Maj. General Jessica L. Wright, the state’s adjutant general, noted Holden’s commitment to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team and his travel to combat theaters of operation and attendance at troop-recognition events.

Read more in the Standard Speaker

“Jack has the right plan for job creation and economic development at a time when Pennsylvanians are facing fiscal challenges,” Holden said in a statement. “He is a proven and trusted friend that my district and all Pennsylvanians can count on.”

Both men share a similar profil. While Holden, who voted against the health care bill, has carved out a reputation as a moderate Democrat, Wagner is considered by many the most conservative Democratic candidate running in the primary. Both men, who have served in Pennsylvania politics for decades, calls themselves “pro-life” and enjoy greater-than-average support for Democrats in rural, conservative areas.

Wagner faces Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, state Senator Anthony Williams, and Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Recent polls have shown Onorato surging and Wagner sagging as he struggles to match the county executive’s financial advantage.

If these numbers keep up, Tim Holden will have a huge early financial edge over any GOP foe in the fall.

The Democratic congressman raised $283,000 in the first fundraising quarter, documents filed with the FEC show, giving the incumbent nearly $850,000 on hand. He has raised almost $650,000 so far this election cycle.

The numbers dwarf those reported by any of his potential Republican foes, including likely GOP nominee Dave Argall. The Schuylkill County state senator raised $125,000 in the year’s first three months after declaring his candidacy in early January. He has about $100,000 on hand, which itself is far more than the man considered his main rival for the Republican nomination in the 17th Congressional District, Frank Ryan, who has about $34,000 available.

It’s also possible Argall will have to spend some of the money he has on hand to win the May 18 primary. He also faces Lebanon County resident Allen Griffith and Harrisburg man Josh First.

Holden is one of an array of Democratic incumbents in Pennsylvania considered vulnerable in the fall. The conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat, who voted against the Democratic health care bill twice, represents a a district that favored John McCain over Barack Obama in the 2008 election, by 3 percentage points.

But he must first contend with a primary challenge of his own, from Harrisburg resident Sheila Dow Ford. Holden’s effort to knock her off the ballot failed last week.

PoliticsPA rates the 17th District as the seventh most likely seat in Pennsylvania to change parties.

In a recent post on the former Alaska Governor’s Facebook fan page, Sarah Palin labeled 20 Democrat-held congressional districts for her supporters to target in the 2010 midterm elections.  All 20 districts, including Pennsylvania’s 3rd and 10th (represented by Kathy Dahlkemper and Chris Carney, respectively), were carried by the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008.

Dahlkemper and Carney are both members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democratic caucus, but voted to pass President Obama’s landmark health care reform legislation on Sunday.  Fellow Pa. Blue Dogs Jason Altmire (D-4) and Tim Holden (D-17), the only Pa. Democrats to vote against the bill, were not included on Palin’s target list.

Who will face Dahlkemper and Carney, though, remains unclear.  Erie Republicans haven’t landed a strong candidate to face Dahlkemper in her first re-election campaign, and though former U.S. Attorney Tom  Marino is the front runner to challenger Carney, several other Republicans will battle him in the GOP primary.

Still, in an election cycle that is expected to lean hard right, both seats will be difficult to defend.

“We’re going to reclaim the power of the people from those who disregarded the will of the people,” Palin said in her post.  ”Come November, we’re going to print pink slips for members of Congress as fast as they’ve been printing money”

Back in Pennsylvania, the drama continues, as political observers await the verdict in Mike Veon’s ‘Bonusgate’ trial.  Getting at least one, high-profile guilty verdict would ease Attorney General Tom Corbett’s mind – a successful crackdown on Harrisburg corruption would look good for the GOP gubernatorial frontrunner.

About 30 Schuylkill County conservatives came to U.S. Rep. Tim Holden’s Pottsville office Wednesday night with a simple message about the health care reform debate.

