It's official. Casey has begun to plummet in PA. A new
Zogby poll has replicated an earlier poll that shows Casey now pulls less than 50% against Santorum and his lead is down from as high as 17 points, months ago, to just 8 points. This is exactly what happened with Casey when he ran against Rendell. This turkey will not fly.
It's time for Dkos to get behind Pennacchio, the real progressive in the PA senate race, who has now proved the potency of his message, his candidacy, the efficacy of his 280+ appearances across the state since he started campaigning, AND his grassroots network. But there's more...
This weekend,
Westmoreland county democrats voted to endorse Ed Rendell, John Murtha and six other local candidates. But they rejected endorsing Bob Casey, jr. and Catherine Baker Knoll, two candidates endorsed by the state democratic committee. This was a major loss for Casey, and for Ed Rendell, who's been pushing for both Casey and Baker Knoll. It's a major success for Chuck Pennacchio.
Out of about 60 PA counties, only about a dozen actually hold endorsement meetings. In three out of six endorsement meetings so far, Casey has failed to get endorsements. In each case, this has been directly because, Chuck Pennacchio, Casey's opponent, went to those counties, worked hard at the grassroots level, and persuaded enough members of the democrat party who vote in these county endorsement meetings, to vote against endorsing Casey, to allow an open primary. This is a huge loss for Casey, and proof, that in spite of the story that Casey's handlers and the pollsters have been trying to tell, that Pennacchio is not on the radar, that Pennacchio is having a profound influence on the election so far.
There are those in the Democratic party and those who profess to be progressives, who only look at the money. This is, in my opinion an infected opinion. I mean that it is an opinion that sees politics as only winnable by playing the money game, which requires corruption of the process. "In order to win, you have to take PAC money. You have to allow yourself to be bought by the power brokers."
Pennacchio is basically telling the power brokers he won't take their money. He'll only take their endorsements. He is not willing to be bought, not willing to be influenced by their money.
This is what I'd like to see in all politicians. This is what democracy should be about.
So-- to all you dkosfolk who rant on about money being the primary way to evaluate a winner-- take another look. Pennacchio is changing the game, changing the rules-- and instead of mocking him, you should be studying him, his strategies, his positions and learning from him. And... you should be sending him money. Casey is going to tank, no, make that Casey has begun tanking. If Rendell is smart, he'll see the writing on the wall and set Casey adrift, because Rendell is at great risk of losing his race, if Casey wins the primary. Casey will take Rendell down and PA will become a red state.
It's time for the people on Dailykos to start getting serious contributions to Chuck Pennacchio. He's earned it. And it's time for kos to re-evaluate the position he's taken on this race. Its no longer enough to trash the poll I had Zogby do in January (It showed that when voters find out about Casey's issue positions, he loses his lead and Pennacchio pulls more voters than Casey.) There's too much real data, too much reality that can't be pooh poohed. Will Marcos be big enough to admit he made a mistake with Casey? Or will he earn serious credit for losing PA to Santorum AND Swan?