By Christopher Harper
The media pundits who predicted a Democrat walkover in the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania are getting nervous.
Although the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the liberal media in leftist towns, have portrayed State Senator Doug Mastriano as a wingnut, the people between the two coasts are leaning heavily toward the Republican.
While I don’t place a lot of stock in polls, Democrats have to be worried about the last one, which was about a month ago from USA Today.
Mastriano pulled to within three points—49-46—of Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro—a number within the margin of error.
But there’s more troubling news for Democrats in the poll. Almost 85 percent of respondents said the country is heading on the wrong track, and more than 75 percent said the state is going in the wrong direction.
Only 30 percent said they felt the economy was working for them, pointing to inflation as their most critical issue.
The big-city media fail to understand how my fellow residents of central Pennsylvania—part of what is known as “the red T” that votes about 70 percent GOP—hate polls and Joe Biden.
Philadelphia political adviser Kurt Knaus wrote after the 2020 election that Democrats got creamed in almost everything but the presidential vote.
“Where federal races produced a bit of blue mixed with neutral tones, state results were decidedly red – blood red, in fact, solidifying Pennsylvania voters’ reputation for splitting their tickets on Election Day,” he wrote.
“Before November 3, Democrats boasted about their chances to potentially wrest control of the state House and chip away at Republicans’ majority in the Senate. Neither happened. Instead, Republicans knocked out the House Democratic leader and enlarged their majorities in both chambers.
Will Bunch, the leftist columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is apoplectic about the current gubernatorial race.
“If the staunchly anti-abortion Mastriano—currently polling within the margin of error against Democratic opponent Josh Shapiro—rides a predicted GOP midterm wave of voter anger over inflation and President Joe Biden’s unpopularity, and if his victory also were to extend the right-wing dominance in the legislature, the long-term consequences would likely reach far beyond women’s health,” Bunch wrote recently.
“An extreme abortion ban in Pennsylvania will turn the Keystone State into a pariah for many of the nation’s best and brightest young people when they are deciding where to attend college, and not only stunt but probably reverse the growth of high-tech and professional jobs that have fueled the 21st century revival of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and their suburbs.”
[Note: Grammarly.com, a computer program I use, insisted that both of the above paragraphs be rewritten for clarity].
It’s difficult to glean any logic from the argument. Does Bunch really believe that the choice of a college depends on a pro-choice state government? Does he really think businesses determine economic viability based on fetus viability?
Whatever the case, his screed underlines just how worried he and other leftists must be.
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