Who Shot Shilled the Sheriff? Did They Also Shill His Deputies?

In this weekend's Delco Times, David Landau put more pressure on his "Case Against the Courthouse", this time going after the Sheriff's Department, headed by Sheriff Joseph McGinn.

Landau "cited employment statistics showing 68 of 70 employees in the Sheriff’s Department are registered Republican, and 41 percent of those have contributed financially to the GOP.".

The Delco Times reported that (county rolls put total employees at 65), but did not dispute the extremely high percentage of Republican employees or of financial contribution to the GOP.

Delco Times: Landau has so far gone after the county Solicitor’s Office, the Election Bureau, Voting Machines and Voter Registration offices, as well as the county Executive Director and Chief Clerk offices for having high levels of employees registered to vote Republican or donating to Republican campaigns and committees.

While the GOP holds a slipping registration advantage, they certainly do NOT represent over 90% of the electorate (actually only 55%). So, why do Republicans hold more than 90% of the jobs in key County Departments (particularly in those that are supposed to be non-partisan)?

County Executive Director Marianne Grace defended the partisan GOP hiring practices by pretending that Landau was making personal attacks on law enforcement personnel. Is she claiming that the Sheriff's department is over 95% Republican by sheer chance? How stupid does she think the voters of Delco are?

In honor of our new local casino, I'll put this in gambling terms: If you had a pile of playing cards that were labeled 55% GOP and 45% non-GOP, what would you think if 68 out of 70 cards came up GOP? How about if next 31 cards for the "Election Bureau, Voting Machines and Voter Registration offices" ALL came up 31 GOP cards in a row?

At this point, any reasonable player would be calling for the Gaming Commission to examine the deck and arrest the dealers and casino owners.

The only way to stop the GOP machine from "stacking the deck" and "dealing from the bottom" is to elect David Landau, Ann O'Keefe and John Innelli to "inspect the cards" and deal with the voters fairly. It's long past time the voters stopped the GOP machine from gambling away our future.

The 60% Solution: 3 out of 5 Wins It

One of the best kept secrets in Delaware County is that the majority votes for Democrats in the big races. Even though the Republicans have held onto a registration and local political majority, they consistently lose the biggest races.

Let's take a look:
What do Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ed Rendell, John Kerry, Bob Casey, Joe Sestak and Greg Vitali have in common? 3 out of 5 Delco Voters picked them when given the choice.

There are 5 seats on Delaware County Council. The current five GOP council members, and their 2007 candidates (aka "The Three Stooges") ALL supported George Bush, Rick Santorum and Curt Weldon. Does they sound like people that represent the values and the voters of Delaware County?

Shouldn't the voters have THREE Democrats out of FIVE seats? Particularly, since Innelli, O'Keefe and Landau ALL supported the Democrats that the Delco voters have consistently selected. Currently, the majority of the voters have ZERO representation on Council. (And, yes, when the GOP took over Council 30 years ago, they changed the Charter to remove the guarantee of minority party representation).

What do the voters want?:

1) More open government and less patronage.

2) Responsible Budgets, not bloated, no-bid contracts to GOP cronies.

3) County-wide Health Department.

4) Fair employment, without regard to party, for civil service jobs. (And, no strong-arming employees to work the polls.)

5) Council members that reflect the same political principles as the majority of voters in the "even-numbered" elections.

It is critical that Delco Voters elect the ENTIRE DEMOCRATIC TICKET: Innelli, O'Keefe and Landau for County Council and Frank Daly and Mike Farrell for Court of Common Pleas.

In the weeks to come, I will profile each of the Five County-wide Democrats on the ticket, some of the local races, and explain how the GOP's "Three Stooges" would continue the current misrepresentation on County Council.