Reply #20: Chuck Pennacchio

[acmejack]

I linked to a Nation article which speaks to this issue & offers the opinions of a number of prominent women on the matter. Also see Chuck's site!

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The Casey controversy illustrates the perils of early intervention by Washington Democrats in the process of selecting Senate candidates at the state level; in their drive to find a strong contender, DC power brokers often bet on candidates who are more conservative than the grassroots activists who form the party's base. It's especially frustrating to Pennsylvania activists, who watched national Democrats elbow out of the contest Barbara Hafer, a popular prochoice woman who'd won a number of statewide races, to make way for Casey. "A lot of women feel ignored, like the boys decided that this is a throwaway issue," Kathy Miller, outgoing president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Organization for Women, told the Philadelphia Daily News.

There is similar frustration in Tennessee, where another Senate candidate anointed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Congressman Harold Ford, came out against an anti-Alito filibuster on the day civil rights groups endorsed the last-ditch effort to block the nomination. Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau, described the move by Ford, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, as "deeply concerning to us." Ford's primary foe, State Senator Rosalind Kurita, hasn't made a big issue of Ford's stand. It's a different story in Pennsylvania, where Chuck Pennacchio, a college professor and former Congressional aide, has positioned himself as the progressive alternative to Casey on issues ranging from abortion rights to the Iraq War. Along with another candidate who's challenging Casey, attorney Alan Sandals, Pennacchio seized on Casey's defection to the Alito camp. "Democrats will have a choice between a watered-down version of Rick Santorum and a strong Democrat who will consistently stand with them on the issues they care about," argues Pennacchio. Recalling that his party lost when it ran a social conservative against Santorum in 2000, Pennacchio says: "An antichoice Democrat cannot beat an antichoice Republican in a high-profile race."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/nichols

http://www.chuck2006.com/caseyfacts.asp