PITTSBURGH — Francis Caiazza does not have that warm, fuzzy feeling for Joe Biden, and he is not so sure he’s going to ever find it.
Caiazza has voted for whomever his party’s nominee has been since Lyndon B. Johnson, a streak he continued all the way up to and including both of Barack Obama’s elections.
The only thing Hillary Clinton inspired Caiazza to do four years later was not vote at all.
Caiazza is no Democrat in name only. He has not only been a Democrat all of his life, but he ran successfully as one in his native New Castle in 1981, when he was elected judge of the Lawrence County Common Pleas Court. He was the first Democrat at the time to earn that seat in 56 years.
He was reelected 10 years later when his term expired, then left that position when he won appointment as a federal magistrate judge here in Pittsburgh, just 50 miles southeast of the Steel Valley town where his immigrant parents raised him.
Veteran Democratic strategists will tell you two things in the days since Biden has become the party’s all-but-certain presidential nominee: They are thrilled Bernie Sanders is not the party’s nominee and anxious that Joe Biden is. That’s not because they don’t like Biden (they do) or do not think he is in the sweet spot of Democrats’ agenda (from their viewpoint, he is). It’s just because, after all, he’s Joe Biden.
And that is what concerns voters like Caiazza.
It’s not as though Caiazza didn’t like many of the candidates who were on the debate stage. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota are all candidates Caiazza said earned his support along the way. “I thought they were really capable candidates and inspiring candidates, but just couldn’t gain traction,” he said.
He says he feels “somewhat” better about Biden sidelining Sanders for his party’s nomination, but hardly comfortable. “First of all, I think he’s too old to be president,” he says bluntly. “I just don’t think that he has the energy, the capabilities to really be president. I think there should be somebody younger.”
The only thing that could possibly persuade Caiazza to vote for Biden is maybe who he chooses as a running mate. “I think it would have to be somebody who has some experience in government, like Klobuchar,” he said. “I would feel more comfortable with her.”
In a state where President Trump won by 40,000 votes, Biden’s challenge isn’t just earning the support of Sanders voters who are uninspired; he also has to win over the Caiazzas of the world who have their own set of concerns.
Not voting at all in Pennsylvania is as damaging to Democrats as voting for Trump.
In the days and weeks since Biden has gone from a media perception of a man hanging on the ropes to having the nomination within reach, he has given inspiring and notable speeches. But he has also continued his endless propensity for gaffes and confrontations, such as the one he had with a union worker in Michigan.
The publicly recorded spat included Biden pointing his finger in the man’s face, the shushing of his female staffer, his potty mouth, and a poorly formed argument that severely lacked facts.
The media and Never Trump brigade that has been horrified for years by similar behavior from Trump quickly came to Biden’s defense for behaving, well, like Trump.
Keystone College political science professor Jeff Brauer says it’s possible Sanders supporters want to see a feisty Biden. But that kind of outburst goes against everything the press and former Republicans have said they want, and more importantly, what Biden has said his candidacy stands for. “This is contrary to Biden’s overall messaging of bringing normalcy and civility back to politics and governing,” Brauer said.
That’s what makes a voter like Caiazza, a well-respected, established Democrat, pause.
At the other end of the state, in Philadelphia, Larry Ceisler is a Democrat and respected public affairs consultant statewide. He says the upside of Biden is that voters view him as trustworthy. “I have been a Biden guy since he held his first fundraiser in Philadelphia,” Ceisler said.
The downside, Ceisler said, has always been Biden’s gaffes. “But I don’t think in this election that is going to matter, first, because he is running against Trump, and second, I think basically everything’s baked in now, and I don’t think gaffes really make a difference.”
On the confrontation, Ceisler says a candidate with a short fuse is always concerning, but “then you start worrying about public appearances where groups that are supporting Trump send provocateurs to events and things like that to egg him on.”
“The Democrats are gambling with Biden even though he seems the safe choice,” Brauer said. “Recently, Democrats have only won the presidency when they have chosen new, fresh faces — Washington outsiders. This time, they are choosing the opposite. They are going with the ultimate familiar insider with Biden.”
Ceisler added that most support for Biden in this primary season has come from the fact that he isn’t Sanders. “That, and the fear of a Trump reelection.”
