Grand jury recommendations, Rendell’s third term and a world without TV. See who made this week’s list!
Kathleen Kane. Last week, we gave the Attorney General our down arrow for 2014. 2015 may prove, however, to be an even worse year for Kathleen Kane. Yesterday, the news broke that a grand jury investigating Kane for leaking information was recommending charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. At this moment it is unclear whether she will face any charges or have to stand trial. Yet even if Kane somehow escapes this predicament, the effect on her political career will be devastating. In 2012, Kane ran as a “prosecutor not a politician”. With all these political and legal conflicts swirling around her, how will she convince voters she fulfilled her promise and deserves another term.
Ed Rendell. As strange as it may seem even now, the legacy of Gov. Rendell played quite a role in last year’s gubernatorial election. The Corbett-Cawley team ran ads branding Wolf as a “third term” for Rendell, betting that the voters had soured on him. Instead, Wolf won and is stocking his Administration with Rendell alums. Among them, Katie McGinty, John Hanger, Mary Isenhour, Eileen McNulty and now Pedro Cortes. Given all this, it wouldn’t be unfair to call Wolf Rendell’s true successor.
Steve Santarsiero. Santarsiero didn’t wait long. After Congressman Fitzpatrick made it clear this would be his last term, the State Rep. became the first to throw his hat in the ring this week. In an open seat race like this, getting out ahead by securing endorsements and raising money becomes even more important. Already Santarsiero has the backing of the county party chair and ex-Rep. Allyson Schwartz. His announcement makes him the most prominent figure in what will likely be the most competitive congressional race in 2016.
Lynne Abraham. The mayoral candidate gave an interview to Philadelphia Magazine’s new “Citified” venture this week. It was a big win for Citified; for Abraham not so much. The former DA criticized President Obama’s governing abilities, accused Governor-Elect Tom Wolf of a political ploy and elevated one of her opponents when she took a shot at Ken Trujillo’s proposal to end the SRC. Even worse, she fed into the perception that, at 73 years of age, she’s too old to be mayor. Besides ending the interview with a comment that suggested she doesn’t understand the concept of blogs, at one point she mentioned that when she was a kid “we didn’t have television”. When trying to make the case that you’re not too old, it’s best not to remind people that you remember a time before TV.
Bill Peduto. Pittsburgh’s Mayor got to enter the “No Spin Zone”. Mayor Peduto made an appearance Wednesday on “The O’Reilly Factor”, which (as Bill O’Reilly likes to point out) is the highest-rated show on cable news. Peduto was on to defend the actions of Pittsburgh police chief Cameron McLay. While it’s unknown how much of the generally Democratic Steel City watches Fox News, Mayor Peduto nonetheless performed well and raised his national profile.
The tweet of the week goes to Scott Detrow, for coming up with the perfect analogy.
The PA politics version of Defense Against Dark Arts Professor MT @AngelasInk: AG Kane has a new spokesman…
— Scott Detrow (@scottdetrow) January 8, 2015
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2 Responses
AG Kane is experiencing the conflicts she is because she won’t play politics. After decades of nothing but politics guiding the AG’s office, powers that be can not stand having someone in that office who refuses to play along.
Regarding Congressional District 8, isn’t it time for the Democratic Party in PA to realize their own bias in not supporting qualified women candidates at all levels? We have zero female representation from Pennsylvania in Congress, sharing this dubious distinction for the 114th Congress with Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky. Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont. While Georgia has an all-male Congressional delegation of 16, every other state with an all-male delegation has fewer than 10 in their Congressional delegation.
This occurs at a time of “The Most Diverse Congress in History,” the first Black Republican woman in Congress, the largest Black Republican class in Congress since the Reconstruction era (46), 33 Hispanic lawmakers, 12 Asian-American lawmakers, 2 lawmakers with Native American ancestry, 98 military background, ages 30 to 85, 18 Mormons, 28 Jewish, 2 Buddhists, 2 Muslims, 1 Hindu.
Pennsylvania provides 20 men; No one in Leadership; 1 Black, 19 Caucasian; 13 Roman Catholics, 2 non-denominational Christian, 2 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, 1 United Brethren, 1 Lutheran; 12 most recently in other elected office, 4 most recently in government jobs, 2 most recently attorneys, 2 most recently businessmen.
Our non-diversity is an embarrassment.
Mary Isenhour did not work in the Rendell administration. Eileen McNulty also worked in the Casey Administration and more recently the Corbett administration. There were several people in the Corbett administration who worked in the Ridge administration, including the Budget Secretary and Chief of Staff. Governor Ridge appointed several people who worked in the Thornburgh administration. And at one point Governor Casey appointed the Chiefs of Staff to two former Gkovernor’s.
Moreover, it is likely that Governor will carry over cabinet officials from the Corbett administration, as did Governor Rendell and Governor Casey. So it’s time to get over this third term thing. The campaign is over.