NOTE: THIS IS A "BONUS" COLUMN REPRINTED FROM MY PENNSYLVANIA BLOG (http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com/, WHICH I HOPE YOU'LL VISIT FREQUENTLY. SUPPOSEDLY, THIS IS A "BAD YEAR FOR REPUBLICANS," BUT THERE ARE SEVERAL GOP CANDIDATES IN THE CRUCIAL STATE OF PA WHO HAVE A CHANCE EITHER TO WIN OR MAKE REAL INROADS IN DEMOCRATIC STRONGHOLDS.
At the top, Mike Livingston, Republican candidate for Congress in PA's 2d congressional district (Philadelphia). There's no truth to the rumor that Mike recently won the national "Brad-Pitt-Lookalike-Contest."
Mike Livingston, the law professor who's running for Congress from PA's 2d congressional district (against Dem. Chaka Fattah) and I have been corresponding regularly. I sent him the following today about his own race, Melissa Hart's race in the 4th district (against Dem. Jason Altmire), and Marina Kats's contest in the 13th (against Dem. Allyson Schwartz):
Dear Mike Livingston:
I think I can bring attention to candidates I support. My "bull-in-a-china shop" approach online works better than I could have imagined.
Melissa Hart, who is running in the 4th District in western PA is a good friend of mine, and I keep trying to get people nationally to "adopt" her -- with some success. One of Melissa's big advantages this time (as compared to the mid-term election of 2006) is that John McCain should win the 4th by a large margin, particularly if Rev. Wright keeps spreading his cheerful message of ignorance and animosity. Altmire has yet to denounce Obama's "bitter" comments denigrating Pennsylvanians -- presumably because he agrees with them.
Mike, when your own campaign is done, maybe you can write a book about it. Running against Chaka Fattah may be in some ways a thankless task. However, there are tens of thousands of people in the 2d CD who will vote for Mike Livingston if you can get your message out.At the very least, your presence in the race is going to force Fattah to reconsider some of his militantly leftist positions. He's also going to have to explain why his seven terms in Congress have left at least 150,000 people in the district mired in poverty. If Fattah has a clue about economic development, he has fooled me -- and the people he supposedly represents.
If you haven't heard yet from Eric Dondero of BlogTalkRadio/Libertarian, you will soon. When libertarian Republicans learn who you are and what you believe in, many of them will support you -- by "support" I mean send money! There are thousands of libertarian Republicans out there who will contribute to your campaign -- if they can just find out that you exist.
I truly believe what I said earlier about how to get voters' support: to ask for it. The process is just that simple (although it requires great time and effort.
Many of the Republican candidates for Congress have a lot in common -- although you're not as good looking as Marina Kats (nobody is)! Marina has a great chance to make Allyson Schwartz, a terrible legislator, sweat. Allyson claims she's a powerful defender of the "middle-class." Somehow she thinks raising their taxes, discouraging energy development, and basically rooting for al Qaeda in Iraq constitute defending the country.
On libertarian (freedom loving) Republicans. One notable member of that group was a popular columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tom Hritz. He liked to smoke and one day a busybody at the P-G asked him if he was going to participate in "The Great American Smokeout." Irritated, Hritz said he was going to promote a new holiday called "National Mind-Your-Own-Business-Day."
Another Hritz-ism: Somebody asked him what he thought about the performance of Robt. Casey, Sr., father of Senator Bob. Hritz said, "Listen, after two terms of Bob Casey as Governor, Pennsylvania is lucky it's still a state."
Tom and his wife (also very funny) have passed away, but they're obviously still here in spirit. They'd have loved the chance to vote for people like Mike Livingston, Melissa Hart, and Marina Kats.
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