Election 2006: Swann dive in Pennsylvania
The latest high draft pick by a Republican party desperate to find appealing candidates for public office is Lynn Swann, one-time Super Bowl MVP for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
When the going gets tough, the Republican party turns to celebrities --athletes and movie stars-- to bail them out. It worked out well for them in California, with Ronnie and Ahnold. But Pennsylvania voters appear to be having second thoughts about Swann in his campaign for Governor.
Their logical candidate to take on incumbent Democrat Ed Rendell was Bill Scranton, the former Republican lieutenant governor. Yes, that Scranton. Son of the revered former Governor, a true party icon. But not exciting enough to beat a Clintonian campaigner like Rendell. At least that was the call made by party bosses who simply threw Scranton overboard without so much as a “thank you” for all his contributions to the party.
Despite this shabby treatment, Scranton stayed in the race. That is, until early February when the Steelers won Super Bowl XL. That triggered TV re-runs all across the state of Swann touchdown catches from his MVP days, giving his gubernatorial campaign a super glow. Scranton quietly departed the campaign.
(Just three months later in the Republican primaries, the same party leaders who engineered Swann’s endorsement were themselves thrown over the side by angry voters. It wasn’t the Swann backroom deal that did them in, but a midnight pay raise the legislators had given themselves. Somewhere, Bill Scranton was smiling).
In those early weeks, pollsters had the Swann-Rendell race a toss-up. But as the image of Swann, the gifted wide receiver, gradually morphed to that of Swann, the fledgling politician clueless about the issues, the celebratory mood began to fade. His substance-free campaign even annoyed the conservative Weekly Standard, whose reporter came to Pittsburgh to praise him and left “with a sinking feeling. He could probably deliver a message, if he only had one.”
In an effort to remedy that, Swann reached into the right-wing playbook and came up with a golden oldie right out of single-wing, leather helmet days: Proposition 13--the Jarvis-Gann initiative that cut California property taxes in half and transformed a world-class educational system into a fiscal mess. Experience has shown Prop 13 to be not only a disaster for public education, but patently unfair: owners of similar properties pay dramatically different taxes for the same services only because they bought them at different times. Perhaps Swann’s campaign was better off when it was substance-free. At least Pennsylvania school children were.
The most recent polls show that Swann the former Steeler is still wildly popular, but Swann the potential governor is dropping like a rock. After being neck-and-neck in four previous Rasmussen Reports, Rendell now holds an 18-point advantage. Swann’s support in his own party has fallen to 59% while 76% of Democrats favor Rendell.
What’s worse for Swann, the election is in November and the Steelers can’t get into another Super Bowl until next January.
When the going gets tough, the Republican party turns to celebrities --athletes and movie stars-- to bail them out. It worked out well for them in California, with Ronnie and Ahnold. But Pennsylvania voters appear to be having second thoughts about Swann in his campaign for Governor.
Their logical candidate to take on incumbent Democrat Ed Rendell was Bill Scranton, the former Republican lieutenant governor. Yes, that Scranton. Son of the revered former Governor, a true party icon. But not exciting enough to beat a Clintonian campaigner like Rendell. At least that was the call made by party bosses who simply threw Scranton overboard without so much as a “thank you” for all his contributions to the party.
Despite this shabby treatment, Scranton stayed in the race. That is, until early February when the Steelers won Super Bowl XL. That triggered TV re-runs all across the state of Swann touchdown catches from his MVP days, giving his gubernatorial campaign a super glow. Scranton quietly departed the campaign.
(Just three months later in the Republican primaries, the same party leaders who engineered Swann’s endorsement were themselves thrown over the side by angry voters. It wasn’t the Swann backroom deal that did them in, but a midnight pay raise the legislators had given themselves. Somewhere, Bill Scranton was smiling).
In those early weeks, pollsters had the Swann-Rendell race a toss-up. But as the image of Swann, the gifted wide receiver, gradually morphed to that of Swann, the fledgling politician clueless about the issues, the celebratory mood began to fade. His substance-free campaign even annoyed the conservative Weekly Standard, whose reporter came to Pittsburgh to praise him and left “with a sinking feeling. He could probably deliver a message, if he only had one.”
In an effort to remedy that, Swann reached into the right-wing playbook and came up with a golden oldie right out of single-wing, leather helmet days: Proposition 13--the Jarvis-Gann initiative that cut California property taxes in half and transformed a world-class educational system into a fiscal mess. Experience has shown Prop 13 to be not only a disaster for public education, but patently unfair: owners of similar properties pay dramatically different taxes for the same services only because they bought them at different times. Perhaps Swann’s campaign was better off when it was substance-free. At least Pennsylvania school children were.
The most recent polls show that Swann the former Steeler is still wildly popular, but Swann the potential governor is dropping like a rock. After being neck-and-neck in four previous Rasmussen Reports, Rendell now holds an 18-point advantage. Swann’s support in his own party has fallen to 59% while 76% of Democrats favor Rendell.
What’s worse for Swann, the election is in November and the Steelers can’t get into another Super Bowl until next January.
posted by Victor Kamber | 2:50 PM
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