State Sen. Jane Orie. State Sen. Orie remains innocent until proven guilty as the judge in her trial declared a mistrial. It does not look good, however, that some of the evidence presented by her defense team was found to contain forged signatures.

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Melissa Hart. As PoliticsPA reported earlier this week, the former congresswoman is already being discussed as the GOP candidate for Sen. Orie’s seat should the latter fail to serve out her term.

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PA-4 Democrats. PA Democratic Party Chair Jim Burn expects Rep. Jason Altmire to face a primary challenge in 2012 – despite the Democratic congressman’s success in a district Barack Obama lost by 8 points in a watershed Democratic year.

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Tom Corbett. The New Gov. said he will not force a Wisconsin-style showdown in Pennsylvania.  A solid calculation in a purple state like Pennsylvania.  But it does little to answer the real question: what will he actually propose to solve the state’s budget woes?  PoliticsPA will give him the benefit of the doubt until his address next week.

Bob Casey. Pennsylvania’s senior senator isn’t Teflon Bob, but his re-election chances still look “pretty darn good,” as Municipoll’s Ed Haggerty put it last week.  Just short of half of respondents to this week’s Muhlenberg College/Morning Call survey said Casey deserves to be re-elected.  And thus far, the GOP has yet to secure a viable challenger – despite very public efforts to do so.

National GOP. The same poll found that President Obama would defeat big name GOP potential standard bearers Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee in a Keystone State presidential matchup…despite the president’s less than stellar numbers here.