Dems gather for watch party
About 90 Democrats filed into a Washington restaurant Thursday evening to watch the last night of the Democratic National Convention and bolster their case for more attention to local races in addition to the presidential election.
“This is to drum up attention for everyone – Democrat, Republican, whomever – to start getting ready for the presidential debates. We’re hosting three of those with the first starting in September,” said South Strabane Democratic committeeman Carl Haberl, “but this is also to gather attention to regional and local races. It’s not enough to have Hillary Clinton as president. We need a Democratic Congress.”
The packed catering rooms at the Union Grill were too loud to hear any of the convention speakers, so political chatter turned to candidates who were in attendance.
Democratic candidate for state representative in the 46th District, Joe Szpara, said “he’s the new face with the right background and experience” to get along with both sides of the aisle in Harrisburg. Asked what his “fresh ideas” were, he said he’s focusing on issues with seniors.
“I’m doing what I’m doing in politics solely based on my mother passing away from Alzheimer’s disease in 2002. That’s what motivated me to run for office. She was living on $735 a month and had to sell her house because she couldn’t afford the taxes. So one of the things I’m proposing is a freeze on property taxes at age 70 or with the death of a spouse,” Szpara said.
The candidate said the Democratic party is aligned with blue-collar workers and the middle class, and he’s confident voters will see that in the presidential election and with local and statewide races.
“I’m excited about this election. The Democratic National Convention has been very, very positive. And I think middle, working-class America is paying attention, and there’s no way they’ll vote for Trump,” Szpara said.
Both Szpara and committeewoman Annie Shaner, of Peters Township, said Clinton can be elected on her own merits without attacking Donald Trump.
“I think President Obama said it all. She’s the most qualified person – more so than Obama or Bill (Clinton). When she was secretary of state, Republicans praised her. When she got out of office, things changed. Her experience with children, and legislating as a senator and doing so many things in public service – and she knows all the world leaders and how to deal with them,” Shaner said, explaining she thinks Clinton will take Pennsylvania but not Washington County.
“I think people are going to wake up,” Shaner said, “and realize that Donald Trump is not the man for the job. She’ll continue the movement with health care and champion things that are actually important. I’m about to be on Medicare. People will start realizing issues matter.”
The race Shaner is worried about is the matchup between Senator Pat Toomey and challenger Katie McGinty. The recent issues with police and community relationships, she said, could be improved by McGinty, but she liked Toomey’s compromise attempts to further enforce background checks on gun purchasers. When asked if Democrats were ceding the narrative of “law and order” to Republicans with a focus on police relations and not issues of national security at large, she said the political narrative for both camps changed after the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.
“When I was in graduate school studying administrative justice in 1982, we were moving toward community policing. But 9/11 happened and that moved us toward this militant policing. We can’t continue that. There’s a place for that type of policing with homeland security, but we can’t have it with our community policing,” Shaner said, “because there’s too much division. Democrats and Republicans need to use the right words to help people come together and realize we’re all part of America and the only way we do rise and prevail so that all the other countries look to us is when we work together. We help them, and we help ourselves, as every time there’s a natural disaster we prove it.”
Charleroi committeewoman Rhonda L. Jaquay had a more skeptical view about prospective voters “waking up,” as Shaner said.
“I think some people have already made their choice. But there are people on the fence. I think they’re waiting to see what happens next, but most have already made up their mind,” Jaquay said. She said more focused efforts with smaller groups and rallies would be key to winning over Independents and Republicans who have turned their back on Trump.
The Democrat, who’s helping with Alan Benyak’s campaign in the race for state representative in the 49th district, said despite her partisan affiliation she took her time to decide who to support.
“I’m a business owner, mother of nine, grandmother of 20, great-grandmother of two; and I stay involved in my community, even with the heroin epidemic. I didn’t automatically back Hillary or Benyak, and I don’t back people because they’re Democrats, I back them because I feel they’re the right people to represent us,” Jaquay said.