Congrats to Unity Twp Supervisor John Mylant

Seems John and his wife ran the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon. I vote for runners.

Just in case anyone is wondering...

I am circulating no petitions for myself. I am not even sure if this is the cycle for GOP county or state committee. I probably should have in case the tea party movement tries to move the GOP in the wrong direction, but I am just a bit tired of it. My candidates are never seen to be conservative enough until it is too late (Scranton and Romney). After buyer remorse sets in, my candidates always look like the right pick. At that time, it is just too late.

Next presidential election scares me. It should be Romney, but who knows...

Update from Mike Reese's kick off event

Very well attended. I can't stress how wrong I was about Mike Reese. I am actually thrilled to have him as a state represenative. He is a good family man, hard working, forgiving and knowledgeable. What more could you ask?

State Rep Tim Krieger was also in attendance. I have always had a high opinion of him.

William Russell for Congress?

His platform seemed to be I am not John Murtha. I think we (GOP) need a candidate with juice!

Tom Ceraso is interested in the seat? That is interesting. I will say this for Tom, he did check out Wilco due to my blog postings. So, he can't be all bad. Had he attended the Wilco show at St Vincent College, I might even had considered voting for him. Where were all you people when Wilco played at St. Vincent? What a lost opportunity for you all! By the way, Wilco's upcoming Pittsburgh show sold out super friggin' fast! Damn ticketmaster!

This interesting comment...

This was hidden in the comments:

In the midst of John Murtha's vacant Congressional seat what Washington DC needs more than ever is a strong populist voice against the weakening Obama-Pelosi-Reid contagion. I don't know if any of the candidates circulating the mill, Bill Russell and Tim Burns will really provide that sort of opposition. They'd simply just fill the seat or else lose it back to the Democrats. There needs to be energy behind a candidate and the last time I've seen such a thing in this area was with current State Senator Kim Ward. She was the first female Republican County Commissioner elected in Westmoreland County history. She was made popular by being a whistle blower that helped fight the contract corruption that existed with other county commissioners Balya and Ceraso. Then with 2 months left in Bob Regola's botched state senate run in 2008 the State Party asked her to take his place. In that small window of time she not only won the election, she trounced opponent Toni Bompeani by 9,000 votes in a year where democrats were grabbing seats left and right. She doesn't take her per diems like other reps and senators, she is at her office in Greensburg every day when not in session, and she answers her own e-mails for goodness sakes. I think if you're going to run somebody, run somebody with momentum already so they can go into Washington with a vengeance and start to clean up the mess that the democrats have made. I hope the Republican party does the right thing and chooses Kim to save the day. I'm behind her.

I would be all for this, but I think Kim Ward lives in Tim Murphy's district. I also would be very much in favor of Diana Irey taking another run at this seat.

Kudos to Unity Township

I went running on back roads between dryridge firehall and mutual firehall today. 8 miles of back roads--very hilly roads. They were perfect. Great job of maintaining the roads! I really appreciated today. 8 miles on a treadmill would have been horrible!

George Dunbar to run against Casorio?

I have heard from several folks that George Dunbar will resign as GOP chair and run for state represenative againt Jim Casorio.

Go Colts!

Very funny clip from the greatest QB of all time!

I wish Bill Scranton had won for governor so...

he could help me get some cool seats to see Wilco at The Scranton Cultural Center. I do have awesome seats for the Pittsburgh show, but you can never see Wilco too often.

Speaking of Mike Reese...

He is having a campaign kick off at Giannilli II in Unity Township on Friday, February 12, 2010 at 6PM. $30/person

Their pizza is awesome. I already sent in a check for me and Rhonda. Come and have a beer or two or three...with me.

Mike O'Barto switched to the GOP

How did I ever miss this? You all know I have been working at this for a while? As a matter of fact, the reason I endorsed him for state represenative over Mike Reese was because I thought he was going to win. I was then going to work on getting him to switch as a state represenative. I had no idea the PAGOP were going to go all out to elect Mike Reese and that the PA Democratic party was going to do nothing.

So, I lose my committee spot over this. Now, the Chairman of the Westmoreland County Republican Committee had this to say in the Tribune-Review on December 23.

George Dunbar, chairman of the county Republican Committee, said O'Barto recently approached him and several other executive board members about the switch.

"Through our discussions, it was clear that his views are much more in tune with the Republican Party as opposed to the Dems," Dunbar said.

No shit, Sherlock! By the way, I wasn't alone when I sat down with Mike O'Barto discussing his party switch or how to help our GOP candidates. One only has to look at last November's election results to see that this is a move in the best interest of Mike O'Barto.

Who took my committee spot anyway? I will be working for Tom Corbett, Mike Reese, Tim Krieger and Pat Toomey in the next election.

Merry Christmas

to all my neglected readers.

My adorable wife...

We went to the Colts/Broncos game in Indy. After the game, we got to go down on the field. It was really cool. Thanks to facebook, we also got to see friends from high school who happened to be at the game. I hadn't seen them in 20 years.

