I did my roundup of Delco council election news on Wednesday night, only to discover that the Inquirer ran an article the next day about how David Landau’s aggressive campaign for Delaware County Council is pressuring the GOP. A couple key passages stand out.

The only thing missing from the Delco2007.com site seems to be the word Republican.

Unlike Landau and O’Keefe, whose sites prominently identify them as Democrats, the three Republicans do not use their party affiliation. They are described as “independent and experienced.”

Strange for endorsed candidates who control all five council seats and every row office to conceal their party affiliation.

Like my piece did, the Inky picked up on the attempt to increase Landau’s negatives by tagging him as an “ACLU lawyer”:

“He is an ACLU lawyer,” McGarrigle said in an interview. “Lawyers like that tend to care more about criminals and cop killers than residents of Delaware County.”

When asked, McGarrigle could not cite anything specific in Landau’s background to support the accusation.

Sensing the barbarians at the gate, the GOP ticket announced today that they’re setting a combined goal of 10,000 door knocks.

Most of the serious jousting in municipal elections happens after all the kiddies have returned to school, but the Delco County Council race has been unusually hot this Summer. In case you’ve missed anything, here a a bunch of links to help you catch up.

Above Average Jane posted an interview with David Landau. Jane’s long-format interviews with notable PA candidates are among the best original, informational contributions from any area blogger. Her interview with David was her first (and hopefully not her last) for the 2007 elections.

David’s Democratic running mate, Ann O’Keefe launched her new campaign site.

Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) held a roundtable along with all three Democratic County Council candidates to support their push for a new county health department. Both the Delco Times and the Evening Bulletin covered.

Up in Montgomery County, the Republican candidates for County Council are trying to distance themselves from the national Republican party by calling for the dismissal of Alberto Gonzales. (Hilariously, though, their press release called him “Roberto.”) In the meantime, their Delco counterparts are trying to say that the 2007 election is a local election; they claim the disarray of Republicans nationally will not be a factor in local races. (Keep telling yourselves that, Andrew Reilly!)

David Landau’s making the case that County Council is pandering to the wealthier Western sections of Delco, at the expense of the inner ring communities like Lansdowne and Yeadon. Landau held a press conference with Lansdowne Mayor Jayne Young, who agrees with him.

The Delco GOP is claiming that they’re the environmental party. (No, seriously!)

Landau met with local union members at Steelworkers local 10-1 in Linwood. Take special note later in the article at how the Republicans laughably try to label Landau as an ACLU lawyer. They’ve used the tag repeatedly in recent public statements. It’s true that David worked for the ACLU decades ago. The problem for them is that the ACLU has strong credibility among David’s core Democratic supporters, who are sick of encroachments on civil liberties by the Bush administration. The association will simply not damage him at all among independents and any non-dittohead Republicans, either. Those machine guys have been drinking the one-party water for too long, that they’re still stuck on 1988 talking points. (And by the way, isn’t that nationalizing the debate?)

David Landau’s campaign office held it’s grand opening. Joe Sestak and State Rep. Greg Vitali (PA-166), were in attendence at the celebration in Clifton Heights.

Here concludes our roundup. And that’s just covering the news in the last 10 days, here in the dog days of August.

The David Landau for County Council campaign is setting up its HQ in Clifton Heights, right in the heart of the County. The campaign staff have planned a grand opening celebration for August 12th. The Republican Party has held all the seats on County Council for over 30 years, but that streak will end in 2007. David will talk about the path to Democratic victory in November.

When: Sunday, August 12th, 3-6 PM.
Where: 400 N. Springfield Rd, Clifton Heights. [Google map]

Refreshments will be served.

When Springfield businessman and ex-Republican Rocco Polidoro narrowly finished fourth in the primary–off the November ballot for Delaware County Council–it was unclear what his next step would be. It was nice to read his letter to the editor in today’s Delco Times. In it, he very thoroughly reviewed what’s at stake for Delco voters in the November municipal election. I’m pulling a few highlights here, but the full text is worth reading.

First, the strangeness of our local government’s party imbalance:

For the last 32 years, there hasn’t been a Democrat elected to county council. All five council members are Republicans and all five are lawyers. There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania and other than a very small county in the northern part, we are the only county government in the state that does not have two-party representation.

One of the great GOP myths is that they’re the part of small government. The Delco machine is a little county’s government writ large, as it’s built on patronage. Says Polidoro:

Delco employs 1,000 more employees than Bucks. And remember, Bucks has more than 50,000 more residents.

Compared to Montgomery County, Delco has 200,000 fewer residents, but yet spends $103 million more than Montco. Even though Montco is 40 percent larger in population, Delco employs 400 more employees.

Both Montco and Bucks include their prison employees in their total numbers, whereas Delco does not. And if you were to factor the prison employees back into these calculations, it would show that Delco is employing even more than our two neighboring counties.

