It is beyond outrageous that she campaigns as an "environmentalist".

http://energyjusticesummer.org/candidate-katie-mcginty-the-environmentalist-for-fracking-fact-sheet/
– After DEP, McGinty went to work as Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Strategic Growth at Weston Solutions, Inc., a gas industry consulting firm and member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, enjoying the revolving door open to regulators among companies they are supposed to oversee. (McGinty’s LinkedIn Profile)

- McGinty more recently has worked for the shale gas industry as a business partner of Ed Rendell’s at Element Partners, which provides investment capital to shale gas industry start-ups. (“Keystone XL Influence Peddling Web Extends into PA Governor’s Race Via Katie McGinty” -DeSmogBlog)

– When McGinty ran for governor in 2014, she hired Mike Mikus to be her campaign manager. Mikus is a V. P. of IES Solutions, an energy consulting firm that represents the Colorado Oil & Gas Association and he is Executive Director for Consumer Energy Alliance’s Mid-Atlantic region which supports drilling on public lands. (http://www.solutions-ies.com/, “CEA Applauds Approval of Marcellus Shale Production on Airport Land by Allegheny County Council” -CEA)


– The gas industry donated $72,500 to Katie McGinty’s gubernatorial campaign in 2013-14. A new study finds a 47% increase in campaign donations from the natural gas industry to Pennsylvania politicians in the 2013-2014 election cycle (over 2011-2012). Lobbying expenditures reached $17.9 million, up $2.1 million from the previous two-year cycle. (“How Gas Drillers Rented Pennsylvania’s Government” – MarcellusMoney.org)

earlyreturns.post-gazette.com/home/early-returns-posts/6597-rendell-to-chair-mcginty-s-senate-campaign

Katie McGinty will get help from an old boss as she seeks the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Ed Rendell will serve as Ms. McGinty's campaign chairman, her campaign announced ths morning.
Ms. McGinty served as secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection during Mr. Rendell's tenure as governor. She recently resigned from her post a chief of staff for Gov. Tom Wolf to enter the Senate race.

In the comments section of this Post-Gazette article is this statement from Doug Shields.

(Doug Shields, former Pittsburgh city council member & president, introduced an ordinance banning corporations from natural gas drilling in the city, the first of its kind nationwide to pass. This was back in 2010. He remains actively involved in opposing fracking.)

Ed Rendell & Katie McGinty illegally orchestrated the leasing of over 300,000 acres of state forests and parks - the "common property" of the People. No consultation with the people. No hearings. No environmental impact studies. No regard to the PA Constitution's provision at Article I, Section 27.

Natural Resources and the Public Estate
Section 27.
"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

Ed Rendell is now a lobbyist for the Oil & Gas industry. McGinty also has close industry ties. I have no inclination at all to cast my vote for those who don't know the difference between governing by the people and governing by fiat. I find no need to have another U.S. Senator who takes their lead (and their campaign money) from those who despoil our natural resources and purchase our government and have no respect at all for the health, welfare and safety of the people of PA.

Each week, Sen. Toomey sends out a newsletter to tell us what he’s been up to… and Joe Sestak responds.

Politicians saying one thing and then doing another is why they have lost the trust of Pennsylvanians and the American people.

Below is a series on how Sen. Toomey says one thing here in Pennsylvania, but then does entirely another when he gets down to Washington, D.C.

http://joesestak.com/uncovering-sen-toomeys-newsletters/

I really enjoy reading Sestak's commentary, which nails Toomey to the yardarm, so to speak, week after week after week, issue after issue.

Sestak provides two, side-by-side columns. On the left is Sestak's column - on the right, Sestak's commentary/rebuttal. Can't get any clearer or more specific than that.

I want Sestak, not Toomey, as the voice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the floor and at the committee meetings of the United States Senate.

(I get a weekly email update from Joe Sestak): "I was honored to sign this letter with three dozen other retired generals and admirals cautiously supporting the Iran deal." Sestak is a retired Navy Admiral and current candidate for U. S. Senate, Pennsylvania.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/retired-generals-and-admirals-back-iran-nuclear-deal/2015/08/11/bd26f6ae-4045-11e5-bfe3-ff1d8549bfd2_story.html



You can read the letter and see all the retired admirals and generals who signed it here:
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/read-an-open-letter-from-retired-generals-and-admirals-on-the-iran-nuclear-deal/1689/

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/11/bernie-sanders-social-media-popularity-facebook-twitter?CMP=fb_us
(excerpts)

With a bigger – and vastly more engaged – Facebook fan base, the 73-year-old Vermont senator looks a lot like young Americans’ candidate of choice.

Meanwhile, Sanders excels beyond the realm of likes and followers. The self-stated democratic socialist consistently has the highest level engagement on his individual Facebook posts, meaning he has people liking his messages, sharing his thoughts, commenting on his plans.

Sanders’ popularity on the internet is a further example of his success with young people – a key demographic given the increasing voter turnout among 18-to-29-year-olds in recent years.

Around 50% of young people voted in 2012. In the 1990s the youth turnout was regularly less than 40%, according to Politico. A study by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found that the youth voting bloc made the difference in four swing states – Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida – counting for 80 electoral college votes.

