It’s a mystery.
[...]edited by: Lisa Mossie,
Pennsylvania Editor
Kinda hard to top this guy.
[...]
Thomas L. Garman Jr. (left) will try to do what Republicans have failed to accomplish year after year after year: unseating Democratic state Rep. Mike Sturla. The 32-year-old North Franklin Street resident, who runs a small landscaping business, said in an interview this morning he is entering [...]
SINGLE PAYER: Voting members of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, meeting in Lancaster on Saturday, endorsed a resolution calling for passage of single-payer health care proposals — Senate Bill 400 and House Bill 1660, the “Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.” Chuck Pennacchio, head of Healthcare for All PA, [...]
The chairman of the state Democratic Party says a rule that made its endorsement harder to get will probably prevent any of the gubernatorial candidates from being endorsed this year, The Associated Press reports. The 2004 rule changed the endorsement threshold from a simple majority vote of the Democratic State [...]
At least U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts thought the conservative darling did three and a half months ago. The Republican lawmaker was a cosponsor of this House resolution:
Democrat Lois Herr, who is challenging Pitts this year, called on the lawmaker to repudiate his [...]
In an op-ed to this newspaper, Lancaster County Democratic Committee Chairman Bruce Beardsley says the message from Republican Scott Brown’s victory is that President Barack Obama has not yet governed with the strength voters expected of him.
So, yes, Democrat Martha Coakley was an incredibly horrible [...]
As you already know, the Pennsylvania Democrats hold their endorsement convention in Lancaster on Feb. 6. U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democrat who’s trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, said it’d be great if he won his party endorsement. But Sestak’s clearly not counting on it [...]
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts’ re-election campaign raised $89,189 and spent $49,565 from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, according to its latest finance report. About 54 percent of the contributions, or $48,039, came from individuals. The remaining 46 percent, or $41,150, came from political-action committees, according to the report. The [...]
In an interview this morning, Warwick Middle School guidance counselor and East Hempfield Township Supervisor Brett Miller said he expects to pick up more support among the 65 committee people in retiring Rep. Katie True’s House district before the county GOP’s Feb. 16 endorsement convention. As we [...]
A reader who used to live in Joisey takes exception to the proposal:
Just a quick rebuttal to the part-time Legislature idea: New Jersey has a part-time Legislature. Trenton is one of the most corrupt state capitals in the nation. The Legislature is full of crooked lawyers, mostly [...]
Lancaster County Clerk of Courts Ryan Aument (left) won the first and only straw poll of Republican committee people in the 41st Legislative District Thursday night. The results reaffirmed Aument’s position as the frontrunner for the GOP’s endorsement for retiring state Rep. Katie True’s House seat.
Aument topped Warwick [...]
The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, [...]
Reports Laura Vecsey of The Patriot-News:
During his CNN broadcast from Port-au-Prince on Monday night, anchor Anderson Cooper implied that the overwhelming task of helping Haiti’s victims might be being compromised by ad-hoc rescue missions launched through political channels. Cooper was talking about Rendell — a well-connected deal-maker [...]
Retiring Rep. Katie True, who has already come out in support of Republican Ryan Aument, said this morning she would work for his campaign, if asked, in the primary. Aument, the county’s clerk of courts, is running for party endorsement against teacher and East Hempfield Township [...]
Well, that ends that. Former East Hempfield Township Supervisor Heidi Wheaton called this morning to end some of the speculation that’s been going on here and elsewhere about whether she’s intending to run for retiring Rep. Katie True’s House seat. She’s not. “I’m focusing on things I [...]
Former county GOP chairman Chet Beiler raised a few eyebrows here when won last weekend’s round of straw-poll balloting for lieutenant governor. He had been keeping his candidacy quite until the meeting.
But insiders insisted that, despite the poll, Bucks County Commissioner James Cawley had the inside track at the [...]
Greg Sahd, a former Lancaster County treasurer, said this morning he will not pursue the state Republican Party’s endorsement for lieutenant governor after a poor showing at its Central Caucus straw polls last weekend. Sahd, of Manheim Township, got one vote. “I only sought endorsement from Central [...]
“It allows Corbett to weigh in on his choice,” said one southeast Republican familiar with the race. Like others interviewed for this article, he spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating Corbett and state committee members. “I know his concern before was that, if he [...]
Five states - Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, and Texas - bar certain elected officials from using their positions as stepping-stones. Those provisions are often called resign-to-run laws. Some say it’s time for Pennsylvania to have one, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer today.
The race for governor brings this issue into sharper [...]
Republican Brett Miller, a Warwick Middle School guidance counselor and East Hempfield Township supervisor, announced Sunday night he will seek GOP endorsement for the seat. Miller will face fellow Republican Ryan P. Aument, the county Clerk of Courts, in the race for party backing. “My enter career [...]
