Shapiro and Buttigieg Video Event

This evening Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, currently running for re-election, held an online "conversation" (this is how it was billed). The first half hour was set aside for those contributing at a higher level. The grassroots event followed and lasted a little over half an hour, attended by nearly 150 people.

Shapiro talked about his first experience as a candidate, running for state representative. These are stories I have heard before but they are good stories. A Labor Day poll had him down 65 to 21 but he went out and knocked on 18,000 doors and listened to what people had to say. He won the election that November.

He mentioned issues he has taken on in the first three years of his term, including education, health insurance, child abuse, fracking companies, gun violence, pharmaceutical companies and the opioid epidemic. He and other AGs had taken cases to the Supreme Court, including those pertaining to dreamers, contraception, and LGBTQ rights.

There were some good sound bites in his remarks. In answering a question on anti-semitism he said "Leaders must speak and act with moral clarity." Someone asked about his top three issues. He mentioned serving as the people's lawyer. As an example he talked about people who had signed with companies to drill on their land (fracking) in return for royalties which were not paid, or not paid in full. He said "You know who their lawyer is? I am." That's a good line. Near the end of the event he said "If it won't solve a problem, but will just make noise, I'm not interested in doing it."   

If you are wondering what happened to Mayor Pete -- he was there! He did talk! He gave a good introduction to Shapiro and talked about the importance of the race. This was the first time I had seen Buttigieg outside of the Democratic presidential candidate debates earlier this year. He is very personable. To be honest, I didn't pay a lot of attention to what he said, just studied him (adorkable is the word that came to mind), tried to figure out if he hadn't had a haircut in awhile or if he had trimmed it himself, and looked at the large bookshelves behind him. I caught Ulysses, the Iliad, Medieval Lives (not sure of this), and something with the word Loyalty in the title.

Buttigieg has been doing a lot of online events in Pennsylvania lately. His Midwestern appeal will play well in much of Pennsylvania. I think we will be seeing a lot of him in the future, not just Pennsylvania but the country as a whole.

[This post was written while listening to a Johnny Flynn mix on YouTube.]