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PA GOP Senate hopefuls "debate" in New York
GOP struggles to find Casey challenger. Debate spotlights few real points of disagreement amongst low-profile candidates and no one had the moxie to call Obama a "socialist."
PA GOP Senate hopefuls “debate” in New York
Seven Republicans who want to take on Democratic Senator Bob Casey faced off at a debate at the Pennsylvania Society, the annual confab that brings the state's major political and economic power brokers to New York for schmoozing, cocktails and a really fancy banquet dinner. This event has been in New York for a century, and has been criticized for not bringing the big-spending to, say, Scranton, Philadelphia, Erie or Pittsburgh and for its general lobbyist-industrial complex decadence.
It also has the unfortunate effect of making Pennsylvanians look like wide-eyed yokel hicks on a school trip. Anyhow: back to the Republicans.
The debate was extraordinarily boring: there were few real points of disagreement, nothing you haven't heard from Republicans in 2011, and no one had the moxie to call Obama a “socialist”!
Daily News political columnist John Baer described the candidates: “The field isn't filled with big names: rich-guy entrepreneurs Tim Burns of Washington County and Steve gWelch of Chester County; Scranton Tea Party founder Laureen Cummings; Bedford County pharmacist John Kensinger; Bucks County manufacturing exec David Christian; Harrisburg lawyer Marc Scaringi; former coal exec Tom Smith of Armstrong County; retired Army Sgt. Robert Mansfield of Philadelphia; retired Army Col. John Vernon of Tioga County, and former Berks County state Rep. Sam Rohrer.”
The debate was hosted by the Pennsylvania Business Council and moderated by three journalists, including Inquirer political writer Tom Fitzgerald.
“Pennsylvania's Republican Party,” writes Baer, “finds itself in a situation not all that different from the one facing the national GOP. Both have the opportunity to run against a Democratic incumbent who ought to be vulnerable in a lousy economy (Sen. Bob Casey, President Obama), yet both have problems finding a credible candidate to do so.”
The Debate:
All candidates oppose raising taxes or compromising with Democrats. Indeed, every candidate said they couldn't conceive of any possible circumstance that would justify raising taxes.
“Raising taxes are not the solution,” said Christian. “I'm part of the 99% and I want to be part of the 1% as everyone in this room has always wanted to do. That's America.”
“I would love to get rid of the IRS,” smiled Cummings.
Asked if he thought a surtax on millionaires was an okay way to pay for an extension of payroll tax cuts, Christian made somewhat confusing analogies to World War II (“We had victory gardens...everybody joined”) and the Civil War (“It's like Sherman marching to the sea, burning Atlanta”).
“I'm against class warfare,” Cummings offered.
“I don't know where they got this word 'entitlement,'” said Christian. “Who's entitled to anything?”
Christian then went on to say he was raised on welfare, which helped him become who he is today. So, he reasoned, there should be a flat tax.
Asked whether they supported privatizing Medicare--a proposal that Republicans 1) keep forgetting is wildly unpopular, 2) proposing, 3) remembering is wildly unpopular and hiding away, 4) forgetting and proposing again—most candidates said yes.
“I'm also for introducing freedom into Medicare on a large scale,” said Scaringi, echoing Ron Paul's proposal for the “freedom to opt out of Medicare.”
“First we need to get rid of Obamacare,” said Cummings, unmoved by the moderator's reminder that she hadn't answered his question.
There were, of course, references to the greatness of the United States of America. And no one--and I mean no one--questioned the patriotism of fellow Republicans.
“If I asked you to name the greatest country in the world,” said Burns, “I bet every single one of you would name America without hesitation."
“I want to restore freedom to America,” added Scaringi. “Let's bring back freedom to America.
And it wouldn't be the 2011 Republican Party without props to Ronald Reagan, however bizarre in form.
“I'm a Ronald Reagan Republican,” said Christian. “I've been pro-life since back when Ronald Reagan used to hit me on the leg and call me kid.”
Welch touted his experience as an “entrepreneur” and channeled Mitt Romney, saying “I remember making hiring decisions” and that “we need to return decision-making back to our entrepreneurs.” Like Romney, Welch also has that flip-flopping problem: he left the Republican Party and voted for then-Representative Joe Sestak in 2006 and then Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary (though he voted McCain in the general).
To my great surprise, Rohrer was the only candidate to mention how many children he had and how long he'd been married.
Scaringi, who has something called the “Free America Agenda,” seems like the Ron Paul isolationist in the race. Most everyone else, however, wants the U.S. to keep kicking ass.
"We are the world's superpower, and we don't [he means shouldn't] shy away from that," said Burns.
Others seemed to hate government so much that they forgot what government even does with all the tax money.
“I'm curious,” said Cummings, “as to why we always look at the fact that wars cost so much money and not look at how much money the government is costing us.”
“Saudi's already nuclear,” said Mansfield, in advocating military action—a point that doesn't have the virtue of being true.
Everyone's a big fan of Israel.
Some boldly suggested that there should be some sort of regulation of natural gas drilling.
Others, not so much.
“I believe that the regs on Marcellus Shale are best done on the state level,” said Burns. “I believe we are doing a good job.”
Welch was the only candidate who said he believes that climate change is real. But don't worry, he doesn't think that man-made activity is causing it. He explained something about the earth's “thermal cycles.”
All oppose all forms of gun control. And did I mention they all didn't like to compromise with Democrats? They supported the filibuster, and Cummings did so the most enthusiastically.
“It's appropriate,” said Cummings, “and I can't wait to be a part of it.”
Welch and Christian kept talking about how much longer Americans are living than at the beginning of the century.
Rohrer is the only candidate to have run a statewide race before (last year's gubernatorial Republican primary, when he took on Governor Tom Corbett from the Tea Party right), and his name seems particularly recognizable in a field of nobodies. And to Rohrer's credit, he was the one Republican candidate for governor to show up at a Philadelphia debate last year organized by local progressive activist groups.
Today, Rohrer was the only candidate to not raise his hand when asked if they “support deportation of illegal aliens.” And he, along with Welch, supports a “path to citizenship” for some undocumented immigrants.
Rohrer is now the head of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a corporate-funded Tea Party group.
In what appears to be a growing trend among an evermore demographically ecumenical Republican Party, there is one African-American man and one white woman running. The black man is Mansfield, a Philadelphian, who was wearing sunglasses inside (Heartfelt correction: I have been informed that the glasses are "prescribed and a personal necessity, due to a severe injury he sustained while serving our country in Iraq.")
“Pennsylvania has played a key role in the greatest story ever told: America,” he began. “Now is the time to continue our mission to fight the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
He then suggested that everything was controlled by “special interests of an elitist sect.”
Though Casey may be “understatement defined, his excitement most often registered by some extra eyebrow activity,” whoever wins the Republican primary will have a tough fight ahead. As Baer notes, Senator Casey has “a name that's never lost a Pennsylvania general election.”
Oh, but the debate highlight was this: I overheard someone refer to New Jersey Governor “Chris Crispy.”
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