It’s coming.
In the wee hours of the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 9, well, except in Pennsylvania, where our state election officials will be busy making excuses as to why we have no final vote tallies, the midterm election results will be in from the day before and will signal the de facto end of the disaster known as the Biden administration.
Of course, “The Big Guy,” as he is known to his son Hunter, will still be holed up in the White House basement for the next two years or so, but his presidency will be effectively neutralized, except for the occasional comic relief provided by his public appearances.
The red wave is building, despite the brief sugar high the Democrats seemed to have enjoyed just a few months ago when the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision gave them an issue, abortion, for which they could wave the bloody shirt.
But that issue was quickly lost in the continued deterioration of the economy, inflation, energy, the border and crime. Now, the voters are in a foul mood, and are ready to take out their anger on the party in charge, the Democrats.
The polls are now uniformly tilting in the red direction with less than two weeks to go, and races that were close or had an advantage for the Democrats are now showing a Republican advantage, even in some states that have been Democrat strongholds for years.
The House of Representatives looks like it’s going to be a runaway for Republicans, who will pick up anywhere from 30 to 50 or more seats, and the U.S. Senate will be Republican again after a net pickup of three seats. At least 31 of the 50 states will have Republican governors, even in blue states like Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon or even New York.
Here in Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz is now tied in the polls with John Fetterman, and the word is that the Oz campaign’s internal polling has had the good doctor up for a few weeks now.
More:5 takeaways from the one and only Oz-Fetterman debate
Locally, it is the same old story. My ballot this time could have been put on a postcard, with only the statewide races giving us any choice. That’s how the political establishment in Franklin County likes to play things. The guys in charge of the local Republican Party prefer a one-horse race, as we’ll see in 2023. More on that after the midterms.
Only the Pennsylvania governor’s race looks cloudy for Republicans. Barring a miracle, it now appears Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro will beat local Republican party establishment darling Doug Mastriano, who is behind seven points in the latest poll.
If Mastriano loses, what is his next stop? He has spent most of the last two years or more campaigning for governor, and if he fails at that, where does he go next?
More:DA in Franklin County, home to Doug Mastriano, featured in Josh Shapiro for governor ad
Having burnt his bridges with the Harrisburg leadership, staying in the state Senate wouldn’t suit his ego. He showed well in the 2018 eight-way Republican primary to replace retiring Congressman Bill Shuster, and the consensus is that he could easily beat our plain-vanilla U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-13, but since both of these gentlemen feed from the same local political trough, it would create quite a bit of chaos.
There are quite a few local political geeks who think that if Mastriano loses to Shapiro, he will pull a Rich Alloway (whom he replaced) and resign from the Senate, leaving the county Republican Party to have a major say in who fills out his term. That will be much to the delight of current local party Chairman Fred Young and Vice Chairman John Flannery.
The word around the campfire is that Flannery makes no effort to conceal his desire to go to Harrisburg for a lifetime gig. After all, that’s what belonging to the local political establishment is all about.
Oh yes, what happens to Mastriano if he resigns?
Quo vadis, Doug? No doubt a position in some conservative think tank or political action committee awaits, which is the equivalent of heaven after political death.
Bill Gindlesperger:Josh Shapiro has ideas that just might appeal to those of us in our part of Pennsylvania
Dwight Weidman is a resident of Greene Township and is a graduate of Shepherd University. He is retired from the United States Department of Defense, where his career included assignments In Europe, Asia, and Central America. He has been in leadership roles for the Republican Party in two states, most recently serving two terms as Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. Involved in web publishing since 1996, he is the publisher of The Franklin County Journal. He has been an Amateur Radio Operator since 1988, getting his first license in Germany, and is a past volunteer with both Navy and Army MARS, Military Auxiliary Radio Service, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
