Rick Santorum. The former Senator has had several solid weeks of campaigning in a row. This week, leading conservative columnist George Will penned a Washington Post op-ed laying out Santorum’s (feasible) path to the GOP nomination. And at the beginning of the week, it was shown that Santorum’s fundraising numbers bested almost every other prospective GOP candidate including Huckabee, Gingrich, and Pawlenty (all except Romney and Palin). Ladies and Gentlemen, this campaign is for real.
Philadelphia City Council. In the last year City Council has had to deal with DROP and towing wars, but now you can add another thing to their list, being inoculated from competitive elections. A study out this week says members of City Council in Philadelphia serve longer at their posts than any other City Council in the nation. Maybe Council should look at some reforms so that members of the Council do not become entrenched, creating programs like DROP that are unpopular but difficult to remove because they are a popular incentive for members to serve while maintaining their posts.
Marcel Groen. Groen surprised many observers with his high-profile campaign against incumbent Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, but this week it looked like the masterstroke of the Montco Dems’ Chairman. At the end of the day, Hoeffel represented a one-commissioner mindset of a party that has been steadily gaining ground in county government. (Spoiler alert for PoliticsPA’s forthcoming list of PA’s best county party chairs).
Punxsutawney. The small PA town had its annual 15 minutes of fame this week, and what a great legacy. It doesn’t matter whether Phil sees his shadow, this tradition will go on for 6 weeks, 6 years, 6 decades and more.
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PA House Dems. It still appears that the House Dems were victorious in last week’s rules debate (after all, how often does the Rules Committee get any kind of press at all?). But many veterans of the legislature are keeping a wary eye on Majority Leader Turzai’s office, and no one wold be surprised to see the controversial measures reemerge.
Rep. Glenn Thompson. Thompson represents one of the most conservative districts in PA, but he put partisanship aside and showed major class when he welcomed President Obama to Penn State this week. It’s nice to hear about civility in politics, but it’s much more refreshing to actually see it. And check back later today for video of Thompson’s equally classy response to Obama’s speech.
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3 Responses
I once lived in PA and always voted for Santorum and will still if and when he runs for national office, like President!!!! I now live in McCain’s State of AZ. Of course, if a woman should run for that office, I’m obliged to run for the woman, hopefully if it’s Palin!!!
Blanche from Sedona, AZ
To some degree I agree with Montco PA Dem, Hoeffel was treated shabbily and still was our best candidate. I’m not so sire this was the worst move, though it should have been accomplished with more aploumb. I hear the legalmissues facing Hoeffel’s partner, Jim Matthews, are far more serious than previously thought. If that were to blow up during the campaign and Joe was still in it, the focus would become how it could be tha Joe allowed the corruption to go on under his nose. He can’t claim ignorance since the other commissioner, Bruce Castor, was pointing it out at every turn. It is one thing to say at the time that it was Castor being partisan, hut a political disaster if it turns out Castor was right and Hoeffel ignored it. I suspect fear over that unknown played a role in all this. Mif my sources are correct, the DA used the Sunshine Act allegations as a smokescreen for the real criminal activity being investigated against Matthews.
I don’t know who’s in your ear, but your fawning “arrow up” for Marcel Groen couldn’t be more wrong. Groen’s instincts have been off-base for years, and the party’s growth in Montgomery County is in spite of him, not because of him. Despite the attacks, Joe Hoeffel’s popularity among county voters remained high, and Groen could have — should have — used his influence to convince Josh Shapiro to share the ticket with Hoeffel. Instead, Groen sided with Shapiro and launched his attack against Hoeffel to kick him to the curb. The ticket of Shapiro and a woman nobody knows is going to be another doomed effort to add to the Groen legacy.