Reconciliation, Or the Lack Thereof

After a primary election battle the smart strategy for the victor is to reach out to the voters and supporters of the candidates who lost. It's imperative to attempt to bring them into your camp. Sometimes this entails a meeting where apologies are made, concessions offered and the axe is buried. Bob Casey's supporters have only found one place to bury their axe: in my back. Not unexpected. Of course, it was the conduct of the Casey supporters that cemented my support for Chuck Pennacchio. If those were the sort of tactics Casey's people were engaging in I wanted no part of that campaign. Thus my decision to announce a write-in campaign for November.

Let's be clear about something. I haven't worked for Chuck since last summer. I rarely speak to him unless we're at the same event. We have a little chat but I haven't been nvolved in his campaign. I've also had friendly conversations with Alan Sandals at these events. It doesn't mean I was giving him advice either. I know both men and I respect both men.

What is it about Pennsylvania politics that we can't heal wounds from hard fought primaries and come together in compromise? I well remember the aftermath of the Presidential primaries in 2004. I was deeply involved in the Howard Dean campaign. After John Kerry became the presumptive nominee the Kerry campaign reached out to have a meeting with us. I won't reveal who it was or where in order to protect them, but it wasn't a good meeting.

We Dean leaders gathered beforehand to try and determine what it was they'd be asking of us. The obvious answer was help using the internet for organizing and fundraising, which Dean for President pretty much invented that election cycle. No, it turned out they wanted us to do something in direct violation of Federal election law. A very serious violation. We all left the meeting determined not to have anything more to do with that campaign. Because of this some of us were ostracized for not doing more to help the Kerry campaign. Simply amazing.

Now, instead of trying to heal some very serious wounds and move on to November a Casey supporter is again smearing me. Seems they're still pissed that I exposed one of their biggest supporters for using his company's time and resources to support Casey. Federal election law is quite clear on this matter. No cpmpany resources can be expended to raise funds for a candidate. None. Adam used hours and hours of his time on the law firm's dime to advocate for a Casey. He did this for over a year. The only reason you advocate on sites like Kos is to raise money. You can raise serious money for a candidate on those blogs. If his advocacy raised $1 for the Casey camp what he did was illegal.

Yet JimK posted a comment on Chuck's blog further castigating me for my expose. Instead of trying to mend fences he chose to burn a few more. Simply amazing! When they lose in November they'll be able to blame me instead of their own ineptitude. And we wonder why we haven't won a full term Senate seat in this state since 1962. The beat will go on with campaigns like this.