PENNSYLVANIANS NEED A NEW SENATOR

I have been a personal friend and political supporter of Joseph Sestak since January 2006 when he first visited with me to discuss his running for Congress. I was impressed that day and have become more impressed over the years with his integrity, and his commitment to and caring for others.  And so of course I supported him for Congress twice and for the US Senate twice.  I believe he would be our US Senator today if a few pols in PA hadn’t stood by allowing the ghost conservative Toomey to win because of personal pique at Sestak’s willingness to take on their long time friend Specter.

This year the entire state party establishment (by that I mean the leaders not the activists and committee persons) decided to stop his so far successful effort to wage a six year campaign for a Senate seat.  They engineered a candidacy and they appealed to those in DC with access to party funds to assist at the last minute in sabotaging Joe’s reputation with scurrilous ads.

  

The party establishment was successful in winning that primary and we know how much they care about November from their inactivity six years ago.  Incumbent Senator Toomey the conservative enabler, who ideologically believes the kind of things that Trump speaks about, is now poised keep his seat.

The political pundits and the media all focus on -- will Bernie’s supporters vote for Hillary?  The question in PA is will Joe Sestak’s supporters vote for the Democratic candidate for Senator in November.

If those of us who supported Joe allow our personal annoyance, in fact disgust, at the actions of the self proclaimed political giants, to prevent us from voting Democratic for US Senate in the general election then we are allowing the Senate seat to be decided by our personal pique.

I do not believe the Democratic candidate for Senator was the best of the three presented in the primary.  But to allow the incumbent Toomey to be re-elected - NO. Let us be clear in our thinking.  If Clinton is President and the Senate remains Republican we face four more years of non-functioning government in DC.   And, if Trump is President and the Senate is Republican we face a body of enablers who will ratify his appointees to the Supreme Court and accept his nostalgic desire to return America to the age of the Roaring Twenties.

Whatever we may think about the personalities or campaign style of either of the candidates let no one forget that Toomey opposes 99% of what Democrats in DC and Harrisburg offer as solutions to our nation's problems.  If one is in support of the Democratic administration and its current efforts than one cannot allow Toomey to in another term.

We cannot allow Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to remain in control of the Senate. We cannot allow them to block needed gun control reforms, we cannot allow them to continue to block decent SCOTUS appointees, and we cannot allow them to ignore immigration and voting rights problems.  And the replacement of Toomey with a Democrat to work with Senator Casey will be a step in the direction of restoring sanity to the Senate. 

We will not have the opportunity to send Admiral Sestak to the United States Senate but we can retire the man he campaigned so valiantly against these past six years.

I wanted to vote one more time for my friend Joe. I wanted to be there with him the night he won his Senate seat. That will not happen.  But I cannot be true to all Joe has fought for and stood for in the Congress and in his campaigns if I pass on this contest and allow Toomey to get another term.  The United States Senate is the second office on the November ballot just after the joint vote for President/Vice President.  I would urge all those who supported Joe to join me in pressing the Democratic button for Senator.

30 June 2016