This is WESA Politics, a weekly newsletter by Chris Potter providing analysis about Pittsburgh and state politics. If you want it earlier — we'll deliver it to your inbox on Thursday afternoon — sign up here.
Americans famously crave instant gratification, but the past few weeks have reminded me that when it comes to two essential American rituals, ultimate fulfillment is delayed more and more with every passing year.
One of those rituals is watching a movie. It used to be that if you wanted to see a summer blockbuster, you just had to sit through a bunch of ads for other movies first. But ever since COVID hit, you often have to sit through an ad about the experience of being in the theater itself. Before you can have your cinematic experience, you have to hear Nicole Kidman tell you how great it’s going to be, when the theater actually permits it to happen.
The other increasingly protracted American ritual, one we used to think of only after Labor Day, is voting. Take Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey’s upcoming bid for re-election next year, itself likely to be a 2024 blockbuster with a national audience. His likely Republican challenger, businessman Dave McCormick, hasn’t even announced a bid yet, but reporters are sifting attacks against him and Casey alike.
Democrats already have sounded alarms on McCormick’s position on abortion because rhetoric from his abortive U.S. Senate bid last year suggests he’s broadly opposed to abortion rights. (There’s a debate about whether his opposition applies in cases of rape or incest.) And just this week, Dems seized on a Huffington Post story involving McCormick’s work for the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates — and specifically how he and the firm may have profited from ties to Saudi Arabia.
HuffPo acknowledges that it’s hard to be sure, partly because Bridgewater doesn’t disclose its clients. Arguably the story’s smoking gun is a thinly sourced claim that McCormick “pushed for Bridgewater to demonstrate loyalty to the Saudis amid international outrage” about the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That assertion is based on a paraphrase of a position allegedly held by McCormick and another Bridgewater executive, recounted by an anonymous employee in another outlet.
Still, such questions were inevitable, given Bridgewater’s global reach and the career of McCormick’s spouse, former Trump administration staffer Dina Powell. In an oil-driven economy, concerns about Saudi ties to America’s political and business elite are long-standing — and in some minds underscored by connections between the 9/11 terrorists and Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s death also reinforced misgivings about the country’s deeply tainted human rights record.
The state Democratic Party played up those concerns Wednesday in a press call featuring two Pennsylvania veterans and Judi Reiss, whose son was killed in the World Trade Center attack.
“The idea that anyone thinks it’s OK to make money by managing money for these people and then turn around and [ask] for my vote — well, it turns my stomach,” Reiss said.
“McCormick’s actions demonstrate, at best, embarrassingly poor judgment and, at worst, a sheer lack of morals,” agreed veteran Jack Inacker.
“I don’t trust him,” said fellow veteran Elizabeth Baik.
Trust likely would have been hard to come by on this panel, two members of which have themselves run for office as Democrats. But it’s not as if Democrats are alone in swinging early.
Casey formally announced his re-election bid in April, but a month prior to that, a flurry of reports appeared in conservative outlets, each seeking to depict him as a creature of the Washington swamp.
These attacks arguably played to a more niche audience. Breitbart.com faulted Casey for submitting a late financial disclosure form on behalf of one of his children … five years ago. The New York Post reported that he’s previously had campaign materials printed by a firm run by his sister — who the paper breathlessly reported “even campaigned on his behalf” two decades ago. Conservative outlets also seized on a Politico report this past winter, which noted that Casey’s brother had started work as a lobbyist for a U.S. computer chip manufacturer with operations in Pennsylvania.
Arguably the real scandal would have been if Casey’s sister had campaigned on an opponent’s behalf. And that story involved the expenditure of campaign contributions, not taxpayer dollars. As for the family lobbying ties, Senate rules preclude lobbying by immediate family … and one suspects Casey wouldn’t need to have his arm twisted much at Thanksgiving to support manufacturing in his home state.
The pieces quoted critics from outfits with such names as “Americans for Public Trust” and “Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.” Staffers at those places have resumes that include stints with groups such as the National Republican Congressional Committee, and salaries underwritten with the help of such folks as Steve Bannon and conservative moneyman Charles Koch.
What you’re seeing here is the work of a cottage industry of researchers who comb through decades-old newspaper clippings and campaign finance reports, looking for “oppo” that can be planted in friendly outlets. The payoff is less the story itself than the ability to include a blurb from it in a TV ad down the road. Like a Hollywood studio, the work of producing next year’s blockbuster never stops — even when, as with McCormick, one of the stars hasn’t quite signed the deal to appear yet.
So sure, it feels early for this stuff. But these are just the previews of coming attractions — in this case, a marquee Senate campaign that will strive to portray the Democrat as an insider warped by power, and the Republican as a mercenary who pursues profits above the national interest.
Some of these attacks are going to be more meaningful than others. Unless you run a commercial printing firm, for example, you probably care far more about where a candidate stands on abortion than about who he paid for his mailers.
But hey, it’s summer, so for now you may as well enjoy the show. Because as Nicole Kidman would put it, somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.
