First things first, check out our list of 2011 fundraising winners and losers. The Ups & Downs are a tad shorter this week because some of our best stuff is in that article.

Pa. Supreme Court. Come ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Tom Smith. In the wake of Tim Burns’ departure from the GOP Senate primary, each campaign has argued that it’s a boost to them. We think it helps Smith the most. Burns would have taken part of the western Pa. vote that Smith now has virtually to himself. Additionally, with Casey’s Q4 numbers in, it emerged that Smith has more cash on hand than the Senator.
.
.
.

Tom Corbett. On the campaign trail, Corbett whacked the health care law. But this week, the rubber met the road – as it so often does when actually governing. The administration applied for federal funding under ‘Obamacare.’ His ‘up’ comes courtesy of GOP state committee. His successful vote whipping for Steve Welch showed that he is top dog in the party.

Joe Scarnati. The Senate Pro Tem had hoped to get a Marcellus deal in place in time for Governor Corbett’s budget address on Feb. 7. Well, that ship has pretty much sailed. Plus, 9 GOP state senators came out against a provision – prioritized by the industry – that state rules for drilling superceded local ones.
.
.
.

Mark Critz. The Johnstown congressman pulled in a couple of good labor endorsements this week – helpful in his primary battle with Rep. Jason Altmire.  Then, he got credit for saving 700 mining jobs (not a bad headline). Finally, there’s the Altmire camp’s recent internal poll showing him with a 50 to 34 percent edge on Critz. It’s great news for Altmire at first blush, but the new district takes 66 percent of his territory, just 28 percent of Critz’s.
.
.

Steve Welch. He earned the Governor’s support this week, as Tom Corbett called SEPA GOP politicos to whip votes for him. Plus the Chester County tech entrepreneur got the chance to blast Bob Casey on PIPA, a high-profile bill about the internet (talk about home field advantage). However, the SEPA GOP caucus made the highly unusual decision not to have a vote Wednesday night – in part because they’re peeved over John Rafferty, in part because Welch is a relative newcomer. The absence of a strong SEPA straw poll showing prevented Welch from taking Corbett’s support to the bank, and adding momentum heading into state committee.

Tim Burns. On Jan. 7, Burns’ campaign said it would announce its fourth quarter fundraising numbers in the coming week. It’s been two weeks. Sure, the filing deadline isn’t until Jan. 31 (after the GOP state committee’s endorsement vote), but state committee members are already drawing their own conclusions. His main competitor for the PAGOP endorsement, Steve Welch, has $1 million on hand. His southwestern competitor, Tom Smith, has $4.4 million. The pressure is on for Saturday’s SWPA caucus, Burns’ home turf.

Reddit. The popular social news site joined several other websites this week in solidarity against SOPA and PIPA, two bills that many techies argued would fracture the internet’s crucial DNS. Not only has Congress backed away from the bills at full speed, but Reddit’s link to our story that Rep. Tim Holden had dropped his co-sponsorship of SOPA gave PoliticsPA its number one day of traffic all time. Thanks!

Todd Platts. The six-term York Congressman surprised a lot of people this this week with his decision to retire at the end of this term, but he leaves office smelling like (white) roses. He’s earned a record of a hard working, open-minded pragmatist, who made good on his belief that Congress should have term limits. This up also goes to advertising sales reps in York County, who just got an unexpected windfall from this spring’s GOP primary battle royale.

Tom Smith. His $4.4 million cash-on hand is a game-changer in the U.S. Senate race: primary and general. All of a sudden the GOP has a candidate whose financial resources practically match Bob Casey’s. Sure, more than $5 million of his net contributions thus far are self-loans from the candidate. But it all spends the same. The longer he stays on TV (he extended his $300,000K+ buy on Monday), the more he can max out his opponents.
.
.

John Brabender. Many national political observers wrote off Rick Santorum’s presidential bid months ago. But their campaign plan – to ride the Iowa evangelical vote to success – was executed to perfection. It’s due in large part to Brabender’s positive ads.
.
.

Tom Creighton. This one slipped by us in the hustle and bustle of redistricting, but it bears note. For his entire career, the Lancaster Co. State Rep. campaigned heavily on his refusal to accept a generous lawmakers’ pension. Now that he’s retiring, guess what. In a naked flip-flop, he signed up to pull in $30,000 annually from the state.
.

Brian Sims. The 33-year-old attorney and LGBT activist has an uphill battle against Rep. Babette Josephs, who has historically enjoyed support from voters in Pa.’s largest gay community. But he got off to a good start, boasting a strong $72,000 raised in 2011. Not bad for a state rep. primary challenger.
.

Arlen Specter. The former senator is back on the scene with a new television show where he’ll host a thoughtful, half-hour public policy discussion featuring a few principal guests as well as input from various stakeholders and opinion leaders. It’s more “Charlie Rose” than “Crossfire” and wonkish viewers of any political stripe are likely to enjoy it.
.

Kathleen Kane. The Democratic Attorney General hopeful made a big splash this week with her announcement that she has $2 million on hand. Most of it is likely self-loans, but who cares? She and her opponents have limited statewide name ID, and the campaign will be a money race. That said, she’s not running away with it. Former Cong. Pat Murphy has well over $1 million at this point.
.

