Pennsylvania Senate and Governor Elections

Taylor:

“One thing that is an issue in this election that was not an issue last election was the denial of the results of the last election- it seems to me that people feel this is more an existential crisis- it’s not just one candidate or the other, it’s ‘do we believe that there’s voter fraud’, ‘do we believe that this election has more import than previous elections.”

“The polls have Shapiro up, but I don’t know if they’ll hold true because the polling has been slightly inaccurate in the past several elections. I imagine that [Mastriano’s] statements will help him among those who agree with him and are glad that he is saying something- I imagine they would hurt him among people who want him to be quiet on certain issues. I don’t know if more people will go to the polls because they are afraid of Mastriano- I know Josh Shapiro hopes so.”

“When they are just posting on the internet and running commercials, [Fetterman’s] health probably does not matter too much, but I think that if Fetterman has a performance that shows that his health and his speech are not an issue in the debate, that could possibly help. In a debate, if it is clear that he has suffered a health setback, then I wonder if there will be more questions about whether he can serve in the Senate given his health. Time is running out, but there is still a pretty long month out there.”

“Oz’s position as an outsider helps him as there is no record behind him- even though Fetterman was the mayor of Braddock, who cares what he voted on as mayor of Braddock? He also has no history for people to say: ‘you voted for this!’ I suppose in this day and age, it’ll be helpful as there can be no attack ads about that. The name recognition, too, has certainly helped him- it helped him in the primary. The one thing Fetterman is on record for is his work as Lieutenant Governor of PA and his reform of our carceral system- the perception of incarceration and the perception of crime are big deals- so I think that those attack ads would work well.”

Gilligan:

“The unfortunate thing we are having right now is that no issues are being discussed- it’s all ‘he’s from Jersey’ or ‘he lives in his dad’s basement. Oz is an actor, a TV guy, he’ll tell us what we want to hear- makes him a politician.”

“It seems like Shapiro is sitting back, taking a low profile because Mastriano is just getting skewered. It’s looking like Shapiro’s going to win but Mastriano is very popular in certain parts of the state.”

“The danger for Fetterman and a lot of Republicans is that they like Twitter too much. I don’t think that connects to the majority of the population. It’s a race though between an out-of-state carpetbagger and a man who lived in his dad’s basement until he was fifty- what we’re not seeing is that Fetterman is a Progressive. He’s always been a Progressive and he’s not really focusing on that right now because he’s trying to reach a larger electorate. Democrats used to have a large swath of the rural union worker and the urban Black vote and their current perception has hurt them a lot with these groups. But Fetterman and Shapiro have to work to build back this coalition if they want to win elections.”

“The elephant in the room for Fetterman is that he suffered from a very serious stroke and he’s having problems right now with his auditory processing- he might not be healthy enough to be our senator and they haven’t really been honest with us about it. I think Fetterman will have a good chance, though, as they haven’t been completely open and honest with us and told us that he is fine. They crunched the numbers and found that Fetterman is leading by 3.4 percentage points- but when the corrected polling from 2020 lines up, it seems like Republicans are going to do well.”

“Every election cycle, there is a group of moderates that say ‘we need to go back to consensus’- these days that’s compromise and compromising is bad, but it works out the best in the end. You’re going to jump at any misstep of your candidate for your own political gain, but really lowering the entire system. My wife though, a progressive Democrat calls it crudites, but I call it a veggie tray.”

Additionally, Student Government President Maya Salzman (12-1), having met one of the senatorial candidates, provided her commentary:

“I met my boyfriend in Rittenhouse Square- I gave him a hug and we started walking- and suddenly, I was like ‘Oh my God, why is John Fetterman just walking around Rittenhouse Square so randomly? He was just walking around, talking to some people- he was just kind of hanging out. He had his Beats on and later he sat down on a park bench and was just listening to music. He’s absolutely massive and incredibly bald- he’s like eight feet tall and wearing a big baggy sweater which just emphasized that he’s a ginormous man. My boyfriend went up to him and told him that he was going to be a first time voter and Fetterman thought that was great and told us that he saw us hugging earlier and thought we looked cute. I panicked- I didn’t know what to say, so I found myself rambling. ‘Oh John Fetterman, you might find it interesting that we are going to do a mock election with you and Dr. Oz…’- I thought he might want to come and speak or something but instead he just nodded and said ‘nice to meet you’ and walked away. Perhaps the takeaway from this election cycle should be ‘John Fetterman likes kids and hates Mock Election’”.