Friday, December 26, 2008

Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Crossing the finish line at the Philadelphia Marathon

Has to be hard to be mayor of Latrobe

Tom Marflak tries to hold the line on taxes, but he was outvoted 4-3. I hope the people of Latrobe knows how hard Tom fights for conservative principles.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Some cool news!

Olivia and her dog, Perry, are coming to Nickelodeon in January!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

New republican leadership team

State Senator Kim Ward: Anyone who has ever worked with her will tell you that Kim is intelligent and energetic. She gets things done with the sheer force of her personality. In the state senate, she will not be a back bencher. Kim will fight hard for the interests of the people in the 39th district and not the interests of the Harrisburg insiders. If the GOP does not with the governor's race in 2010, I see Kim as a potential Lt. Governor candidate in the next cycle.

State Represenative Tim Krieger: Fantastic guy! Conservative. Great family. You can count on Tim to do what is right.

State Represenative Mike Reese: I honestly respect Mike Reese a lot. In both the commissioners race and the race against O'Barto, I was a pain in the ass, but he never was anything but nice to me. After the endorsement for commissioner, Reese went out of his way to compliment me on my family. He is also in a way smarter than me. I thought about running for the 59th but did not because I figured that O'Barto would beat any republican. I was certainly wrong and Reese was right. I look forward to him being my state represenative and will attend his fundraisers if he sends me an invitation this time. For the record, he was the first person I called to tell that Jess Stairs wasn't running again. At least I got that part right.

Commissioner Charles Anderson: I think the judges got this one right. You can't really argue with the leadership skills of a US Marine officer. Granted, it would have been more fun for me if Scott Avolio was commissioner. He is a great guy.

Jury Commissioner Debbie Irwin: You can always count on Debbie to shake things up. In a good way.

I am afraid that the county committe will fall apart with out the great political skills that Elizabeth Yorio brought to the table.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Caroline Kennedy interested in Clinton senate seat

Critics are all over the place saying she is not qualified to be a US Senator. Has anyone looked at how dysfunctional our government has been as of late? Is anyone there very qualified to be a senator? Look at others trying to be senators: Al Franken? Chris Matthews? She is as qualified as anyone. I don't like how far left she would be, but you know had he not died, her brother would be the US Senator from New York. So, why not her? She is just as good as just about anyone else in DC.

George Dunbar mad at judges

If anyone had an ax to grind with a judge, it was me. I sat in a courtroom when a my father in law was kicked off the ballot for essentially the same infraction that a democrat was allowed to stay on the ballot for. The cases were one after the other. I took it like a grown up. I accepted it and moved on. If you read my past posts, you can see why I did not think the judges would look at the GOP list. However, I think they did. I think they did not choose Bill Davis out of deference to the fact that he was rejected (stupidly) by the GOP committee. What did you expect the judges to do? Did you read Ferguson's comments? The judges could not pick one of the four because Ferguson made it look like it was going to be the beginning of some massive GOP assault to take the courthouse back. The relationship between Tom, Tom and Kim was awful. The judges could not risk more of that.

Chuck Anderson looks to be the best choice out there. Maybe the GOP should have seen that in the first place and recruited him. As I said before, his name was brought up to me by others in another matter. Although George Dunbar may have never heard of Mr. Anderson, it seems everyone else has and I just would not be messing with the selection of a retired Marine colonel.

So, don't be mad at the judges. Go read Ferguson's statement on the official GOP site and tell me that you guys didn't mess this up. You should have gone with a petition drive. After all, the judges may selected Anderson based on his community involvement, resume as a marine officer, and his presentation. If I am not mistaken, he did put his name in when Terry Marolt died. Someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Besides, I am tired of all this partisan stuff. I am going to support James R. Antoniono for Westmoreland County DA in the primary and most likely in the general unless the GOP can come up with a quality candidate. The upcoming judges: this should not be partisan. Candidates can cross file. Judges should be supported based on fairness, experience and intellect. I am not about to vote for someone for judge who cares only if there is an R or D next to someones name.

Here is George's letter

December 11, 2008

To All Westmoreland County Republican Committee Members:
I am writing to you today to express my disappointment in the selection of Charles Anderson as our next County Commissioner. This is not an indictment of Mr. Anderson, I have never met the man nor have I ever heard of him prior to this process. I am hopeful that he will be an excellent commissioner and serve the residents of Westmoreland County well. My disappointment lies with the Judges of our fair county.
We as a group respectfully submitted four extremely qualified names for consideration to the judges, who ignored us. As opposed to listening to the voices of the 87,000 Republicans we were elected to represent, they chose to listen to a select few voices in the courthouse. This deed cannot go unnoticed.
We cannot shrug our shoulders and lament the fact that the Democratic Judges have control and we have to accept this. We need to force change. The most recent election cycle proved once again that the Republican Party in Westmoreland County is alive and strong. The same energies we expended for McCain, Corbett, Ward, Krieger, and Reese will be needed in this year’s election to remove the Judges that have ignored our requests. Now is the time to flex our collective muscles.
An off-year election, with anticipated low turn out, is the perfect opportunity for us to show our strength. We need to all be focused and motivated to get our message out, and in turn get our voters out as well. I urge you all to use today’s slight as motivation as we move forward.
With no disrespect to soon to be Commissioner Anderson, I am disappointed, angry and have a chip on my shoulder. I hope all of you do as well. Let’s use this to our advantage in removing those who are responsible for this.
George Dunbar, Chairman


