According to a Franklin & Marshall poll, only 23% of Pennsylvania voters believe that incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D) deserves another term in the US Senate.  Specter, who switched parties earlier this year, still holds a comfortable, but shrinking lead over his Democratic primary opponent, Joe Sestak, and a narrow lead in a hypothetical general election against GOP challenger Pat Toomey.

With only a few days remaining before the Nov. 3 election for the Pa. Supreme Court’s vacant seat, Democrat Jack Panella and Republican Joan Orie Melvin each went on the offensive, launching last-minute attack ads to gain an edge in what appears to be a neck-and-neck race.  The ads certainly make for good stories, but a race for a Supreme Court seat shouldn’t be run like this.  According to our poll (vote on our home page!), Panella will edge out Melvin by 9 points, but the pros are predicting a much closer election.

The lead story from Washington (D.C., not Pa.) this morning says that dozens of congressmen are under investigation by mutltiple ethics committees.  Located directly under the microscope is Pennsylvania’s own Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense.  Investigators are looking specifically at the committee’s dealings with the PMA Group, whose clients had federal funds steered to them through Murtha’s committee.  The PMA Group and their clients also contributed to various committee members’ campaigns.

Forget about Arlen Specter, Pat Toomey and Joe Sestak.  Pat Doyle is the Senate candidate from Pennsylvania we’re keeping an eye on.  No, not really, but over the past few days, the folks at Zolitics have been sending out phony press releases to create buzz (or, at least, confusion) about the launch of Zolitics.com, a new political entertainment website.  The website’s upcoming show, “Moving Numbers,” will chronicle a fictional Pa. Senate race, with all episodes available online.  Republican media consultant John Brabender and Democratic media consultant Tad Devine, both well known in Pennsylvania, are among the site’s creators.

Rep. Jason Altmire, from Southwest Pa., got some bad news this week, as US attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced that she is resigning from her post, increasing speculation that she will run against Altmire in the fourth district.  Altmire shouldn’t take Buchanan lightly – she oversaw the case that sent Tommy Chong to prison in 2003! Yes, THAT Chong.

Tags: Up & Down

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 9:48 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.