Clout: Campaign manager's "Terrible" past

MAYBE YOU'VE noticed that by this time of the year, we sorta hate politics. We write about candidates and campaigns with the same gusto as, say, taking out the trash. Or plunging a toilet. Just vote and get it over with.

But we do like professional wrestling.

So imagine our delight when a Clout tipster informed us that the campaign manager for a Supreme Court candidate is a former wrestler named "Jason the Terrible."

It's true. Mitch Kates, who's running David Wecht's campaign, is a 6-5 former ax-wielding wrestler who used to don a "Friday the 13th"-style hockey mask before pulverizing his opponents in the ring.

(As Clout overlord Gar Joseph would say: "That is tremendous!")

We called Kates to discuss this important political story.

"Let's just say I went from one ring to another ring," he said.

Yep, with polished quotes like that Kates has definitely completed the wrestling-to-politics transition. Notice the absence of aggressive finger pointing. No unhinged heavy breathing at all. Not even a maniacal "Ohhhh yeahhhhh!" at the end.

Kates, 51, said he was trained by Walter "Killer" Kowalski. Back in the day, Kates was mostly known as "Jason the Terrible," but his other gimmick was Mitch "Killer Jr." Kowalski (Walter's "nephew," obviously).

He started wrestling in junior high and was the New England heavyweight champion his senior year in college and competed in the NCAA Division III nationals and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics nationals.

But Kates later developed some serious campaign chops. By 2008, the Tampa Bay Times was describing him as a "budding elephant slayer." In addition to Florida, Kates has worked on campaigns in Boston, Pittsburgh and Georgia - as in, the former Soviet republic, not the Peach State. He helped oust power-hungry President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"It was totally surreal," Kates said of his time in Georgia.

Interesting. That's how some people would describe the scandal-ridden Supreme Court these days. Maybe "Jason the Terrible" can help fix that problem, too?

You know who else could use a good body slam? The Delaware County Democrats.

Last week, the Democratic candidates for County Council backed out of a debate - at the last minute - set up by the League of Women Voters, citing concerns about scheduling, publicity and who could post what to social media.

There once was a time when Delco Republicans were the ones dodging debates, knowing that their massive voter-registration advantage and superior ground game assured that they would win almost every election. So, why risk a debate, right?

Today, Democrats finally have an edge in voter registration in the 'burbs, but they run for the hills over the debate format? It's the League of Women Voters, fellas. Not exactly hostile territory.

Also: You want people to be tweeting about your candidates. That's how politics works these days.

We hear there have been some "issues" within the party and that changes could be on the way after next week's election. One problem we see right now: The party's Twitter account @DelcoDems hasn't posted anything since Nov. 4, 2014.

Perhaps that explains the party's misconceptions about social media. Tweeting should not be an annual occurrence.

Remember last month when Daily News reporter Regina Medina wrote about how U.S. Rep. Bob Brady snagged Pope Francis' water glass and, like a real weirdo, took it back to his office and sipped from the holy glass then invited others to do the same or dip their fingers in the pope's leftover water/backwash?

Apparently, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crawley does. Yesterday, he tweeted a selfie of he and newly elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was drinking a glass of water. (All that P90X makes a Wisconsin Republican thirsty.)

"Hey @RepBrady. Know you're a fan of sharing H2O so saved you a sip. Not Holy water but perhaps #BipartisanWater?" Crawley wrote to his fellow Democrat.

You might also recall that Clout had some fun over the summer with a series of emails from Republican Register of Wills candidate Ross Feinberg.

The emails had titles - "Register of Wills," "Register of Wills II," "Register of Wills III" and so on - that reminded us of Hollywood film franchises that keep adding numbers and adjectives to their titles as they stretch on endlessly.

Eventually, we joked, there would be a gritty reboot: "Dawn of Register of Wills." We had a laugh and moved on. But the emails from the Republican City Committee kept on coming.

Last week's email: "ABOLISH FEINBERG."

What's going on here? You won't see Warner Brothers releasing a movie called "Get Rid of Batman."

Feinberg has no interest in being part of an endless franchise, er, political gig. If elected, he wants to kill the row office, which has been held by Democrat Ronald Donatucci for more than three decades.

Donatucci is a proud proponent of patronage politics. (Go ahead, try saying that five times fast.) An Inquirer story earlier this week examined his fondness for hiring the politically connected.

"Do I believe that story would have been written if Ross had just been some sacrificial lamb? No," said Republican City Committee executive director Joe DeFelice.

Feinberg faces long odds to unseat Donatucci. But getting under Donatucci's skin has been "extremely enjoyable," DeFelice said, as has been getting voters and reporters to pay a little attention to a sometimes overlooked row office.

We, too, find it extremely enjoyable to get under the skin of elected officials.

It's better than plunging a toilet, at least.

- Daily News staff writers

William Bender

and David Gambacorta

and Philly.com's Ryan Briggs

contributed to this report.

On Twitter: @wbender99

Email: benderw@phillynews.com

Phone: 215-854-5255