(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Pa. progressive Dems not getting party backing [1]
['April']
Date: 2023-03
Many of the small businesses that line Philadelphia’s East Passyunk Avenue recently picked sides in an unexpected battle.
In dozens of shop windows, campaign signs are prominently displayed for a contested Democratic primary election for the Pa. House. Lots of them bear the name of the incumbent, progressive Elizabeth Fiedler. But many others advertise her opponent, Michael Giangiordano, a new-to-politics real estate agent.
Those store windows are a visual representation of the larger division underlying this race, and similar ones across the state. Philadelphia’s Democratic committee, which typically backs incumbents or stays out of contested primaries, last week officially endorsed Giangiordano over Fiedler — a snub that came with little explanation from the party insiders who made the call.
“It feels really frustrating,” Fiedler said. “I have heard from a lot of people in this district who reached out to me after the party vote who are also really frustrated. It feels like many of us are being told that we are not welcome, that the door is being closed on us.”
Fiedler, who used to be a journalist at WHYY, ran for the 184th State House district as a political outsider. She was elected in 2018 as part of a Democratic wave, one of several victorious candidates with ties to the Democratic Socialists of America.
She’s running for a third two-year term, she said, on her record “as a champion for our children and families, for every child having a high-quality public school in their neighborhood, [making] sure that those schools do not have lead, asbestos, rodents, and working very hard with unions to make sure that that work is done safely and done by trained professionals.”
She also noted that she has worked to secure funding for local resources, like libraries.
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[1] Url:
https://whyy.org/articles/pa-democratic-party-endorsements-harrisburg-progressive-incumbents/
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