We Need to Worry About Mastriano’s Campaign

In what is starting to look like another 2010-level disaster for Democrats, the biggest potential disaster of all may be unfolding right in our back yard: the emergence of Doug Mastriano as a formidable statewide – and, yes, national – leader of the today’s Republican party.

It is surely a sign of the times that a state senator  with no particular record of accomplishment can attain a national leadership position in two crackpot subject areas, and then use his leadership of what two years ago would have been considered fringe activities to ride to national prominence. Nobody has exercised more “leadership” or had a more destructive impact in 1) the campaign to sabotage any efforts (shutdowns, masks, vaccines) to fight the pandemic and 2) the campaign to destroy American democracy than Mastriano. Yet, while it is often reported that the state party leadership loathes him as much as the national party leaders despise Donald Trump, they remain just as silent as Kevin McCarthy is about Trump. And Mastriano has built his support to the point where he appears to be widening his lead in the party primary.

I can unscientifically report that on a recent trip up into deep-red Pennsylvania Trump country (Potter and McKean counties), I saw literally hundreds of Mastriano signs and not a one for any other gubernatorial candidate.

Since the beginning, Mastriano has signaled clearly his support for the fringiest of fringe actiovities, from his open consorting with the white supremacist, “militia,” and neo-Nazi groups on July 4, 2020, takeover of Gettysburg National Military Park to his appearance on the Capitol grounds on January 6 to, most recently, an appearance at a conference here in Gettysburg that openly traded in conspiracy theories going back to “9/11 was an inside job.” With, as yet, not a word of denunciation from the state senator of open racists, insurrectionists, and Q-anon rants about “Democrat pedophile rings.”

Regarding the recent event in Gettysburg, a Pennsylvania news outlet reported “The video showed Friday featured a kind of greatest hits of conspiracy theories that have circulated for decades. It showed images of the Twin Towers collapsing on 9/11 — with the label “false flags.” It claimed John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he “knew too much” and posed a “high risk of cabal exposure,” that vaccines amount to “genocide therapy,” and that Hitler faked his death. It offered other conspiracy theories about the atomic bomb, the Spanish flu, 5G, the 2008 financial crisis — and, of course, the 2020 election.” Not a word of denunciation by Mastriano.

Mastriano’s priorities make it clear how he would govern. Consider his “contributions” to the “Stop the Steal” movement. He invented the “fake committee hearing,” where a bunch of senators rent a hotel meeting room and then have a fake “Senate hearing,” which amounts to nothing more than a platform for Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell’s insane ravings. He was the first out-of-state legislator to visit the Arizona “ninja audit.” He was a leading supporter of the January 6th “stop the count” putsch.

And now, he’s suggested that we “start over” in Pennsylvania by requiring everyone to register again.

He has also said, if he’s elected governor and the Supreme Court rescinds Roe v. Wade, that he will push for a 6-week ban with no exceptions for rape or interest. Even in the strained, increasingly fringy politics, of the Pennsylvania GOP, Mastriano stands out for his exreme views.

I hope after the past few years that nobody says, “good, he’ll be easy to beat.”  That’s one difference from 2010. Back in 2010 and 2012, Sharon Angle (“2nd amendment remedies”) and Christine O’Donnell (“I’m not a witch”) and Todd Akin (“legitimate rape”) were too crazy to be elected.

Mastriano’s running is a real risk. And if, perish the thought, he wins election as governor, guess who has moved to the front rank of 2024 contenders. Yes, repeat that three times: Vice President Mastriano.

We here in his district, who know him best, have a unique responsibility to warn the state about this profoundly dangerous man.