With one major deadline already looming this week, Governor Tom Corbett and his wife Susan on Monday etched another significant date onto the public calendar: Pennsylvania children ages twelve and under have until July 25 to submit suggested names for the two Airedale puppies that will call the Governor’s Mansion home starting next month.

“Susan and I felt it would be nice to let Pennsylvania’s children pick the names,” the governor said in a press release distributed on Monday.  “We are really looking forward to seeing the suggestions.”

Not as much, PoliticsPA suspects, as he is looking forward to seeing the legislature’s “suggestion” for a balanced budget that doesn’t introduce new taxes or fees.  The naming contest could, however, serve as a welcome distraction should the GOP-controlled legislature fail to deliver a completed spending plan to Corbett by the Thursday deadline.