Democrat Announces Senate Bid in Pennsylvania

[brooklynite]

[lionk:http://atr.rollcall.com/democrat-announces-senate-bid-in-pennsylvania/?dcz=emailalert|Roll Call]

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski announced a bid for Senate in Pennsylvania on Friday, setting up a Democratic primary in a must-win Senate contest for a party looking to win back the majority in 2016.

Pawlowski faces former Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democrat who lost to GOP Sen. Patrick J. Toomey in 2010.


Democrats in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., have been looking for an alternative to Sestak, who ruffled feathers in his last bid when he defeated the late Sen. Arlen Specter in the primary. Sestak went on to lose to Toomey by a 2-point margin that year and has been gearing up for a rematch with Toomey ever since.

The primary field could continue to grow. Democrats say Pawlowski was not one of the candidates national operatives had their eye on as a Sestak alternative.

I'm meeting with DSCC today. Really don't know how to handicap this race, but Toomey should be vulnerable if we can find a decent candidate.

[cali]

1. Glad to see it. I don't know anything about him, but I don't think

Sestak is the right candidate to face Toomey again.

[tkmorris]

2. Is there a reason Sestak ISN'T a decent candidate

That's a serious question, I can't recall enough about him to say. The article makes it sound as if the Party is mad at him for running against Specter and that's it.

[hobbit709]

3. "was not one of the candidates national operatives had their eye on as a Sestak alternative."

All the more reason to support Pawlowski.

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. That didn't last very long

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski suspends U.S. Senate campaign as political consultant's firm folds

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski suspended his U.S. Senate bid Monday evening, four days after FBI agents searched City Hall and questioned officials in connection with a grand jury investigation.

The suspension came hours after The Morning Call obtained a letter revealing that Pawlowski's campaign consultant shuttered his firm's offices Thursday, the day the investigators searched City Hall.

H Street Strategies, a consulting firm run by Pawlowski's longtime manager and friend Mike Fleck, notified an employee that he had been terminated "due to the dissolution of the corporation," via a letter signed by criminal defense attorney Brian M. Monahan.

Later Monday, Pawlowski put out a statement saying he would suspend campaigning in order to focus on "assisting in the federal investigation of Allentown contracting practices both prior to his being elected and since."

more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-ed-pawlowski-senate-race-20150706-story.html#page=1