“Vote ‘no’ again,” Bruce Johnson, organizer of the Schuylkill County Conservatives, said as he and others held signs saying, “We can’t afford government-run health care,” and, “Socialized health care will be a money pit,” outside Holden’s office at 101 N. Centre St.

Holden, D-17, voted against the health care reform bill last year. However, another vote will likely be held soon, as the House appears set to pass the Senate’s version of the bill.

Johnson and others believe Holden is likely having “his arm twisted” by Democratic leaders eager to turn his “no” vote to a “yes” vote the second time around.

However, in a telephone interview Wednesday night, Holden said his position will not change.

“I will not vote for the Senate bill,” Holden said. “It makes significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid … and the restrictions on (federal funding for) abortion are not as strong.”

WASHINGTON – The U.S. men’s hockey team may have lost, but President Barack Obama still won.

Had the United States defeated Canada on Sunday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would have owed Obama a case of Yuengling beer because of a bet they made on the gold-medal game. Instead, Obama owes Harper a case of Molson beer from Canada.

Still, Obama could be enjoying a fridge stocked with frothy Yuenglings anyway.

U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., will stop at the Pottsville, Pa., brewery Tuesday for a case of Yuengling to be delivered to the White House – at the request of fifth-generation owner Dick Yuengling himself.

“We haven’t sent a case to the White House since Prohibition ended,” Yuengling said in an interview Monday. “It might be time to send another one down there.”

The Yuenglings sent a truck filled with beer to President Franklin D. Roosevelt the day Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

For the Yuengling brand, the Obama bet is welcome free advertising.

“When you stick around for 180 years,” Yuengling said, “you deserve something for nothing.”

The parameters of the bet were a bit confusing, as some news reports said Obama would be sending Harper a case of Yuengling as a result of losing the bet.

Holden said Obama’s bet _ sending Canadian

Read more in the Montreal Gazette here ]]> http://www.politicspa.com/tim-holden-goes-on-a-beer-run-for-obama-really/7405/feed/ 2 http://www.politicspa.com/democrats-campaign-from-the-middle-at-midterm/7313/ http://www.politicspa.com/democrats-campaign-from-the-middle-at-midterm/7313/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:50:11 +0000 sean.coit http://www.politicspa.com/?p=7313 In this midterm election of discontent, many Democrats in competitive House districts are finding that the middle of the road is a good place to be.

They can cite their votes against President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) as proof that they are independent thinkers, backed up by two nonpartisan studies of important 2009 roll calls.

Five Democratic representatives in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey – all facing tough reelection challenges – had much higher rates of dissent from the party line than their colleagues, according to the National Journal and the Congressional Quarterly.

A president’s party almost always suffers some losses in midterm congressional elections, and political analysts say that 2010 could be a bloodbath for Democrats because of voter frustration with high unemployment and deficit spending.

Rep. John Adler, the Democrat representing New Jersey’s Third District, has to hope that his moderate voting record will help him survive.

“I’m happy to vote for either party when it’s the right thing to do,” Adler said in an interview. “I need to vote my conscience.”

He was just two places away from dead center among House Democrats on the National Journal ideological rating scale issued Friday, covering votes in the first 11 months of Obama’s presidency. Adler voted the liberal position 50.5 percent of the time and took a conservative stance 49.5 percent of the time.

Congressional Quarterly, in its January report, noted that Adler voted against the president 26.1 percent of the time in 2009. That was more than Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, who changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in December.

Read the full Inquirer article here

HARRISBURG — A public policy advocate said Tuesday she will challenge U.S. Rep. Tim Holden in a Democratic primary this year, saying the longtime 17^th District incumbent’s “no” vote on health care last year shows he no longer is in touch with the needs of many of his constituents.

“I’ve thought long and hard about this,” said Sheila Dow-Ford, who runs a small consulting firm in the city. “I’m in.”

The news was first reported by the Pennsylvania Progressive.