Polidoro concludes by asking voters to consider supporting the three Democratic candidates for Delaware County Council: David Landau (Nether Providence), Anne O’Keefe (Haverford) , and John Innelli (Rose Valley). I want to express my personal appreciation to Mr. Polidoro for his continuing efforts on behalf of the whole ticket, and for the worthwhile cause of machine-busting in Delco.

The blog’s been quiet for a brief spell. Here’s why:

• Two out of three of us had birthdays.
• Mother’s Day, including the completion of the annual movie project.
• Planting of the annual flowers.
• T-ball.
• Visits from three grandparents and an uncle.
• A primary election, and all of the corresponding electioneering.

All events passed successfully. I’m just a wee bit exhausted.

As for the election, David Landau was the top vote-getter in the Democratic primary for County Council. (This was expected, but it’s always good to have the confirmation.) There hasn’t been a Democrat on Delaware County’s Council for almost 30 years, so it’s essential to have a top-flight candidate like David to lead the slate. We also had two cross-filed Democratic candidates (District Judge Stephanie Klein and School Board candidate Michael Reilly) who won both the Democratic and Republican primaries. These are not just politicians, they’re our friends and neighbors, so these successes are particularly exciting. In many respects, much more exciting than victories in much larger elections.

Just in case anybody needs any further proof of the clumsy, underhanded, and untrustworthy nature of the Delaware County Democratic Party boss Cliff Wilson and his flock of suck-ups, he gave us another prime example this week.

At the Democratic nominating convention, Wilson’s right-hand man Vice Chair Tony Campisi seconded the motion to have an open primary without endorsements in the County Council race. Furthermore, the six candidates for the three County Council seats agreed to run separately, instead of as slates.

This week, three candidates organized themselves as Democratic Victory Team 2007. And they’re fundraising together with a common treasurer. And who has endorsed them? Mr. “No Endorsements Motion” Tony Campisi.

Campisi should just resign. And the three candidates who broke their campaign pledges have seriously harmed their credibility.
If you’re a Delco Democrat, and you want to stop the nonsense, vote for David Landau, or Bob Dimond. (The Delco Times article linked above incorrectly refers to him as Bill. Good reporting guys!)

Landau had a good response to the news, though, and I don’t think it required even the slightest bit of false bravado:

“They’re free to do what they want,” he said. “I will win the primary. For the last two months I’ve been to almost every municipality, talked to a couple hundred committee people. I’m pushing my message out there to the rank and file. Every committee will be carrying me on their ballot, everywhere.”

Among my many identities, Daddy Democrat is a committee member for the Delaware County Democratic Party. Tonight was the belated nominating convention for the 2007 court and municipal elections.

For starters, State Representative Bryan Lentz (PA-161) was NOT in attendence. He and his wife Jennifer are celebrating the birth of their baby boy Joseph Thomas Lentz–today! So when some future opponent tries to make an issue of the fact that he wasn’t in Harrisburg to vote on important ethics reform legislation, remember that he was demonstrating his family values and attending to job #1. A heartfelt congratulations to the Lentz family.

It turns out there were no endorsements to come out of the nominating convention. Anyone who knows Delco Democratic politics knows that the party is highly fractured. We get behind the same candidates up-ticket, but there’s significant tension over the management of the party at the County-wide level under the leadership of County Chair Cliff Wilson. Last year, Wilson barely survived an internal challenge from Radnor Democratic Chair Bruce Bikin. The vote was 163-161.

For sure, Wilson had his hand-picked cast of regulars who routinely fail to raise money and seriously contest County Republicans. Nether Providence Democratic Committee Chair David Landau was one of the upstarts who filed hundreds of signatures on petititions to enter the race for County Council. (Landau was also most recently the senior campaign advisor to Joe Sestak’s successful congressional campaign.)

It’s unknown at what point Wilson saw the writing on the wall, but Landau had a lot of supporters in the room. Wilson made a speech in which he said that elections shouldn’t be decided by “the plutocrats” and said power should be returned to the people. Representatives from each of the two camps of the party made a motion to forego endorsements and have an open primary.The vote was unanimous. Okay, there was one vote in opposition, but it seemed to come from back near the bar area.

So now candidates will have to work to introduce themselves to the voters. In my mind, this is a good outcome. Yes, primaries are expensive, and divert races away from general elections. On the other hand, an active primary might actually alert area Democrats to the municipal and county elections in 2007.

Landau gave a very good speech. For what it’s worth, I was also impressed by presentations from Lansdowne Mayor Jayne Young, and former Chester Councilwoman Patricia Lewis-West. Newly minted Democrat Rocco Polidoro, who has been a figure in local politics for some years as an “Independent Repubican,” and gets points for the help he gave to Joe Sestak last year. But he didn’t give a good explanation as to why he couldn’t be a Democrat for the 20 years in which he was combating the Charlie Sexton machine in Springfield. He might have been forgiven this character flaw, except that he repeatedly antagonized the audience by calling us the “Democrat” party, just like he who shall not be named.