Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes is an incurious fellow, in keeping with the intent of state lawmakers.
The Department of State, which is under Cortes' direction, is supposed to enforce campaign finance laws. Instead, it is a glorified file clerk.
Borys Krawczeniuk of The Times-Tribune reported in the Nov. 1 Sunday Times that the campaign committee for Sen. Bob Mellow of Archbald, the state Senate minority leader, had issued more than $188,000 worth of checks to "cash." Contrary to the clear requirements of state law, the committee never disclosed to whom the checks were issued or for what purpose.
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- The war in Europe raged on, with Adolf Hitler's forces at Moscow's Door - a goal the Nazis would never reach. And with every sign pointing to the U.S. getting into the conflict, the Nazis torpedoed a U.S. tanker in the North Atlantic. It was apparent that if America was to keep aiding Britain in its gallant stance against the Axis, war was inevitable.
- Wendell Willkie, who had lost to Franklin Roosevelt for the presidency the previous year as FDR won a third term, said that there was no question of the U.S. getting into the war, and sooner was probably better. Immediately, Republican conservatives who favored isolationism and who never much cared for Willkie anyway, demanded that he be drummed out of the GOP, which did not happen. Pearl Harbor Day was just more than a month away.
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Voters in New Jersey and Virginia demonstrated Tuesday that they still are deeply worried about the economy and that the electorate still is in a mood for change.
Whether the election of Republican governors in those states signals trouble down the road for President Obama remains to be seen. They were state elections that focused on state issues and the individual candidates, after all.
A better barometer of the national mood will be next year's congressional elections, when all 435 House seats and at least 36 Senate seats will be on ballots. Usually a third of the Senate runs, but special elections will be conducted in Delaware and New York to fill the seats vacated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which are held by interim appointees.
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I recently had an opportunity to sit in on the Mount Carmel Supper Club at Mattucci's. The supper club is a quaint gathering established years ago to recognize student athletes in our area. One of the main focuses of the club is to raise funds to benefit those families with children who participate in sports, but may not be as fortunate as others. The club has a noble agenda, which has provided assistance to countless students since its inception.
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