Hempfield GOP Chairman Scott Wiglesworth has confirmed that Brett Miller, a Warwick guidance counselor and East Hempfield Township supervisor, will run for Rep. Katie True’s seat. Miller will seek the county GOP’s endorsement next month alongside county Clerk of Courts Ryan Aument. Stay tuned.
[...]Penn Township businessman Chet Beiler won the state Republican Party’s first straw poll vote for lieutenant governor Saturday, narrowly edging Dauphin County Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco. Of the 104 votes taken by members of the GOP’s Central Caucus — which includes much of the midstate including Lancaster County — Beiler [...]
Penn Township businessman Chet Beiler is among at least 15 Republicans either running or interesting in running for Pennsylvania No. 2 position, according to a published report.
The Patriot-News reports that the first of six non-binding straw polls will take place Saturday at a meeting of the [...]
From Politico:
Sarah Palin’s plan to deliver the keynote address – for a fee – at next month’s first-ever National Tea Party Convention is getting renewed attention in light of her rejection Thursday of an invitation to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
The decision to blow off [...]
Yep, you heard that right.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, will headline the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s annual convention, being held at the Lancaster Host Resort Feb. 5 and 6. For two days, our mostly conservative neck of the woods will be the hub of statewide Democratic [...]
Former Lancaster County GOP Chairman David M. Dumeyer, in a move that will likely surprise some in the party, said this morning he will not run for retiring state Rep. Katie True’s seat. The West Hempfield Township supervisor, a retired senior state House staffer who has deep political connections, was [...]
Interesting story, given the pending appeal over something similar by Michael Roseboro in his homicide trial.
“Despite admonitions from judges, many jurors can’t seem to keep their hands off their electronic devices, posting updates on their Facebook pages and — far more worrisome — mining the Internet during breaks [...]
Larry Ceisler wins our quote of the week. Except we can’t figure out which of his lines in this particular column, which appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, is best.
How about this one: “I think such a convention would be a political freak show. Let’s be realistic for a [...]
Scott V. Brubaker, the former chairman of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, pleaded guilty this afternoon to four felonies in the sweeping probe of the Capitol’s largest public-corruption scandal in three decades, according to published reports. The judge hearing the case accepted the plea agreement, which calls for Brubaker [...]
Meet John J. McClure , 35, of Lancaster. He said today he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the 16th Congressional District seat in 2010. He is the second member of his party to enter the race, a move that sets the stage for [...]
From Penn Township police: Two males entered the CVS store at 129 Doe Run Road in the Manheim Shopping Center Dec. 17 and stole over $400 worth of Rogaine.
[...]
Former state Rep. Sean Ramaley was exonerated of all charges Thursday in the first trial spawned by Pennsylvania’s government corruption investigation, The Associated Press is reporting. The former two-term Democrat from Beaver County was accused of using a state job to [...]
Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review lays it out:
The case arguably is the weakest of the corruption cases. That’s not to say [ex-state Rep. Sean Ramaley will] win a not-guilty verdict. But it was in my view a 50-50 shot as the trial got under way. Those are good [...]
In a statement, the Democratic candidate for the 16th Congressional District breaks with President Barack Obama over his decision to send 30,000 more soldiers to the country. But she also couches her opposition by saying, “I assume President Obama knows more than the rest of us and that he weighed [...]
ABC News will broadcast live coverage of President Barack Obama’s speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 from 8:00 – 9:00 p.m., ET / 5:00 – 6:00 p.m., PT.
Charles Gibson will anchor the primetime coverage. He will be joined by Chief Washington [...]
H/T Capitol Ideas.
[...]Here is what U.S Rep. Joe Pitts says about the amendment passed by the House earlier this month.
It is purely, and only, about whether or not the government will pay for abortion in the so-called “public option” and through new “affordability credits” if the legislation now in Congress becomes [...]
At least not for 2010.
Reports WHTM: Pennsylvania legislators will not give away free 2010 calendars to their constituents. Rep. John Payne (R-Dauphin) said Republican and Democrat leaders of the House of Representatives recently decided not to print the calendars. “After completing a difficult state budget, and with all signs pointing [...]
In a post on his campaign blog Sunday, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts says his opponents on the left are making “wild claims” about the Stupak-Pitts amendment. He also indirectly criticizes Lois Herr, the Democrat who is running against him in next year’s election.
There is, however, a small [...]
The National Organization for Women, which says it will target Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in next year’s election, is holding a rally Saturday morning in opposition to the health-care amendment the congressman co-authored with Democrat Bart Stupak.
Lois Herr, the Democratic candidate for the 16th Congressional District seat, will [...]
