thinkprogress.com also reported that, The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented Smith’s participation with known skinhead organizations like Keystone State Skinheads, (now Keystone United) which he co-founded in 2001. And his racist activism extends far beyond violent rhetoric as well, into actual violence:
In March 2003, he and two other KSS members were arrested in Scranton for beating up Antoni Williams, a black man, using stones and chunks of pavement. Smith pleaded guilty to terrorist threats and ethnic intimidation and received a 60-day sentence and probation.Smith is also an active member of local Tea Party groups, a network that he used to gain support for his bid for the committee seat. According to the SPLC, Smith referred to the Tea Party as “fertile grounds for our activists.” In case you don't know some of the stats on Luzerne County, here they are. According to the 2010 census, over 320,000 people live in Luzerne, many in the county seat of Wilkes-Barre, a large city of over 40,000 people. And in an interesting twist with the election of an anti-immigrant bigot, Luzerne County saw the nation’s largest county-level increase of Hispanics between 2000 and 2010. However, Pennsylvania is in the top 5 of having anti-semetic groups. This fact along with the increasing rise in minorities living in the county makes for a ticking time bomb of violence.
All I have to say here is ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME! Only in Luzerne County could we vote in a skin-head scum bag Nazi to an elected position. Only in Luzerne County can a guy like this get voted in with one write in vote. Yes, you read that right, one write in vote! That tells me that no one else ran and this dirt ball voted for himself. What a way to get elected. It figures though, that no one else had enough guts to jump in and run against this clown just so he would not get elected. The fact is that the Republican Party in Luzerne County is a joke. Over the years they have had multiple opportunities to dethrone the mighty Democrats and failed to do so. The Democratic Party in Luzerne County is so corrupt, many of their leaders are either in the crow bar hotel or have spent recent time vacationing there and the Republicans still can't win an election. I guess the bottom line here is that no one with any smarts wants to get involved in Luzerne County politics.




well you have at least one thing right ...sort of ....he got 3 votes and if one was to poke around the Luzerne County web page you might notice that democrats out number Republicans by a bit over 2 to 1 ...somewhere between 60 - 70 % are registered democrats so all things considered we don't do to bad County wide ....Welkes Barre however forget it .... it gets even worse as far as registration advatage
ReplyDeleteDuly noted on the three votes. I am aware of the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in Luzerne County. April was the primary election so voters had to cast a vote within their party lines which means only Republicans could have voted for Smith. As for the general election, if Republicans really put some effort and some money in actually campaigning for their candidates, they could easily sway Democratic voters their way. I am a Democrat on paper only and have been known to actually vote for a Republican now and then. Voters like myself will try to vote for who they think can do the better job. In Luzerne County we will try to vote for the person who will not end up in prison. As for Wilkes-Barre, I agree with you.....Forget-a-bout-it!
ReplyDeleteBut you have to have the voter base to have the money ...we don't have the voter base hence no money ....that may change if as I think the new County Council takes a bite out of the democrat spoils system here in Luzerne county and as far as Wilkes Barre ....its hopeless ...when the feds clap iron wear on a school board member in Wilkes Barre before the election and he still comes close to winning re election its time to write it off
ReplyDeleteHe only got 1 vote, probably "elected" himself http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/luzerne-gop-committee-member-has-record-of-racial-intimidation-1.1324178
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