The campaign season is upon us; less than two weeks before primary day. And maybe even less time for a familiar face in the presidential race.

Rick Santorum. The former Pa. Senator needed a strong homecoming in order to justify his staying in the presidential race, but his home team advantage evaporated this week. Four polls show a single digit race in PA (Franklin & Marshall, Mercyhurst, Rasmussen and Quinnipiac), and a fifth (Public Policy Polling) showed Mitt Romney with a lead. A loss in PA would not only doom Santorum’s 2012 hopes, but it would tarnish his new brand.

Tom Corbett. ESPN Magazine ran a story this week suggesting that the Governor was the driving force behind the firing of PSU football coach Joe Paterno and president Graham Spanier. The article, which has gotten immense play this week, paints Corbett as alternatively bullish and hesitant about pursuing the Sandusky case. Corbett’s office and some PSU trustees have come out and denied the report, but the effect remains very unflattering.

Tim Holden. The hammer dropped this week, when a Super PAC made good on its threat to blast him with negative TV ads. However, before those aired, Holden scored a hard-hitting zinger on opponent Matt Cartwright with an ad that notes Cartwright contributed to the infamous “Kids for Cash” judges.

Chris Reilly. It’s nice to have friends in high places. A York Co. Commissioner running to replace Rep. Todd Platts (R-York), Reilly has been endorsed by Sen. Pat Toomey. His chief opponent, state Rep. Scott Perry, has been endorsed by Gov. Tom Corbett. The difference? Toomey’s leadership PAC is putting at least $100,000 on TV for Reilly – the only TV presence so far in a race of relative unknowns.

Jim Kenney.  The longtime Philadelphia city councilman may not have sustained any long term political damage this week, but the Philadelphia Daily News’ front page treatment of his misadventures in social media was an embarrassing failure of communication.  Kenney defended his payment of $28K+ in taxpayer money to a firm that tweets for him by saying he doesn’t have the “facility” to handle Twitter.  His city-paid communications man admitted to having “no clue” about this “thing of the future.”  And the co-founder of the firm that handles the Kenney ghost-tweets takes comfort in the fact that “everyone knows $28,000 isn’t a huge amount.”  Of course, everyone also knows how to tweet – which means they understand how impractical it is to pay anyone anything to do it.