Dow-Ford’s candidacy isn’t great for Holden, who learned earlier this month he will likely face Republican state Senator Dave Argall in the fall. The matchup is expected to be one of the most competitive races in the state.

Speculation since Argall’s announcement has focused on whether Holden was conservative enough for the right-learning district, but Dow-Ford’s criticism came from the opposite ideological spectrum.

“Tim needs to be challenged on his credentials as a Democrat,” she told PoliticsPA during an interview in the Capitol.

His opposition to health care reform clearly sparked Dow-Ford’s motivation to run against Holden.

“I think Tim Holden seems to have lost his way,” she said. “We have people in the 17^th District who need real representation on issues that confront them.”

Dow-Ford is a member of the state board of education and former chief counsel to PHEAA. She said she would officially declare her candidacy “soon.”

Dave Argall’s support for the infamous 2005 legislative pay-raise gave Democrats an easy target when he declared his congressional candidacy.

Did it also give them a built-in opposition research team?

Just weeks into the Republican state senator’s campaign against Democratic incumbent Tim Holden, a small but active group of citizen-reformers have made it clear they will hinder Argall’s candidacy until November because he helped engineer the pay hike. At the time, Argall was a member of House Republican leadership.

The latest example came Tuesday, when Eric Epstein, founder of the government-reform group RockTheCapital, issued a press release saying Argall received $10,200 in “per-diem” payments from March to September of last year. Lawmakers receive the payments when they attend a session or committee meeting in the Capitol.

The extra payments looked particularly bad last year, when lawmakers approved a budget 101 days late after grappling with a $3.2 billion revenue shortfall.

“There he goes again,” Epstein said in a statement. “Mr. Argall has a history of abusing per diems. Unfortunately for the taxpayer, there is absolutely no accountability built into the system. It’s obscene to be rewarded for not getting the budget done.”

Argall’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Epstein’s criticism came after another well-known reform activist in Harrisburg, Gene Stilp, followed Argall to each of his six campaign stops when he declared his campaign. Stilp brought along his signature prop, an inflatable pink pig the size of a small bus. It’s meant to symbolize legislative greed.

In separate interviews, each man made said their early criticism of Argall is only the start.

“Our mission is to track people in the pay-raise,” said Epstein, who called Argall a “crass opportunist.”

Voters in the 17^th District unfamiliar with Argall need to know his record, Stilp said.

“We have to take the opportunity to confront this guy when he shows up,” he said. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole.”

Epstein and Stilp are two of a group of reformers who emerged following the pay raise, a now-infamous event in Pennsylvania political history that led to the defeat of Republican leaders in the Senate and the departure of 50 House lawmakers. They remain a regular presence in the media and around the Capitol, where they are disliked by many officials.

Their opposition could be helpful to Holden and the Democrats, who can sit back and watch Argall be criticized while not going negative themselves. The DCCC highlighted Epstein’s remarks in a press release of its own Tuesday night.

That help could be critical: the race between Holden and Argall is expected to be heated, with the state senator potentially threatening the congressman’s traditional base of support in Schuylkill County. The 17^th District, which leans to the right, also might be hostile to a Democratic incumbent, even though Holden has called himself a moderate, “Blue Dog” Democrat.

Argall has said he regrets his decision to vote for the pay raise and adds he donated all the money to charity. He said during his official announcement that voters care more about his proposal to create jobs than a vote in 2005 and described Stilp as a disgruntled former political opponent.

Stilp and Epstein emphasized they campaign against anyone involved in legislative corruption, regardless of party.

Stilp, in fact, is scheduled Thursday to visit the district of former House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese, demanding the now-indicted lawmaker not seek re-election.

Epstein, who is a registered Democrat, said his group is non-partisan. He cited the fact he planned to re-file an ethics complaint against Democratic Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow next week.

“When you enrich yourself at the expense of the taxpayer,” he said, “then you become the subject or target of our investigation.”