Toomey rises, Abraham falls and Kane leaves us scratching our heads. See who made this week’s list!

Kathleen Kane. What can you say at this point? On top of everything the Attorney General is already dealing with, she has somehow managed to add even more. This week, Kane chose to fire the head of the appeals office, James Barker, as part of a supposed “restructuring”. Barker, however, was one of the people who testified to the grand jury that recommended charges against Kane. Therefore, one has to wonder if this was another attempt at political payback. Then, it was revealed that the spokeswoman (Kane’s SIXTH) who insisted the AG wasn’t firing Barker for personal reasons, is stepping down. This whole saga has turned into a farce, except instead of the commonwealth laughing at Kane, it will soon be the entire country laughing at us.

Pat Toomey. Since their close 2010 contest, political observers have kept an eye on a potential rematch next year between Pat Toomey and Joe Sestak. Additionally, Sestak had the Democratic field to himself and embarked on a headline-grabbing walking tour of the state. As a result, the results of the latest Quinnipiac Poll were a major win for the Senator. The survey found Toomey leading Sestak 48% to 35% head-to-head. Soon afterward, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski indicated he is on the verge of challenging Sestak in the Democratic primary. We also learned major Democratic leaders are leaning on Josh Shapiro to get in the race. Finally, the icing on the cake for Toomey was the $5,400 from 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner Jeb Bush.

Lynne Abraham. The former District Attorney needed to grab all the headlines coming out of the first televised Philly Mayoral debate. Unfortunately for Abraham, she did it in the worst way possible. The 74-year old fainted just a few minutes into the event and scared her opponents and the viewers when she fell to the ground. Before the night was out, some were asking if she would even stay in the race. Abraham has gone to significant lengths to prove Tuesday night was a fluke, and it probably was, but it happened at the worst possible time. If she had fainted at a campaign event or one of the countless other forums that have been held, it would have been bad but she could’ve bounced back. The camera, however, is cruelly unforgiving.

Jim Kenney. In contrast to Abraham, Kenney had a string of positive developments this week. First, a PPP poll conducted for an organization that supports him, found Kenney with a one-point lead over Anthony Williams. While not a perfect poll, it was the first sign that the ex-City Councilman is building momentum. The real coup, though, was when he won the support of a group of black progressive Northwest Democrats, led by State Rep. Dwight Evans. Also, while awful to acknowledge Abraham’s loss could be Kenney’s gain in terms of the questions surrounding her health. Of course Williams’ campaign finance issue, while small and likely to be quickly forgotten, was yet another negative story this week for one of Kenney’s rivals.

Marijuana Legalization. During such a busy week, it would be easy to miss the major shift that has taken place in the commonwealth. A new Quinnipiac poll found that a slim majority of Pennsylvanians favor legalization of marijuana. Meanwhile, an even larger majority support medical marijuana. Given such numbers, we may start to see this issue gather some steam in the months and years to come.

The tweet of the week goes to David Gambacorta of the Daily News, who had the best Kathleen Kane spokesperson analogy.

Kathleen Kane's 6th spokesperson resigns. Reaching Spinal Tap-like proportions now. http://t.co/qDRrxwQKpQ

— David Gambacorta (@dgambacorta) April 9, 2015