The LuLac Edition #1590, May 12th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: OUR VOTE LOGO, GEORGE WALLACE BROCHURE PIECE, COVER OF 1972 LIFE MAGAZINE FROM THIS WEEK 39 YEARS AGO AND OUR 1972 LOGO.

SCARY STORY

The other night on WNEP TV, The News Station aired a very scary story. Nightbeat reporter Sarah Buynovsky did a piece on the crowded Luzerne County election field. She reported that there were over 300 races and 600 candidates for the primary election. We know that but what followed next was incredible. Buynovsky interviewed people on the street who freely told her that essentially the ballot was confusing, had too many people on it, had no idea who they were going to vote for and was just too damn hard to figure out. One guy said he was going to close his eyes and see where his finger lands. When you are doing stories like this you are up against a deadline and most times you interview someone who can walk and chew gum at the same time and are fairly articulate. And Buynovsky did that but the content of their comments was alarming. Sure this is a big ballot and yes there are a lot of names but voting is not like getting the blue plate special handed to you at your local diner. You have to work at it, you have to educate yourself and then make your picks. Let’s hope that the people interviewed on WNEP are not representative of the body politic here in Luzerne County. If they are, we’re done.

LULAC POLL RESULTS

We will be reporting the results of our LuLac poll on Monday May 16th. The poll asks an opinion on the Wilkes Barre Mayor’s race as well as the Luzerne County Judgeship race. You can only vote once, you can see the poll on LuLac Edition #1586.

LATE EFFORT

Apparently the Luzerne County Republican party is hellbent on getting a contender in the race for Luzerne County District Attorney. A few weeks ago there was talk that former Judge Anne Lokuta was being recruited for that task. Now the Times Leader is reporting that a young Attorney from Dallas is making that effort. Attorney Stefanie Salavantis is mounting a Republican write-in campaign to run for Luzerne County district attorney against incumbent Jackie Musto Carroll. “People have been encouraging me to do this, and I think now is the time I should step up,” said the 28-year-old Dallas resident. No Republicans secured the necessary signatures to get on the ballot, and Musto Carroll, seeking her second full term, is unopposed on the Democratic ballot. Salavantis said she needs at least 250 Republican write-in votes on May 17 to obtain the nomination to run against Musto Carroll in November and has received the party’s backing. However, Musto Carroll could still end up with the Republican nomination if she receives more write-in votes than Salavantis, virtually sealing her victory in November. Salavantis said Musto Carroll is actively seeking Republican write-ins. I bash national and statewide GOP politicians a lot on this site because their philosophy is opposed to the one I have. The current GOP is not the party of the moderates I knew growing up. (I had pictures of Dick Schweiker, Charles Percy and Nelson Rockefeller in my bedroom right along with the Democrats). That said, the Luzerne County GOP needs to be competitive and any attempt, even a belated one like this is welcome and needed in order to preserve a two party system. Musto Carroll has done a great job but even the sainted Dan Flood had opposition most times he was on the ballot.

A ****ING CONTEST

So this is what it’s come down to in the race for Lackawanna County Commissioner? The team of O’Brien-Mariani is pulling out a police report from 2007 where then State Representative John Wansacz was cited for disorderly conduct at a Steelers game. Further it is alleged that Wansacz was recycling his Coors Lite in a very public place which Wansacz denies. Meantime, Brain Jeffers and Wansacz are running ads saying they are going to run for any higher office which is a shot at O’Brien’s run for Congress in 2010. This thing is heating up so much that this might be the race to watch. Then there is Elizabeth Randol who is running alone. Randol was O’Brien’s Chief of Staff yet he picked Mariani! Earlier we told you about a news story on WNEP where voters had no clue who the candidates were and were going to vote by chance. What if in this race voters only go for the most familiar names? If that happens you’ll get a ticket of O’Brien and Wansacz. How will those two guys work together? Will they? Toward the end of the Luger and Pettinato years, 1979 in fact the Democrats had a real shot at winning the Commissioners Race. Jim McNulty ran with Attorney Ed Sachetti in the primary. Clerk of Courts Chester LaSota ran by himself and there were a few other candidates in the race. The Democratic voters picked the two well known guys, McNulty and LaSota. In the fall they run as a team and more than a few of LaSota’s cronies cut McNulty from the ticket. Luger and Pettinato win another term (their last) and LaSota becomes the minority Commissioner. Lackawanna Republicans: take note.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