That wouldn't be the judges. I believe that may be those who turned this into the start of the election on day one! That was just silly and short-sighted.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hard economic times hits media

Many media outlets are cutting staff during this recession. There will be no layoffs at this blog. Our chief writer, me, will continue to plug away at the hefty sum of $0/year. A sum well earned by me.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Friday, December 12, 2008

Anderson is a good choice for commissioner

You certainly can't go wrong with a retired US Marine colonel. Anderson also has been involved in the community. I also think he is a good republican. If I am not mistaken, his name was mentioned to me by people if we needed a candidate to run in the primary for state senate in the 39th (had Regola dropped out before the primary).

Anderson is not overtly political. He may not run for a full term after this one expires. It is a really interesting choice by the judges. Military training, without a doubt, prepares one well to serve as an executive. Balya and Ceraso can work with him. As a marine, I am sure he won't take any "partisan crap" from anyone. The more I think of the pick, the more I like it! For the record, I am quite surprised.

As for the republican committee, the endorsement process certainly did not do anything to elevate the "power of influence" of the committee. If anything, it hurt it. I am glad I did not do any such endoresement when Terry Marolt's seat was open.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Car Czar...Don't screw this one up DC!

Mitt Romney, the obvious choice!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

George Dunbar over-reaching?

The GOP took applicants and got the list down to 10. Then, the vote occurred and the final four were selected. I don't know if at any point applicants were asked to not apply if they were not selected. Considering the low number of votes the winner received AND the large number of proxies which resulted in the final four list, I think it is a bit much to complain about people not selected submitting their names anyway. Even more, Wayne McGrew did the exact same thing when he lost out on the GOP county commissioner endorsement against Dunbar. He filed petitions anyway and now is being reward as an endorsed candidate. So, Dunbar really should not be complaining.

What I think is inappropriate at this point is the statement George made that he is going to tell the judges why the other candidates were not selected by the committee. I have spoken to some committee folks and the gripe they had with some candidates was the fact the candidate would not be overtly partisan and working on re-election from day 1. It is not the judges responsibility to select someone to position the GOP to win two seats in the next election. If Dunbar is going to be critical of other republicans, maybe he should be viewed the same way as me. He is the dude who asked me to resign at the request of several districts.

read about it in the Trib...
Dunbar said that in addition to his letter recommending the party's endorsed candidates, he also sent the judges information about which candidates were not supported by his committee.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Shew...I was afraid Bill Davis wouldn't put his name in

after the GOP left him off the list of 4. He did. My top 4 candidates for the position are:

  • Bill Davis
  • Scott Avolio
  • Jess Stairs (all about contacts in Harrisburg on this one)
  • Tom Marflak

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The procedure to apply for commissioner

Here you go:
  • a letter of intent
  • a resume
  • a letter of recommendation (if possible)

I can write a letter of intent, but I have been self-employed so long--I don't have a resume. I am sure Olivia could write me a letter. She thinks that I rock! Maybe Mike Reese could write me...oh wait...

In reality, Mike Reese would be the guy to get a letter of recommendation from. He is very well liked and respected in the courthouse.

You have until 4PM tomorrow.

Anyone have anything good on who the new commissioner might be?

Post it in the comments or send me an e-mail at perry@westmorelandgop.com

I approve all comments unless they are obviously inappropriate, racist, etc... Remember, I deleted the last blog because of all the anti-Mormon Mitt Romney stuff that just drove me insane!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

I am looking at the 4 endorsed candidates of the county GOP

I can't really figure out why Rob Ferguson is on the list. I am sure he is a nice guy, just about everyone is, but why county commissioner. I guess he had some people working proxies pretty hard for him, but is that a qualification.

After reading his piece on the WCRC website, I think I would make a better and more effective minority commissioner than him. His goal is wrong. It shouldn't be to fight with Tom and Tom and prepare for the next election to win it for the GOP. There has to be more of a reason for the GOP to control the courthouse other than we need to win it for the GOP.

I think the minority commissioner simply needs to studying the issues that arise and vote or make statements reflecting what is best for the people of Westmoreland County. That is not what is always best for the GOP taking the courthouse.

I also think the minority commissioner should develop a niche area to work. If Tom and Tom continue to govern as a team, the minority commissioner would be able to focus on particular areas of interest that need attention.

I should apply, but I don't know if my golf game is up to being commissioner. We'd have to have 5K runs as fundraisers rather than golf outings.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Found this pic of my family

On the Latrobe Parks and Rec website from the Rabbit Run last spring.