Empty threat withdrawn

By Dave Anderson:

Muttering empty threats is a good way to become non-credible.  Western Pennyslvania liberals and labor leaders encouraged an empty primary threat against Rep. Jason Altmire and now they are withdrawing it because it was an absurd threat the moment it was issued.

PA-2010 has the story of Jack Shea pulling back from a quixotic primary challenge threat:

Labor leader Jack Shea, who had been mulling a run against Altmire,
told pa2010.com Thursday that he decided against it. Shea had
considered both a write-in campaign during the primary or a third-party
challenge in November, either of which would have been daunting. Shea,
the president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, said his campaign
against Altmire ended before it even began.

�I�ve tried to be a
little bit loose on this race to see what developed, but I am not
planning to make a serious push,� Shea said. �In order for me to run in
November I�d have to change parties or put together a write-in campaign.
I�m not going to do either.�

The threat to run against Altmire in the primary never made sense due to mechanical limitations.  The threat was issued after the deadline for signature submission for ballot access.  From my post on March 25:

The recent speculation that Jack Shea
will primary Altmire is highly unproductive.  Pennsylvania ballot
access laws are not conducive to a primary challenge as the period to
collect signatures to get on the primary ballot closed three weeks ago. 
Certification of signatures and acknowledgement of ballot access should
be going out sometime in the next couple of days.  For the May primary,
Shea could only attempt to run as a write-in candidate.  Write-in
candidates have significant information aysemtry to beat; the lever
pullers will never consider a write-in candidate, and lever-pullers are a
large fraction of total voters in most SW-PA Democratic primaries.

There is another and more effective way to bear-hug Altmire
and inflict significant political (career-ending) costs on him.  Shea
should run as an independant candidate in the general election.  He
would need to collect roughly 6,000 valid signatures from PA-4 voters by
August 1....

If an organization or individual is planning on making credible threats to cause pain, claim credit for a defeat or to offer rewards, they need to understand the mechanics of delivering that threat.  When Shea's name was being floated for a primary challenge after the ballot access deadline had passed, the threat is un-credible. And his reasoning on not inflicting future political costs on Altmire makes any threat that he makes in the future uncredible as well:

And though Shea hardly seemed ready to swing for the fences on behalf
of Altmire, he didn�t withhold his support either, saying it was
imperative not to let Republicans capture the western Pennsylvania seat.

�If
Democrats in the 4th want to write my name in that�s fine,� Shea said.
�One thing is for certain, we can�t let Buchanan win the seat. We need a
candidate who will be truthful and support the middle class.�

Altmire can lie to his allies faces on healthcare, and his allies will still support him.  Even withdrawing support and embracing neutrality in the cycle would have been a sufficient action to claim a scalp.  Continuing support on the "lesser of two evils" rationalizations means SW PA unions are constants and constants can be ignored.  

Great job of self-marginalization.