If they're not already in the One Percent, what do these HRC supporters expect will happen to them and their friends and families if HRC is elected? The all-ashore-that's-going-ashore whistle has been sounded, the gangplank has been removed and the boat has pulled away from the dock for the 1%,Corporate Ark, and if you're not already on board, you will never, never get there!

It's not just poor and middle class Republicans who vote against their own best interests.

With her campaign style of claiming to be all things to all people, and with all those wealthy, we're-so-hip young trust fund babies who can afford to work for her campaign for free as "interns", someone is bound to suggest, HRC needs to rap!

What's the rap equivalent of "ain't no ways tired"?

What's she doing with all those hundreds and hundreds of campaign interns & advisors? She doesn't need them for her cookie-cutter, endless series of fund-raising soirees at McMansions in gated communities. Their lives must be damn boring. I picture them secretly and enviously following Bernie's campaign on their I-phones and wishing they were with the cool kids in the Summer of Bernie.

Bet they're checking out DU - so in the tradition of the olden, golden days of DU, when we routinely gave shoutouts to "Agent Mike", here's a shoutout to you, Agent Muffy!

The analogy I would make is to compare her candidacy in the general as the equivalent of a shark feeding dive - an activity in which I've participated several times. You have all the divers settled in well away from the area where the shark bait will be handled by the dive leader, before the container is opened and the smell quickly spreads through the ocean.

The shark dive master is fully protected by a dive suit specifically designed of stainless-steel mesh, manufactured to give both protection and range of motion. It takes a specialized machine 70 hours to individually weld enough chain mail to make a suit — ring by ring, link by link, almost 500,000 in total. And it takes a skilled craftsman another 40 hours to cut and assemble that suit completely by hand.
http://www.scubadiving.com/photos/underwater-suit-protects-divers-shark-jaws

So the GOP voting base is the pack of sharks which will be in a feeding frenzy, and HRC is right in the middle of them. Not only is she in the middle, but her "divesuit" has accumulated decades of chinks in the armor from all the scandals and past, recent and on-going actions of both her and Bill, and the GOP will be tearing at and exploiting them as ferociously as sharks attack bait.

Not a pretty picture, is it. And even worse, she will drag down other Dems on the ticket.

And this erudite article explains why:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/almost-every-major-poll-shows-bernie-sanders_b_7937906.html

Ironically, there are certain liberal voters in America today more interested in sharing memes on social media (mocking their political rivals), than in actually rallying around a politician who is a genuine and authentic embodiment of their acknowledged value system. To these people, Bernie Sanders can't possibly win, even though he championed gay rights when others needed to "evolve," and even though he voted against Iraq, when others deemed their vote a "mistake."

Luckily, there are a great many other voters willing to imagine a future without Wall Street greed and rampant income inequality. Fortunately, "Bernie Sanders Can Become President" has replaced "I like him but he can't win."

Democrats who are proud of their progressive values are filling arenas to hear Sanders speak in a direct manner (while others dodge questions) on contentious issues like Keystone XL and the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. While the FBI is currently investigating the email security of one candidate, Bernie Sanders is narrowing Clinton's lead nationally and defeating Republicans in other polls. Like Brent Budowsky writes in The Hill:
The fact that Sanders beats Walker by six to seven points, depending on whether all voters or likely voters are counted -- a near-landslide margin in a general election -- makes it clear that the Sanders surge is more than a surge against Donald Trump, but move that makes him competitive with all Republican candidates.

Polls once extolling Hillary Clinton's enormous lead over Sanders are now dwindling for the same reason Sanders beats Republicans in various other polls: Americans have had enough of dynasties, scandals, wars, and Wall Street corruption. I will be voting for Bernie Sanders because I too have had enough of endless wars, and Bernie says "I'll be damned" if more Americans are sent back to fight in the Middle East. I'll also be voting for Sanders because like the polls illustrating his lightning fast surge, more and more Americans have had enough with a two-party system that doesn't give people a choice. I want my Democratic nominee to vote against counterinsurgency wars and vehemently oppose environmental disasters in the making like Keystone XL, not evolve towards the most politically expedient position available at the time.

Just by way of contrast, while Bernie is attracting historic, record-breaking crowds for a primary candidate, his opponent "wowed a Park City crowd" of (are you ready for this? Hold on to your hats, folks) SIXTY (60!), in a private home in a gated community - no press or public allowed, thank you very much.

The headline on this link (from the HRC group): Hillary Clinton wows a Park City crowd.
The "report" failed to quantify the crowd, identify the host or location (other than private home), the charge for admission, or whether the press was admitted.
http://www.parkrecord.com/ci_28603769/hillary-clinton-wows-park-city-crowd
by Jay Hamburger THE PARK RECORD
Posted: 08/07/2015 04:46:53 PM MDT

Curious as to what constitutes a "crowd" in Park City, I googled and found a more descriptive news report.

http://fox13now.com/2015/08/05/hillary-clinton-in-utah-for-fundraiser/

PARK CITY, Utah — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton visited Utah Wednesday for a fundraising event.

The fundraiser was held at a private residence in the Glenwild gated community in Park City.
Littlefield estimated 60 people attended an early rally that cost $2700 a head, and more attended the larger event, paying $500 each. If those estimates are true, then the event raised more than $200,000 for the Clinton campaign.