10/28 Morning Buzz

PA Governor Mansion
The PA Governor’s Mansion

We graded the Guv candidates on their social media efforts, Dems are excited over a possible Jay Paterno congressional bid, and more. Good morning politicos, here’s the Buzz.

Grading the Governor Candidates: Social Media: Who has the most likes? The most followers? And who has the best content? We took a look at the social media efforts by the candidates for Governor.

Dems Buzz Over Potential Paterno Congress Bid: Jay Paterno, the son of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, is weighing a challenge to Congressman GT Thompson. Could he put the deep red district in play?

Wolf Polling Memo Singles Out McCord: The memo suggests Tom Wolf, not Rob McCord, is Democrats’ strongest alternative to Allyson Schwartz.

Two Endorsements and a Side of Policy: Critz and McGinty each nabbed an endorsement and Tom Wolf revealed his manufacturing plan. Here are your campaign odds and ends.

10/25 Ups & Downs: A lawmaker’s offices get searched, a mayor tweets absentee, and Montco Republicans are – gasp – getting along. Here are this week’s Ups & Downs.

Statewide
Capitolwire: Gov. Corbett, Senate Democrats agree on where tavern gaming revenues go
PA Independent: Triple-dipping loophole in state unemployment law finally closed
PA Independent: Philadelphia school crisis not a question of choice
StateImpactPA: Has natural gas transformed Pennsylvania’s economy?
StateImpactPA: Infographic: natural gas and Pennsylvania’s economy

Philadelphia
Daily News: City Council examines cell-buying kiosks’ criminal potential
Newsworks: Corbett talks up plan to expand Medicaid his way
Newsworks: DEP to take questions about Allentown incinerator
Newsworks: Philly councilman proposes crackdown on auto-related businesses
Newsworks: Pa. Superior Court candidates report finances ahead of Nov. elections
Newsworks: Fitzpatrick calls for delaying health care mandate
KYW Newsradio: City Councilman Pushes To Change Zoning Rules
KYW Newsradio: Debate Wages On Between Mayor Nutter And Council President Over $50 Million Needed For School District

SEPA
Pottstown Mercury: Phoenixville School Board mulls timing of $9.8M bond issue
Pottstown Mercury: Pottstown saves $1.1M in interest on $10M borrowing
Delco Daily Times: Sestak has nearly $1M in coffers
Delco Daily Times: SEPTA GM: Delay in transportation bill ‘positive’
Delco Daily Times: Penn-Delco teachers agree to three-year contract
Montgomery Media: ELECTION 2013: Seven seek four seats on Upper Dublin School Board
Montgomery Media: ELECTION 2013: Three vie for two spots on Whitpain Board of Supervisors
Montgomery Media: State Rep. Madeleine Dean holds town hall in Upper Dublin to discuss the Affordable Care Act
Montgomery Media: State Rep. Brendan Boyle discusses transportation bill at Rockledge Borough Council meeting
Daily Local News: 3 seats in contention at Downingtown Borough Council
Daily Local News: New and old in E. Brandywine supervisor contest
Daily Local News: Four seats open on S. Coatesville Borough Council

Pittsburgh
Tribune Review: Lawmakers think drink tax could save struggling Pennsylvania cities
Tribune Review: Edinboro University to cut 32 faculty jobs
Post-Gazette: Metcalfe calls for Kane’s impeachment
Post-Gazette: Corbett: Don’t delay transit vote
Post-Gazette: Pa. judges worrying shutdown may imperil reelection chances
Post-Gazette: Move advances to extend Pa. judges’ retirement age
Early Returns: Peduto: Raised $657K since June
Early Returns: Toomey outraises Sestak
WTAE: Frustration with botched health care website extends from Capitol Hill to Pittsburgh

Southwest
Beaver County Times: Chamber hosts ACA program for local businesses
Altoona Mirror: Councilman: Unions could bend plan
Real Clear Politics: The View From ‘Tea Party Country’

Lehigh Valley
Pennsylvania Ave: Toomey among 29 lawmakers to meet next week on budget deal
Express-Times: Scott Ott, Tom Muller offer vastly different ideologies in Lehigh County executive race
Express-Times: Put ‘Obamacare’ on hold, says head of Pa. Association of Health Underwriters

NEPA
Times Leader: COUNTY COUNCIL Race has 11 candidates for 5 seats
Times Leader: Scranton’s mayor race could have impact outside of city
Times-Tribune: Money still top issue in Scranton mayoral race
Times-Tribune: A year later, Sandy still has local impact
Times-Tribune: Dickson City police find counterfeit $11,000 in Cheetos container; 5 arrested
Pocono News: Disabled vets to get break on sporting licenses

