County is now ‘ground zero’
Presidential candidates see region’s importance
Since January, it’s been near impossible to escape the presidential campaign.
It often seemed like the fewer of them there were, the more coverage there was.
If they’re not debating in prime time, they are popping up on the talk show circuit or their supporters are haranguing us on our Facebook feeds.
And suddenly this week, with Pennsylvania’s primary election
just around the corner, the candidates are showing up in person — particularly the Democrats and particularly in Montgomery County.
Suddenly, Southeast
Pennsylvania is ‘Ground Zero’ for the race for the White House.
First, anti-establishment crusader Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont, held a rally at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks Thursday.
One day later, Democratic
front-runner Hillary Clinton showed up in Jenkintown for a conversation with Lily Ledbetter.
And on Saturday, former President Bill Clinton, was scheduled to be Wissahickon and Swarthmore, beating the drum for his wife’s candidacy.
So far, the only Republican
candidate to visit the region in Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who stopped by Media last month, suggesting they may have given the region up as lost — a remarkable conclusion when you consider how reliably red the suburban Philadelphia counties were for so many years. But not so any more. “Montgomery County is the third largest in registered Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia and Allegheny County,” said Joe Foster, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee.
“In fact, you can’t win Pennsylvania if you don’t win Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties,” he said.
And so the national Democrats have descended in advance of the suddenly vital Pennsylvania primary on April 26, giving everyone a preview of the political fervor that will roil the region when they return in July for their convention in Philadelphia.
Following on the heels of the hard-fought and closely watched contest in New York, “Sanders needs to do well in Pennsylvania to influence the super-delegates and stay in the race,” said Foster, who is a convention delegate for Clinton.
“And Clinton needs to try to wrap it up with a decisive victory in Pennsylvania if
she can,” he said.
“So all of the sudden, Pennsylvania has become key in the race and Montgomery County is absolutely key to winning Pennsylvania,” he said. “All of the sudden we’re getting a lot of attention.”
Bill Starling, Democratic area leader for Upper Providence, and an ardent Sanders supporter, said he was surprised at how quickly the rally in Oaks came together.
“We had maybe 24 hours notice, and they generated a lot of their own volunteers from their on-line network,” Starling said of the Sanders campaign.
Both Starling and Foster said the personal appearances are more likely designed to boost turn-out and excite decided voters than to change minds.
“Rallies get people excited to come out and vote and it has a ripple effect with other voters who didn’t attend the rally, but I don’t think too many people change their mind after coming to a rally,” said Starling.
“Rallies are for the faithful,” said Foster. “And the excitement they generate can be contagious.”
Predicting a turnout as high as 24 percent of registered Democrats, Foster pointed out that the primary also features a heated Attorney General race with two area political heavyweights — Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro and state Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist. — both fighting for their respective party’s nomination.
While rallies might not change many minds, the campaign itself may have changed the focus of whomever wins the White House.
Foster said he believes Sanders’ campaign has shifted the focus for the Democratic Party nationally.
“The things he has been talking about are not things Secretary Clinton is necessarily opposed to, but now they are part of the national conversation and I think the party is really beginning to focus on the economic message,” said Foster.