Rendell has a serious fight coming up this year. I think Swann is going to be a real challenge, but oone of the bigger issues is that the governor must fight his own reputation. Four years ago he came into office talking to the “progressive” elements of the democratic base making promises left and right. He talked a great talk about one Pennsylvania, and how he was not just some Eastern liberal taking over. HE was a Pennsylvanian.
His reputation as a Philadelphian first and a Pennsylvanian second seems to have been true. How does he beat that a second time? The west is pissed because he ignored them, and Lynn Swann is from here.
I think we have to look at a few of the things that Rendell did. These are going to draw ire in the coming months, and I would like to see this stuff dealt with up front and honestly.
For those of us in the queer community Rendell talked a lot about Aids funding in 2002. He raised funding for AIDS related projects by a million bucks in Philadelphia, but cut it by $600,000 across the rest of the state. This is a time when great research is going on to realize the huge affect HIV has in our rural communities and Rendell left rural Pennsylvania out to dry.
There has been no hiding the fact that Rendell is a typical big business democrat. His corporation of choice? My guess is Comcast. Rendell’s long time friend and adviser David Cohen runs Comcast. And guess what? Rendell sold Pennsylvania out, except for Philadelphia again! Internet access offered by governments and municipalities cannot happen in PA (except Philly.) That would be cutting far too deep into Comcast’s pockets.
Sleeping with Comcast didn’t stop there. He secured state funds so that comcast could build a new skyscraper in Philadelphia, but has been very hesitant about getting any money for the other cities across the state. Pittsburgh the city where I am at the moment is in desperate need of funding for public projects, and yet we get nothing.
And let us not forget Rendell himself still collects a pay check from Comcast.
But enough of all of that. This is the shit the GOP is going to toss at him for the rest of the year. Rendell cannot pretend like these issues (and there are more, these are just two I know about) do not exist. These are not alright, so he should prepare himself to answer all questions about them.
If this stuff is out of the way early, Lynn Swann will have very little to hit him with. Swann should be easy to beat, but he is not going to, so Ed please get all of this bullshit out of the way now, so the democrats can take this state back.