Sunday, November 06, 2011

The LuLac Edition #1825, November 6th, 2011


Our survey logo.


Nancy Karpovich, Karal Zubris and John Paul Karpovich at a fundraising event that helped make this parade possible. John Paul and I go way back to our days at Hanover Area High School. (No, we weren't classmates).


Wilkes Barre World War II veteran John Goscieski at the World War Two Memorial in Washington, D.C. John will be one of the veterans of what Tom Brokaw referred to as "the greatest generation" involved with today's parade.

LULAC POLL RESULT

Last week Libertarian party activist Lou Jasikoff sent an e mail to the local media saying that there was no cooperation from Republican Lisa Cope in having a face to face conversation with his candidate Betsy Summers about forging a single candidate coalition against Mayor Leighton. Jasikoff claimed Cope’s performance in the debate had voters trending more toward Summers. I told Jasikoff that we would do another poll on the Mayor’s race. The questions were:
1. In the 2011 Wilkes Barre Mayor's race, are you
a. Decided.
b. Undecided.
2. If you are undecided in the Wilkes Barre Mayor's race, are you leaning toward
a. Lisa Cope.
b. Tom Leighton.
c. Betsy Summers.
The answer to the first question is:
Decided 84%
Undecided 16%.
The second question is where it gets interesting. While this poll is unscientific , it seems to not jive with Jasikoff’s claim that people are trending toward Summers.
The second question results show the following undecided voters leaning this way:
Cope 54%
Leighton 18%
Summers 28%.
We’ll know on Tuesday night.

PARADE STEPS OFF

A big day this afternoon on Public Square in Wilkes Barre. The Wyoming Valley Veterans Day Parade steps off at 2PM. This is a great day to salute all veterans for their commitment to freedom and their service. The weather looks good, grab a flag, a chair, and take in the event. Route: Parade begins at the corner of Market Street and Rutter Avenue in Kingston, travels over the Market Street Bridge and turns right onto South River Street, left onto Northampton Street, left onto South Main Street and will end at Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.

VONDERHEID’S LAST DAY

Former County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid has vacated the Wilkes Barre Chamber of Commerce. The newspapers found out about that and he told them he’s been gone looking for a new challenge. I thought Vonderheid was a decent County Commissioner. He made his bones as the organizer of the Arena Yes crowd and then catapulted that into a County Commissioner nomination. In the fall he was teamed with Greg Skrepenak and we all knew how that turned out. The Chamber will most likely pick a new figurehead to preside over the dismal wages and job creation in this area. The Chamber staff as well as its CEO has always been brain dead when it comes to living wages for people in this community. Nothing in that regard will change.

SO THERE’S THE MONEY

Many local advertising reps were wondering just when Wilkes Barre Mayor Tom Leighton was going to come out of his media shell and buy some advertising. No billboards, no radio spots on WILK or ESPN Radio, nothing on Cable TV and nothing on WBRE, WYOU, WNEP or WYLN. But Friday night I’m told the Mayor had a blowout of a party at Genettti’s. In the words of the late Terry McNulty it was a “humdinger”. Food, drink, and entertainment. The Mayor has significant signage, is sending out mailers but feels no need to defend himself on paid media. This is an interesting strategy given the fact that Leighton has a big war chest. From the turnout on Friday, insiders are saying he has it in the bag. If that’s the case, maybe the 2011 Leighton campaign will demonstrate that “you don’t have to buy all media”.

ENDORSEMENT THAT WASN’T

The race for County Council keeps on getting stranger and stranger. Last week a local divorce attorney began calling certain County Council candidates inviting them to a “forum” at Oyster Restaurant. The invitation was sent on behalf of a Hazleton area physician who wanted to lend support to the candidates. Not all county council candidates were invited. He plan was for people to pay a few bucks to attend the rally, hear the candidates and then endorse them. The candidates that attended were Rick Morelli, Jeremy Packard, Tim McGinlely, Rick Williams, Jeff Cabal, and the two Steve Urbans. A Democratic candidate that was planning to go but then decided against it because he didn’t want to be endorsed with either of the Urbans declined to attend. He was verbally accosted by the barrister because of his decision. He told me that after questioning what this meeting was about, all he got for an answer was “It is what it is”. Our reports say less than 20 people attended and as far as I know, there were no endorsements. And the beat goes on…….

