Each vote counts in close contest
One thing is for certain in this presidential election, no longer can anyone use the excuse that his vote doesn’t matter. In Pennsylvania every vote will matter. The race is that close. In counties that are predominately one party, such as Fayette where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 3 to 1, there is also a tendency for members of the majority party to think that the election is already decided so they needn’t bother voting. That would be a huge mistake since the popular vote of the entire state is used to determine who wins all of the electoral votes.
Passions have run high this election season. Most folks still have a lot to say. We turned over most of this page to our readers today to get in as many election-related letters as we could publish.
However, the only place that your voice really matters is in the election booth. There are quite a few other contested races on the ballot that require voters’ attention. In addition to determining Pennsylvania’s U.S. senator and our congressional representative for part of our county, there are state races for treasurer, auditor general and attorney general that play a large role in government for the coming four years. And most of our readers also have contested state legislative races that offer choices, some for the first time in many years.
The Herald-Standard has interviewed most of the candidates and has reviewed all of their records in order to recommend to our readers who we believe would better serve the people. We look for candidates who best ascribe to our ideals of good, open government regardless of party labels. Of the nine candidates that we suggest, four are Democrats, four are Republicans and one is an independent.
We make the following recommendations:
President: Democrat John Kerry.
U.S. senate: Democrat Joseph Hoeffel.
U.S. 9th Congressional District: Republican Bill Shuster.
Auditor General: Democrat Jack Wagner.
Treasurer: Democrat Bob Casey.
Attorney General: Republican Tom Corbett.
49th Legislative District: Republican Jeff Baker.
51st Legislative District: Independent Tim Mahoney.
52nd Legislative District: Republican William Earnesty.