Keiwan Ratliff was one of the best two corners on the Steelers!

I saw him play with the Colts last year. He was awesome when filling in for the Colts injured corners. One of his biggest games was against the Steelers. I think they cut him? Why?

Those Sarah Palin booklines are pretty amazing...

Unfortunatley, I don't think Mitt Romney could attract those kinds of crowds. In reality, I doubt she runs in 2012. She is going to find that she enjoys being a very rich celebrity.

Cover of Newsweek

I think the Sarah Palin cover of Newsweek is ridiculous!

Update: I saw the Newsweek cover in Barnes and Noble after running. I got an eggnog latte. I just saw that Palin doesn't like it either!

In an interview on Monday, the former vice presidential candidate did lash out at a Newsweek Magazine cover which shows Palin in her running outfit. The image was taken during a Runner's World photo shoot months ago, and according to a post on Palin's Facebook page, showed a depiction of the formed Alaskan governor which she called "sexist, and oh-so-expected." From Chicago Tribune online

For the record, I thought the photoshoot for Runners' World wasn't such a good idea.

What is a TWILF?

Sarah Palin was called a TWILF over the weekend. What is that? An insult or compliment? I don't know. I must be getting old.

What's the next major GOP victory in Westmoreland County?

My bet is the state house seat currently held by Jim Casorio.

Frank Schiefer

Frank Schiefer deserves some kudos for that clerk of courts win last night. Frank (and Pat Laughlin) ran some pretty good county wide races which helped set the table for Bryan Kline. Frank knows his stuff!

Imagine how bad our night started...

We went out to gather signs and results in this order:

1. Roble (trailing)
2. Dorothy (trailing)
3. Lloydsville (no results but we had a bad feeling)
4. Ward 1 (trailing)
5. Ward 3 (trailing bad! Eric Hauser must live there)
6. Ward 4 (trailing)
7. Ward 2 (trailing where the Repuclican mayoral candidate is up huge! Bad sign)
8. Ward 5 (trailing)
9. Ward 6 (no results but the trend was not our friend)

So, driving out of Latrobe. We had thought we lost. I refreshed the blackberry and saw that we were ahead with only Whitney and Mutual out. We high tailed it to Whitney and thank God we had a poll worker there. Specifically, Rhonda's father. Hauser won big(at least we know who was pushing for him there), but not big enough to overtake our lead. And then, mutual came in with Rhonda ahead.

What were we thinking going to our weakest polls first? Nothing like driving around thinking you have lost.

Huge night for Westmoreland County Republicans!

It was just a matter of time until the success we have had at the state and federal level trickled down to the county level. I see a very crowded republican primary for commissioner.

On to Toomey and Corbett!!!!! I am definitely not sitting out the Corbett race. Tom Corbett is an outstanding individual and should be governor. Pat Toomey is the right person to help restore some sense to the US Senate.

So many people to thank for my wife's victory

• Our friends and family who came out to vote, work the polls and told their friends to vote for us
• For all those who put signs out
• Mike O'Barto
• Both supervisor candidates, John Mylant and Sherry Bohla
• Greaterlatrobe.net for posting the video--almost 200 views more than our main opponent and our facebook friends that shared it.
• Who could forget the Vote for Rhonda runners last summer!
• Whoever started the rumor about me and reporting the "signs without disclaimers" because that actually helped us meet more people who helped us
• Barack Obama who actually made people want to vote republican again
• Poll workers for other candidates who helped us pass out info
• The other school board candidates who chose not to work the polls at all today. Normally, I don't think poll working helps. But today, it did. We had a lousy ballot position, but it was right under Bill Palmer. His excellent campaign got people to look down ballot for his name and then we were the only other school board campaign out there with literature.
• Olivia, Natalie and Elizabeth for being awesome today.
• And all those who helped who probably don't want me to put their names on the blog. You know who you are and thank you!

Rhonda really deserved to win. I just don't think it should have been this hard. Greater Latrobe is awesome school district!

Greaterlatrobe.net's video of Rhonda

Sign update

OK. This is the kind of stuff that got me to retire from politics. That and the fact that candidates I like (Bill Scranton and Mitt Romney) always seem to lose. I personally spoke to the folks involved. I think it is all good. My wife is most awesome and I would hate to think that someone would vote against her based upon a false rumor that I reported signs failed to have disclosure statements on them.

Seriously, I have been far to busy with "life" things to bother with something like other people's campaign signs. I haven't even put one out in like two years. That being said, if you want a Rhonda Laughlin for School Board yard sign, just e-mail me. perryandrhonda@comcast.net

They are available in both Greater Latrobe school colors and halloween colors (black and orange). We would greatly appreciate it.

Greater Latrobe School Board race

It seems that someone has told people that I reported the fact that candidates failed to properly put the "paid for" disclaimer on their signs.

I wish people would get their facts straight before making accusations.

I did not report these signs to the courthouse. Also, no one associated with me or my wife reported these signs to the courthouse.