Talking about the issues: Republican mayoral candidate Melissa Murray Bailey, shown above at the Philadelphia Republican City Committee clambake, is calling for passage of a state bill to authorize ride sharing in Pennsylvania. TED BORDELON / FOR THE TIMES
Donald Trump easily won a Republican presidential straw poll conducted by the Times at Sunday’s Philadelphia Republican City Committee clambake at Cannstatter’s.
The Times distributed 200 ballots listing the 17 candidates in alphabetical order.
Trump received 30 percent of the vote, far ahead of runner-up Marco Rubio, who took 10 percent.
Twelve other candidates received votes. They were Jeb Bush (9 percent), Ben Carson (7 percent), John Kasich (7 percent), Carly Fiorina (7 percent), Rand Paul (7 percent), Rick Santorum (6 percent), Chris Christie (6 percent), Scott Walker (1 percent), George Pataki (1 percent), Mike Huckabee (1 percent), Rick Perry (1 percent) and Lindsey Graham (1 percent).
Nobody voted for Jim Gilmore, Bobby Jindal or Ted Cruz.
Former state Rep. George Kenney received a write-in vote.
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In 2014, veteran state Rep. Mark Cohen (D-202nd dist.) beat Jared Solomon by 158 votes in a bruising primary. The final count was 2,281 to 2,123, or 51.79 percent to 48.21 percent.
Cohen and Solomon are headed for a rematch in the April 2016 primary.
Last week, Bristol-based Independence Communications & Campaigns released a survey showing Cohen with a huge lead.
In a telephone survey of 452 likely voters, Cohen led Solomon, 48.23 percent to 13.72 percent. Some 38.05 percent were undecided.
The polling firm suggested that last year’s race was close because it was Cohen’s first contest in a district that was 63 percent new to him. Cohen has been in office since 1974.
Solomon is a lawyer, U.S. Army Reserve officer and president of the Take Back Your Neighborhood civic association.
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Meanwhile, Solomon was endorsed by the Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Union Local 22.
“We are proud to endorse Jared for state representative,” said Andy Thomas, the new president of Local 22. “He is a proven leader and someone passionate about the well-being of his community. We need new leadership and we’re confident that he will fight for us when he is a state representative.”
Solomon said, “I am honored to be endorsed by men and women as noble and brave as these, and I will be certain to honor them by performing my duties with integrity as a state representative.”
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The campaign of Republican at-large City Council nominee Al Taubenberger harshly criticized Councilman David Oh, who paid a $2,000 fine and returned $4,600 to the city as part of an agreement with the ethics board for violating campaign finance laws.
“Oh is a lawyer, an officer of the court. For him to state that he wasn’t aware of campaign finance laws is laughable,” said Frank Keel, Taubenberger’s campaign spokesman.
Keel is calling on the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Republican City Committee to publicly rebuke Oh.
“It’s the least they should do to preserve their own institutional integrity,” Keel said. “Why would anyone continue to support Oh when he’s brought nothing but shame and embarrassment to the city?”
Meanwhile, Republican at-large candidate Terry Tracy issued the following statement:
“Councilman Oh’s recent admission of city ethics violations is a disservice to all those who have supported his efforts as a reform candidate in the past. Perhaps more troubling than the actual violation is his public response. David claims not to know the law and demonstrates no contrition. David placed a donor and constituent at legal risk. His claim and actions are troubling because he is a lawyer. His claim and actions are troubling because he has run three times under this campaign finance regime. While I have no desire to question his integrity or motivations, the citizens of Philadelphia must, at the very least, consider his competency as a lawmaker. I am running for Council because strong and competent leadership from Council’s minority party seats is essential to the health of our city’s democracy. Through his actions, David has compromised his ability to lead a reform agenda with credibility.”
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Melissa Murray Bailey, the Republican candidate for mayor, is calling for passage of a state bill to authorize ride sharing in Pennsylvania, and for the Philadelphia Parking Authority to waive fines for UberX.
“Innovations like UberX not only provide safer and more affordable transportation options for people in underserved minority areas, but they also have provided over 12,000 jobs to Philadelphians, with the majority of spots being filled by those that find it hard to get into the job market and Philadelphians looking to supplement their income like teachers, graphic designers and other entrepreneurs chasing their dreams,” she said.
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The campaign of Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey welcomed Democratic U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle’s announcement that he opposes the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Former congressman Joe Sestak, who is running as a Democrat in next year’s Senate primary, supports the deal. Another Democratic candidate, Katie McGinty, has not said whether she favors the pact.
“The Iran agreement is terrible for American national security. Yet Congressman Joe Sestak remains firmly locked into his misguided far-left foreign policy views and continues to double down in his support of this disastrous deal. Meanwhile, we still haven’t heard a peep from Katie McGinty about the most important national security policy facing our country today,” said Toomey for Senate spokesman Steve Kelly. “Thankfully, members of Congress like Sen. Toomey and Rep. Boyle are putting aside partisanship to fight this deal.”
Toomey and Boyle oppose the deal because it provides Iran with money that can be used for terrorist acts, does not provide for surprise inspections of Iran’s nuclear program and allows only a temporary freeze on Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb.
Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and and Robert Menendez of New Jersey are the only two Democratic senators who’ve announced their opposition to the deal. Boyle is among at least 16 Democratic House members in opposition.
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In a letter sent to congressional leaders, nearly 200 retired generals and admirals representing every branch of the armed services, detailed the threats that they believe President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran poses to the security of the United States and its allies.
“Unfortunately, Congressman Joe Sestak has once again recklessly aligned himself with the extreme wing of his party by fully endorsing the president’s dangerous deal with Iran,” said Toomey for Senate spokesman Steve Kelly. “Meanwhile, Katie McGinty is more concerned with winning the approval of the Democrat political machine than in telling Pennsylvanians her position on this critical issue.”
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Sestak discussed the agreement with Iran and the infrastructure chapter of his book, Walking in Your Shoes to Restore the American Dream, at a campaign stop at an Altoona restaurant.
The candidate cautiously supports the Iranian agreement, which delays Iran from having bomb-grade material from 30 days to over a year.
“We must verify before we trust, and the military option remains on the table if they try to cheat, but our nation is more secure with a verifiable agreement, as is Israel,” he said.
Sestak also spoke about the part of his infrastructure chapter in which he advocates for a national infrastructure bank to finance surface, water and airway projects, using public loan guarantees to attract private capital to support market-based investments in partnership with local, state and multi-state entities.
“America’s achievements in infrastructure are some of our proudest historical triumphs — the Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the Golden Gate Bridge and the interstate highway system,” he said. “The public work projects have always stood as physical monuments to that great American idea that, together, we can defy gravity, rise higher, and each one of us go further.” ••
