Primary election Tueday April 26.

BIG TURNOUT EXPECTED IN PENNSYLVANIA

PRESIDENTIAL RACES USUALLY DECIDED BY NOW

Pennsylvania residents finally get to voice their opinion on Tuesday. While the Presidential race takes center stage, the delegates to the convention also may be important this year. Usually delegates are an honorary position to take part in the convention, but with the threat of an undecided presidential nomination they may become very important. On the republican side there is no indication on the ballot as to who these delegates are  supporting. I have identified some and will place them at the bottom of this article. The ballot questions are to retire judges at 70 and to do away with the Philadelphia traffic court, it seems there has been questions of corruption at this court. Our local representative Gary Day is running unopposed.

As for the Democratic Presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders is still running, he is trailing Hillary Clinton by several hundred committed delegates. He probably cannot defeat Clinton at the ballot box, but will stay in case Hillary is indicted by the courts. If he is still in the race when and if she should have legal problems he will be in the strongest position for the nomination. I am sure he would be challenged by someone but it would be a disaster for the democrats.

The Republicans still have 3 people running, John Kasich has won 1 state and has not had a real path to the nomination for months. He will most likely not have any relevance at the convention because Trump and Cruz delegates will set the rules.  Ted Cruz is now close to 300 delegates behind Trump, he has been mathematically eliminated from reaching the 1237 delegates to win the nomination. He is staying in hoping to win in a contested convention. It is very possible that the Cruz campaign will lose momentum, he accepted weak endorsements by establishment republicans who as much as stated they were not for Cruz but against Trump. He should have publicly only accepted positive endorsements for him. I think most voters want to vote for someone rather against someone to end in a chaotic situation in Cleveland. While he has bragged that he is outsmarting Trump in delegate collection backstage, this also may not be a positive to many voters. Much of his delegate wins in states without primaries have been assisted by party establishments, not for Cruz, but against Trump. Donald Trump has led in the polls since early in the race. He has won 22 states, double his next opponent. he is 300 delegates ahead of Cruz and after Tuesday may be 400 ahead.  If he would have a bad day on Tuesday it would definitely put a bump in his momentum. Trump has high negatives in the polls, but still looks more electable in a national contest than Cruz. If the Republicans have any hope of defeating Clinton in November, they would do well to get this over with and move to heal and unify their party. If they continue to fight to a contested convention they probably will need to start looking to 2020.

THE DELEGATES FOR TRUMP IN THE 15TH CONG DISTRICT:  UEHLINGER,,,, KERWIN,,,, REBER

THE DELEGATES FOR TRUMP IN THE 17TH CONG DISTRICT:   GLORIA LEE SNOVER,,,,LYNETTE VILLANO,,,,,CAROLYN BONKOSKI BALLOT