Here's what the WSJ wrote a couple of days ago, before Corman and Hart dropped out to endorse Barletta:
The Mastriano Pileup in the Pennsylvania Elections
A fractured GOP might give the Democrats four more years as Governor.
By The Editorial Board
Updated May 11, 2022 6:33 pm ET
President Trump won the Republican primary in 2016 by taking roughly a third of the vote, while his squabbling opponents from the traditional GOP split the rest. Next week Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano might pull off the same trick in the primary for Governor, and Democrats couldn’t be happier to help him do it.
Mr. Mastriano is a long shot in November. He’s a 2020 stolen-election theorist who wants to end Pennsylvania’s contracts with “compromised voting machine companies.” He reportedly organized buses to take people to Mr. Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021. Although he said he left when the rioting began, the Philadelphia Inquirer says video “appears to show Mastriano and his wife walking through breached police barricades.” Last month he spoke at an event featuring QAnon nonsense.
A poll by Fox News last week put Mr. Mastriano at 29% support among Republican primary voters. That’s a plurality only because below him there’s an eight-car pileup. Former Rep. Lou Barletta was at 17%, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain at 13%, businessman Dave White at 11%, and state Senate leader Jake Corman at 5%. Four others were in single digits. GOP bigwigs are now frantically trying to unite those factions by getting unviable candidates to drop out and endorse a consensus pick.
This will probably work about as well as it did in 2016 against Mr. Trump, which is to say, it won’t. It’s hard for any candidate to throw in the towel after putting in months of sweat and asking donors to contribute. Mr. Barletta is in second, so he’s unlikely to quit. Mr. McSwain is anti-endorsed by Mr. Trump, who called the former U.S. Attorney a “coward” for doing “absolutely nothing” on voter fraud. “Bill McSwain is staying in the race,” his team said Tuesday.
Mr. White has invested millions of his own money, which might be sunk cost, but he understandably wants to get to primary day. Mr. Corman is scheduled Thursday to join Mr. Barletta for a “major announcement,” but even if he tries to shift all his support, it’s only 5%, not enough to make the difference on its own.
The likely Democratic nominee is Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose latest TV ad reveals his view of the GOP field. His commercial calls Mr. Mastriano “one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters,” saying that he “led the fight to audit the 2020 election” and “wrote the heartbeat bill in Pennsylvania” to help “outlaw abortion.” Mr. Mastriano doesn’t have the campaign cash to bombard television viewers, so
Mr. Shapiro is trying to help him get the nomination.
If Republicans go for it, Tuesday’s primary could be the start of another Trumpian backfire. Pennsylvania Republicans want voting reforms, and the GOP state Legislature passed some that were promptly vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. If primary voters want those bills signed, their job is to pick a conservative who can win the general election. A recent poll by Osage Research said
Pennsylvania swing voters preferred a Republican Governor, 42% to 39%.
But
asked about a race between Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Mastriano, the Democrat was up 49% to 41%. The pollster said it involved “Mastriano losing an astounding 23% of the swing Republicans to Shapiro. This is an unsustainable number for a general election nominee for a party.” Those are the figures while Democrats are running TV ads to help Mr. Mastriano. What about when they begin really going after him?
With Mr. Mastriano at the top of the ticket, many Republicans fear a washout could also cost them control of the Legislature or the crucial Senate seat now held by Republican Pat Toomey, who is retiring.
Political primaries are about campaign promises and ideology, but also temperament and electability. Pennsylvania Republicans will regret it if their party throws away another winnable election and delivers four more years of vetoes by another Democratic Governor.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-dou...p-11652301140?
Same deal - PA GOP Governor's race - Who do ya got?
