Tuesday, February 20, 2018

New PA-04 District Draws Good Candidates (Goodman and Daley)

The ink is barely dry on the new PA Congressional district map and the newly drawn PA-04, most of Montgomery County and a small piece of Berks County, is drawing good Democratic candidates.  Unless Congressman Brendan Boyle (representing the current 13th district, part of Philadelphia and part of Montco) decides to run in the 4th, this new district wouldn't have an incumbent. 

Two people have announced their candidacies:

Shira Goodman (www.voteshiragoodman.com), currently the executive director of CeaseFirePA.  Here is a short bio from her press release:

Shira Goodman is a life-long resident of Montgomery County, growing up in Abington and graduating from Abington High School. After attending college at the University of Michigan and law school at Yale, Shira returned to Montgomery County and is now raising her sons with her husband Alan Woronoff. Their eldest, Jason, is a senior at Upper Dublin High School and Brandon is a freshman. Alan is a radiologist working at Abington Hospital, Jefferson Health System. The Goodman family have been longtime members of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, and Shira's family is now also actively involved with Temple Sinai in Dresher. Shira is currently the Executive Director of CeaseFirePA, Pennsylvania's largest gun violence prevention organization. 

Mary Jo Daley,  currently serving as a PA State Representative.  Her state rep campaign site is www.maryjodaley.com.  Here is a short bio from her press release:

Rep. Mary Jo Daley was first elected to represent Montgomery County’s 148th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2012. She was first elected to the Narberth Borough Council in 1992 where she went on to serve 10 years as council president. She lives with her husband Bob Winkelman in Narberth and her daughter, stepdaughter and grandchildren live across southeastern Pennsylvania.
It is likely that other Democrats will also file as candidates, and since the county has also been represented by Republicans, perhaps there will be a real race, with good candidates on both sides. 

Let the games begin!

1 comment:

Dave said...

There's now a total of 4 candidates, all self-described progressives. In addition to Goodman and Daley, there's State Rep. Madeline Dean, and former Congressman Joe Hoeffel. Looking at their websites doesn't really do much to distinguish the candidates. Dean doesn't even haven an issues page. Goodman's site is mostly a bunch of empty platitudes; I gather she is pro choice and pro gun control but extremely vague on economic issues. Daley's site is a little better, but still vague. Joe Hoeffel's site is the best; He at least explicitly states he supports MedicareForAll & Tuition free community college. But none of them even mention foreign policy at all. And the problem I have with Joe Hoeffel is, while he sounds great on paper, he's not a leader. He has a history of being spineless weenie. He won't stand up to the establishment. If Ed Rendell called him tomorrow and asked him to drop out, I've no doubt he would. It's happened before in other races.

Not terribly impressed by any of them, and my attempts to ask the candidates where they stand on important issues on social media have been ignored. So basically I have no clue who I'm going to vote for in the primary next month.