South Central
Carlisle Sentinel: No tax increase expected, but Silver Spring Township faces unexpected insurance costs
Patriot News: Papenfuse clears $300K fundraising for Harrisburg mayor’s race
Patriot News: Photos: Harrisburg mayoral debate with all 4 candidates
Patriot News: Middletown council president to set special meeting to vote on overriding mayor’s veto on financial recovery plan
York Daily Record: York County voters guide
Lebanon Daily News: A look at uncontested county row office elections
Roxbury News: Eric Papenfuse Pre Election Campaign Finance Report

North by Northwest
Centre Daily Times: Benninghoff: ‘People are going to be held accountable’ after investigation of sexual assault at Rockview
Centre Daily Times: State College mayoral candidates share ideas on acting as face of the borough
Times Observer: Voter rolls fall slightly in county
Sharon Herald: Reduction looms for food stamps
Sun-Gazette: State in middle of battle
Times-News: Dahlkemper, Tucci both confident as Erie County exec race enters final stage
Times-News: Sinnott, on cusp of third term, wants to ‘finish the job’ as Erie mayor

Opinions
Inquirer: Inquirer Editorial: Stabile is superior
Express-Times: Endorsement: Callahan for Northampton County Exec
Bumsted, Tribune-Review: Has another Pennsylvania pol been snared?
York Daily Record: Don’t hold up Pa. road funding over prevailing wage disputes
York Dispatch: America’s marvelous middle
Inquirer: Inquirer Editorial: Butkovitz is better
Inquirer: Pa. is failing its women
Times-Tribune: Jim Mulligan for mayor
Times-News: Dahlkemper for county executive
Express-Times: Callahan for Northampton County executive
Times Observer: Harrisburg’s addiction
Sun-Gazette: Coal vendetta, energy forecasts don’t match up
Pocono Record: Have they read the First Amendment?
Reading Eagle: Despite vows of never again, skepticism remains high

Blogs
Keystone Politics: County Democratic Parties: Don’t Let Volunteers Waste Their Time on Useless Activities
Keystone Politics: “Moderate” Charlie Dent Robocalling for Wingnut Tea Party Clown Scott Ott
Keystone Politics: #PAGov: What Could Make the Party Decide to Support Allyson Schwartz?
Keystone Politics: Can’t Turn It Off: Lehigh County Exec Frontrunner Scott Ott Lets His Wingnut Flag Fly at NAACP Debate
Keystone Politics: Jay Paterno Should Run for Jake Corman’s State Senate Seat
Lehigh Valley Ramblings: Callahan Raises $500,000 in NorCo Exec Race
Lehigh Valley Ramblings: McClure Shows Up For Budget Hearing
John Hanger’s Facts of The Day: Smart Fact: Smart Electric Meters Jump From 9% To 30% Of Total, Making Grid More Intelligent
Pennsylvania Progressive: An Injunction Against the Truth
Pennsylvania Progressive: More Fun With Shale Jobs Numbers
LuLac Political Letter: Democrats United
2 Political Junkies: More On Rick Saccone
Keystone State Education Coalition: Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup for October 25, 2013: Philadelphia School “Putsch” – Not Elected, Not Appointed
Keystone State Education Coalition: Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup for October 26, 2013: Just in case you were wondering who really sets PA education policy
Politics in Northeastern Pennsylvania: Mulligan Pounds Courtright

3 Responses

  1. Let’s connect the dots in the $60 million dollar PSU Sandusky settlement. Would things have turned out differently for PSU and Tom Corbett if John Brabender and Baby Brian Nutt weren’t offering the White Knight AG Tom Corbett high-priced Strategic Political Advice? The roosters have come home to roost. Why was Big Daddy Roger Nutt selected to head up our Turnpike Commission? What does Baby Nutt know that he’s keeping to himself? NITTANY LION PROUD!!!

