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PA 18 Special Election Updates

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nickqt said:
Which further demonstrates that the Democratic party is the big tent party, where sane, rational, actual conservatives already reside.

The purity tests of the progressive far left are irrelevant to everything, except of course in the nightmares and fever dreams of US Republicans who are far-right, reactionary right-wing authoritarians. Sane conservatives exist. And they're members of the Democratic party.
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Trump is an anomaly and is hardly a conservative. To win a seat in an area that went to Trump, the Democrats ran a conservative candidate. This tells me that while voters are rejecting Trump, they still prefer candidates anchored to the center. Sane conservatives may start voting for Democrats again, but that alignment won’t last. Neglect of the blue dog and Reagan Democrats is what set the stage for Trump’s rise.
 
Starbuck1975 said:
Trump is an anomaly and is hardly a conservative. .
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Trump is the epitome of what republicans stand for, but unfiltered. Democrats need to keep appealing to center voters now that its been made clear Republicans are extreme, always weak on foreign policy, and never had morals. the ultra liberal wing is just going to push most "undecideds" away. If Joe Biden runs in 2020, he will win.
 
evident said:
Trump is the epitome of what republicans stand for, but unfiltered. Democrats need to keep appealing to center voters now that its been made clear Republicans are extreme, always weak on foreign policy, and never had morals. the ultra liberal wing is just going to push most "undecideds" away. If Joe Biden runs in 2020, he will win.
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Trump managed to build a coalition between the far right and the blue dog center. He is losing the blue dog center because they realized very quickly that Trump was a false prophet. The far right are going to ride this train for as long as they can. Trump is simply a useful idiot.

I agree with what you said about the ultra liberal wing, because they very much now want a turn.

I would vote for Biden.
 
Sunburn74 said:
Not really sure whose race he's spoiling but I never understand why these 3rd party guys run.
You'd think after last year when we got trump in part because of the actions of Johnson and that other lady they'd have learned something.
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Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!!! They are paving the way for a way out of the 2 party system. So either a 3rd party person is actually a viable option or it drives the other to parties to put up real candidates that are actually likable and not hate filled scumbags ot for their own advancement. A win\win. Or is it that you like voting against the other guy? Are the 3rd party guys a distribution to the current system? They sure are and I hope they continue.
 
One of the best parts is that it came after another Trump clownshow performance and the GOP lost again.

At least he bothered to step into the state this time, not just over the stateline and pretend he wasn't there for the election.
 
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Sunburn74 said:
Not really sure whose race he's spoiling but I never understand why these 3rd party guys run.
You'd think after last year when we got trump in part because of the actions of Johnson and that other lady they'd have learned something.
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That POS Jill Stein was a shill for Russia, so she was obviously happy to take votes away from Clinton.
 
Starbuck1975 said:
Trump is an anomaly and is hardly a conservative. To win a seat in an area that went to Trump, the Democrats ran a conservative candidate. This tells me that while voters are rejecting Trump, they still prefer candidates anchored to the center. Sane conservatives may start voting for Democrats again, but that alignment won’t last. Neglect of the blue dog and Reagan Democrats is what set the stage for Trump’s rise.
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The blue dogs got wiped out in the tea party wave when conservatives went nuts over having a black man running the country. And Trump may not have ran as a conservative but he has sure governed as one other than the tariffs.
 
SNC said:
Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!!! They are paving the way for a way out of the 2 party system. So either a 3rd party person is actually a viable option or it drives the other to parties to put up real candidates that are actually likable and not hate filled scumbags ot for their own advancement. A win\win. Or is it that you like voting against the other guy? Are the 3rd party guys a distribution to the current system? They sure are and I hope they continue.
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The only way out of the two party system is changing the method of voting. Running more candidates until we do that is pointless.
 
fskimospy said:
The only way out of the two party system is changing the method of voting. Running more candidates until we do that is pointless.
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And how would changing the method of voting in a two party system change anything about the two party system?
 
Bitek said:
One of the best parts is that it came after another Trump clownshow performance and the GOP list again.

At least he bothered to step into the state this time, not just over the stateline and pretend he wasn't there for the election.
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Trump's utility to many, or even most, GOP candidates/incumbents that aren't in ruby red districts does seem to be highly questionable at this point.

Lamb successfully accessed the suburban backlash to Trump and wed it with blue collar skepticism of the GOP agenda to eke out a win in a R+11/T+20 district which is a pretty nifty political feat. Even with Republicans outspending the Democrats 3 or 4 to1.

The GOP problem illustrated:

9772hgt.png
 
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How is Lamb on climate change?

