Clout: Black Republican urges city GOP to reach out to blacks
THE LOYAL Opposition, a local Republican group, has been holding events to encourage its party to act more like an independent organization and less like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic City Committee.
THE LOYAL Opposition, a local Republican group, has been holding events to encourage its party to act more like an independent organization and less like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic City Committee.
This week, the group brought in Renee Amoore, a state GOP leader and Montgomery County businesswoman, who turned the reading room at the Racquet Club into something akin to an old-time church revival.
Amoore urged the city GOP to build its ranks by reaching out to black voters like herself.
Although Democrats make up nearly 80 percent of the city's million-plus registered voters, it's not easy to count black voters here. More than 40 percent of all voters don't list their race when filing registration forms.
"We are very conservative people," Amoore told the crowd of about 60, which included five or six blacks. "We believe in everything the Republican Party represents. Let me tell you, [Abraham] Lincoln, we eat that up. We are a good party. We are not racist. I'm sick of people saying that."
When Amoore called out for an amen, the crowd was with her.
Critics to Fumo judge:
You suck!
Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg gadfly who effectively pesters those in power, is among the many people unhappy with U.S. District Justice Ronald Buckwalter's decision last week to sentence former state Sen. Vince Fumo to just 55 months in federal prison for his conviction in March on 137 corruption counts.
Fumo infamously used more than $6,500 from a nonprofit he founded to buy 19 vacuum cleaners - one for every floor of every house he owns. Stilp held a news conference at the Capitol yesterday to display 32 vacuum cleaners donated by outraged taxpayers. He will ship those vacuum cleaners and any more donated by Aug. 11 to Buckwalter's federal court office with this message:
"Your Fumo sentence sucks."
Specter's tough week
This was definitely the week the 2010 Senate race got real for newly Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter.
First off, Gov. Rendell said in a radio interview that U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak should abandon his plans to run in the Democratic primary against Specter.
To that, Sestak basically said: "Eat it," and continued his statewide campaigning.
Then Specter slammed Sestak with a pointed online ad that questioned Sestak's voting record.
Still, Sestak didn't back down. His spokesman, Joe Langdon, retorted: "Pennsylvanians would have been better off if Arlen Specter had missed a lot more votes over the past eight years instead of voting for George Bush's failed economic policies, an ill-conceived war in Iraq, and permitting the cost of college to be out of reach of so many of our families."
And finally a new Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday shows Specter in a dead heat with Republican candidate Pat Toomey.
We know Specter is a fighter. But even the best political pugilist can be staggered, standing in the center of the ring as the blows land from all sides.
Mary Wilson for governor
Mary Wilson, one of the original Supremes, serenaded the state House from the podium Tuesday, offering this advice on the budget impasse: "Stop . . . in the name of love, before you break my heart. Think it o-o-ver."
We're told that Wilson can still bring down the house and that her singing was the highlight of the legislative session.
Of course, given that members have been listening to long-winded fiscal speeches during the 24-day budget impasse, she hardly has much competition.
Quotable:
"We have a watchdog in the Inquirer, but we don't have a watchdog over the watchdog." - Judge Buckwalter, complaining in court this week about the newspaper's reaction to his Fumo sentence. *
Staff writer John M. Baer contributed to this report.
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