A political war in Scranton with ramifications throughout the state is escalating.
And this rumble will absolutely get worse before it gets better.
And that’s good.
Get ready for Frank Andrews Shimkus vs. Kevin Murphy.
Most of all we need answers, all the full disclosure we can get. We need rumor and nasty accusations. We need fuel for the fire. The winter of our political discontent comes early around here.
Even though he holds the office, Democratic state Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus is more and more the challenger in this race.
Shimkus is the incumbent first-term Democratic lawmaker from the 113th District. But when he started his re-election bid, he got booted from the Democratic primary ballot after a judge ruled on complaints that he did not live at the address he used on his nominating petitions.
The judge said Shimkus deliberately tried to deceive voters.
Shimkus, who is a born-again pastor, maintains that he did nothing wrong. But that protestation didn’t save him.
Enter Democrat and former Scranton City Council member Murphy.
Murphy won the Democratic nomination.
Although Shimkus ran a write-in race, he lost the bid for votes from his own party members. But he won the Republican nod and now runs as the enemy. That’s ironic.
Shimkus has always been his own worst enemy.
Murphy is now dancing around like the champ.
When sides were drawn in Harrisburg in the “Bonusgate” scandal aftermath, Shimkus sided with the status quo Democratic leadership.
Unlike some of his Democratic colleagues, he sided with majority leader Bill DeWeese when rebels demanded DeWeese’s resignation. Shimkus accused his colleagues of “posturing” and demanded that they call off the “feeding frenzy.”
Murphy then jumped into the mess and he, too, demanded that DeWeese resign, challenging Democratic party bosses.
Local Democratic kingmaker and big shot state Sen. Bob Mellow had already contributed money to Shimkus.
So did Gov. Ed Rendell. Shimkus said on “Corbett” yesterday that Rendell gave him $10,000 for his primary run. That’s a lot of cash. So it’s fair to say that party bosses believe Shimkus owes them something in return. But Shimkus howled that nobody, particularly Mellow, is pulling his strings.
Murphy accuses Shimkus of playing like an old boy rather than a maverick who stands on principle and does the will of the people rather than the will of the bosses.
People nowadays love a government rebel and Murphy is coming off like the wild colonial boy ready to take on all comers in a bust ’em up Irish saloon donnybrook.
Many Scrantonians particularly like that kind of action.
Shimkus is in a corner.
It will be tough to pull Democratic votes as the Republican nominee in the general election.
Shimkus also admitted yesterday that no Republicans to his knowledge have given him a penny in his re-election bid.
Surprisingly, though, he did say that some well-known Democrats, including up-and-coming Democratic powerbroker and Hazleton Rep. Todd Eachus, have contributed cash.
Is that acceptable behavior among Democrats?
Around here, where hard coal politics is the norm, almost anything goes.
Shimkus says he’ll vote with the Democrats if he wins. But he’ll be a Republican, won’t he? He says not. He just has to show up and go to work as a Democrat because he is a Democrat.
Yes, this sounds crazy.
This is primitive politics at its best. Down-and-dirty destruction of the fittest is a grand way to spend our time.
Rush Limbaugh
