Linda and the Swift Boaters
Surprise of surprises--I guess she must read my blog--Harrisburg mayoral candidate Linda Thompson visited Shipoke this morning, escorted by two white men from the neighborhood. She came mid-morning Saturday, a time when few people were home. Her escorts were Peter Marks, former counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of State earlier in the Rendell Administration, and Scott Staruch, who works for Quantum Communications of Harrisburg, which does work for Thompson.
Peter steered her away from my house, so I didn't get to meet her. I honestly don't understand why he was doing the escort duty unless the Democratic State Committee told him to, because it isn't going to go down well in the neighborhood. Thompson is about as popular here as George W. Bush. Scott, who lives around the corner from me, can plead business. A former aide to Sen. Arlen Specter back when Specter was still a Republican, he has worked for Quantum for the past couple of years. The question is why Quantum is involved in this campaign at all, given that its owner, Charlie Gerow, is about as far right a Republican as you can find.
Local folks may remember Gerow as the man who ran for Congress on the West Shore, but lost in the Republican primary three times. But what he ought to be remembered for by city Democratic voters is his close ties to the Swift Boaters, the group of Vietnam veterans who smeared Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential campaign. He and Quantum represented "Stolen Honor," a documentary that was at the heart of the effort to smear Kerry's war service and later anti-war activities. Red, White, and Blue Productions, which made the film, used Quantum's address as its mailing address.
Why would any good Democrat vote for Thompson when she employs a firm like this? What is Quantum's interest in having Linda Thompson as mayor? (One could ask the same question to the Rhoads & Sinon law firm in Harrisburg that donated $15,000 to her campaign). There is much we don't know about Linda Thompson, and I don't want to spend the next four years finding out in painful detail. That's why I, a lifelong Democrat, plan to vote for Nevin Mindlin, Thompson's Republican opponent.