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GOP succeeding at down-ballot level
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | March 28, 2015 | Salena Zito

Posted on 03/30/2015 11:29:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Martina White made history Tuesday night by winning a special election for a Pennsylvania House seat — the first time a Republican won an open General Assembly seat in Philadelphia in 25 years.

White, 26, became the 120th Republican in the House, part of the largest GOP majority in the state since 1958 and including a state Senate that increased its majority in historic numbers in 2014.

Down-ballot races matter. These elected officials are the most attuned politicians with whom average people ever interact; they focus on voters' core values, and are far removed from the harsher rhetoric of national politics.

White said politics was not in her blood, or even on her mind.

“It was not something we sat around the dinner table talking about,” the newly elected representative said of family conversations. “The only position I've ever won, I didn't run for, and that was captain of my field hockey team in college.”

The granddaughter and daughter of business owners, she was inspired by working as a financial planner and seeing middle-class families struggle to pay for kids' college educations or wrestle with how to build a safe retirement: “They weren't able to make the numbers work, time after time.”

White said she listened more than talked when she went door to door, asking for votes. “I went to over 3,000 homes,” she said, and “safe communities, education and infrastructure” were the top concerns.

Despite not deciding to run until December, she overcame Democrats' 2-1 voter-registration advantage, her own inexperience and the powerful Philly Democrat machine to not only win but to win by 14 points.

Her victory was no stroke of luck: Republicans have turned the tables on the one thing at which Democrats were really great — dominating local politics.

Now Democrats struggle to retain control of the governmental entities closest to the people.

Part of that struggle is over too many Democrats believing people want government to be the rescuer, rather than the facilitator.

The other part is the irreparable damage that the national party has done to local parties. The race-baiting, class-warfare and over-the-top environmentalist rhetoric since Al Gore's presidential candidacy has continued with John Kerry and Barack Obama, and slowly helped Republicans to win over traditional middle-class Democrats.

Republicans have figured out that voters tend to embrace a bottom-up populist form of governing made up of local elected officials; they have individuals like White, whose great skill is understanding that her community doesn't want her to act superior in any way but does want her to be a partner in finding solutions.

It is a formula that is winning Republicans a lot of seats.

They now hold a supermajority of legislative majorities, controlling 69 of 99 state chambers — the most seats they've held in nearly a century.

The bigger challenge for Republicans isn't worrying if they'll continue their sweep of local politics — they have no plans to take their eyes off the place where benches and presidents are made; their challenge is to share that secret-sauce recipe with the party's presidential contenders.

Conservatives who have won down-ballot since this sharp trend started in 2010 have won largely on solutions, not promises. They have appealed to the sensibilities of people in their communities, on both sides of the aisle, on issues important to people's daily lives: job growth, safe communities, education, taxes, security.

It's not that hard to expand those values to a national platform — if you have the leadership skills and the backbone to stick to what you believe, if you can admit to a mistake, can talk with the press in full and complete sentences, and aren't afraid to take a chance (as Martina White did) and leave everything on the field to win.

Yes, you will get “gotcha” questions. Yes, you will have social-media failures. And, yes, you will have to face up to such setbacks, preferably without running to a focus group.

But so what? If you can't sweat the small stuff, how can you expect to have the timber to be president?

“You have to be able to take risks in life sometimes,” White said.

Without risk, there is no opportunity. And opportunity always involves some risk.


TOPICS: Pennsylvania; Campaign News; Parties; State and Local
KEYWORDS: economy; gop; pennsylvania; republicans

1 posted on 03/30/2015 11:29:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ve been saying for years that we cannot defeat the Radical Academic Socialists, and their Soros/Gay MEdia machines on a national level, until we retake control on the local levels.

RIGHT NOW, the Republican Party is deciding who will be the supported candidates for November.

So, how many of us have been to a candidate forum this year?


2 posted on 03/30/2015 11:38:15 PM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Great news! This makes 4 flips in our favor since the November election vs. only 1 flip to the rats.


3 posted on 03/30/2015 11:59:32 PM PDT by rhinohunter (Freepers aren't booing -- they're yelling "Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
NOTHING is being done, once again, about voter fraud. The turd world invaders will be voting by 2016.

FEARLESS PREDICTION "Dreamers" will get voting rights, drivers licenses, tax breaks and DOJ mandated FAST TRACK FIREARMS PERMITS,and then you will have the "country within a country" they have conspired to create.

4 posted on 03/31/2015 1:46:18 AM PDT by Captainpaintball (Immigration without assimilation is the death of a nation -- FUJB!!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the white vote turns decisively from the Democrats, and starts to vote 7 to 3 or 8 to 2 for the GOP, the Dems are gonna be losing elections for the next decade or so.


5 posted on 03/31/2015 4:29:48 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

It was the left Balkanized the USA not the right. If Whites start voting R in mass it is their fault. The ultimate blow back.


6 posted on 03/31/2015 4:41:49 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

“Martina White made history Tuesday night by winning a special election for a Pennsylvania House seat — the first time a Republican won an open General Assembly seat in Philadelphia in 25 years.”

The election hasn’t happened yet. Why is this story already in the news?


7 posted on 03/31/2015 6:04:11 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Islam is the military wing of the Communist party.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All

Just wait until November of 2016 after millions of Americans have lost their health insurance and had it replaced with the higher-premium Obamacare crap, lost their doctor they’ve had for years, or had the penalty, for not signing up, deducted from their Income Tax Refund. If the Pubbies are smart, their 2016 campaign slogan would be: “If you like Obamacare you can keep it; if you vote for Hillary.”


8 posted on 03/31/2015 6:52:27 AM PDT by Din Maker (Anyone considering Gov. Susana Martinez of NM for Prez in 2016?)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

It was a “Special” Election.

http://www.phillyrecord.com/2015/03/martina-white-republican-is-victor-in-170th-district/


9 posted on 03/31/2015 7:00:10 AM PDT by Din Maker (Anyone considering Gov. Susana Martinez of NM for Prez in 2016?)
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