In Senate race, Dems need a winner
In the contest for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate the temper of the times points to John Fetterman, which is not to say that his chief rival, Conor Lamb, can or should be dismissed.
In November against a Republican opponent, Lamb, a suburban Pittsburgh congressman with a record of defeating MAGA Republicans, is likely run better than Fetterman in the all-important swing counties outside of Philadelphia – the counties that sealed Joe Biden’s statewide victory in 2020.
For one thing, he’ll try harder, and second, he is the kind of moderate Pennsylvania voters have historically rewarded.
Beside the positive there is a negative: his opponent Fetterman has an African American problem. In 2013, when he was the mayor of Braddock, Fetterman confronted an innocent Black man in the mistaken belief that the man was a robbery suspect.
Because of the incident, which involved a shotgun, Fetterman may have a difficult time rallying sufficient numbers of Black Philadelphians to his side In the fall.
It’s a vote the Democratic nominee must have in order to overcome Republican majorities in central and Western Pennsylvania.
All of which means: Democrats, eager to flip the seat now held by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, should look to Lamb, not to Fetterman.
The two men embody two types when it comes to government and politics. Broadly speaking, Lamb is collaborative, not confrontational. Fetterman is confrontational, not collaborative.
Fetterman first. By most accounts, the lieutenant governor shuns members of the General Assembly, including fellow-Democrats.
One lawmaker, Democratic state Rep. Darisha Parker, told the Philadelphia Inquirer last Thursday, “The man’s never come and introduced himself to me or to any of my colleagues.”
Brandon Flood, a former secretary of the Board of Pardons, which the lieutenant governor chairs as part of his constitutional duties, commented that Fetterman “doesn’t have too many relationships with lawmakers.”
The same thing apparently is true for politicians outside of Harrisburg. Ex-congressman Bob Brady, who now heads the Democratic Party organization in Philadelphia, told the Inquirer that Fetterman just hadn’t been around.
“Fetterman has done no campaigning whatsoever,” Brady told the Inquirer.
Then there is Lamb, Again, Brady: “He’s been in the city a lot.”
Lamb has been to a lot of places, period. As an example, with state Rep. Pam Snyder at his side, he’s campaigned in Greene County, which he represented in Congress during the first of his two terms in Washington. Lamb said at the time of his first visit that it was important to campaign everywhere, in both rural and urban Pennsylvania as well as in the suburbs and small towns.
He’s campaigned in Fayette County. (So has Fetterman.)
According to state Sen. Sharif Street, Lamb has been criticized for not taking full advantage of his Twitter account – the new, modern remote-control method of running for office. “He’s really been talking to ordinary people,” Street said, “who are ordinary leaders in their cities and trying to solve problems.”
As chair of the Board of Pardons, Fetterman has fought hard for his principles. He has waged several high-profile battles on behalf of those (he feels) who were wrongly convicted, or who are serving long years in jail for crimes committed when they were quite young and despite evidence of rehabilitation.
In the pursuit of these ends, it’s alleged, Fetterman has attempted to cower those who disagree with him. He has been called a bully.
It hard to imagine anyone calling Lamb a bully. Maybe the word that best describes him is the word he uses to describe himself, practical. Of course Lamb’s had to be practical. Representing swing districts, he hasn’t had the political luxury of being wildly partisan. He pledged in one campaign not to vote for Nancy Pelosi for the House speakership. He carried out the pledge.
At 6-8, with a black hoodie pressed down over a bald head and the shorts he habitually wears exposing a pair of knobby knees, Fetterman strikes many as the prototype Democrat in the age of Trump; he’s unconventional – so much so that he can appeal to former Democrats mesmerized by the cult of the unconventional.
Talking to reporters, voters have called the lieutenant governor “authentic,” “the real deal,” “honest.” One eastern Pennsylvania voter gushed that she “loved him” for being “direct and consistent.”
To Lamb, unconventional means going tieless. But the congressman has something else going for him that’s much more important for Democrats to consider in these days of rage: victories against a string of Trump wannabes.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.