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Health & Fitness

Open Letter to Mike Parrish (Congressional Candidate)

Why should a Democrat pay attention as a recent convert to the party asks for a congressional seat? I want this candidate to impress me.

Hi Mr. Parrish,

Got your email about you running for Congress.  That is great!  We need more people involved.  I understand that you just became a Democrat in December.  That is also good news too.  The only real way to grow the party is via inviting people from other parties to join.

But I have some concerns.  I am a life-long-dyed-in-the-wool Dem (call me a Blue Dog).  When I got involved in early 1990 a candidate stepped up and said all the right things to get onto the ballot for a State Rep race in the Montgomery County portion of what may be your district.  After he got on the ballot, his positions started shifting to the point where it was obvious that he was a plant sent by the GOP as a dirty trick.  He won the election and switched his party by Thanksgiving.  So I have reservations about what the Democrats may get with you, kinda like a Political Trauma Stress Disorder.

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I am not saying you are a plant.  But when I saw your video (Link) announcing your candidacy I was looking for a few things that I did not find.  I hope that you can make clear where you are coming from.

First off – I like President Obama – worked hard for him twice.  I am not ashamed to say that the GOP has given him a raw deal.  I am happy to have this Commander-in-Chief’s back politically.  I did not hear the President’s name mentioned once.  So I do not know where you stand in context with him.  If you don’t want to be seen with President Obama, I understand the nature of the 6th; but I would probably have a hard time standing with you.

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You talked about being a small business person in your video.  (Please feel free to brag about your business a little bit – what do you do?)  What has Obamacare done for your business?  Are you exempted because of the small number of folks in your firm?  Did it reduce your operating expenses as a business because you do not need to worry about providing Healthcare?  Do your employees like it?  Will you run towards or away from something many of us longer-term Democrats have fought for?

Some media reports have you as donating to Tom Corbett.  Did you donate in the Presidential 2008 or 2012?  What are your rationales for donating to a candidate?

You are using military experience as a basis for running.  Democrats in this region are proud to support military vets for Congress; from Patrick Murphy to Joe Sestak, to Manan Triviedi.  The GOP tends to put up chicken hawks.  So we are glad you have come home to us.  Your Damascus moment (The GOP’s $24,000,000,000 Shutdown that prevented fallen military heroes from coming home) gives a small window as to how you think.  We need more.

You talk about wasteful spending.  Where does the Parrish knife meet the bone?  Former Congressman Joe Sestak laid out a method of cutting defense spending.  What do you think? 

There are a slew of other issues that affect this district.  You hit infrastructure and education and seniors and veteran issues – all legit.  But these are words.  There are national issues that touch Democrats from energy policy to gun legislation to pot to marriage equality to tax fairness to election reform.

The bottom line is:  I want you to blow me away.  Tell me how a recovering Republican is going to fire my Democratic jets? 


Thanks,

Joe Ferraro
Audubon, Pa.

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