Right?
Percy Dougherty Should Switch Parties and Run for County Exec as a Democrat
November 21, 2012 by · 10 Comments
This is a blog about Pennsylvania!
Right?
June 18, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
TPM: In an interview with The New Republic, Politico editor-in-chief John Harris admitted that Silver wasn’t one of his lifelines in the 2012 campaign [...] “I admire how he has built a franchise,” Harris said. “I roll my eyes at how he gets up on his high horse quite a lot on different topics.” Jim [...]
June 9, 2013 By Jon Geeting 2 Comments
Alex Trujillo sounds like a real mensch, and on that level it’s sad to see that his 55-year old business Supermercado Mi Tierra closing up shop. This is ultimately a good thing for the neighborhood though, because C-Town is going to be a decent step up in terms of product selection, and they’re going to [...]
June 17, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
Tom Hartley continues to impress at the Bethlehem Parking Authority. I’m not a big fan of the multi-space meters either because there’s nothing worse than having to stand in line to pay for parking. But BPA’s data does show usage of the Main Street Commons parking deck increased last year, so the multi-space meters haven’t [...]
May 13, 2013 By Jon Geeting Leave a Comment
The point of political blogging is not that you’ll directly reach so many voters that you’ll shape opinions about elections. The point is that for every couple dozen low-information voters, there’s a *political friend* who people ask who to vote for the week before an election. The point of blogging is to shape the opinions [...]
Copyright © 2013 · Nomadic Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in
You mean other than the fact that Dougherty regularly disagrees with the Democrat Commissioners, is a moderate not a liberal, and has shown that he’s his own man and won’t be bullied by asshole party bosses, this would be a great plan?
Dougherty is much closer to the Democrats than the Republicans, particularly on the issues actually in play in county government. He takes the liberal position on the Bi-County Health Department, as well as land use and open space, and isn’t for huge random program cuts. He’s more conservative on taxes than Democrats, but lots of Democrats in local office are wary of higher taxes. At base he believes that good policy can help make things better, and is not an anti-government ideologue. There is room for a person like that in the Democratic coalition. The Republican electorate does not seem to think there is any room for a person like that in the Republican coalition. Dougherty is going to get Browning’d if he runs in the GOP primary next year. He’d be better off switching if he wants to continue to serve.
John: That’s DemocratIC, if you don’t want to sound like a hick.
Or I could not be able to comprehend a simple sentence and then make a correction like you did, and sound like an asshole.
For the record, I meant Democrat. I was referring to party, not process.
LOL
I’ve known Percy for 30 years and Brad for about 10. They’re not Democrats, and your “coalition” is just as wacky as the extreme right.
Another example of why we need a 3rd party.
The Democratic coalition isn’t nearly as wacky. The Democratic Party is home to the left, and the sensible center-left and center-right. The Republican Party is home only to Jacobin tea people who think cutting the Lehigh budget by a random $5 million every year is a good idea, nevermind the programmatic consequences.
People who actually want government to work well only have one party to turn to these days. Which is really too bad, because I would love to have the choice of a pro-market, pro-growth, pro-competent government party. But unfortunately there is no such party to choose. It’s time Percy and Brad realized that and started working to bring the Democratic Party around to their views, instead of trying to work within a declining party of white racial populism.
Dougherty will never survive the inevitable primary challenge Wayne Woodman is cooking up for next year. His only hope to survive in politics is to switch parties now and start networking with local Democratic Party activists in a hurry.
Percy Dougherty would make an excellent County Exec, although I doubt he wants it. Bipartisanship is essential to his political philosophy and he’s shown the courage to practice it. What a difference he’d make in the tone of Lehigh County government. (Party politics is another story.) He should take Brad Osborne with him to the other side of the aisle.
I’m with you 100%, Jon. But who among Lehigh County DemocratIC Committee can pull this off? Rick “No Show” Dougherty? Certainly not the Mayor.
Most likely path to victory is probably getting the realtors and the building trades to back him early in the primary.