  2. Why does Tom Corbett love Corporate Cyber Charter Welfare Queens like Vahan Gureghian so much? OFF THE FLOOR: ‘Pickleface Picture’ means Gov. Corbett will be GOP nominee again.
    By Peter L. DeCoursey
    Bureau Chief
    Capitolwire
    HARRISBURG (Oct. 28) – A photograph called the “Pickleface Picture,” intended to provide proof of a Gov. Tom Corbett-arranged Montgomery County political marriage has been hurtling around the Internet, but to my surprise, few have seen what the picture really means.
    Because the guy in the picture who is not smiling, Republican National Committeeman Bob Asher, the state’s foremost Republican fund-raiser, is the guy looking like he is thinking “Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into, Tommy.”
    As you will see it is a picture of Corbett clapping, with Asher looking annoyed to raising his arm as if a victor with the biggest eastern GOP donor and charter school magnate Vaughn Gureghian. Gureghian looks happy. And Corbett, for a guy who arranged all this, looks more put-out than Asher. But that is just Corbett grimacing for the camera again, a common activity for this governor.
    To understand Asher’s facial expression and attitude, you have to know some history, and this Philadelphia Inquirer article is a good primer.
    In short, Asher and one-third or more of the other poobahs in the Montco GOP have been hatcheting each other for decades. Asher and Commissioner Bruce Castor being the leading combatants the last eight years or so, with GOP county chairman Bob Kerns as his Castor’s trusty sidekick.
    That split helped spur the demographic tidal wave that ensued. The split also helped turn a strong suburban GOP county into a rising tide of Democratic power, with voters filling the county commission first in 2007 with a hybrid GOP-Democrat anti-Castor ruling coalition and then with two Democrats in 2011.
    It also meant that while Corbett won the county in 2010, which was a rarity as Republicans lost the presidential vote in Montco in 2008 and 2012. The demographic changes for Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware County are big reasons why the Republicans haven’t won the presidential vote since 1988.
    So Corbett desperately wanted to heal this breach generally and get both Gureghian and Asher mending the party rather than building rival machines that fought each other as much as they did the Democrats, at least in Gureghian’s case. Asher, who is probably the most loyal Republican in the state, still worked hard for the GOP slate, but only after a lot of infighting each spring.
    And Corbett was clear about the effect of uniting the party at its fall dinner in Jeffersonville: he said the Asher-Gureghian-Kerns pact to work together was “one of the best presents you could have given a Republican who is running statewide.”
    But this was not a matter of Asher, Kerns and Gureghian being thoughtful. The governor demanded his allies – and both Gureghian and Asher count as top allies, with Asher being in the inner circle and Gureghian just in the next circle of Corbett intimates – gave this to him.
    And as one long-time Asher-ite said: “Bob was tongue-kissing Vahan because the governor asked him to. Everyone was talking about how Leslie [Gromis Baker] made the biggest sacrifice to save Tom. Well, not sure that is true anymore.”
    In addition to showing how loyal Asher is to GOP governors, it also showed something else.
    Virtually every plausible scenario that results in Corbett not running for governor starts with Asher, Gromis Baker, Pat Solano from Northeastern Pennsylvania, Jack Barbour from the west, and maybe a few others sitting down with the governor in the next few weeks to tell him his polls are historically dreadful, so he can’t win and shouldn’t run.
    First of all, none of those people are about to do that, or even close to doing that, especially not Asher. And since most agree he would have to quarterback any such effort, the “PickleFace Picture’s” significance emerges. Asher would not have buried the hatchet and posed for photos with Gureghian if he was about to switch governors. Simple as that. If he was going to switch candidates, he would have put off the peace pipe ceremony until after the switch.
    And he certainly wouldn’t have let a lame duck force him into this co-fund-raising king for the Montco GOP arrangement with Gureghian. Asher is in his 70s and nobody can force him to do anything anymore. But he helped Corbett decide to run, and likes being a kitchen cabinet member and has been loyal to Republicans a lot more annoying than Corbett – Gov. Dick Thornburgh and U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, to name three.
    He took the PickleFace Picture because he was standing by his Gov, simple as that. And he plans to be standing by Corbett right up to the election night party in Pittsburgh in November 2014, and hopefully from 2015 to 2018.
    So, sure there are potential candidates out there still planning in case Corbett drops out. But the Gov consistently tells his friends and supporters he is running and won’t change his mind.
    And his closest allies and supporters believe him. And unless the governor changes his mind – which doesn’t often happen – none of the first-tier candidates will run, not Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, not U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, or any of the rest.
    Could Corbett get some opposition? Sure. Heck, half his staff wants state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, to run in the primary or some other Tea Party type, to make Corbett seem more moderate.
    But he will be the nominee. And you don’t have to believe me. But you should believe the PickleFace Picture.

  3. Ah yes, I am glad to see that Brendan Boyle is actually on the job about transit funding. I must ask though, where is State Senator, congressional opponent, and clown college dropout Daylin Leach on this issue. Perhaps Daylin is more of a moderate Republican than we thought, and thus, doesn’t care as much about transit funding as he does hot button social issues.

    http://liberalsagainstleach.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/jon-geeting-exposed/

    “Politics Is Serious Business, We Need A Congressperson, Not A Clown”
    -Liberals Against Leach

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  • Will tonight's U.S. Senate debate affect your decision?


    • No. I've already decided on how to cast my vote. (81%)
    • Yes. Anxious to hear from both candidates (19%)

    Total Voters: 27

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