| rdfs:comment | - At least then-Gov. Tom Ridge had the intestinal fortitude and smarts to reach out and mend fences. Team Swann apparently has not mastered that basic art form. After the disastrous primary elections two weeks ago, Eileen Melvin, state GOP chair, announced she will not seek a new term. U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, state Attorney General Tom Corbett, plus Club for Growth chief and former Senate candidate Pat Toomey exchanged calls and decided to reach out to former Lt. Gov. William Scranton to fill the post. A call went out to Swann, who promptly nixed the idea.
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| abstract | - At least then-Gov. Tom Ridge had the intestinal fortitude and smarts to reach out and mend fences. Team Swann apparently has not mastered that basic art form. After the disastrous primary elections two weeks ago, Eileen Melvin, state GOP chair, announced she will not seek a new term. U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, state Attorney General Tom Corbett, plus Club for Growth chief and former Senate candidate Pat Toomey exchanged calls and decided to reach out to former Lt. Gov. William Scranton to fill the post. Scranton, who early on challenged gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann for the Republican nomination, agreed. A call went out to Swann, who promptly nixed the idea. Some would suggest that his dismissal of Scranton was just another example of Swann's lack of political instincts. Swann completely missed the opportunity to leverage Scranton's ability to bring the reformers -- who voted out Senate GOP leaders Robert Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill in the primary -- back into the fold. That Scranton would write a check and raise money for Swann's cash-strapped campaign was all the more reason for Swann to say yes. Although the Swann campaign has claimed that Toomey was the dissenting voice, sources said that it was Swann who did not want Scranton. State Sen. John Pippy was the chairman of choice of the Swann camp, which was instantly nixed by Santorum. Word is that Mike Long, pay-jacker Jubelirer's chief of staff, would have been Pippy's executive director for the state committee. Probably a choice not wholly embraced by any GOP reformer.
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