WEST SIDE CANDIDATES

An interesting point was brought up to me the other day regarding candidates for County Council from the West Side. One of the biggest fears when the Charter was being enacted was that certain areas would be under represented by the system if districts were not added to the charter. If you take a good look at the candidates and where they are from, it appears that there is sufficient geographic representation to pick from. As an example, if you take a look at the West Side, you have two Republicans, Blythe Evans III from Plymouth and Bill James from West Pittston. On the Democratic side, there’s Edd Brominski from Swoyerville and Jim Bobeck from Kingston. Seems like that charter argument was great for discussion but the fears manifested by opponents just didn’t come to fruition.

SHOULD WE CARE?

The Citizen's Voice reported that Steve Urban Junior, the Republican is having issues with a property that he owns. Apparently the home is in foreclosure and there are some people making that a campaign issue. This is a rough economy and we all have had our share of rough patches at one time or another in our lives. Does this problem have an effect on how you'd vote for this young man? Or is it separate from his desire to serve? Feel free to comment. But keep it clean.

COUNTY COUNCIL ADS

Some candidates for Luzerne County Council have taken to the airwaves in the form of the venerable 30 second spots. Here’s a sampling of a candidate from each party.
EILEEN SOROKAS Democrat

BLYTHE EVANS III-Republican

RICK WILLIAMS-Independent

9 Comments:

At 3:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

With regard to young Steve Urban having mortgage problems. Wes, it is true that times are hard but having been lucky enough to make it to age 70 and deecently happy with reitrement, I look back and there were bumps in my road of life but I nver came close to losing my home. If this young man can't maintain his own home, he sure as heck can't manage our government. We don't need candidates who are so unorganized that they can't manage their own financial affiars. In my day, this wouldn't happen even if it meant a tour of duty at McDonalds. Nothing is more sacred or important than one's own home.

 
At 1:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The LuLac Edition #1825, November 6th, 2011":

The fact that Mayor Tom hasn't done any real advertising shows his business acumen. Why spend money Unnecessarily.. The other two are ensuring he wins. He is even smarter not to spend money with local media, (edit) really why help pay the salary of those who show you such little respect?
although I am not a fan of his in general, when it comes to this election Tom has my vote and the vote of my entire family.

 
At 1:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dave, is that your voice on the Sorokas ad?
I'm struck by the number of people who already have their mind made up in the Wilkes Barre Mayor's race.

 
At 1:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yonki, thanks fort the shout out to the veterans. I have to tell you that I am looking forward to election night coverage on WYLN TV. Also love Topic A with you and Tarone.
On the County Council race, I'm definatly going for Williams and Evans. I like Sorokas and Bobeck too. And then of course you can't discount the wisdom of Edd Brominski.

 
At 6:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

3:43 said it all. Well done.

 
At 8:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of campaign ads, what about that jerk Kelleher singing. Just what we need, an overbearning ego on council and then he has Walter Griffith endorsing him. WTF? Are these two full of themselves or what? I wouldn't be too proud of having the newspaper';s wendorsemen. The TL endorsed the Wyom Sem snob andin his interview he said he hasn't been to meetings and he hasn't even read the budget and he said, that was by design. The TL took pride in endorsing this jerk. Kelleher by the way is the retired school teacher who said the Wisconsin school teachers get too much ...... but not him! Did I mention an out of control ego?

 
At 8:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yonkster, you have got to be depressed over the poll results. Leighton 18%? What does that tell you about your readership? Sad!

 
At 5:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keheller's singing makes a mockery of the office of county council

 
At 1:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is it Todd Vonderheid always seems to jump ship right before the proverbial shit hits the fan?

 

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