A great fundraising report, a mixed bag for the Toms and an omission of undetermined consequence. See who made this week’s list!
Pat Toomey. From the moment Pat Toomey entered the Senate in January 2011, he had a target on his back from Democrats who believe his seat is winnable. As a result, he needed to raise a ridiculous amount of money and so far he has. The latest financial quarterly report shows that the Senator has over $5 million in cash on hand compared to his 2010 opponent Joe Sestak, who has about $1.27 million COH. The next two and a half years will still be a long, arduous battle for Toomey but at least he won’t lack for resources.
Tom Corbett. It was quite the complex week for the Governor, although by now we’re sure he’s used to that. As Terry Madonna wrote, Gov. Corbett is taking the unprecedented step of running against the Harrisburg establishment while serving in the office in which that environment revolves around. Additionally, a new CBS/NYT poll showed Corbett within striking distance of his opponent for the first time in months. Yet, the Washington Post and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball both classify the Governor as extremely vulnerable. He is still going to need a few more good weeks before he can make the case that he’s turned a corner.
Kevin Strouse and Manan Trivedi. It may have been a simple memory lapse. Nonetheless DCCC Chair Steve Israel’s neglection of PA-6 and PA-8 as top Democratic House targets at a speech to the Christian Science Monitor this week could not have been encouraging to the Strouse and Trivedi campaigns. Whether you like it or not, money is a determinative factor in politics and if your party is reluctant to spend enough of it for you, your campaign will grow exponentially more difficult.
Tom Wolf. Just like with Gov. Corbett, this was an up and down week for the Democratic challenger as well. The online poll from CBS and the New York Times may just be an outlier or its methods may be flawed, but for now the Wolf pack has to be worried about whether their support is soft and could erode down the stretch. The nominee may be testing that hypothesis by laying out an ambitious tax reform plan that will likely be savaged by the GOP in the months to come. On the other hand, though, Wolf hit back against the Governor for the first time and, as mentioned above, is still widely seen as the clear front-runner.
State Legislature. Apparently, four days in August were too many or maybe everyone just felt nothing would happen anyway so they might as we’ll skip out. Either way, House leaders announced they won’t be returning to Harrisburg next week, which means Philadelphia schools may not have the funds to open in early September. Not exactly an inspiring moment from the State Capitol.
The tweet of the week goes to an out-of-stater but we couldn’t resist this response to ex-Rep. Joe Sestak’s post about traveling the back roads of Pottstown with State Sen. Daylin Leach. Make this happen HBO!
#TrueDetectiveSeason2 MT @JoeSestak: I don't know of any other state senator I'd rather drive around with…than @DaylinLeach.
— Scott Detrow (@scottdetrow) July 30, 2014
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13 Responses
Wolf (& Rendell) handed Corbett $3.5BILLION deficit (revenue Director Wolf now wants to “Obamacise” us) as governor? Texas leads U.S. in jobs, NO corporate or PERSONAL INCOME TAXES. All Republican governor states HAVE BALANCED BUDGETS! RENDELL BUILDING THE Arlen Specter library to house “The Prince” by Macchiavelli.
Not a down arrow for Toomey’s vote against the Made in America bill? The man who’s apparently bought and paid for by corporations that want to take all US jobs overseas? Toomey needs to go, no matter how much money he has in the bank.
As PA Independent reported last week, the 40-students Philly scare tactic is just BS, a myth. While Sestak and Leach were driving back roads … were they going to pot?
Concerning the State Legislature, many of these democratically elected reps. are so well entrenched in their little fiefdoms through re-apportionment that there will be no contests for many this fall. The knee-jerk reaction is to reduce the size of the legislature to save money. I would like to see the Rep. who introduces the bill to GO back to part-time status. I would like to see seats added in Harrisburg and more retail politics needed to get their message out.
Nick Field,
1.Why is this story not about every other republican that voted for this?
2.Why is the story about Kevin Strouse’s campaign staffer and fellow Bristol Boro native, Deidre French, and her racist, anti-gay, and anti-mormon tweets being ignored when this very site covered the similar story about inappropriate social media by Fitzpatrick’s daughter?
3. Is the writer of this story also a Temple student or alum where he may possibly have a relationship with Ms. French?
4. Did your former employer tell you to keep pressure on Fitzpatrick or to keep boosting this race which no one with any brains believes is close?
Barry-
Hate to clue you in, but Sestak doesn’t stand for anything except having a fancy title next to his name. He’s not a Dem, but rather a fraud who weaseled his way into the party in sheep’s clothing.
I’d rather have NO Senator than either Sestak or Toomey.
We need to knock out Sestak in the primary with a real Democrat, and make use the Presidential election turnout to defeat Toomey.
Toomey is both a loser and a lier. He will lose reelection- conservatives wil desert himl for selling out to Mitch McConnell and others who have led Republicans to disaster- and for supporting taxes and showing weakness against Obama. Better Sestak who stands for something- than Toomey who stands for nothing. Any dem but not Pat.
http://m.wgal.com/news/susquehanna-valley-man-pushes-to-bring-african-americans-to-republican-party/27253298
This guy had quite a “Welcome to the NFL” week. Last week this new GOP outreacher got slammed by one media source. His boss Gleason comes to his defense. Just yesterday, this piece shows up and gets big air in Harrisburg.
He’s become a one man lightning rod for the Republicans. Good pub, bad pub….its pub.
This kids head must be spinning…
He should have been put on this weeks up/down list for sure.
The irony of the tweet of the week going to an out-of-stater is that Sestak is an out-of-stater himself.
@WhatCadyDid Sorry, I thought that went without saying. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought otherwise!
What’s infuriating is the Republican “eh, it’ll pass in September” attitude. Why not pass it now, then?!
Please note: The decision not to return to session was 100% the decision of the party in the majority. The Democrats were ready willing and able to come to work out the problems that Governor Corbett made even worse. Not every problem is caused by one party or the other, but this one is clearly being exacerbated by one.
SHOULD THE CORBETT DEPARTMENT OF ED HAVE GOTTEN A DOWN ARROW FOR APPARENTLY USING SNAP CHAT AS ITS EMAIL SYSTEM? HASN’T THE CORBETT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BECOME A STANDING HARRISBURG JOKE?
http://www.abc27.com/story/26166792/no-longer-cabinet-secretary-tomalis-still-paid-like-one
So, because some members of the State House really want to go on vacation early, the public schools in the largest city in the state are going to have to have class sizes of 40 students in the fall after they start late. Got it.
This is appalling.