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Pennsylvanians want true GOP gubernatorial primary

January 22, 2010, 6:25AM

The grassroots have awakened.

Scott Brown carries the day in Massachusetts by a solid margin. Chris Christie prevails in New Jersey’s governor race. Bob McDonnell wins in Virginia’s governor race. Florida Republican Chairman Jim Greer is ousted by activists infuriated by his endorsement of an insider candidate for the state’s Senate seat.

These were not necessarily victories for any political party as pundits are quick to claim but, rather, for ordinary citizens who are frustrated and angry with machine politics and the political elite who anoint candidates for their party loyalty rather than for their principles.

AP Photo/Carolyn KasterPennsylvania Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks, on the House Floor at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., in January, 2008. Rohrer is running for governor, but the state GOP has effectively shut him out before the primary, argues Baldinger.

The caring, decent people of our country have only just begun to demonstrate their displeasure.

Now the activists have established a new beachhead in Pennsylvania in their fight for electoral freedom, with the Pennsylvania Republican Party chairman as the target of their resentment.

In a newspaper account of Congressman Jim Gerlach’s withdrawal from the governor’s race, state Republican Chair Robert Gleason Jr. said that now candidate Tom Corbett “doesn’t need a primary” to establish himself, and that he is pleased that Corbett would be able to “husband his resources.”

With this pronouncement Gleason effectively dismissed the candidacy of state Rep. Sam Rohrer and crowned Corbett as the party’s gubernatorial candidate. Six weeks before party delegates meet to vote, Gleason had already written off Representative Rohrer without giving him adequate opportunity to make his views known or gauging the support of the electorate.

Many people regard Rohrer as an honest, common-sense candidate whose message and principles resonate with a grassroots movement hungry for a rejection of the status quo. Gleason’s blatant attempt to marginalize Rohrer by ignoring him has provoked the ire of activists and Rohrer proponents from across the state who are now demanding an open primary election that is free of bias and unfettered by political favoritism.

And well they should. Republican Party endorsements have included Lynn Swann, Mike Fisher, Rick Santorum and others who were chosen for their purported name recognition and “electability” but were decisively rejected at the polls.

The party and the people would undoubtedly be better served by allowing the voters to select their candidate.

Those chosen by the party elite prior to the primary election have a decided advantage over rival candidates by allowing them the use of party resources such as databases, research, and funding. This practice immediately tilts the playing field in favor of the endorsed candidate and will go far toward assuring their success. This must end if we are to restore the open electoral process.

The coronation of candidates taints the integrity of those contenders by making them beholden to the powers that choose them and the special interests that finance their campaigns.

Gleason and the Pennsylvania Republican leaders have completely lost touch with their base and are misreading the mood of the Pennsylvania electorate and, indeed, that of the nation. At the party meeting in February they will again order their delegates to march in lockstep with the party powers to endorse their hand-picked candidate. But this time that edict will become a liability for those who are chosen.

Patriot organizations, taxpayer advocates, tea party, 9/12 and similar grassroots groups have come together and will speak with one voice to repudiate the power of the political elite who would strip us of our liberty.

The governor’s seat belongs to the people, not the party; it is time for all citizens to demand of the Republican bosses an open, transparent primary election so that we, the people of Pennsylvania, may choose who will lead us.

David Baldinger is spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations, an organization of 36 taxpayer groups that is working for school property tax elimination and education finance reform.