Gerlach on Possible Senate Bid: ‘Don’t Rule Anything Out’…
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23 Comments
Congressman Gerlach may not be ruling anything out, but a large number of conservatives have rulled him out. Right or not?
not sure why people on here start spewing venom against him. he's a good guy, and a way better candidate. and if he's getting the asher types all p.o.'d about running against their boring, gray-haired annointed one for gov, that's pretty good in my book.
why is it that we either have to think a pol is super great or the the worst ever? I disagree with Gerlach on an whole lot of issues, would vote for Toomey for Senate over Gerlach, but I don't think Gerlach is the devil incarnate either. If this primary was Gerlach vs Specter but Toomey wasn't involved then people would be tripping over themselves to vote Gerlach.
Mrs. Gerlach is hot. If I were Jim, I'd forget politics and spend way more time puttering around the house.
Thank You!
I applaud Gerlach for keeping his House Seat and fighting back every cycle while everyone else in suburbs has lost. I think Gerlach is a great opportunity for us
I like Toomey I do but I just don't think he can win in general. I think he has already been identified as too far too right and first impressions like these are hard to beat.
…and GIRLach is too much of a weasel.
Look, you RINOs are going to have to come to grips with two things.
First, whoever becomes the GOP nominee must win the GOP primary first – and right now the grassroots base is in no mood for a wishy-washy weenie like GIRLach.
Second, by refusing to support a conservative candidate for Senate in the general election, you are selling the voters of the state short. We are not NY, NJ, or MD. We have always been a curious homogeny of people, and whoever can best tap that spirit in a conservative and honest manner – low taxes, less government, limited government – can easily win.
We can win? When is last time a Conservative has won statewide office? Rick 12 years ago?
Can we deal with the facts that PA demographics have changed and that if u want to win elections u have to bend a bit.
If not we will keep on losing
Seems to me the more pertient question is: when was the last time the GOP in PA ran an unapologetic conservative? Can't use Slick Rick because he had ticked off the base by supporting Specter.
Or do you want to discount Tom Corbett? Last time I checked, he tried to campaign as a conservative and has been at the PLC for the last couple of years in an effort to court conservatives.
Stop thinking like a defeatis hack and start acting like a Republican with a vision.
And kiss Mrs Gerlach goodnight for us.
Rick angered the base? That argument is so pathetic and so unfounded.
Weren't you angry that he backed Specter over Toomey? If not, then one has to question how in touch you are with the grassroots of the GOP.
You'll have to pardon Dave – he hails from NE Philly. For him, western PA is MontCo and the T is somewhere in Ohio.
Not really
He backed his colleague? What was to be mad about?
If after all this time you have to ask this question then you really aren't tuned into the base. What is so difficult to understand? Santorum pretended to be conservative (pro-life, etc.) yet backed a pro-choice and very liberal Specter. Santorum and Bush should have stayed out of the primary and let it to the voters. Get it now?
Jim is about as pell mell as they come. Case in point: at the PLC, Gerlach, along with COrbett and Meehan were asked, point blank, Toomey or Specter? Gerlach staired at the ceiling, scratched the part-line in his hair a couple of times, but couldn't muster an answer one way or the other, even as the 500+ in attendance were going apoplectic waiting for an answer. While in the state legislature, Gerlach voted himself a 50 percent pension increase which is about to bankrupt the state pension fund and make property taxes go through the roof (teachers also got a nice boost).
Toomey is too conservatve? PA just elected a PRO-LIFE Democrat. See Dave, it isn't a matter of conservative versus moderate or liberal. Opposing good ole boy politics like earmarks isn't a matter of ideology. It's a matter of principle. Even diehard lefties are opposed to earmarks. Tell me the ideological differences between Toomey and Gerlach that make Toomey supposedly too conservative. Please list them RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.
Dave – it makes little sense, but it really did drive the conservative grassroots nuts. Those behind Toomey felt that Rick's intercession on Arlen's behalf cost them the race.
When Rick came up two years a lot of conservatives were tepid in their support, and he took a lot of fire on the message boards. Did that cause him to lose? Probably not, but it didn't help.
For someone to have hussy fit over Ricl endorsing Arlen is beyond stupidity
I hope these people if they have kids don't teach them to have sour grapes if they don't get their way all time
Hey and Dent is still a Congressman for us which may be held by Democrats now
So u'd rather us lose a seat like that which is tilting Dem?
I don’t know if I would accept the premise that Dent’s and Greenwood’s challengers would have lost in the general election. We will never know. But the post was to explain why Santorum lost the support of at least a few conservatives who were with him in earlier elections.
And therein lies the rub.
You don't see the problem with a conservative Republican backing a liberal Republican because both are Republicans; you don't see the ideological divide because, sadly, you, have no ideology. You will do the politically expedient thing, not the right thing.
Conservatives, however, have a set of ground rules – values – from which they operate from, and those come first, not the party. So, while you see Santorum's support of Specter as 'business as usual', the conservative base of the GOP – which is the BULK of the Republican rank-and-file voters – saw a betrayal.
Remember, while most politicians and party loyalists see everything in shades of gray, most voters tend to see things in black and white; they understand when someone screws up. They understood Santorum had screwed up, and the liberal Democrats took advantage of that by running a guy who ran more as a conservative Democrat than as what he is – a tax-and-spend liberal.
Point remains: conservative values win elections, not political pragmatism.
Dave – Santorum injected himself in at least 3 Republican primaries by endorsing a pro-abortion candidate over a pro-life candidate. In addition to the 2004 Specter – Toomey race, Santorum backed a pro-abortion state lawmaker, Charlie Dent, over pro-life doctor Joe Pascuzzo. Santorum backed pro-abortion Jim Greenwood against pro-life challenger Joe Schiafino.
Although I don’t have the names handy, I also understand that he did the same thing in a race in Alaska. He has a clearly established pattern. During the campaign in 2006, Santorum was asked more than once if he would refrain from this type of counter-productive activity. He refused.
Whether the hissy fit was right or wrong is academic; the end result was Santorum turned off a lot of conservatives and paid for it by their refusing to throw their hearts into his re-election bid.
And that's precisely where you RINOs go wrong; you think everyone votes based upon party affiliation or "good government". The reality is that when voters have a clear choice, they will get behind a strong, convicted, unapologetic conservative.
I hope Gerlach does run in the primary against Toomey. It will only show the differences between them; and it be a nice warm up for Toomey in the general election.
I have no problem with Ridge, Gerlach, Pileggi, whatever running against Toomey. It would give Toomey a chance to hone his message and prepare for the general election.
A competitive primary would also have the advantage of allowing Toomey to clean the RINOs clocks once and for all.