The county commissioners on Wednesday rejected, by a 2-1 vote, a spring arbitration award that gives county corrections officers raises in 2010 and 2011. The arbitration panel gave the 185 corrections officers, who are represented by AFSCME Council 89, a 7 percent pay this year. The officers are contributing [...]
Yeah, we had problems well before Bonusgate. I love the Patriot-News’ not-so-brief history of political wrongdoing — alleged and otherwise — in our fair state.
[...]Politically Uncorrected
By G. Terry Madonna & Michael L. Young
TOM CORBETT’S PROBLEM
Attorney General Tom Corbett has a problem. More precisely, he had a problem. More about that in a moment!
Corbett’s problem was the same problem confronted by each of his predecessors since the Office of Attorney General became elective in [...]
Republican Tony Allen conceded the race for Lancaster Township supervisor early this afternoon after a painstaking, 3½-hour manual recount showed his Democratic opponent won by 13 votes. “That’s it,” Allen said after the tally was announced by Lancaster County elections officials shortly before 2:30 p.m.
The results will bring an end [...]
You’ve heard about those taxpayer-funded robocalls Rep. John Perzel ordered against fellow Republicans who refused to “adequately conform to his directives” on how they should vote. Perzel also allegedly directed those calls be made against lawmakers he felt had become a “liability” to the caucus, according to the grand [...]
Of all the things in the grand jury’s 188-page Bonusgate presentment against John Perzel, I found this the most humorous: Perzel allegedly punished a group of Republican House members who refused to “adequately conform to his directives” on how they should vote by directing untraceable “robo” or automated calls [...]
Lancaster County elections officials completed their official canvassing of votes in the race for Lancaster Township supervisor this morning, and though they found four votes that had not been previously counted, the discovery did not change the outcome of the race. Democrat Ben Bamford picked up two of those votes, [...]
The Lancaster County Board of Elections has scheduled the official count and canvass of the 11-vote upset of Lancaster Township Supervisor Tony Allen for 9 Thursday morning. The official count is mandated under state law; officials compare return sheets and count used and unused ballots to verify the original results.
As [...]
Gov. Ed Rendell, offering his synopsis of Tuesday’s election on NBC’s Meet the Press, acknowledged the results weren’t great for Democrats.
“I’m happy I wasn’t running this year,” Rendell said, adding that he didn’t believe the results were a referendum on Obama. “When things are bad, incumbents are held responsible [...]
The newly formed Pennsylvania Tea Party Patriots Coalition — a group that includes the Lancaster Tea Party and like-minded organizations from around the state — will march on Harrisburg and hold a rally Saturday to demand an end to fiscal irresponsibility in Pennsylvania.
“The recent Pennsylvania budget fiasco illustrates [...]
The county’s top elections official, Mary Stehman, says there might be additional military or overseas absentee ballots that have not been opened in the race for Lancaster Mayor. Former two-term Mayor Charlie Smithgall picked up 11 votes from provisional ballots, bringing the Republican’s total to 3,485, in the final canvassing [...]
As I mentioned earlier, Tony Allen could potentially petition the courts to order a visual recount of the election results for supervisor in Lancaster Township. Allen, a Republican, appears to have lost by only 11 votes or less than half a percentage point to Ben Bamford, a Democrat. I [...]
Just in case you missed them in this morning’s print edition, here are a few brainteasers for your Friday evening enjoyment:
1.) And you thought this year’s mayoral race was close? Yes, Democrat Rick Gray won a second term by only 313 votes of the 7,261 cast in the race, or [...]
Former two-term Mayor Charlie Smithgall picked up 11 votes from provisional ballots, bringing the Republican’s total to 3,485, in the final canvassing of returns completed early this evening. Mayor Rick Gray, a Democrat, picked up five votes from provisional ballots, bringing his total to 3,792, said Mary Stehman, the county’s [...]
Former U.S. Rep. Robert S. Walker, of Manheim Township, has announced his support of Tom Corbett for governor, saying Pennsylvania’s attorney general is the Republican with the best chance of “helping our party take back the Governor’s office” and restoring fiscal discipline in Harrisburg. PoliticsPa has [...]
AMVETS Post 19 will hold its annual “Meet the Candidates” night on Sunday, Oct. 18. If you’re not familiar with this event, it’s become a staple of the local political scene since its founder, the late Harold Sommers, launched it back in 1996. This year’s [...]
Spending and tax bills approved by the Republican-controlled Senate earlier today are on their way to the House, where Democrats are threatening to strip $12 million in what they believe are discretionary grants from the $27.8 billion plan and quickly send it back to the Senate. Senate Republicans, meantime, say [...]
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh will give “A Report from Washington” at Franklin & Marshall College on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at F&M’s Barshinger Center for the Musical Arts in Hensel [...]
