Since Douglas Mastriano alighted in Franklin County a few years ago, every time you go to the polls, you see his name on the ballot.
First, there was the congressional primary of 2018, when he played spoiler and kept the more conservative Republican candidates from getting enough votes to beat the hand-picked candidate of the GOP establishment, John Joyce.
Next, Mastriano was chosen by that same Republican establishment to fill the seat of state Sen. Rich Alloway, who, along with others who had been around too long, threw tens of thousands of dollars into Mastriano’s coffers.
Finally, Mastriano took advantage of a large field of primary candidates to win the Republican nomination for governor with 44% and embarked on a general election campaign that resulted in a landslide loss to Democratic former state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Mastriano’s 15-point loss after what one friend calls a “cringeworthy fiasco” of a campaign is not surprising. After all, the Democrats wanted Mastriano to win the Republican nomination so much that they ran primary ads which in effect, boosted his primary chances by linking him with Donald Trump.
It worked, and Mastriano’s candidacy not only resulted in his defeat, but also arguably pulled down Republican candidates across the ticket, resulting in the loss of the seat held by Pat Toomey as well as the Pennsylvania state House majority.
There are more than a few of us observers who think that Mastriano, at some point, gave up on winning the governorship. That would explain his finishing with more than a million unspent dollars in his war chest. By comparison, that would be like a World War II submarine commander returning to Pearl Harbor from a patrol with half of his torpedoes unused.
Apparently not being familiar with the meaning of the word “no,” Mastriano has set his sights on higher office again, this time, the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bob Casey Jr. Mastriano has been talking to God again, telling Politico that he has “been praying” about a U.S. Senate run.
He continues to hold rallies and has added former Maryland gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox to his staff. His first campaign finance report of 2023 also shows a substantial amount spent on campaign and legal consulting. You can bet that if Mastriano asks God a question, he already knows the answer.
Regardless if Mastriano runs for the U.S. Senate next year or not, it appears that he has some housecleaning to do first. The continuing controversy over his doctoral thesis, book and battlefield research, all related to Sergeant York, although seemingly unnoticed by his fans, continues to simmer, if not boil.
Related:In French woods, rivals take aim at Sen. Doug Mastriano’s WWI research
Under pressure from the academic community, the University of New Brunswick released Mastriano’s doctoral thesis last September along with six pages of corrections that do not satisfy critics of Mastriano’s work and his subsequent book on Alvin C. York, according to the Associated Press. University of New Brunswick professor Jeff Brown, who was on Mastriano’s doctoral committee, said he was appalled by the dissertation and flagged many issues with it, but he was dismissed from the committee by the lead advisor.
Mastriano’s claim that he found the “actual” site of Alvin York’s Medal of Honor deeds has also been called inaccurate, at best, by most researchers. Independent researcher and battlefield detective Brad Posey has said that after working with Mastriano for a few days, he was convinced that Mastriano was at the wrong site and that the correct site had been located a half-mile south by Dr. Tom Nolan in 2006 and 2009.
Author James P. Gregory, whose book covers the other 16 men in Alvin York’s platoon, has said in a YouTube presentation that Mastriano’s book was one of his first sources, but that he had to redo all of his work once he found out that Mastriano’s sources “were all made up.”
Gregory found 35 citations in Mastriano’s book that he said were “fraudulent” but once he got his hands on Mastriano’s original thesis his count is now up to “a solid 213.”
If this is true, voters need to ask themselves what else may be phony about Doug Mastriano?
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.
