PA Lieutenant Governor's Race Opens With GOP Jagoff Move

That the opening salvo in the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor’s race involved an attack on a candidate isn’t surprising. What was unanticipated was that it included an assault on a prime piece of Pittsburghese.

Braddock Mayor John Fetterman unexpectedly won the Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial nomination Tuesday, defeating incumbent Mike Stack and three other candidates. He’ll face Republican Jeff Bartos, a Montgomery County developer, in the November election.

Fetterman’s primary victory was startling not because he lacks political acumen, but because he’s 6 feet 8 inches tall, shaves his head, sports a goatee and most often wears short pants. That’s not a look that usually gets a candidate many votes in Pennsylvania’s more conservative areas, of which roughly 65 of its 67 counties can be described.

That it did made the GOP immediately go on the offensive and in doing so potentially offend a large segment of western Pennsylvania voters - those who speak Yinzer.

The state Republican Party on Wednesday tweeted that Fetterman’s rise “included selling T-shirts with profanity-laced attacks on President Trump!” The tweet showed the shirt, which Fetterman sold during his campaign and voiced his sentiments toward the president: “Trump is a Jagoff.”

The tweet blurred the final word, presumably so the frail wouldn’t faint, no eyes would pop out of their sockets in shock and parents would be spared the uncomfortable moment of explaining the word’s meaning if their children saw it because they frequently surf the GOP Twitter feed.

Is “jagoff” a term of endearment? No.

Is it a word disaster relief workers use when alerting people that the airlifted supplies have arrived (“Hey you jagoffs, the food’s here!”) Certainly not.

Is it a word a newborn mother uses to affectionately describe her child as she gazes down at the infant in the crib (“You look so peaceful when you’re sleeping, my little jagoff.”)? Don’t think so.

But is “jagoff” a profanity? It’s clearly is not as profane as (expletive), (expletive) or (expletive). Sorry I can’t be more specific, but Patch is a family digital experience. Besides, you probably know what words I mean; if not, think of what you exclaimed the last time when you hit your thumb with a hammer.

The word isn’t described as profane in the Oxford English Dictionary, to which it ascended to in 2016. Its official definition: “Jagoff, noun (chiefly in western Pennsylvania): a stupid, irritating or contemptible person.”

"Stupid," “irritating,” and “contemptible,” are not “expletive,” “expletive,” or “expletive.” So if you’re from western Pennsylvania, someone describing “jagoff” as a profanity should disturb you no matter what your political affiliation or feeling toward Fetterman.

If a person can be savaged for using a word used for decades to describe amusement park line-jumpers at Kennywood, where does it stop? Who gets criticized next? The person who uses “pop” to describe “soda,” “gumband” instead of “rubber band” or “slippy” as opposed to the much more formal “slippery”?

The GOP can be thankful that its tactical error came early in the campaign. Bartos has plenty of time to recover. But the person who came up with the misguided tweet needs to realize that you never criticize a yinzer’s love of family, french fries on salads or linguistic oddities.

There are plenty of people who probably want the responsible party tossed into a jaggerbush.

Eric Heyl is Patch’s Pittsburgh field editor. Reach him at 412-334-4033 or Eric. Heyl@Patch.com