Dismantling The Establishment: Why Scott Wagner’s Pennsylvania State Senate Victory Matters

personalliberty.com ^ | 3/24/14 | Sam Rolley

[cotton1706]

Republican State Senatorial candidate Scott Wagner, running a write-in campaign, beat candidates backed by both the Democratic and the GOP establishments in a Pennsylvania special election last week. Wagner’s victory over the establishment standard-bearers for the State’s 28th Senate district represents the first time a write-in candidate has ever won a seat in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Wagner, a businessman from York County, won an astonishing 48 percent of the vote with his write-in campaign. His GOP-endorsed opponent, State Representative Ron Miller, took 27 percent of the vote and Linda Small, the Democratic establishment pick, received 26 percent.

Local news reports covering the final days of the race indicate that the establishment upset surprised even the people paying the closest attention. And Wagner was at a serious disadvantage in the race. He was forced to fight the GOP establishment’s impudent attempts to shut him out at every turn while also actively campaigning against the Democratic candidate.

The election began following the January resignation of Republican Senator Mike Waugh, who left office abruptly to take a high-paying job offer. While most watchers assumed that the election to replace the outgoing lawmaker would occur during the already-scheduled March 20 primary, Republican Lt. Governor Jim Cawley set up a “snap” special election for March 18. The special election, which cost area taxpayers an estimated $300,000, was clearly called in order to help the State’s GOP cement the candidacy of establishment-picked Miller.

In an interview with Newsmax, Wagner recalled the party’s efforts to shut him out of the race.

“They let me submit my resume to the county committee, but then it was clear they were engineering the nomination for [Miller].

[Psalm 144]

I love this story. Lets hope it marks a trend.

[cotton1706]

Whether the Establishment is successful this year at getting their own types get elected, we’re learning their game, and their setups. And there’s always another election coming, where we can do battle again. WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!

[depenzz]

For what its worth, I have breakfast every morning with 6 or 7 other ole timers and I am the only one living in the 28th district. Everyone of the other guys indicated they would have voted for Wagner if they were in my district.

Wagner did have a very active campaign, especially mail outs. He ran a good campaign.

It can be done and I believe this is the year to make progress to start cleaning our country up from the lowest level of government to the highest. Maybe we can still salvage it!