is running on a reform and crime-fighting ticket. The former president of the police union, he says the first thing he'd fight for is stricter gun laws (not an idea that has escaped other politicians). Perzel, the former Speaker of the House, has recently advocated for senior property tax elimination and parole reform.

Why does this matter? Perzel has represented his district since 1979, and is known as one of the most powerful legislators in the Capitol. He's endured recent criticism for what opponents say are ethical lapses, from sitting on the board of a prison services firm to advocating for legislative pay raises. Democrats are hoping that Costello's police credentials will enable him to bring this seat into the (D) column.

I wish all campaigns could be as clean as Costello's and it's evident that he is the right man to represent the 172nd.

"Partisan slapfest"

John Micek has the report on yesterday's Attorney General debate taping. 

Essentially, it was John Morganelli hammering home his three points regarding Tom Corbett.

1. Corbett should've had an independent prosecutor take over Bonusgate
2. Corbett has only charged Democrats in Bonusgate
3. Corbett has too many Republican connections to run a partisan Bonusgate investigation

Corbett came back with his normal defense: 

''John has never conducted a grand jury investigation like this in his entire career,'' Corbett said. ''He has no idea what evidence we have or do not have. He's misleading the public.''

For the record, Marakay Rogers is also running for the AG position as the Libertarian candidate.  She was part of the debate and said that she would have no problems running a non-partisan Bonusgate investigation.

The debate is supposed to air on Monday at 7:30 p.m. on WFMZ-TV.  I'm looking forward to seeing this because I really want to see how these candidates interact with each other. Plus, I want to hear each candidates final message to voters.  I believe this race will be tight, so if Morganelli performs well, he might have enough momentum to win.

The DeWeese and the disturbing

Bill DeWeese went way out of bounds with his latest mailer.

 

There are decent ways for politicians to show that their opponents are unqualified and then there is this.  There is no reason for DeWeese to play this way.  For him to send something out like this is an absolute insult to the voters. 

It truly appears that DeWeese must be desperate for votes to stoop to such lows.  Perhaps, Mike Manzo linking DeWeese to Bonusgate is getting to the Democrat majority leader more than he leads on.  

DeWeese is clearing trying to question Greg Hopkins' sexual orientation through this mailer.  It's one thing to talk about Hopkins lack of experience, but to fault him for being good enough looking to have a successful modeling career is wrong.   

DeWeese is becoming an uglier candidate by the day.

Outrageous story of the day

This went down yesterday, but I thought I'd bring it up because it's absolutely shocking.  Federal agents arrested two neo-nazi men because they were plotting an assassination attempt on Barack Obama and targeting 102 additional African-Americans. 

This whole incident is insane, but the part I find most disturbing is the two men are 20 and 18.  How can people so young harness so much hate?