Every week, PoliticsPA will give you a taste of the buzz, rumors and gossip floating around Pennsylvania’s political wags.This week’s edition gives outtakes from Rendell’s eye-opening interview earlier this week, one state lawmaker’s tough questions from high schoolers, and Pat Toomey’s clever campaign piece.
Governor Ed Rendell, in a wide-ranging, candid interview given during and after Tuesday’s podcast taping, decided he also wanted to weigh in on recent controversy surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife has become a leader of the Tea Party movement.
The governor, himself married to a Third Circuit federal appellate judge, was incredulous that Thomas could be criticized for views held by his spouse. As long as the justice removes himself from cases that involve the cause, Rendell said, the alleged conflict shouldn’t be a problem.
Other notes from the interview:
– Rendell, as expected, vigorously defended Arlen Specter’s ties to the Democratic Party, saying the long-time incumbent has established relationships during his time in office that no other elected official can match. The governor even went so far as to say that he and Senator Bob Casey would face a tough battle against the former Republican in a primary matchup.
– When asked about likely Republican U.S. Senate nominee Pat Toomey, the governor said the free-market advocate has a background ripe for criticism. He then repeated the phrase “Club for Growth” four to five times before saying Toomey was allies with a group of people that brought on the country’s fiscal crisis. The Republican headed Club for Growth, a free-market advocacy group, before deciding to run for Senate last year.
– The governor said although he wouldn’t fear for Pennsylvania if Republican Tom Corbett is elected next year, he is concerned that the attorney general’s no-tax pledge will put him in a difficult position when, as the governor sees it, he’s forced to increase revenue to deal with the looming pension crisis. He cited George H. W. Bush as an example of what happens to politicians when they break their word about raising taxes.
“I think Tom has put himself in an untenable position,” Rendell said. “Maybe he knows something I don’t know.”
State Rep. Jim Wansacz, one of many Democrats seeking to replace the retiring Bob Mellow in the Senate, faced some tough questions about per diems last week, and not from the news media.
Students from local high school grilled the lawmaker about, among other topics, using taxpayer money for late-night dinners at the Capitol. Rep. Wansacz did his best to respond, but it’s not the kind of question-and-answer session a candidate wants to experience two months before the primary.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien’s primary challenge against incumbent Paul Kanjorski has been relatively under the radar in a state featuring so many competitive contests this year. But according to a recent story in The Hill, his campaign “is running the most competitive primary challenge to an incumbent Democrat in the country.”
O’Brien has made Kanjorski’s support of the financial system’s bailouts the central issue of his campaign thus far. The winner of the Democratic primary will likely take on Republican Lou Barletta in a race PoliticsPA has ranked the second most likely to change parties in the state.
Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak won’t like it, but Pat Toomey’s campaign put together this week a pretty creative Web page that seeks to portray the Democrats as out-of-touch liberal extremists. Titled “March to Madness,” the feature pits 16 video clips from the two men against one another in a NCAA Basketball style bracket, with voters asked to choose which are the most “mad.”
No word if the Toomey campaign has arranged for Gus Johnson to give play-by-play for each clip.
Finally, Organizing for America has pegged Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach as one of five GOP congressman nationwide who it will pressure to vote for the Demcoratic health care bill this week. The volunteer group, which is part of the DNC, will contact his constituents to urge them to call and ask the congressman to support the reform measure.
Gerlach’s 6th Congressional District favored President Obama by 17 points in 2008 over Republican John McCain, although he has given no public indication he would support the Democrats’ bill.
UPDATED: This story was updated at 4 p.m.
