{"id":20792,"date":"2014-02-15T09:22:05","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T14:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=20792"},"modified":"2014-02-15T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T18:30:08","slug":"plot-thickens-in-6th-district-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=20792","title":{"rendered":"Plot thickens in 6th District race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can populism change the math in the 16th District race?<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TimesPoliticsUnusual\"<\/a>The race for the Sixth Congressional District got more interesting this week on a couple of fronts.<\/p>\n

First, Manan Trivedi, who ran unsuccessfully against Jim Gerlach in 2010 and 2012, announced he would run again. Then, Mike Parrish, the other Democrat in the race, got the endorsement of U.S. Rep. (and Philly political boss) Bob Brady.<\/p>\n

Trivedi was the lone candidate to look at the race following Gerlach\u2019s decision in January and decide to get in. A number of high-profile candidates were linked to the race, but none bit.<\/p>\n

From a practical standpoint, Trivedi\u2019s decision makes sense. He has large amounts of donor data from his previous races and\u00a0 a ready-made list of folks likely to support his efforts, which is no small thing when it comes to running these days. Also, he is fairly well-known and liked within the party and by a decent segment of the voters.<\/p>\n

Both are big advantages and we\u2019ll see whether they translate into votes and money for him.<\/p>\n

Parrish\u2019s endorsement by Brady, though, is a bit more of a double-edged sword. While the congressman is a true power in Philadelphia (some suggest he is among that rare but dying breed: a true party boss), large swaths of the Democratic Party in the suburbs dislike him strongly. Over the years, city Democrats have ignored \u2014or worse \u2014 suburban Democrats and yet routinely expected them to support the city and Brady\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

At best, for years it\u2019s been a contentious relationship. But of late, it\u2019s been worse \u2014 many blame Brady for his behind-the-scenes arm twisting that resulted in the current congressional districts \u2014 ones that are generally worse for suburban Democrats, but, not surprisingly, better for Brady.<\/p>\n

So among suburban Democrats \u2014 where Parrish is already seen by many as suspect because of his recent conversion from the Republican Party \u2014 having Brady\u2019s endorsement may actually drive many party activists into the Trivedi camp, if they aren\u2019t there already.<\/p>\n

Word on the street is that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is on board with Parrish, which further muddies the water. But as the D-Trip (as referred to by Democratic insiders) has managed suburban Philly congressional races about as well as the Mets have played in recent years, one questions whether that, too, might be more of a burden than a boon. In fact, only the state House Democratic Campaign Committee\u2019s Hindenberg-like record is worse in the area.<\/p>\n

The convention may answer one other burning question: who the heck are the Democrats running in the 7th Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan? The silence has been kind of strange.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see the reaction that the candidates get at the Democratic County Convention \u2014 now on Feb. 22 (1 p.m. at Fugett Middle School in West Chester).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Is the time right for populism?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that Democrat Tom Houghton seems to be asking in his run against U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in the 16th District race.<\/p>\n

This past week, Houghton delivered a petition to Pitts\u2019 Willowdale office calling on the congressman to support an increase in the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

Pitts is on the record opposing such a move \u2014 so Monday\u2019s event was so much political theater, but it was done to a certain effect and with a background conversation going on now in America.<\/p>\n

From business mogul Tom Perkins\u2019 suggestion that votes be doled out on the basis of net worth (and this is the same guy who last month wrote in The Wall Street Journal that progressives are persecuting the rich the way the Nazis\u2019 persecuted the Jews, so it\u2019s a comment one must see as being an extreme fringe view not widely held among Republicans) to ongoing discussions about the distribution of wealth \u2014 and the increasing gap \u2014 and notions of economic fairness.<\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s fair arguments here on both sides about capitalism \u2014 but as workers continue to seem to be falling behind, are we on the cusp of the kind of progressive backlash that hasn\u2019t been seen since the start of the 1900s? And will it be led by Republicans \u2014 as President Theodore Roosevelt and Sen. Robert La Follette did 110 years ago \u2014 or Democrats as seems more likely in the current environment?<\/p>\n

Houghton appears to be running an unapologetic populist race \u2014 ranging from agriculture issues, to women\u2019s rights to economic issues \u2014 designed to make Pitts appear to be an elitist tool of the rich.<\/p>\n

Whether that is workable in a district where so many of the voters are either in the 1% or have strong aspirations to join them, remains to be seen. But if Houghton\u2019s play taps into the simmering anger that is driving the Tea Party among other movements, it won\u2019t just be big news in Chester County, but nationally. If it plays here, it will work even better elsewhere.<\/p>\n

While the Sixth District Race might get the national spot light, it\u2019s the 16th that might tell us much more about the next few years in politics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Republicans meet Wednesday night at Pierce Middle School. While Democrats have a number of potentially contentious primaries looming, the GOP has few \u2014 and as has been the norm the last few cycles, the party closed ranks behind a candidate in most races.<\/p>\n

While there are contested races \u2014 most notably the state house race for the 167th District contest between incumbent Duane Milne and Ted Leisenring\u2014 one expects this convention to be largely harmonious, allowing Republicans to focus on organizing and raising money for the November elections and supporting the efforts of Gov. Tom Corbett \u2014 who looks to be facing an uphill battle to win reelection \u2014 this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can populism change the math in the 16th District race? By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times The race for the Sixth Congressional District got more interesting this week on a couple of fronts. First, Manan Trivedi, who ran unsuccessfully against Jim Gerlach in 2010 and 2012, announced he would run again. Then, Mike Parrish, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,7],"tags":[4980,4981,4982,2077,4979,4978,4584],"class_list":["post-20792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-bob-brady","tag-democratic-congressional-campaign-committee","tag-house-democratic-campaign-committee","tag-jim-gerlach","tag-manan-trivedi","tag-mike-parrish","tag-tom-houghton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}