Is 2014 About Racism? Pa. Elects Candidate Who Once Chaired Campaign Committee of Ex-Cop Who Shot a Black Woman During Race Riots
Lot of bullshit flying around about how Republicans winning elections in a country that voted for a multiracial candidate for president twice means America's full of racists. Maybe Republicans, who have had little of a national theme outside of "Obama is a horrible president" are winning tonight because, well, Obama is a horrible president with horrible policies.
Nevertheless, race was an issue in races across the country, but didn't always get the attention you'd expect. In Pennsylvania, the winning gubernatorial candidate, Tom Wolf, chaired a campaign committee of a former cop, Charlie Robertson, who shot a black woman during race riots in 1969. Robertson was charged with murder but acquitted. Wolf's a Democrat so the story got little airplay in Pennsylvania. Wolf refused to apologize for supporting Robertson, who served as mayor of York, Pennsylvania, or to try to distance himself from him, claiming he's friends, too, with the current mayor of York, an African-American.
Tom Corbett, meanwhile, loses despite a last minute push for the pro-cop vote in the form of a law meant to keep convicts from speaking out if it hurts victims' families' feelings.