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Political Note #297   Christina Finello PA CD 01

2020                            General Election

Christina Finello https://www.finelloforcongress.com is a long shot to defeat Incumbent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick.  She shouldn’t be.  She is an established political figure in Buck’s County – a member of her Borough Council and Deputy Director of the County’s Division of Housing and Human Services.   Not that Fitzpatrick is an easy target.  Initially elected to Congress in 2016, he’s an ex FBI guy who led the Election Unit and also spent time in Ukraine and Iraq.

But this is a Democratic leaning district, a district that, if it existed in 2016, would have been carried by Hillary Clinton.  Fitzpatrick has been fortunate in his candidacy and his opponents. His brother retired from Congress and Fitzpatrick ran for the seat in 2016.  His 2018 opponent, progressive philanthropist Scott Wallace had funded enough organizations so that opposition research could find a pro-Palestinian group among them, a group which supported a death row inmate who was convicted for killing a Philadelphia cop among them. Christina Finello’s problem is that she has not raised much money. The Democrat who had raised the most money for the 2020 race, Debra Wachspress, withdrew from the race after a lawsuit was filed against her and the school district whose board she sat in for homophobic and racist statements in an executive session of a school board meeting.

Can  Christine Finello make something of her primary win?  She was endorsed by the Buck’s County Democratic Committee while there was still a contest for the nomination.  She is establishing herself politically.  She is a mother with two kids and comes from a local working class family in this wealthy county.  Her dad worked two jobs and was a union rep.  Her mom worked until retirement age.  They were a Roman Catholic family composed of Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans.  Christine Finello’s schooling included graduating from Archbishop Wood High School, the University of Pennsylvania, and completing a combined law degree and doctorate in psychology from Drexel and Villanova universities.  She completed an extended internship at a federal correctional facility in Missouri, then returned to work for a non-profit that supported veterans in court and then in housing and human services for Bucks County.

No one is going to accuse Christina Finello of being connected with radical causes.  No one is going to accuse her of racist or homophobic language. She cultivates her localness.  Her Facebook page has a picture of her kids with her husband at a Phillies game.  She is a soccer mom, head coach in a Youth Soccer League.  She is a candidate who is convincing as a regular guy.

To win, Christina Finello will need raise money.  With a little more than $10,000 in hand at the start of the year, she is facing an incumbent who had almost $1.5 million.  You need money to run a campaign.  Debra Wachspress endorsed her after withdrawing.  If Christina Finello had the half million dollars of campaign funds that Wachspress began the year with she would be a formidable candidate.

Christine Finello needs to make herself known.  She wants to improve the Affordable Care Act, address the importance of the environment, increase the minimum wage.   Political life is getting harder as she and everyone else is shut down.  She, Pennsylvania, and every state is dominated by Covid-19, by the looming recession, by racial tension, and by President Trump’s worse than inadequate handling of all of these things.  The incumbent has distanced himself from the President.  He insists he is undecided about who to vote for in November, he’ll watch to see how the campaign unfolds.

Christina Finello, herself, had to self-quarantine as she found herself showing signs of illness.  Meanwhile, the incumbent announced he was ending campaigning and fund raising to lead an effort to support the elderly and first responders who need help now.  Let’s hope Christine Finello spent her self-quarantine time on the phone, raising money.

If Christine Finello https://www.finelloforcongress.com does not raise enough money to compete, she will be relegated permanently to the youth leagues.  You can help her.  Give her a little.  Let he know that people around the country are rooting for her.  This is a district that a Democratic candidate for Congress should win.  Help her do just that.

Usually I write a couple of tidbits for the website.  They become available as Tidbits in the Website during the days between the Notes.  Today, though, I have included two in-between pieces below.  One is an appeal to help Republican US Senator Tom Cotton’s independent opponent (Cotton has no Democratic opponent). The other is an apology for an error I made (and includes another swipe at Tom Cotton).

June 12. Errors and My Apology

I made a mistake in my Note about Ohio Supreme Court candidates.  I alluded to Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court and said he decided who would be President in Bush v. Gore.  That was wrong, of course.  William Rehnquist was Chief Justice for Bush v. Gore.  GW Bush, President by virtue of Bush v. Gore, appointed John Roberts to the Supreme Court.

Readers pointed out my error.  I apologized to those who wrote to me. One wrote back saying not to worry.  He reminded me he had written a piece about me and made an error.  To another I said one error like that is too many.  He wrote back to say he makes more than one error in a morning.   I apologize to them and to all of my readers for my error.

Senator Tom Cotton made a few mistakes in his Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, which was headlined” “Send in the Troops.”   He described the violence during the protests as a product of “cadres of left-wing radicals like antifa.” He said that “outnumbered police officers… bore the brunt of the violence.”  Both statements were untrue.  Lies, even.  There won’t be any particular consequence for Tom Cotton about those errors.  He certainly will not apologize.  He almost certainly will not lose his election in November.  Maybe he can be embarrassed by a small margin of victory.  Shrink his lead. Give him some money. Find him at https://danwhitcongress.us.

James Bennett, the Editorial Page editor of the NY Times authorized Cotton’s Op Ed.  Bennett faced criticism from outside the newspaper and a revolt inside. He resigned.

I won’t resign for my John Roberts error. I will keep writing my Notes, though I am considering introducing some apolitical notes by another writer.  I am embarrassed by my error.  I apologize again to all of you who read my Notes.

June 10. Fund Tom Cotton’s Opponent.  Cotton should not get a free ride.

The New York Times recently published an Op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas.  The Times did us a favor. They reminded us that Tom Cotton, who advocated using the military to control protests, is one of the most dangerous Senators we’ve got.   You want another instance.  He was the first US Senator to claim that the coronavirus was probably created in the lab in Wuhan.

Cotton is up for election in November.  Unlike Susan Collins.  Unlike Cory Gardner.  Unlike Lindsay Graham.  Unlike Joni Ernst.  Unlike a slew of Republicans who we have good reasons to want to defeat, Cotton does not have a Democrat running against him.  The Democratic nominee withdrew, waiting until after the registration deadline, preventing anyone from taking his place.

Don’t give Tom Cotton a free ride.  He has an independent opponent.  An opponent who is wildly outgunned.  On March 31, Cotton had $5 million available for campaigning, independent Daniel Whitfield had $5 thousand.  In my ideal world, someone with a million or so to commit would fund a PAC to support Whitfield.  In our regular world, the people who read my Notes will give Whitfield enough so he can campaign.

The Daily Kos would describe a candidate like Dan Whitfield as “some guy.”  He is a progressive “some guy.”  He voted for Bernie Sanders in the open Democratic primary.  He describes politicians who take corporate money as taking bribes. He is for a single payer health plan and a $15 per hour minimum wage. He is adamant about being an independent.  Make Tom Cotton too busy to write Op-Eds.  Make him stay home in Arkansas. Give money to Daniel Whitfield https://danwhitcongress.us/.  Read my full Note about him, #273 published on March 9, 2020 in  https://lenspoliticalnotes.com.