I think I have this experience every election cycle, and then I forget about it, and I’m amazed all over again at the next election cycle. Why is it that voters are looking for “the hero” candidate with the perfect viewpoints who will (supposedly) single-handedly either fix, or if you are in opposition, destroy the country/state/district, or whatever level of government in question? Then, the discourse revolves entirely around either getting this candidate to win or lose, without  any real look at how the viewpoints in question are applicable to the job at hand. Maybe it isn’t the voters who are looking for the hero- maybe just some bloggers and the media in general.

The media’s desires are clear. They want ratings, readership, viewers, and the bragging rights to say, they picked the winner. Some want more than that, to be sure, but the race over powers the facts too often.

I’m away from home, and I think I always struggle with writing when I am outside of my daily routine. but I’m also struggling with determining what I want to say in summery to Tuesday’s PA primary. Every blog out there has published who won and who didn’t, so little value simply repeating that here. More important is what it means, if that can be described in simple terms, or any terms at all.

In the realm of self-reflection, I realize that all of my “election focus” was on two races- the PA governor’s race, and to a lesser degree, the PA Senate race. I don’t really see myself as a “Pittsburgh blogger” or even a “Pennsylvania blogger, but I tend to write about LGBT issues and politics in a more general sense. But, that said, I care deeply about PA state legislation. Today, I realize, that I devoted no time or energy to the politicians running for any of the state offices, except the governor. and today, I wish ?I had done that differently, but I didn’t so, maybe I’ll think that differently next time around.

Dan Onorato

A fair amount of my blog space was devoted to Dan Onorato, and his bid to be the democratic candidate for governor. This is a position that put me at odds with a number of bloggers, a few of which I have enormous respect, generally speaking. I felt then, as I do now, that Dan Onorato offered the best chance for a democrat to beat Tom corbett in the Fall. Dan was never the most progressive candidate, nor does he have the best positions on every LGBT issue, but compared to the other candidates who had any chance of winning the primary, his stance of LGBT issues is by far the best. Joe Hoeffel was truly the best candidate looking only at social issues, but his poll numbers were never good, and never improved, so it seemed clear from very early on that he had no chance of winning, and no chance of beating Corbett in the Fall. Hoeffle seemed to take pride in being the “gay marriage” candidate, but what good is that in a state which is predominately made up of conservative democrats?

Dan Onorato never ran as a hero. He ran as a candidate with experience managing a large county government  and helping that county do well through very tough times. In fact, I never heard Dan apply any labels to himself except “Democrat,” even those his opposition tried to attach myriad labels such as anti-choice ands anti-gay, neither of which match the reality of Dan’s record or position. There were nothing more than spin and misrepresentation.

Big Money

One claim that I still see being attached to Onorato in the post-election verbiage is that of being the big money candidate, and attributing his win to the money. This is a misrepresentation too. Anthony Willians was busy outspending Onorato, and what did it get him? Dan was smart to use his funds to get out on TV early on and help him develop greater name recognition, and this I think had a huge impact on the outcome. But if ewe are going to talk about big money, we have to talk about Anthony Williams who came in third. So, money helped Dan get on the airwaves, but his win was due to far more than that. He reached out all over the state, and to a diverse group of supporters, including the LGBT community. This “whole state” approach helped him win the primary more than the amount of money he had to work with.

Do you still want a hero?

If you are reading this blog and have progressive issues as the most important thing to you, and you still want a hero, how about look in the mirror, and realize that at every level of government, it won’t be a single hero who makes everything happen.   The hero that we need is you, and the collection of “you’s” who are reading this and other blogs. You are the person who will make change by getting engaged in the legislative process, and that must be past casting a vote once or twice a year.

It is easy for me to talk about this from the standpoint of LGBT issues, but the same applies to any progressive issue. In a very intense email exchange with another blogger a few weeks ago, and from it I surmised that PA’s current abortion laws are too restrictive to him. To him, a candidate who would maintain the current law was no friend of women’s reproductive rights. That makes sense to mer, except my position was someone who wants to maintain PA law was far more progressive than someone who believes PA law goes too far and needs to be more restrictive than it is. On any progressive issue, if we need to move the state further to the left, that will happen through working with the state representatives and senators in the district6s all across the state. The heroes we need are every day constituents who are willing to build an ongoing relationship with their elected officials. And by ongoing, I mean willing to sit down with hat elected official once or twice a year, not simply send an angry email once in a while.

What’s next?

This blog post has already grown too long, so enough for now. Keep reading. more to come!