Shapiro for Vice-President?

More than a week ago, Newsmax’ Mark Halperin predicted that Joe Biden would drop out of the race. Nobody believed him – until events worked out as he predicted, with few exceptions. (The main exception is that Halperin did not predict that Biden would endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris so quickly.) Now Halperin predicts that Harris will select Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.) as her running mate. That speculation will draw attention to his record, and the kind of cold calculation that goes into running-mate selection.

Is Shapiro the one?

Yesterday at 12:47 p.m. EDT, Halperin posted a photograph of Harris and Shapiro together. He captioned this with only one word: “DEVELOPING…”

Halperin doesn’t allow just any X user to reply, but only those he follows or mentions. One such person, Joel Sawyer, had this to say.

Another user, Morgan Warstler, suggested Shapiro is the obvious choice.

Others had to quote Halperin instead. Alex Shephard of The New Republic expressed open skepticism.

The problem for Shephard is that Hallperin called the Biden events almost exactly. His only important mistake was that Biden endorsed Harris, and within half an hour.

An account billing itself as “conservative Republican” expressed fear that a Harris-Shapiro ticket would be tough to beat.

But Christina Hoff Sommers seems to think otherwise.

Josh Shapiro has much to recommend him – as a Democratic Vice-Presidential running mate. As Governor of Pennsylvania, he represents Pennsylvania, and would claim the Favorite Son designation. Station WHTM-TV (Channel 27, ABC, Harrisburg) cited a recent poll showing Shapiro “is the most popular governor in recent memory.” Directly after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Shapiro did all the right “gubernatorial” things in responding to an emergency. That included showing concern for two seriously wounded attendees, and a third who died. Even before then, he had become more popular with Republicans than Democratic State-wide officeholders tend to be. For those reasons, Republicans will find the Favorite Son moniker tough to overcome.

Disadvantages

But Shapiro comes with two kinds of disadvantages: alienating the Democratic base, and lacking nationwide crossover appeal. Concerning the former, several X users point out that he will alienate the “Progressive-HAMAS wing” of his party.

Closely related to that, is whether Pennsylvanians will appreciate his running with a candidate who proposed to end “fracking.”

(This morning, perhaps recognizing how such a proposal might repel voters paying high prices, Harris denied proposing a fracking ban.)

That analysis has only one problem: the Democrats have a history of choosing “moderate” running mates who “radicalize” after inauguration. Consider Albert A. Gore (1992-2000). For that matter, consider Harris herself, who as Attorney General of California put young black men in jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana, only to become the “there’s no such thing as crime” Vice-President. Besides, the governor is already accepting Progressive donations, and recently vetoed a school-choice law on the strength of that association. For that matter, as Attorney General he pursued criminal charges against several “fracking” companies.

That last represents one of Shapiro’s national disadvantages. These might not matter on Election Day, if he helps Harris carry Pennsylvania. (But not if those disadvantages lose Michigan and Wisconsin to Trump and Vance.) Virtually no one outside of Pennsylvania knows who he is; many have never heard his name.

Old scandals

And when they find out, voters might find out about two scandals that already affect Shapiro. One involves his legislative liaison, who allegedly sexually harassed a woman. The governor settled that case for about $295K.

The second is a campaign-finance scandal involving the State’s teachers’ union and the Democratic Governors’ Association. That one might not seem so bad to a Democrat. Most (but not all) teachers in public schools have embraced the Democrats’ agenda. Diverting $1.5 million in union dues to fund a PAC affiliated with a Democratic governor’s campaign might not offend their sensibilities. But it will remind Republicans that Shapiro is part of the Democratic Machine, however “moderate” he might talk sometimes.

If Harris does select Shapiro, his “moderation” will come to a challenging test in short order.

Challenges to “moderation”

This morning, President Biden – still in office – announced a radical legislative initiative Democrats have hinted at for years. In an op-ed in The Washington Post he described plans to change the Supreme Court and the Constitution. Specifically he now calls for:

1. A Constitutional amendment saying no former President shall enjoy any immunity from prosecution for any act, official or un-, he commits while in office,
2. Another Constitutional amendment limiting the term of service of a Justice of the Supreme Court to 18 years, and
3. New laws specifying a “code of conduct” for Justices of the Supreme Court. It would:
   1. Require disclosure of any cash or in-kind gifts,
   2. Forbid any Justice to engage in “public political activity” (which he does not define), and
   3. Disqualify a Justice from hearing cases in which (s)he or his/her spouse have any “financial or other conflicts of interest.” That word other suggests such “conflicts of interest” could involve nothing more than that Justice’ desire for a conservative outcome. (If anyone enforced such a rule on the Liberal Bloc, they might never hear any cases at all.)

Each one of these is the equivalent of a bill of attainder and/or an ex post facto law against President Trump, members of the Originalist Bloc, or both. Apparently Kamala Harris has already signaled her endorsement of that program.

Shapiro on the issues

More to the point, Josh Shapiro is already on record saying “abortion is health care,” immediately after the Dobbs decision. As long as he remains governor, Pennsylvania will not restrict abortion to less than 24 weeks’ gestation. That was the contribution of then-Gov. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) to abortion jurisprudence before Dobbs. But if Josh Shapiro becomes Vice-President, he would also become an advocate, nationwide, for overturning several State laws far more restrictive than those in Pennsylvania. Albert A. Gore, as Vice-President, self-radicalized on that very issue.

Shapiro has a few “moderate” stances on his record. On taxes, he seems to prefer to lower them, not raise them. On guns, he stood for an expanded right of self-defense. But though he said he would eliminate Pennsylvania’s cell phone tax, a ResultHunter search reveals no evidence that he did. That goes along with another promise he broke – on school choice.

Given all that, Republicans could attack Shapiro as a radical leftist in moderate clothing. Nationally, that could hurt the Harris ticket even worse. Sadly, too much depends on how many American voters want the radical changes a President Harris would bring. Having Josh Shapiro on the ticket might – or might not – secure Pennsylvania for the Democrats. It will not and should not stop people from asking about the direction of a Harris administration.