The LuLac Edition #4,328, June 17th, 2020

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

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Pennsylvania has always had a reputation of moving at a glacial pace when it comes to legislative progress. But according to an Editorial in Times Shamrock last week that might be changing. Take a look.

NEW GENERATION OF CANDIDATES WANT CHANGE

If you think Pennsylvania politics is mired in the same old, same old — take heart. Last Tuesday’s primary demonstrated that young voters and a new generation of candidates are aware, active, increasingly female and bent on change.
The vanguard is in Western Pennsylvania, led by Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee of Allegheny County’s 34th Legislative District. An African-American member of the Democratic Socialist movement, she shocked the powerful Democratic establishment in 2018 by defeating in the primary State Rep. Paul Costa, a member of a family political dynasty in the region.
This year, the Democratic Party sought to prove that Lee was a fluke. The party-backed candidate, Chris Roland, is a well-known and well-financed union activist in the district. Lee soundly defeated him Tuesday, and it appeared that her movement also had legs.
In the 20th District, comprising Pittsburgh’s North Side and parts of northern suburbs, progressive attorney Emily Kinkhead soundly beat state Rep. Adam Ravenstahl, whom the county Democratic Party committee had endorsed by a vote of 101-11. Like Lee, Kinkhead ran a neighborhood-level, grassroots campaign.
State Rep. Sara Innamorato, who won with Lee in 2018, and Emily Skopov, who is running for the seat to be vacated by retiring Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai, were unopposed for their Democratic nominations.
In a few other races, young progressives showed surprising strength even while falling short of nominations. In the race for the 10th Congressional District Democratic nomination, for example, Dalton native Thomas F. Brier Jr. surprised many analysts with a strong race against state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who was much better known and financed.
Voters who have been heard at the polls now have the right to expect that the new generation of elected officials that they have begun to elect will be heard within the government.