Larry Ceisler. Sure, he’s a co-owner of PoliticsPA. But that’s not why he makes the list this week. Check out the prescient piece he wrote back in 2005 about Santorum’s matchup with Casey:

“I think Rick Santorum is fully prepared to lose to Bob Casey and he wants to do it before a national audience carrying the torch of the brand of conservatism that will nominate the next GOP candidate for president. By publishing this book ["It Takes a Family"] he has sent a strong signal his campaign will be waged without ideological compromise.”

Sound familiar? It’s the newfound narrative of Santorum’s all of a suddenly serious presidential campaign.

It’s been an interesting year in the great state of Pennsylvania. State Republicans found out that being in charge of everything doesn’t necessarily make governing easier; new redistricting maps made most incumbents safer, and a Pa. institution was consumed by a sex abuse scandal of tragic proportion.

Here are the winners and losers of 2011.

Democrats. It’s going to be much harder the the party to get back into the majority in any capacity after redistricting this year. The taste is even more bitter for your average Joe Dem because of how many Democrats were complicit in the new state and congressional maps (see prior ‘Downs’ here and here). Plus they lost a dozen county courthouses net.
.

Bob Casey. The Senator’s re-election calculus has been solid so far: keep his chin down, talk about “jobs” every 5 minutes, and don’t pick fights. It’s paid off. He’ll likely announce around $4 mil cash on hand in a few days. Meanwhile, the GOP primary field is muddled and without a top tier general election candidate – including no sitting office holder.
.

Pat Toomey. It’s not every day that a freshman Senator makes the kind of national headlines that Toomey did this fall on the supercommittee. Though it failed, he was the only member to offer a credible proposal (that even increased revenues). He’d had the reputation of a deal broker between the conservative and moderate wings of the Senate GOP; now he has the credibility of a serious bipartisan negotiator.

Penn State. The sex-abuse scandal dominated state and national news for a month; even institution Joe Paterno couldn’t weather the storm.  The political climate already made it tough to increase PSU’s state funding or even keep it level – hence the budget cuts. It will be nearly impossible now.
.

Harrisburg. It’s been a rough yeah for the capital of the Keystone state. The legislature changed the rules mid-game with a state takeover, and the city’s creditors have far less incentive to compromise. Mayor Linda Thompson continues to be a less than inspiring figure, and after all that the city was shuffled and split by redistricting and reapportionment.
.

Josh Shapiro. Smart campaign and a good message. The soon-to-be majority Commissioner led the transition of Montgomery from Republican to Democrat for the first time in County history. PoliticsPA called Shapiro the Dem most likely to be Governor some day, and he’s well on his way.
.

Luke Ravenstahl. From pensions to parking meters, he has earned the reputation of a Mayor who isn’t showing up. His whole slate of contended Pittsburgh city council candidates lost. The broad consensus is that he would lose a two-way primary in 2013, and several strong candidates have already emerged.
.

Tom Corbett and the GOP state legislature. Dennis Owens got it right: there’s not much to show after a year of total GOP control of state government. Some very big ticket agenda items were left off the docket and look like long shots in the spring. The year’s biggest bragging point, an on-time budget with “no” tax increases, is less than impressive.

School Vouchers. Speaking of, this was one of the most ambitious GOP agenda items and an intense focus of donors and conservative activists all year. Enough Republicans defected at the end of fall session to defeat a vouchers proposal, as well as a plan to expand the EITC program and charter schools. Those aren’t going to get any easier in an election year.
.

Orie sisters. After a few years of ambiguous legal status, the corruption charges have finally caught up with the Orie clan. It’s looking rough for Janine and Senator Jane, and there is serious speculation that Pa. Supreme Court Justice Joan could be next.
.
.

Lou Barletta and Tom Marino. All incumbents got boosted by redistricting, but these were the two big winners. GOP map-drawers in Harrisburg went out of their way to shore up the NEPA congressmen, who may now have more to worry about from a primary than a general.

Democrats. Another week, another redistricting-themed Down for Democrats. 36 Pa. House Dems voted for the Republican-drawn congressional map – the one that makes it drastically less likely that their party will gain a seat in 2012. Was it a failure of vote whipping? Was it the influence of incumbent Dem congressmen who favored the map? Who knows. But the activist base of the party has every right to feel outraged.
.
.

Eugene DePasquale. The plucky York lawmaker racked up a ton of endorsements for his Auditor General bid this week; over 100 in total with more coming in. He has the inside track for state committee support. That said, party activists particularly in southeast Pa. are likely to be pretty upset with his vote in favor of the GOP’s redistricting plan.

Tim Holden. The Congressman will likely face his most serious challenge yet from the left in his new, more Democratic, more NEPA district. That’s the down. The up is because we hesitate to bet against the Congressman this time around. Why? PoliticsPA called Holden a loser of the redistricting process way back in 2001, and we were dead wrong. He ended up overcoming long-time GOP incumbent George Gekas and has cruised ever since. This is not his first rodeo.

Bob Casey and Allyson Schwartz. Democrats in Congress scored a win this week as the House GOP backed down from the payroll tax cut extension confrontation. The Senator and Congresswoman got a profile boost when they were chosen to join the conference committee to hammer out the details of the final product. Let’s hope this works out better than the supercommittee.
.

Jim Christiana. The Beaver County lawmaker announced this week that he will not run for Congress. At the end of the day, he enjoyed several weeks of good press, got his name out there for future runs, and left a clear path for anyone else who may want to run…