The LuLac Edition #1825, November 6th, 2011

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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