Pennsylvania Society at 125 retains its luster

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Pennsylvania Society at 125 retains its luster

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NEW YORK — It is the one time of year where everyone in Pennsylvania politics, no matter what side of the aisle they are on, looks to New York City. There, the powerful, and not so powerful, gather for the annual Pennsylvania Society, a grand affair that has been held in New York for over 125 years.

Philadelphia-based Democratic media consultant Larry Ceisler has been attending this event for over 30 years. He says he hears complaints the event is either for the elite or should not be held in New York, and he argues those complaints are misguided.

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“For over 30 years, I have seen it evolve over the years. To me, it is the ultimate experience of democracy in excess. You can be from the most left-leaning nonprofit in the city of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, and you will not only be in the same room as a governor or U.S. senator or even a future president, and you will be able to talk to them about what your cause,” Ceisler said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) will be there Saturday, as will Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Bob Casey (D-PA), with the latter joining his Republican rival for the Senate seat, David McCormick, to speak separately in front of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association at the Metropolitan Club for an off-the-record event where both men will outline their vision for the future of the state’s economy.

McCormick spoke Friday morning at the Pennsylvania State Republican Party event at the Commonwealth Club, thanking the party for coming together to support his candidacy for the U.S. Senate next year.

Terry Madonna, political science professor at Millersville University, said he is pretty sure he is attending his 30th Pennsylvania Society as well. The dean of Pennsylvania political science said he will serve as a moderator for several events for the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association on Saturday.

Traditionally held in the Waldorf Astoria, it has been held for the past few years at the Hilton as the old grand dame concludes its renovations and attended by at least 5,000 or so Pennsylvania elected officials, their staff, as well as labor, nonprofit, healthcare, technology, banking and energy leaders and their families who will all be on hand for nearly 100 events spread throughout New York City

Seven years ago, long before he became the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and now the junior senator, Fetterman, he told me the event was also an opportunity for a mayor of a small steel town like his to talk with important stakeholders.

The Pennsylvania Society began in 1899 after that year’s contentious elections as a way to vacate the state and the “scrutiny of gossipers” meet on unbiased ground thanks to historian James Barr, who invited 55 fellow Pennsylvania natives to a dinner at Waldorf where the attendees christened themselves, “The Pennsylvania Society of New York.”

By the following year, when Barr had decided to schedule another event, word has spread about the success of the event, and Pennsylvania’s captains of industry, politicians, and their families decided they wanted to be part of it; that first week of December saw hundreds boarding trains from across the state to attend the 1900 soiree that concluded with a dinner speech given by a quite young Winston Churchill.

It was his speech that convinced the members to hereafter have a guest speaker at the final dinner.

Since Arnold Palmer, George W. Bush, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Schwab, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, J. Edgar Hoover, Fred Rogers, Joe Biden, and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell have all served as the society’s guest speakers.

In 2015, the most unlikely candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for president the next year, Donald Trump, spoke at the GOP’s annual Commonwealth Club fundraiser.

So you can say both Biden and Trump have mingled at this event.

Charlie Gerow, former Republican primary candidate for governor last year, who has been mingling here since Thursday, said, “After 125 years, the Pennsylvania Society hasn’t lost any of its luster. It is still the place to celebrate being a Pennsylvania and an opportunity to break bread with those you may have broken lances with at other times.”

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