We spent the morning at a big full-slate rally in our neighborhood. My wife was grateful to be out of town, so our little democrat went with his dad.

We met cheerful, young Casey Roncaglione. Our good buddy Bryan Lentz got up and proved to be a very effective at talking to a large crowd. (We see big things in his future!) Sestak’s volunteer army was worked up and he got a nice boost from Sen. Max Cleland. Then we had an upbeat Bob Casey, followed by the boyishly enthusiastic Ed Rendell. The headliner was Al Gore, who tied everything back together with a call for us to repair American democracy.

The boy’s favorite speaker was Max Cleland. He really liked the former senator’s line “Don’t wait until O-eight. Get it fixed in O-six.” When he heard that, he looked down at me from his perch up on my shoulders and said “He’s really funny. That was a good one.”

After the speeches were done, he was very happy to shake Cleland’s hand and say “Hi.”

The Delco Times made it’s endorsements in the state races last week. (Two parts, here and here.) I am very grateful that the local paper has given its nod to Bryan Lentz. The race may be razor close, so if the editors have the ability to persuade even a few dozen voters, this could be a critical difference.

Of the ten races, the paper endorsed six Republicans and four Democrats. Obviously, I’d have liked to see the paper break more cleanly from its reputation for caddying for the local machine, but they can at least claim to have been balanced. But when look at their endorsements with respect to incumbents, you can see where the real bias is:

• Sen. 26…incumbent (R)
• House 159…incumbent (D)
• House 160…incumbent (R)
• House 161…challenger (D)
• House 162…challenger (D)
• House 163…incumbent (R)
• House 164…incumbent (R)
• House 165…incumbent (R)
• House 166…incumbent (D)
• House 168…incumbent (R)

Supporting 80% of the delegation to Harrisburg is tantamount to blessing the status quo. I don’t think that the vast majority of Delco voters think that the Capitol building is a house in order.

While the paper did a good job at outlining the issues in the campaigns and noting the various missteps and outright blunders of some of the incumbents, more often then not, they failed to hold officials accountable. They tend to overpraise bringing-home-the-bacon (after all…everybody does that) and overlooked pretty substantive failings in policy.

Gannon basically was reprimanded for being a jerk in the campaign. But there was a long list of reasons he didn’t deserve to be re-elected, and that should have been enough to carry the day for Lentz.

For failing to exercise the full power of fourth estate, and for failing to take positions on policies over pork, I have to consider their endorsements marginal. I challenge them to do better next time.

* * *

Regardless of the outcome, Bryan has convinced me that he is a tremendous public servant. I am proud that I was able to help his campaign a little bit, and value my association with him. He’ll always have my support, and I’m very much hoping that he’ll need it–for his re-election bid in 2008.

Upper Darby politics have long been an object of curiousity for many of us in the rest of Delaware County, so today’s news should be more of a surprise than it is.

Apparently, an Upper Darby municipal official was chased and caught by the police after he was witnessed trespassing on area homes to steal lawn signs for State Rep. Candidate Casey Roncaglione (PA-164). According to the Roncaglione campaign, the signs were found were found in the trunk of the official’s car.

Young Mr. Roncaglione is outspent by his Republican opponent, Mr. Civera, by a nearly 50:1 ratio. (Contributions welcome.) Civera is an entrenched, 30-year Harrisburg incumbent. Certainly he has the power and influence over the officials in his own party to make sure that they don’t pull stunts like this. Do they need to?

Township police are investigating. But even before that’s done, I expect that the licensing and inspection official will have his submitted his letter of resignation. Anywhere else, it would have already happened.