How the Left Cut Down a Democratic Frontrunner [View all]

[DonViejo]

David Freedlander

Rep. Allyson Schwartz was up by 25 points in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary for governor. Then came accusations of centrism—now a dirty word in a party with an energized left flank.

There are a couple of hundred well turned out, professional women sipping $9 white wines at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, and Allyson Schwartz is determined to kiss every single one of them on the cheek.

It’s not hard, as they are all gathered for a fundraiser for a nearly 40-year-old women’s health group that Schwartz helped found, and so she seems to know half the room.

“I tell everyone, ‘Vote for my girl, vote for my girl!’” says one older woman after emerging from her own cheek peck. Another grabs Schwartz by the shoulders and looks searchingly into her face. “Tell me,” she implores. “Are you OK?”

In eight days, the voters of Pennsylvania have a chance to make Schwartz the first female governor in the state’s history. Last year, the five-term congresswoman and political powerbroker from the upper reaches of Philadelphia and its wealthy northern suburbs was up by as much as 25 points and looked like a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination. With Republican incumbent Tom Corbett notching some of the lowest approval ratings in the country, Schwartz could have been forgiven if she had started to measure the drapes in Harrisburg.

Now she is down by nearly that much. While her campaign was buried under an avalanche of gauzy television advertisements from wealthy businessman Tom Wolf, who now holds a commanding lead in the polls, the Schwartz campaign was knocked off course by a surprising incident toward the end of last year.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/12/how-the-left-cut-down-a-democratic-frontrunner.html