The LuLac Edition #3018, August 30th, 2015

TESTING TRUMP!!!

 Pa. State Capitol. (Photo: LuLac archives).

Want to see what type of President Donald Trump would be? Let him come to Harrisburg and try to mediate the stalemate between Governor Tom Wolf and the GOP majority in both houses. If he can get them to agree on a budget without calling them names, he's got my vote. No one has ever been as hard headed or hard hearted as the majority GOP in the state Capitol. We are still without a budget. Where is The Donald's phone number?

THIRD PARTY THREATS

WHAT COUNTS?

 Third Party art work. (Dailypolitical.com)

There has been talk of a third party threat by Donald Trump and the fear of that factor by the GOP. It is true that a third party can decide an election but never win one. The main example people point to is the candidacy of rich guy Ross Perot in the '90s. It is a fact that Perot did take away votes. One year he had 19% of the vote. But he never won any electoral votes and that is how our Presidential elections are decided.
The last third party candidate to win any electoral votes was George Wallace the former Governor of Alabama in 1968. Wallace got 45 votes carrying the Deep South states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Wallace almost carried the Carolinas finishing a close second to Richard Nixon. Wallace had a movement going but in the North during October of 68 his campaign began to falter due to a barrage of advertising from labor unions exposing the labor practices in the South, Wallace's selection of General Curtis LeMay as Vice President, and the late insurgency of the Humphrey campaign diminished the enthusiasm of the previous months.
Wallace's strategy was to try and get the election into the House of Representatives where he thought he might have some leverage. It came close too but in the end Nixon beat out HHH and Wallace with over 300 electoral votes. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because even though third parties generate a lot of talk, there had to be a party support system set up in states to carry the votes that count. Granted a Perot could influence an election but winning some states puts the candidacy at a different level. You go from being a spoiler to a factor.
My guess is that Trump will try to not repeat the performance of Perot and will need to get cracking on ballot initiatives if he is to get on 50 states to truly make an impact.
The Wallace candidacy was part of The American Independent Party that gave the candidate the infrastructure he needed. The Nixon strategists played into the Wallace effort with their own Southern Strategy picking Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as Vice President and using the Civil Rights Acts of the Johnson administration to make inroads into what was formerly the Solid South. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights legislation he correctly said that the Democrats had lost the South for a few generations. He was correct. When government actually does something noble, needed and provides change, politically you pay the price.

KATRINA 10 YEARS ON

Speaking of paying the political price, the Republican party certainly did when the Katrina Storm hit New Orleans and surrounding areas 10 years ago this year. As a matter of fact government in general took a hit when that happened.
First off you had the slow response from the Bush administration. Then the infamous words of the President saying “Brownie you’re doing a great job” when things were going to crap all around him. Let’s not forget the Mayor of New Orleans, a Democrat who didn’t have the common sense to order the school buses out of the flood zone and later wound up in jail for stuffing his pockets with cash.
FEMA was out of its league because it was absorbed by Homeland Security. Now if a terrorist was around that would be great but if not for the Coast Guard performing so well, there would have been more of a mess.
Then there was the tone deafness of the White House Advance team. Now this happened under a Republican administration but I’m not sure the staffers of a Democratic administration would do any better. These are after all government employees.
When Bush and Administration officials had their news conferences, they used generators for the TV lighting. They also passed out copious amounts of bottled water to the media. Then when it was over, they took the generators back with them as well as the water. Classic.
Every time a weather related tragedy like this happens, I think of Agnes and 1972. As history fades and the people alive diminish so too will the legend and stories about Dan Flood. But why Flood is so revered here is because he used the power he had quickly and efficiently. For his people. 

The late Dan Flood.  (Citizen'sVoice.com)

Agnes was an example of what a Republican President and a local Democratic Congressman could do working in tandem. Katrina was a hard lesson how a Republican administration and New Orleans Democratic leadership (I grant you they were southern leadership so the IQ was a tad more challenging) could screw up a 2 car funeral.

DELUCA AT TOMATO FESTIVAL PARADE 

Democrat Vito DeLuca at Tomato Festival. (Photo: Fox, LuLac)

Luzerne County candidate for District Attorney Vito DeLuca was riding in the Pittston Tomato Festival last Saturday. DeLuca seemed to be having a great time as he gears up for a race against the incumbent Stefanie Salavantis.

SPEAKING OF THE DA

DA Salavantis riding in red at the Tomato Festival. (Photo: Facebook).

District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis wowed the people at the annual GOP Summer event. Sorry I missed it this year because there is nothing like an O’Meara burger! Anyway the DA was very good from what I hear in making the case for her re-election bid. 
And not to be outdone, the DA also rode in the Tomato Festival Parade. 
Will this be the election of the dueling ragtops?