This week, parts of Pennsylvania will be digging out from under two feet of snow while everyone prepares for the Christmas holiday, but politics must go on!

Don’t expect much out of Harrisburg for a couple of weeks – both the House and Senate have adjourned (without a table games bill) until January 5, but lawmakers whose districts will benefit most from additional gambling revenue will continue to stump for local projects that need funding.  What projects would be first in line for funding?  A hospital in Bucks, a community college in Erie, a medical school in Scranton, so local legislators will have the most gain.

After the U.S. Senate approved a procedural motion to bring the health care reform bill to a vote for full passage on Thursday (Christmas Eve), Pennsylvania’s Senators’ votes are receiving nearly as much attention as any other (aside from Nebraska’s Ben Nelson and a few others).  Bob Casey, Scranton’s favorite Irish-Catholic Senator, has gotten serious blow-back from Catholic voters wary of his tiptoe around abortion funding.  Arlen Specter, up for re-election in 2010 and in a dead-heat with GOP candidate Pat Toomey, has been targeted by the NRSC for his health care vote.

Tags: Weekly Primer

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 11:11 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.