He Scares the Crap Out of Me (with Holly Otterbein)
The Focus Group Podcast
The Bulwark
4.8 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Pennsylvania governor's race is a bit of a political science experiment: what happens if one candidate barely runs any ads? Turns out, swing voters still really don't like that guy. POLITICO's in-house Pennsylvania expert Holly Otterbein once again joins Sarah on the pod. They discuss how swing voters are feeling about the Pennsylvania governor's race, as well as how these same voters may be starting to sour on John Fetterman in the Senate race.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to the focus group podcast I I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the |
| 0:14.4 | bull work, and this week we are covering the Pennsylvania Governor's Race. |
| 0:19.4 | This race is near and dear to my heart for two reasons. One, I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, may have mentioned that, and two, this race matters a lot for the future of American democracy. |
| 0:29.4 | Pennsylvania will have 19 electoral votes in the next presidential election and neither party can really afford to lose them. |
| 0:36.7 | The next governor will be responsible for certifying those votes, as will the Secretary of State, who the Governor will appoint. |
| 0:46.5 | Enter Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee. |
| 0:49.6 | He's a State Senator from Central Pennsylvania, about 75 miles from where I grew up. |
| 0:55.0 | Coincidentally, his rap sheet of craziness is about 75 miles long. |
| 0:59.4 | There's also Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, and a pretty strong favorite at this point. |
| 1:06.1 | In his two races for Attorney General in 2016 and 2020, he outran both Hillary Clinton |
| 1:11.5 | and Joe Biden by about three and a half points. |
| 1:14.1 | He's currently leading Mastriano by about 10 points in the real clear politics average. |
| 1:19.2 | There's also a tightening Senate race that could end up as one of the closest in the country and could very well determine control of the Senate. |
| 1:28.0 | Today, we're going to hear what our last couple of groups of Pennsylvania swing voters think about these races. |
| 1:34.3 | My guess this week is Holly Otterbine, National Political Reporter for |
| 1:39.8 | Politico, she is one of my favorite people to discuss Pennsylvania with. |
| 1:45.0 | Holly, thanks for being here. |
| 1:47.0 | So great to be here again. |
| 1:48.0 | Sorry for the long wind-up, but there's so much going on in Pennsylvania. |
| 1:52.0 | Do you just feel like you're at the center of it all right now? |
| 1:54.2 | I mean, I always them. |
| 1:55.5 | It's the Keystone State. |
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