The Mastriano Pileup in the Pennsylvania Elections - WSJ Editorial
President Trump won the Republican primary in 2016 by taking roughly a third of the vote, while his squabbling opponents from the traditional GOP split the rest. Next week Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano might pull off the same trick in the primary for Governor, and Democrats couldn’t be happier to help him do it.
Mr. Mastriano is a long shot in November. He’s a 2020 stolen-election theorist who wants to end Pennsylvania’s contracts with “compromised voting machine companies.” He reportedly organized buses to take people to Mr. Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021. Although he said he left when the rioting began, the Philadelphia Inquirer says video “appears to show Mastriano and his wife walking through breached police barricades.” Last month he spoke at an event featuring QAnon nonsense.
A poll by Fox News last week put Mr. Mastriano at 29% support among Republican primary voters. That’s a plurality only because below him there’s an eight-car pileup. Former Rep. Lou Barletta was at 17%, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain at 13%, businessman Dave White at 11%, and state Senate leader Jake Corman at 5%. Four others were in single digits. GOP bigwigs are now frantically trying to unite those factions by getting unviable candidates to drop out and endorse a consensus pick.
This will probably work about as well as it did in 2016 against Mr. Trump, which is to say, it won’t. It’s hard for any candidate to throw in the towel after putting in months of sweat and asking donors to contribute. Mr. Barletta is in second, so he’s unlikely to quit. Mr. McSwain is anti-endorsed by Mr. Trump, who called the former U.S. Attorney a “coward” for doing “absolutely nothing” on voter fraud. “Bill McSwain is staying in the race,” his team said Tuesday. Mr. White has invested millions of his own money, which might be sunk cost, but he understandably wants to get to primary day. Mr. Corman is scheduled Thursday to join Mr. Barletta for a “major announcement,” but even if he tries to shift all his support, it’s only 5%, not enough to make the difference on its own.
(snip)
If Republicans go for it, Tuesday’s primary could be the start of another Trumpian backfire. Pennsylvania Republicans want voting reforms, and the GOP state Legislature passed some that were promptly vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. If primary voters want those bills signed, their job is to pick a conservative who can win the general election. A recent poll by Osage Research said Pennsylvania swing voters preferred a Republican Governor, 42% to 39%. But asked about a race between (likely Democratic nominee Attorney General) Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Mastriano, the Democrat was up 49% to 41%. The pollster said it involved “Mastriano losing an astounding 23% of the swing Republicans to Shapiro. With Mr. Mastriano at the top of the ticket, many Republicans fear a washout could also cost them control of the Legislature or the crucial Senate seat now held by Republican Pat Toomey, who is retiring.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-doug-mastriano-pileup-in-pennsylvania-governor-election-republicans-democrats-donald-trump-11652301140 (subscription)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Shapiro has really earned my respect for the great work he's done. He'll be a smart and savvy governor, IMHO. 
when he ran for the position, he actually got more votes than the Presidential candidates!
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And I read an article in the Inquirer yesterday where there was this -
by Andrew Seidman and Chris Brennan
Updated May 20, 2022
(snip)
As the GOP turns its focus toward the general election against Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro, Republicans are also trying to assess what went wrong over the last several months. While party chair Tabas has been reluctant about imposing edicts from above, many now are pointing the finger at him, saying he failed to provide leadership.
A prominent Republican active in Pennsylvania politics, who requested anonymity to speak freely about party conversations, predicted that some prominent GOP members will publicly support Shapiro over Mastriano. And after November’s general election, Tabas may see a call for a new party chair.
“The general consensus is he failed to lead and left this thing to fester,” the Republican said.
“It’s an act of political malpractice that the Republican State Committee didn’t do much to shape or condition the field months ago,” said former GOP U.S. Rep Charlie Dent, adding that his criticism wasn’t aimed at Tabas specifically. “Everyone was worried Mastriano could prevail in a crowded, multi-candidate field.”
(snip)
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/how-pa-republican-establishment-broke-itself-trying-stop-doug-mastriano-20220520.html
(emphasis mine)
So he seems to have garnered sustained bipartisan support across the state!
(snip)
Mr. Trump endorsed late in that race, after Mr. Mastriano already had a substantial polling lead, so he can’t claim sole credit for the state Senator’s win in a multicandidate field. But Mr. Mastriano played to Mr. Trump’s obsession that the 2020 election was stolen. Mr. Mastriano is the candidate Democrats wanted to run against in November, and they ran ads essentially telling Trump voters he was their man.
Last month Mr. Mastriano addressed a “Patriots Arise” rally, where other speakers lamented “child satanic trafficking” and other QAnon nonsense. He sponsored a bill to ban abortion after about six weeks and said at a recent debate that, “I don’t give way for exceptions either.” He wants to rip up contracts with “compromised voting machine companies,” while doing a reset of the voter rolls: “You’re going to have to re-register.”
(snip)
If Republicans lose this election, it’s their own fault, and a warning about chasing 2020 ghosts instead of focusing on the future. One small prophylactic could be to pass a bill soon to let mail votes be preprocessed a few days before Election Day, as many other states permit. Pennsylvania’s current rules led this week to late results. That’s the kind of thing that Mr. Mastriano could use to claim another stolen election in November.
More..
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-get-their-man-pennsylvania-primaries-elections-doug-mastriano-josh-shapiro-11652898476 (subscription)
