which_chick | (no subject)

Yesterday, John Eichelberger called my house. Really him, for real and alive, not a recording. (Local politics is so fun!) If you don't know who he is, that's okay. I *did* know who he is due to the rather bloody campaigning that is going on in these parts. John Eichelberger, who I believe is a Blair County Commissioner, is running for PA State Senator (in Pennsylvania's General Assembly, not in Congress down in DC) against long-standing incumbent Bob Jubelirer. (Both of these men are Republicans and as it's extremely unlikely that we will elect a democrat to the state senate, the real choice in this election is going to happen in the Republican primary.) John Eichelberger trumpets his pro life stance from the damn rooftops and also included it in the list of pimpin' topics for people who carried the petition to get his ass on the primary ballot. He's also in favor of "traditional" marriage. (Damn. Look. This is a very conservative area. Anyone who is going to get elected around here has to say stuff like that. He may or may not believe it.) On the plus side, he's in favor of protecting taxpayers. Yay. I am a taxpayer. He likes guns. Good. I like guns, too. He opposes illegal pay raises. (This is a no-brainer, as you will see in the next paragraph.) I know these things because I was canvassed and indeed signed his petition on the grounds that having choices at the polls is always better than having a guy run unopposed. I don't know how good of a county commissioner John Eichelberger is. Perhaps he sucks, but the real question is whether or not he sucks more than Bob Jubelirer, the guy who currently has the job that's up for grabs.

Jubelirer, who currently holds golfball through a garden hose status in the department of sucking, was a leader of the group that, in July of 2005, orchestrated the icky legislative pay raise thing that pissed *everybody in the state* off. It pissed off people badly enough that the General Assembly freaking REPEALED their pay raise in November of 2005 -- but Jubelirer was not at the forefront of the repeal movement like he'd been at the forefront of the sneaky back-door pay raise approving movement. He was drug, kicking and screaming, into lip-service support of the repeal by dreadfully low approval ratings. Quite a few people feel that his apology for the pay raise deal was a day late and a dollar (if not more) short. Eichelberger, of course, not being in the PA General Assembly, didn't have anything to do with the pay raise fiasco and this is, indeed, a major selling point in his favor.

I usually don't give a shit about politics, but this is an amusing race -- the smear ads on local radio are profuse, pretty well done, and amusing. My current favorite is the diner with "Jubelirer Waffles" (for the Eichelberger campaign). I think probably it's time for a change in the state senate. We've had Jubelirer since 1974 or so, according to Wikipedia, and that's probably been long enough especially since he's apparently spending his time in office trying to finagle sneaky back-door legislative pay raises. Yes. Let us have a new conservative Republican fellow, hopefully one who won't vote himself sneaky back-door pay raises.