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Is your PA-themed costume a Rocky Balboa Butter Sculpture? Aside from costumes, it’s election season. We are joined by first-timer Jenna Henry (https://twitter.com/End_LWOP), the director of Better Pennsylvania (http://www.betterforpennsylvania.org/), a newer organization fighting to secure democracy and promote the welfare of ALL people. Sam Pearson (https://twitter.com/samzpearson), a leader in community development, and Jessica Brittain (https://twitter.com/msbrittain524), President of the Board of ActionTogetherNEPA (https://www.actiontogethernepa.org/) drop by to share their wit and wisdom.
We review local races we are each paying attention to, including State College Borough Council, Lewisburg Area School District Director, Lewisburg Borough Ward 4, Milton mayor, and Luzerne County Council. Ae these hyperlocal? Yes. Do they represent the kind of races, issues, and tensions that are emblematic of PA and the USA? Fuck, yes.
We also discuss the sad state of rich people buying PA Supreme Court Justices in the case of the grotesque support of Judge Brobson by one PAC compared to Judge McLaughlin’s wider base of donors. There are four great candidates to vote for on Nov 2…
Supreme Court: Maria McLaghlin (https://judgemclaughlin.com/)
Commonwealth Court: Lori Dumas (https://www.judgedumas2021.com/) and David Spurgeon (https://judgespurgeon4commonwealth.com/)
Superior Court: Timika Lane (https://judgelane.com/)
All four are interviewed on our podcast! Search for them (also, the video is on YouTube (https://bit.ly/BarnstormingPAYouTube)
And…. school boards… bravo to all the people serving or running who actually care about kids, education, and budgets. They don’t deserve the face full of atavistic rage performance from disinformation spewing right wing activists. There are also quieter groups of parents organizing FOR sane and reasonable policies and candidates in many places in PA for this election. That part of the story is much less covered. We only scratched the surface, but we hope to get back to it after the election to examine the scope and depth of the 2021 school board brush fire wars.
Vexillology? The study of flags.
Judicial elections
- Money issues and Brobson Illegal ad? Will this matter?
- Jeff Yass and Commonwealth Leaders’ Fund
Money comparison:
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/10/pa-supreme-court-election-2021-biggest-donors/
More from PA capital star
- Voter guides…
- School board races and them as a site for right wing activism
WBUR podcast with Sarasota and Lehigh Valley…
Penn Live article
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/10/a-new-battleground-pa-school-board-races-mirror-national-partisan-clashes.html
Article by Peter Montgomery of right wing watch (and Lancaster county!)
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-dishonest-and-harmful-right-wing-attack-on-american-school-boards/
Bucks County is scary as fuck.
More great Bucks County reporting: https://cyrilmychalejko.substack.com/
