Posts tagged ‘Anthony Williams’

Dan Onorato was endorsed by my union, the PSEA, because he is a pro-education candidate.  Beyond the education front, Onorato is absolutely solid and a much better package than Tom Corbett, who has suffered from foot-in-mouth disease.

Yesterday, Onorato took to the stage with Anthony Williams, who ran for governor as a school choice Democrat from Philadelphia financed by four super-rich hedge fund managers.  While on stage, Onorato talked up school choice.  Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with me.  I love Onorato.  I hate school choice (I’ve written about this enough times that I won’t rehash why this is a disaster).

I decided to give Onorato a brief benefit of the doubt, took some deep breaths, thought it through, called some union contacts and campaign people.

While Onorato’s school choice feelings don’t sound like him, he still plans to fund our public schools equitably, he still plans to work for better teacher preparation programs, he still favors fixing our pension system.  Most importantly, and what makes him unique, is that he still supports teachers having a voice in the education process.  Believe it or not, we tend not to.  Policy that we follow is dictated to us by legislators and politicians, most often (think Race to the Top).

Anthony Williams plays a big part in this.  He’s sitting on $5 million after his gubernatorial loss.  Onorato needs to come out very strong in Philadelphia to win this race.  Having Williams on his side, in terms of votes and cash, makes a lot of sense.  I hate to be cynical, but that is politics.  In the end, Onorato is a far better candidate than Corbett, school choice or not.

Dan Onorato’s campaign made a boo-boo.  Somebody on the inside either leaked, or let slip, a memo detailing plans to go after Joe Hoeffel and/or State Senator Anthony Williams, both of whom are gubernatorial candidates.

Now, going after an opponent is no big deal, it’s to be expected.  But the plan was to knock them off the ballot.  The memo indicated that Hoeffel and Williams would either split the Philadelphia vote, which would help Onorato, or the two could possibly be bumped from the ballot, which would help Onorato.

It’s the latter of the two revelations that draws my ire.  Onorato, rather than fight the race out, believed he could backdoor his opponents in an effort to gain victory for himself.  There was nothing to indicate Hoeffel played games or skimped with his signatures.  He needed 3,000, he got 7,000.

This story has played out in Philadelphia and on the PA newsblogs.  The longer it runs, the more shallow Onorato looks.

The local United Way had a forum for the Gubernatorial candidates and only two showed: Democrat Anthony Williams and Republican Sam Rohrer.

The forum was unremarkable in that candidates merely repeated what we’ve known about them, but I’ll go over it.
Both are in favor of “school choice” which sounds great, but isn’t. Ask employees at Pocono Mountain Charter School. Charters, as I’ve pointed out in the past, are selective. They don’t have to take special ed kids, which boosts their scores and makes them look more productive than they are. They don’t have to be unionized (Massachussetts is totally unionized and also the #1 state in education). They don’t have to follow the same rules that regular schools do. There is less scrutiny and more abuse. And there is no evidence that they actually help performance. Some are better than public schools, some worse. Just like some public schools are better than others.

So Williams and Rohrer back something that sounds cool (hey, everybody, loves choice!) but really just siphons money away from public schools.

The other gem that came out: Rohrer is against Pre-Kindergarten and says that kids would be better off with their families. Well, that might be the case if everybody lived in a picture-perfect 1950s neighborhood where everybody knew their milkman’s life story, but in reality, pre-k moves kids into a positive environment and that, along with Head Start, has shown to make at-risk kids less likely to engage in criminal behavior later in life.

Thanks, Sam! You’re for making our lives worse.

One of the issues that faces the liberal world dominated by bloggers is which type candidate to support. Do we support a liberal progressive who is ideologically closer to our belief system? Or do we support somebody more likely to win against a Republican in the general election? It’s idealism versus pragmatism.

Frankly, I’m somewhere in the middle. If it weren’t for this, we wouldn’t have Jim Webb in Virginia, for example. I also tend to feel that authenticity encourages voters far more than idealism.

On that note, I am not sure what to do about the Democratic Primary this year, particularly in the Governor’s race.
Jack Wagner, who is the establishment favorite and has a lot of statewide name recognition due to his post as Auditor General, is too conservative for my tastes. He is anti-gay and he is anti-choice. Sure, that isn’t the be all and end all, but it’s important to note that on social issues, he is very regressive. He is obviously embarrassed by these positions, as well, since they don’t appear on his website, but do come up whenever he is questioned at a candidate forum.
But does his being more conservative make him more null against Tom Corbett?

