The First Read — April 27, 2009

Good Morning!

Every Monday-Thursday morning, pa2010.com compiles the most important political news of the day, from newspapers to the blogosphere and back. Enjoy this edition.

For all the latest news, log on to pa2010.com, your destination for Pennsylvania’s big 2010 elections.

Big names aided Torsella’s first fundraising haul
Gov. Ed Rendell is on the list. So is Susan Rice, the Ambassador to the United Nations. Ditto Rhonda Cohen, the wife of Comcast executive and political bigwig David Cohen. Big-money names from Philly like Ken Jarin, Arthur Makadon and Peter Buttonweiser all make appearances. Restaurateur Stephen Starr is thrown in for good measure. All gave money to Democrat Joe Torsella’s nascent Senate campaign. Read More

O’Brien: Kanjorski’s vote against stimulus was ‘insulting’
A possible Democratic challenger to Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) says Kanjorski’s vote against President Obama’s stimulus package in January was an affront to the voters who elected him. Read More

A Republican who’s not afraid of Limbaugh
Larry Murphy has strong feelings about Rush Limbaugh. “Rush Limbaugh is a racist, he’s a cancer to the Republican Party and he should be excised,” Murphy said recently. Those aren’t unusual sentiments. But what is unusual is hearing them from a Republican candidate for office. Read More

Bonusgate: Records show recipients gave to political campaigns
HARRISBURG-When Bill DeWeese was House Democratic leader in 2002, he gave his Harrisburg aides $1,000 or $2,000 bonuses. Six of the recipients contributed identical or nearly identical amounts to Mr. DeWeese’s re-election and the House Democratic Campaign Committee that year or in 2003, records show. Nine other recipients that year made lesser contributions to the two committees. The bonuses and contributions came to light in the discovery phase of a criminal investigation into allegations that the House Democratic caucus used tax dollars to subsidize campaigns. Read More

Chief counsel now has a lawyer
Former state Rep. Brett Feese landed a job shortly after retiring from the House as chief counsel for the House Republican Caucus in 2006. The theory for employing the former Lycoming County district attorney as the top GOP lawyer was that his experience as a litigator would reduce costs for outside counsel. The Republican Caucus paid $425,000 a year on average to hire outside lawyers, despite the fact that the House employs 26 staff lawyers, including Feese, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $2 million. Feese, who was paid $203,000 last year by taxpayers, was the highest-paid staffer in the House or Senate, according to state records. Read More

NRA sues Pittsburgh
The National Rifle Association sued the city of Pittsburgh Friday in an effort to throw out a never-enforced ordinance requiring the reporting of the loss or theft of guns. Read More

Pa. quickly budgeting stimulus funds
It’s a big job to give away billions of dollars in a hurry. But two months after passage of the federal stimulus package, Pennsylvania is well into the task of allotting the $9.4 billion that will be under state and local control. Read More

Dems outpace GOP in MontCo, Bucks voter registrations
Former Republicans and new voters did not flock to the Grand Old Party’s standard in Montgomery and Bucks Counties during the latest voter registration period. Democrats made slight strides although not comparable to their huge registration gains in last year’s presidential election year. Read More

Have a great day!