Rep. John C. Bear, a Lititz Republican, scheduled a rally in support of a bill that would end project labor agreements in Pennsylvania, contracts he says reward unions with large contracts and drive up the cost of taxpayer-funded projects.
The local trade unions found out about it. [...]
… and watch this. It’s gotta beat anything else on the tube tonight. Seriously.
[...]
Republican state Reps. Scott Boyd and Bryan Cutler were among a group of GOP lawmakers who drafted a letter to the president encouraging him to examine their 14-bill health care-reform package.
“We recognize that you may not approve of every [...]
If you can’t get enough of Chris Matthews’ freewheeling, in-your-face style of punditry on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” here’s a chance to get your fix in person. Matthews will be at Franklin & Marshall College next Wednesday night to talk about health care reform, the state of the [...]
Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has Rendell on the record:
“This budget is not balanced for this year, and it’s a billion dollars short for next year,” Rendell said in Pittsburgh. He said he plans to tell the legislative leaders who announced the agreement that he would “absolutely” veto the [...]
Gov. Ed Rendell’s office is putting the finishing touches on a statement opposing the so-called budget agreement reached by three of the four legislative caucuses, a spokesman said. But his chief of staff, Steve Crawford, told The Post-Gazette Rendell cannot support the plan.
The spending proposal by Senate Republican and [...]
You decide. From Capitolwire.com Bureau Chief Peter L. DeCoursey:
HARRISBURG (Sept. 10) – A $27.945 billion proposed budget is expected to be announced Friday morning at a joint press conference of leaders of the House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats.
House Democrats were ardently lobbying Rendell to agree to [...]
Is it for real this time?
State lawmakers are nearing a handshake agreement on the budget, according to various media outlets. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports tonight that “aides confirmed that the administration and legislative leaders have agreed on an overall spending figure of roughly $28 billion - less than Rendell had [...]
The Tweeting senator says, “Rep. Wilson apologized immediately afterward but I don’t think that’s adequate.”
[...]U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts’ office released the following statement this morning on President Barack Obama’s call for passage of sweeping health-care legislation Wednesday night:
“I don’t really know whether this speech is going to change things for the President. He continues to support a deeply unpopular government-run public option [...]
H/T PoliticsPA:
Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett will officially declare his candidacy for governor Monday night in Pittsburgh, two independent sources with knowledge of the announcement tell PoliticsPA. Corbett is considered the clear front-runner for the GOP nomination. U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach is the only other Republican [...]
Never thought you’d see that headline, huh?
From the Toomey for Senate campaign:
Toomey Praises Obama’s Inspiring School Speech
Allentown, PA – U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey called President Obama’s speech today to school children in Arlington, Virginia “an inspiring and moving speech for students across America.”
“Education is the [...]
The Charlotte Observer recalls:
On Oct. 2, 1991, President Bush spoke to students at Alice Deal Junior High School in the northwest part of the District of Columbia.
The president’s comments sounded a lot like those contained in an advance copy of Obama’s speech.
“When it comes to your own education, what [...]
Feed from Muhlenberg College forum via WFMZ-TV 69 in Allentown, and also available at Rep. Joe Sestak’s site.
DayPortPlayer.newPlayer({domain:"wfmz.web.entriq.net", playerInstanceID:"DFD5337E-D717-1EE5-6E56-DC274393923B"}); [...]If you missed our live broadcast of last week’s town hall meeting on health care at Conestoga Valley High School last week, the congressman has posted the footage online.
Here are a few clips:
[...]
From The AP:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given $1 million to Franklin & Marshall College, where the new Center for Business, Government & Public Policy will be named after his top deputy, Patricia Harris. Harris, Bloomberg’s longtime friend and adviser, graduated from the Lancaster, Pa., school [...]
If you can’t make the health care town hall meeting at Muhlenberg College between Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak and Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Pat Toomey tonight, a live video feed will be available here. You can also check back here at 6:30 p.m. We’ll be embedding the [...]
In Connecticut, that is. The state budget there is to take effect Sunday because Gov. M. Jodi Rell is reluctantly letting it become law without her signature. According to The AP, Rell criticized the budget as calling for more borrowing and vague plans for future spending. But [...]
U.S Rep. Joe Pitts sent the following in reference to today’s news that the jobless rate here crept to its highest level in more than 26 years, to 7.4 percent, in July:
“These statistics underscore the seriousness of this recession. I think we all need to keep [...]
Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, who will seek his eighth term in Congress next year, is raising more money than his challenger and has nearly five times as much campaign cash in the bank, finance reports show. But Democrat Lois Herr has raked in twice as much [...]
… about health care in the rest of the world, by T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter and author of “The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care,” to be published Monday.
My personal favorite? No. 3: Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies.
Writes [...]
