Local races take on a national flavor
They say money makes the world go ‘round.
Nowhere is that more evident in politics, where it might be described a bit more saucily, In short, money is the lifeblood of politics. Money talks, everything else walks.
Take Delaware County, for example.
Republicans are upset that billionaire financier George Soros, who likes to sprinkle his largesse into liberal causes, is dropping $100,000 into the coffers of Democratic district attorney candidate Jack Stollsteimer. It’s part of a $1 million investment Soros is making in Pennsylvania politics.
The Democrats are not immune to these kinds of attacks either. This week they rolled out a barrage of TV ads tying incumbent Republican D.A. Katayoun Copeland to a political action committee tied to President Donald Trump.
This is a municipal election, with local and county leadership positions on the line.
And yet, if you follow the money – and the ads – you get a distinctly national flavor to this election.
Believe us, by the time we actually go to the polls next Tuesday, these ads will be as familiar as all those yard signs littering our neighborhoods.
Look for Democrats to link suburban Republican candidates with President Trump every chance they get. Trump is not particularly popular in the Philly region.
The president lost in all the suburban counties – and of course was crushed in Philadelphia – while still drawing enough votes from the middle of the state to put Pennsylvania in the Red category while capturing the White House back in 2016.
Two years later, county Republican leaders actually tried to dump the blame for their disastrous losses in the 2018 mid-terms in Trump’s lap, saying the vote that saw them suffer big losses in state House and Senate races was actually a vote against a very unpopular president.
In the Delco D.A. race, Republicans see the shadow of Soros now hanging over Delaware County, much as he did in boosting the campaign of reform-minded liberal Larry Krasner in winning the D.A. post in Philadelphia. Krasner hasn’t exactly made a lot of friends in law enforcement and the Fraternal Order of Police.
Pete Peterson, a spokesman for the Copeland campaign, drew a more direct line from Soros and Krasner to Delco Democrat D.A. candidate Jack Stollsteimer.
“It’s disturbing that billionaire George Soros is coming into Delaware County and trying to buy the District Attorney’s Office here like he did in Philadelphia with Krasner,” he said.
“If you look at the Stollsteimer campaign, it’s almost fashioned after the Soros playbood and what he is looking for in district attorneys.”
What people likely are not looking for in a D.A. is Donald Trump, but that is the way the Dems’ are painting Copeland, branding her a “Trump Republican” being backed by a GOP super PAC.
It should be noted that the Delco Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 27, while stunning some by backing the three Democrats seeking County Council posts, also strongly stands behind Republican Copeland for D.A.
Likewise the race for County Council, which could see a seismic shift in the balance of power in the county, also is taking on a national tone.
A Republican ad hitting the airwaves this week mashes the image of the three Democrats into image of three prominent – and Left-leaning – national Democratic figures.
Make no mistake, next Tuesday is a municipal election. County Council runs county government - along with all those lucrative jobs and contracts.
The district attorney enforces the laws in the county. Local school boards set your property tax rates. Local borough and township boards makes sure your trash gets picked up and your streets plowed in the winter.
You’ll have to wait until 2020 for another opportunity to voice your opinion on Donald Trump.
But don’t think for a minute that Trump, as well as national Democratic figures – and lots of national money – is not being used to shape your views on these crucial local races.