Because I've come pretty close to being a single-issue voter. I find it hard to believe that so many scientists would be both wrong and with some kind of nefarious agenda--and I demand that our elected officials check into it (even if it is ultimately ruled not a danger). I hope that it is...because many of the predictions are dire indeed for our descendents. Yet the GOP does worse than nothing--they actively oppose efforts to research it.

Hey I get it--if Democrats become "as bad" as the GOP, then why vote for them? I'm an Independent myself. Perfect is the enemy of the good--you won't agree with candidates on *everything*, and if you demand perfection you get Donald Fucking Trump. You get possibly 30 more years of fanatics running the Supreme Court (pleeeasssse hold on, you elderly judges!). Pissed-off Bernie fanatics cost us dearly in 2016 by taking their ball and going home, or by voting Johnson etc.

My only hope, such as it is now, is that Trump doesn't kill us or wreck the world economy...and drags the GOP down for a spell. I know Congress would have had a field day opposing Hillary (it's what they do best!)
 
K1052 said:
Trump's utility to many, or even most, GOP candidates/incumbents that aren't in ruby red districts does seem to be highly questionable at this point.

Lamb successfully accessed the suburban backlash to Trump and wed it with blue collar skepticism of the GOP agenda to eke out a win in a R+11/T+20 district which is a pretty nifty political feat. Even with Republicans outspending the Democrats 3 or 4 to1.

The GOP problem illustrated:

9772hgt.png
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Yeah. I saw some other reporting that this district wasn't even ranked in the top 100 of winnable districts for Dems.

Rs will not be able to spend like they did on this close loss, so their prospects look rather grim, especially if running on their one legislative accomplishment is not effective.
 
Stokely said:
How is Lamb on climate change?

Because I've come pretty close to being a single-issue voter. I find it hard to believe that so many scientists would be both wrong and with some kind of nefarious agenda--and I demand that our elected officials check into it (even if it is ultimately ruled not a danger). I hope that it is...because many of the predictions are dire indeed for our descendents. Yet the GOP does worse than nothing--they actively oppose efforts to research it.
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I'm not sure if he has an official position. A lot of that is, fortunately, in the hands of the market for now that renewables are cheaper to procure than new or even most existing coal generation and they're increasingly demanded by companies/individuals.
 
SNC said:
And how would changing the method of voting in a two party system change anything about the two party system?
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Because the two party system is a RESULT of our method of voting. When 51% of the vote gives you 100% of the representation and that vote is not transferable, logic dictates you will only have two competitive candidates in any single election.
 
Bitek said:
Yeah. I saw some other reporting that this district wasn't even ranked in the top 100 of winnable districts for Dems.

Rs will not be able to spend like they did on this close loss, so their prospects look rather grim, especially if running on their one legislative accomplishment is not effective.
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Tax cuts don't seem to be a hot ticket when you've got an unpopular president commandeering the news cycle every 20 minutes and a lot of people aren't sold on GOP policy wrt taxes/healthcare/social programs etc.
 
K1052 said:
Tax cuts don't seem to be a hot ticket when you've got an unpopular president commandeering the news cycle every 20 minutes and a lot of people aren't sold on GOP policy wrt taxes/healthcare/social programs etc.
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I imagine for most people the tax cuts were simply too small to matter. An extra $20 every two weeks doesn’t buy a lot of votes, especially when they see you handing out hundreds of thousands to rich people.
 
SNC said:
Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!!! They are paving the way for a way out of the 2 party system. So either a 3rd party person is actually a viable option or it drives the other to parties to put up real candidates that are actually likable and not hate filled scumbags ot for their own advancement. A win\win. Or is it that you like voting against the other guy? Are the 3rd party guys a distribution to the current system? They sure are and I hope they continue.
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Politics is like thermodynamics in that systems evolve over time to an equilibrium. Ours is the two-party system, the lowest number of "states" where there are enough choices to not be a monopoly but not so much as to require constant effort (political energy/money) above the "ground state". Third parties naturally collapse because they cannot compete with the established state of political physics.

The only remedy is to alter that reality at the most basic level, the Constitutional basis for elections, and those are controlled by the two parties.
 
On the one hand, Lamb is exactly the kind of Democrat that appeals to the district and represents their local interests well. On the other hand, this is a district that Trump carried by 20 points and is not simply conservative but tailor-made for populist agendas. Beyond that, it's also heavy on steel union workers, and Trump's campaigning for Saccone possibly had negative consequences in the wake of instituting steel tariffs. Ouch.
 
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