As the old saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
It remains to be seen if Pennsylvania Republicans are going to shame themselves again, but it looks more likely that Doug Mastriano, who ran an inept gubernatorial campaign in 2022, expects to be given the chance to make a shambles of Republican hopes once again, this time running in 2024 for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bob Casey Jr.
Two groups of Pennsylvanians are thrilled by the prospect of Mastriano running again. The first are his loyal supporters. The second group are Democrats, who are absolutely giddy.
Pennsylvania Republicans, including most conservatives, are horrified by the prospect of Mastriano running, fearing that his presence on the ticket will lead to statewide Republican losses, giving Dems control of the state Senate to go along with the Mastriano-caused loss of the House in 2022.
That would be catastrophic, giving Democrats control of all three branches of the Pennsylvania government. None of that reality phases Mastriano’s sizable group of devotees, who only want to cheer on their hero, win or lose.
A friend sent me a link to a Twitter post by the Senate research director of American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, this week.
If you aren’t familiar with American Bridge, they are the outfit that sends young people out with video cameras to film Republican politicians, hoping to catch them making a gaffe or two.
In Mastriano’s case, it wasn’t necessary to attend one of his events, instead, they just used a short video, presumably from one of Mastriano’s websites or social media pages, in which the former Army colonel was lamenting how “they,” presumably Republican leaders, were supporting another candidate, presumably Dave McCormick, for the U.S. Senate next year.
An obviously downcast Mastriano was stating that “they” could neither win the primary nor the general election without “us,” or what he describes as he and his “movement of 2.2 million,” inferring that unless he was on the ballot, his people would sit things out and let the Democrat win.
Nothing new from someone who wouldn’t pledge to support the winner of last year’s primary if it weren’t him. That makes Doug a RINO — Republican in name only.
Related:Mastriano’s latest comments to Politico have some saying, ‘Where to now, colonel?’
Mastriano makes some glaring errors in his reasoning.
First, he is assuming that he can defeat a solid candidate like McCormick in a primary election. Second, he is assuming that all of the 2.2 million votes he received in the 2022 general election were from his supporters.
The first assumption is based on the fact that he beat out eight other Republican candidates in last year’s primary by taking almost 44% of the vote. Of course, that means that 56% of the Republican electorate voted against him.
The second assumption is also incorrect, because most of the 2.2 million general election votes he received were from people voting for the Republican on the ticket, even if it were the devil himself.
Mastriano and his supporters are wowed with the 2.2 million votes he got, but the figure isn’t that impressive when you consider that the Republican candidate running in the other November statewide race — the seat of now former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey — was Dr. Mehmet Oz, who garnered more than 2.4 million votes, or 222,000 more votes than Mastriano.
Thus, Mastriano is starting out his quest with faulty expectations. As it has been said, “he has learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”
If state Republicans get their act together, and that’s a pretty big “if,” Mastriano will face no more than one candidate in the primary. Regardless of what any poll is saying now, a strong candidate like McCormick, who is a native Pennsylvanian, West Point graduate, combat veteran, and author of two books which haven’t been flagged for made-up citations, would beat Mastriano easily.
McCormick would also have a great chance of winning back a U.S. Senate seat for the Republicans in November 2024.
On the other hand, if Mastriano somehow manages to take advantage of another crowded field and win the nomination next spring, Republicans will take another shellacking in a key state that could allow the Democrats to retain control of the U.S. Senate and the White House.
The real question is whether Doug Mastriano is capable of placing the future of his party and America above his personal ambition. We shall see.
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. 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 a certified firearms instructor. In his spare time, he dabbles in genealogy and learning new languages.