I don’t think so. Why? Because Republicans aren’t voting for Wagner anyway. Democrats have this problem where they believe the best way to appeal broadly is to move to the right or to the center. I disagree, as this is inherently inauthentic. I’m not saying Wagner has moved in one direction or another as a result of his gubernatorial run, but I’m saying that Democratic candidates who are as generic as possible do not get votes in the end.

Dan Onorato isn’t much different than Wagner, except that he has more money. He is against same-sex marriage as well. Again, this is regressive. And, to me, it’s a gross display of ignorance. Our Constitution guarantees equal rights last I checked. Same-sex marriage shouldn’t even be a point of discussion, or contention. If straight people who love each other can get married, if there is equality in America, then gay people should, too.
Anthony Williams, the recent entrant who is also still running for his State Senate seat (which tells me he isn’t committed), has a disgusting set of ideas about education that make him a total no-no for me.

The only real progressive in the race is Joe Hoeffel. Aside from being liberal on social issues, he wants a single-payer health care system for Pennsylvania if (or when) the federal government fails to adequately reform the system.

So, I’m stuck. Who can win against Corbett?

I don’t know. But I don’t like generic Democrats representing me in General Elections.

Which is it? Idealism or pragmatism? Which candidate meets in the middle?

The poll for the Senate race between Specter and Sestak reveals nothing really new. Sestak still has little name recognition, and Specter is still polling higher. Both lose to Toomey in the likely voter category. But there is time to gain ground, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that just yet.

The interesting one, though, is the Governor’s race. Dan Onorato, Jack Wagner, and Joe Hoeffel are all tied at 6%. That means Onorato’s big money advantage and Wagner’s institutional advantage haven’t really translated into increased support. Anthony Williams, the less-than-ideal Philly candidate, came in at 1%. Good.

Hoeffel is a progressive and a liberal and very unapologetic about it. See, I think voters like people who simply state what they think and fight for what they believe without any caveats. For example, Democrats and the President are seeing their poll numbers sink. I think it’s because they aren’t doing a damn thing because they are too afraid to flex muscle and push something through that’ll offend Republicans. Newsflash: When Democrats breathe, it offends Republicans. What Dems should do is just get some work done. That’s why their numbers tank, because they aren’t being true to themselves. They’re too afraid to.
That’s why I think Hoeffel has a good shot against Corbett, if Hoeffel is the nominee.

State Senator Anthony Williams of Philadelphia will be running for Governor on the Democratic side. This will make Onorato’s win even easier, as Williams will siphon votes from Hoeffel and lock up the Philly vote.

I’m not impressed with his rollout, though, as the first thing he said on education was that the state needs to fund private options for education. That means taxpayer dollars would go to private schools. That means they aren’t private.

Just look at the Pocono Charter School. It’s run by a bunch of religious nutjobs who take egregious salaries while paying the teachers there next to nothing. That’s innovative? That’s an option that parents deserve to have funded by taxpayers?

That’s a bad road to walk down. Don’t siphon money from public education to fund private education.

Williams says he has almost $2 million, which is a pretty impressive amount. It will make him competitive. He is double-dipping though. He will be running for both Governor and State Senate.

Obviously he’s passionate about being elected to whatever he can get. That seems like a theme these days.

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee was not able to rally behind a single candidate for Governor.

The Democratic establishment went overwhelmingly in favor of establishment man Jack Wagner, despite his lackluster fundraising.  Dan Onorato, who is the clear front runner with his millions in campaign funds, came in second.

Joe Hoeffel, the only true liberal, progressive in the race, was knocked out after the first round of voting.

The second round of voting looked like this:

Jack Wagner:  153 Votes
Dan Onorato: 76
Anthony Williams:  48

And 27 people abstained as a way of showing their support for Joe Hoeffel.

State Senator Anthony Williams should raise some eyebrows, because he hasn’t even officially declared for Governor.  He’s a very strong Philadelphia candidate.  Joe Hoeffel is from the Philly area, but not Philadelphia itself.  Williams rose eyebrows when he announced fundraising half a million dollars without even declaring.  He even raised more than Doherty and Hoeffel.  If he were to make it official, expect those numbers to jump.

Now, you may notice that even though Jack Wagner got 153 votes and yet didn’t get the endorsement.  That’s because an official endorsement requires a 2/3 majority.

This rule, proposed by Governor Ed Rendell a few years back, is valuable because if somebody were to get that 2/3 that demonstrates overwhelming party unity.  Democrats are very good at infighting, and this helps stave that off.

Jack Wagner and Dan Onorato currently don’t impress me, particularly after the PA Progressive Summit.  Hoeffel and Doherty were pretty progressive, but Doherty may as well be out of the race.  Hoeffel will have to pull off something big to close the gap.  Williams I know next to nothing about, except that unions rate him pretty highly, which is always good.