Babette Josephs is an outstanding state legislator who has been a leader on the issues Larry Farnese talks about. She ought to be re-elected. As a former opponent of Babette's told me today, "She is really effective and at the top of her game." (He may or may not identify himself with a public endorsement of her.)
Did you ask Farnese who he supports for U.S. Senator? I would be very surprised if the answer is Chuck Pennachio. In any case, the position of state legislator is important in itself, and is not in any way equivalent to the position of Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where the major relevant question is who the candidate favors for President.
On the issues of choice and reproductive rights, no legislator has been as active as she has for the past four decades. She was lobbying for abortion rights before Roe v. Wade. Her experience will be mighty useful if the Roberts-Alioto combination leads to the repeal or attenuation of Roe v. Wade. Almost all of the legislators retiring this year are anti-abortion rights, giving us a shot at holding onto to abortion rights in Pennsylvania if the Supreme Court takes the drastic action many people expect it to take.
How do I do trackback, because I just put a Larry Farnese post out and am unsure mechanically how to make it trackback to yours. Do I just use the HaloScan email? Thanks!
Good to see you here, Mark! Sorry I missed your comment until today.
I honestly don't know enough about Larry: I missed him at Drinking Liberally on Tuesday but I'll go see him today so I'll find out more about him then.
Just a few points for now:
--This blog isn't officially (if there is such a thing for a blog like this) supporting him yet, I just wanted his campaign website to pop up on the first page of a google search for his name.
--I believe primaries are a good thing and like to have options. Larry seems to look like an "option" to me for now.
--While I agree with you about Babette's strong points, and indeed like you she's quite easy to get along with in person, she has two things going against her right now. The salary debacle and the Casey cave-in. I'm confident that as the primary race goes on, she will be able to address those points well and we'll be doing a whole lotta navel-gazing at that time...
One more disclaimer: We're very new to PA politics and enjoy the interactions we've had through this blog. I'll add a link to this post on today's post s.t. people will be aware of your comment.
Ellen: My Haloscan problems are many. I can't even log on to my account anymore since I changed tha password to allow "Anita Job" access. That has one good thing going for it: I'm completely unable to edit and delete comments, so give me hell! But the drawback is that I can't help you too much with Haloscan. Sorry, and good luck...
Sir: Thanks for handling this one. You are always the more even-tempered one among us.
That said, reproductive rights or no, Babette is still failing in my book. I doubt she will be ousted, but perhaps she should get the message that voters want her to listen and respond.
She has great stands on issues. She has almost no action on them. Plus there is more to politics then Roe v. Wade and voters know it.
Last election close to 60% of voters voted against her. With a one-on-one race its a very good chance that they ask her to go home for good this time around.
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