“The Pennsylvania Republican Party doesn’t want the public to know what’s going on behind closed doors.” — GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Gale
PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania Republicans went into hiding this weekend, making the “unusual, if not unprecedented” move to hold a “secret meeting” to avoid scrutiny in their increasingly nasty primary for Governor. The Republican primary has been defined by far-right litmus tests, from jeopardizing Pennsylvanians’ private, personal information with a sham “audit,” to pledging to make abortion illegal, to trying to “earn cheap political points” following the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse — so we’re not surprised they want to keep their agenda hidden from view.
One group that did have access, however: high-dollar donors. As FOX43 reported, “unless you have a lot of money, chances are you won’t know what happens. […] The more money you give, the better perks you receive throughout the weekend.”
While Republicans continue to run from Pennsylvanians, they’re now being called out for it — including on Friday, when state Rep. Mary Isaacson, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel, State College Mayor Ezra Nanes, and Lancaster City Councilwoman Janet Diaz came together for a virtual press conference.
Check out some of the coverage of the PA Dems press conference — and the PA GOP’s attempts to hide from Pennsylvanians:
PennLive: Pa. GOP leaders decide not to endorse in governor, lt. governor races in a secret meeting
By Jan Murphy, 02/05/22
Pennsylvania Republican leaders on Saturday declined to endorse any candidates vying in the May 17 primary to be the party’s nominee in the governor and lieutenant governor’s races amid a shroud of unprecedented secrecy.
Not only was the meeting room where GOP state committee members gathered inside the Wyndham Resort & Convention Center in Lancaster for their winter meeting off limits to the press so was the hotel lobby.
Two PennLive reporters were told to leave the hotel for a short time when they were in the lobby area where candidates and their campaign staff had tables covered in campaign signs and literature.
[…]
Pennsylvania Democratic committee members – who met last weekend and endorsed state Attorney General Josh Shapiro for governor and Rep. Austin Davis of Allegheny County for lieutenant governor – lambasted the Republicans for running a closed meeting when party endorsement decisions were to be made.
Allowing the state committee meeting to be open as the Democrats did with their endorsement meeting last weekend engenders trust within the party and belief in the political process, said Rep. MaryLouse Isaacson, D-Philadelphia, a Democratic committee member, in a virtual news conference on Friday.
“If you want to represent somebody, you should be able to stand forth and [present] your message and not have to buy it with millions of dollars during Jeopardy so that people just hear what you want them to hear,” Isaacson said.
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WGAL
02/04/22
[Click the above video to watch WGAL’s coverage]
FOX43: Pa. GOP Winter Meeting takes place in Lancaster closed to public, no details provided
By Matt Maisel, 02/04/22
LANCASTER, Pa. — The Wyndham Resort and Convention Center outside Lancaster is the place to be this weekend if you are a Republican in Pennsylvania. The annual PA GOP Winter Meetings are taking place there Friday and Saturday, and in 2022, a huge election year in the commonwealth, there is sure to be plenty to talk about.
However, unless you have a lot of money, chances are you won’t know what happens.
The event is closed to press. Gubernatorial candidates attending tell FOX43 they had to be invited, and then donate an undisclosed amount of money in order to secure a spot inside the conference.
“The Pennsylvania Republican Party doesn’t want the public to know what’s going on behind closed doors,” said Joe Gale, one of the 15 declared Republican gubernatorial candidates.
Gale, a Montgomery County Commissioner who considers himself as running against the Republican Party establishment, is not attending this weekend’s convention.
[…]
No media will be allowed to attend.
FOX43 reached out to the PA GOP via email, asking what was on the agenda for the weekend and who is participating in the debate Friday night. On three separate occasions, we were told the event was closed to press, and no details are shared for closed media events.
Calls to the PA GOP press office also went unanswered and calls were not returned.
[…]
Berger says attending the PA GOP Winter Meeting event is invite only, and even then, his campaign had to make a sizeable, but undisclosed donation. His campaign sent FOX43 a donor sheet, which included four levels of sponsorship: $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, and $1,250. The more money you give, the better perks you receive throughout the weekend.
[…]
By Gillian McGoldrick, 02/04/22
Leaders of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party are planning to meet behind closed doors in Lancaster County on Saturday to decide whether to endorse candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate.
The decision to close the meeting is unusual, if not unprecedented, in the state GOP’s history. For decades, the endorsement sessions have been open. It also stands in contrast to the state Democratic Party, which held its endorsement convention last weekend and allowed the press to attend.
[…]
Angela Alleman, the state GOP’s executive director, said in an email that the entire weekend’s events are closed to the press.
When asked why this traditionally open process has been made private, Alleman claimed the endorsement session was usually closed to the media.
But decades of past news articles and photos, along with multiple reporters’ recollections, show otherwise. While the first day of the state GOP meeting was often closed to the press and the public, reporters from across the state recall being able to watch the second day’s session where state committee members vote on whether to endorse in specific races and, if so, which candidate to back.
Four years ago, reporters were able to watch an emotional speech from former House Speaker Mike Turzai, as he bowed out of the governor’s race after Scott Wagner secured enough votes for the endorsement. In 2010, reporters described former Gov. Tom Corbett as “white-haired and assured” as he secured the party’s gubernatorial stamp of approval.
“Shutting the press out of this meeting, especially when it includes the possible endorsement of gubernatorial or U.S. Senate candidates, means the public loses out on the chance to assess candidates’ backgrounds and qualifications,” said Paula Knudsen Burke, a Pennsylvania-based attorney for the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press and a former LNP editor and investigative reporter.
David Atkinson, a former top aide to Senate Pro Tempore Bob Jublierer and later a staffer for then-state Sen. Lloyd Smucker, said he could not recall a time that the press was shut out of an endorsement meeting. He described the PAGOP’s decision to do so as “extraordinary.”
“As we are watching history unfold these days, it seems to be more a tactic favored by Republicans that they prefer their own sources of media or pseudo-media, therefore trying to control the narrative,” said Atkinson, a long-time Republican. “If you’re afraid of media coverage, (a layperson) is going to wonder, what are you up to? If you put your statement out, you let your words and your deeds speak for you, what harm can the media do to you?”
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