Diana Irey will be good for the Distict, Pennsylvania and America.
Posted on 11/03/2006 2:07:22 PM PST by Maelstorm
Anybody form this district have a feel for this race?
Bump and ping!
Diana Irey will be good for the Distict, Pennsylvania and America.
One thing for certain these ads that Irey is running will make it possible to close on Murtha in the final days leading up to the election. This is the perfect storm. All the timing is perfect. Now we have to wait for this baby to be born.
The district has a majority of Reagan Democrats. Those voters haven't had a Reaganesque candidate until now. Diana is a social conservative, a fiscal conservative, and a hawk. I'm betting that conservative Dems bolting to Irey will be the crucial factor in her victory!
Redeploy! Murtha!
That's a great house. Nice lawn too!
That is just awesome!
who has more money Irey or Murtha?
If grassroots were money!!!....Diana Irey
Strangely enough, it didn't when Reagan was actually around but it does now. I remember lookihg at the county sums when I was in high school and thinking that outside of the South, the "Reagan Democrat" was not what it was purported to be -- indeed Reagan lost blue collar Washington County in 1980 by about the same margin that Ford lost it to Carter in 1976....I want to say the same goes for Greene and most of those other counties as well.
The biggest difference between 1980 and 1976 in PA came in the collar counties of Philadelphia....which were Republican back then....Ford won them in '76, but Reagan won them by an even larger margin in '80. So even in those days it was about turnout.
But yes, social conservatism has made Greene county somewhat Republican, and Westmoreland as well.
Fast forward to 2004, and those collar counties of Philly voted for Kerry while Greene, Westmoreland, and Cambria voted for Bush.
Here's the Bush-Kerry map by voting district. Pink leans Bush (in terms of vote differential per unit area, not percentage), light blue leans Kerry, gray is tossup, vivid red is strong Bush (not much of it), and it's hard to make out, but vivid blue is strong Kerry -- as I've said elsewhere, upper Mon Valley (dense notch in the SW), Johnstown (east), Arnold/New Kensington (NW finger) were Democrat strongholds in '04 anyway....
I think this is a big plus for us because we're not fighting a battle of warchests. Irey can spend every dollar in positive ads and attacking Murtha. Murtha is not running negative ads, so Irey doesn't need to waste money defending herself. Plus Irey has hundreds of dedicated vounteers on her side. Murtha doesn't.
Irey has a superb ground game going (with the help of FR's finest). And I think that's where we'll win.
I'm from NW PA. I was raised in a town called Titusville (on Rt. 8, heading toward Erie). I have relatives in Belle Vernon. Back in the '60s, it was Nixon country. I haven't followed PA politics so much since I've been in New York.
Since you study these things, what do you think Irey must do to get Dems to cross over to her side?
She may know better than I do. When she won for County Commissioner back in '96, was it? the Republican ticket got a majority for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately the western part (in the 18th) of the county is more Republican than the eastern part (in the 12th). I think she's the minority party commissioner now, but she does have some experience in dealing with that constituency.
The issues on her website and in the debate reasons are family values (I agree this is a winner), immigration, 21st century energy policy, health care, taxes and spending, and the 2nd amendment. With the reasons why Murtha won't debate, she's got congressional pay and ethics as well as support for the military.
I guess we'll know Wednesday if these issues are resonating. Somehow I don't think the MSM will announce that Irey has won.
Thanks for the thoughtful posts. Regarding the outcome on Wednesday, I'm praying you're wrong. But then, I imagine you are, too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.