With the number of women candidates increasing in political races all the time, I found it interesting how women react to a candidate’s campaign materials. Signs that say “Molly”, and “Marge” websites that say, “Jen for Judge”, “Lesa for Judge”, and “Paula for Judge” are believe it or not having an adverse effect on some women. Now this is totally unscientific and anecdotal but a week ago I was at an occasion where I was in a room with about 15 females. At this occasion naturally the election came up and I was surprised that a majority of the women there were turned off by the perceived slang used by the candidates. The comments I heard was that it was demeaning to women, that you don’t see men saying “Vote Bob” and that the familiarity of it actually made some of these women not vote for any of the women candidates at all. Again, this was just a random meeting, there is no data and it’s not going to change my picks but thought it a pretty interesting bit of social commentary.

BIN LADEN’S STASH

In the days after Bin Laden’s death analysts are going over what was in his personal stash of goods. Apparently the terrorist had an affinity for Whitney Houston and the Osama was known to tell his crew that he wanted to take out Bobby Brown. Can you imagine how confused the Intelligence agencies would have been if BB was taken out randomly? And the Osama had a sweet tooth. He liked Nesquick and also copious amounts of Coke and Pepsi. He bought them in bulk. Store owners wondered why he bought so much but didn’t ask because they didn’t want to be rude. Here in America, nobody will ask because they don’t care. I routinely have left the Price Chopper with cases and cases of Snapple, Diet Coke and water every few months and no one ever asked what I was doing with it. I don’t think the issue was being rude, it’s just that they were too busy texting.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

MEDIA MATTERS

ECTV

ECTV Live hosts Judge Tom Munley and David DeCosmo will welcome Joe Sylvester as their guest the week of May 16th. Mr. Sylvester, a well know veteran's advocate, will be talking about plans for the annual Armed Forces Luncheon and Armed Forces Parade in Scranton. ECTV Live is broadcast on Comcast Ch 19 at Noon and Midnight throughout the week.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

Shadoe Steele’s “Saturday Night Live At the Oldies” features an interview with TV’s Johnny Crawford. He played “Little Luke” on the TV show “The Rifleman”. Saturday Night Live at the Oldies is on WILK AM and FM every Saturday from 7pm to midnight with ABC News on the top of the hour.

SUNDAY MAGAZINE


1972

Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur Herman Bremer at a Laurel, Maryland political rally……the attempted assassination completely unravels the Democratic primary process. In Florida's primary, Wallace carried every county to win 42 percent of the vote. When running, Wallace claimed he was no longer for segregation, and had always been a moderate. Though no longer in favor of segregation, Wallace was opposed to desegregation busing during his campaign, a position Nixon would adopt early on as President.The popularity of Wallace among Conservative Democrats was going to be used as a wedge against the McGovern candidacy by the Humphrey and Jackson forces. The wounding of Wallace put the Governor’s campaign essentially out of commission for the remainder of the year. The conservative law and order Democrats were quickly courted by the Nixon administration with Nixon operatives taking up positions that appealed to Wallace voters. Wallace went on to win the Maryland and Michigan primaries but his campaign faltered after that. Wallace was paralyzed for the rest of his life. He did make one more Presidential run in 1976 but his political thunder was stolen by another southern Governor, Jimmy Carter……..U.S., Senators Hugh Scott and Dick Schweiker make statements condoning the violence against American politicians of any ideology…and in Pittston Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps makes an appearance at an awards banquet honoring St. John the Evangelist varsity basketball and baseball players and the number 1 song in America and LuLac land this week was believe it on not “Candy Man” by Sammy Davis Junior.