The 2020 Democratic Primary is still a long way off, 160 days to be precise (April 28). But apparantly the crowd that filled the meeting room last night at the Haverford Township Library didn’t get the memo.
Seats were in short supply, but not loud emotional voices, as the Haverford Democrats hosted a forum featuring five of the the seven announced candidates running for the State Senate in Pennsylvania’s 17th District.
Daylin Leach is the incumbent candidate in this race. He is running for re-election and was one of the candidates who spoke at last night’s forum
Primary Opposition - A New Thing For Leach
Since he first ran for the office in 2008, the senator has faced a total of zero opponents in Democratic Primaries – until now.
But that was before “the Inquirer article” in December of 2017.
That was before Governor Tom Wolf urged Leach to step down.
That was before Cara Taylor publicly accused him of a sexual assault that she alleges occurred nearly 30 years ago.
That was before Leach sued Taylor for defamation.
That was also before leaders of the Delaware County Democratic Committee passed a resolution urging Leach to resign (the only no votes came from the Democratic Chairs of Haverford and Radnor Townships, which are also the only Delco municipalities that are actually located in Leach’s district).
That was before Joe Foster, Chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, most of the area leaders of that committee, the Montgomery County Commissioners, the district attorney, the coroner, the register of wills, the controller, several state representatives and state sentators, and the dog catcher; all signed onto a letter calling for Leach to resign.
And that was also before Jay Costa, the leader of the Democratic State Senate Caucus, hired the law firm of Eckard Seamans to look into the allegations against the Senator – and after a nine-month investigation the lawyers determined conclusively that he had in fact told dirty jokes
Leach Gets Upstaged
Even though Daylin Leach is the catalyst who has drawn this large opposition field, and he’s the one who attracted the big, engaged audience to the Haverford Library last night – the senator just stood quietly while he observed a brouhaha that erupted when one of his opponents, Sara Atkins, expressed outrage over what she considered to be the unfair process that the Haverford Democrats used to determine the order in which the candidates were to speak. More specifically, Atkins quarreled with Committee Chair, Rachel Amdur, because all the candidates had to draw lots to determine in which sequence they would speak – with the exception of Leach. The committee determined that he should speak last.
At one point Atkins appeared ready to leave the event, rather than go along with what she considered to be the unfairness that she and the other candidates were being subjected to.
The committee members were also divided and vocal about whether or not Atkins' complaint had merit.
Finally the issue was put to a vote and the committee re-affirmed Amdur’s position that Leach should speak last.
And Atkins decided to stay and take her turn speaking. She spoke first and was followed by Shae Ashe, Elvira Berry, Linda Fields and Daylin Leach.
What’s the story with the time stamps on the posts that say it is the A.M. on the next day (i.e. 22nd) ?
I edited the post in order to correct the spelling of “raucous.” So I think that might have changed the date stamp.
Doesn’t the incumbent always go last?
Wow !
Where are you coming from ? I can see that you are anti Leach, but the pro Sara Atkins stuff is not warranted . She was a drama at the Haverford meeting, but not a very good candidate.
I was there. There wasn’t much raucous (correct spelling) at the meeting except for Atkins and the woman with the blue hair who wanted to change the rules.
Of the candidates who are opposing Leach, I found Sara Atkins to be the least impressive. As a matter of fact, based on the presentations, I think she would be ranked last in the field ( a very, very far last !). Of the group, I believe that Linda Fields demonstrated how superior she is to rest of them.
Thank you for your comment. Raucous is spelled correctly on the website now, but I haven’t figured out how to change the Facebook preview. I am delighted to read that you think that I am “Anti Leach.” I can almost guarantee that between now and April 28, that I will be publicly accused of being a “Leach Apologist” (I’m sure I’ve already been accused of that by some people in private). For that reason I will bookmark this as proof that I am neither Anti-Leach, nor am I a Leach Apologist. I’m just trying to report the story as I see it.
Forget Leach, you didn’t address the fact that I consider Sara Atkins a poor candidate as compared to the others that are running..
Also, I got an e-mail today from Amanda Cappelletti who is running for the Senate seat and also from Adrian Seltzer in support of another person who is running: Jamie Mogil. They both appear to me to be vastly superior to Sara Atkins in qualifications.
So I can only assume that you are campaigning for Sara Atkins. I’m disappointed because I previously would always look at your posts – i thought they were very informative.
LOL, well thanks for the kind words about my old stuff. Curious, if I don’t I prefer one of the other challengers, or Daylin Leach, better that Sara Atkins; does that mean I’m campaigning for her?
I think your post spoke for itself.