Yes, we know the Red Sox and Yankees officially kicked off the baseball season last night, but opening day with the Phillies, Nationals, Sen. Specter and President Obama matters much more here at PoliticsPA.
After Allegheny County Executive and Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Dan Onorato hit the airwaves last week, expect to see new ads from state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams on Wednesday, too. Williams entered the races as a dark horse of sorts, but with the help of some big-time donors, he’ll try to spend his way to better polling numbers. (Early polling has showed him in last place.)
Campaign finance news will dominate the headlines the next two weeks. On Tuesday, all of the gubernatorial candidates will have to report how much they raised in 2010’s first three months, and the onus will be on the two Democrats who haven’t publicly revealed their campaign coffers’ contents: Jack Wagner and Joe Hoeffel.
The two men posted anemic fundraising numbers last year, raising questions about their ability to run an effective TV ad campaign blitz when the primary neared. With two of the Democrats already on air, Wagner and Hoeffel might need strong fundraising numbers to keep up in the increasingly competitive primary.
And although candidates for federal office won’t report their finances until next week, Pat Toomey’s decision to release his numbers Monday could prompt his Democratic rivals, Joe Sestak and Arlen Specter, to similarly reveal their fundraising totals early. Both men posted disappointing returns last report, so it will be interesting to see if they’re fundraising has picked up as the primary nears.
Even though May 18 is little more than a month away now, Sestak will take time to debate his potential Republican opponent, Pat Toomey, on Sunday in Philadelphia. It’s the second time the two men have squared off against each other without Specter, but expect time’s debate to be a little more heated with an election just around the corner. And unlike last time, when neither man mentioned Specter’s name, expect the incumbent senator to become a rhetorical punching bag.
Sestak could certainly use the media attention the debate will likely receive, but will Democrats be excited he’s also giving Toomey free coverage in the state’s most expensive market? Either way, don’t count out the former admiral just yet — he still has more than enough money to throw a few ferocious punches against Specter in the campaign’s final weeks.
Speaking of debates, the Democratic gubernatorial candidates will be featured Wednesday at a forum hosted by public media station WITF. Watch to see if Hoeffel continues railing against Onorato because of the chief executive’s abandoned effort to knock him off the ballot in March, or, with Williams’ stock continuing to rise, if he takes more shots against his southeast rival.
Also, be sure to check in with PoliticsPA later this week when we release our Top 10 Capitol Hill staffers for the Pa. delegation, and a new edition of our Pa. Congressional Race Rankings, only on PoliticsPA.
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