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Good morning political junkies. It’s good to be back after a Labor Day break that was probably longer than we deserved here at pa2010.com Central.

There’s lots on the agenda for the coming weeks. We’d have to say one of the biggest stories is the pIt was still town-hall time while we were away. The story of the week was that Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey teamed up for a a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20090902_A_cordial_Sestak-Toomey_town_hall.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fnews%2Fbreaking%2F20090902_A_cordial_Sestak-Toomey_town_hall.html','health+care+debate+in+Allentown')" target="_blank"health care debate in Allentown/a. Friend-of-the-site Josh Drobnyk has a a href="http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a1_5factcheck.7008972sep06,0,940411.story" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.mcall.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcall.com%2Fnews%2Fall-a1_5factcheck.7008972sep06%2C0%2C940411.story','nice+dissection')" target="_blank">nice dissection of some of the less-than-truthful claims the two made during the debate. But really, what with this obsession about …

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The First Read — September 8, 2009

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.

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Biden touts Specter and pledges to back workers in Pittsburgh visit
Vice President Joe Biden told a rally at Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade that organized labor was …

New Poll Confirms Governor’s Race Wide Open

By GERLACH FOR GOVERNOR

(Exton, PA) – A Franklin & Marshall College statewide poll released Thursday showed that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Gerlach has plenty of GOP voters willing to listen to his ideas for creating jobs, fixing the state’s broken budget process and shaking things up in Harrisburg.

This is also the fourth poll in recent weeks exposing the vulnerability of Tom Corbett, who is Pennsylvania Attorney General by day and presumptive gubernatorial candidate …

Corbett leads GOP primary, but vast majority undecided

State Attorney General Tom Corbett has an early advantage in next year’s Republican primary for governor, but so many voters are undecided that the race remains wide open, according to a new poll.

In a Franklin & Marshall College survey of 214 registered Republicans released Thursday, 16 percent of respondents said they would back Corbett if the primary were held today, while six percent said they would vote for Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6). But a …

Specter leads in new poll, but only a third think he deserves reelection

Senator Arlen Specter continues to hold an edge over both his primary and general election opponents thanks to superior name recognition, but dissatisfaction with the longtime incumbent and the large proportion of undecided voters could still prove nettlesome for the Republican-turned-Democrat, according to a new poll.

The Franklin & Marshall College survey released Thursday showed Specter leading Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) 37 percent to 11 percent in next year’s Democratic primary. And it showed him …

How much will ideology matter for Democrats in guv race?

Generally, we hate headlines that are questions, since it implies the writer doesn’t really know what the hell kind of conclusion they want to make. So let’s just get this disclosure over with: We do not KNOW what role ideology will play in the pHowever, it was interesting last Friday at the a href="http://www.padems.com/Home.php" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.padems.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.padems.com%2FHome.php','Pennsylvania+Democratic+Party')"Pennsylvania Democratic Party /acommittee meeting in Camp Hill thata href="http://www.friendsofjoehoeffel.com/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.friendsofjoehoeffel.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.friendsofjoehoeffel.com%2F','Montgomery+County%22s+Joe+Hoeffel')"> Montgomery County’s Joe Hoeffel came out and laid down the gauntlet for progressive politics, echoing pHoeffel is exploring a Democratic primary bid against Auditor General Jack Wagner, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox and maybe even Scranton Mayor Christopher Doherty./p
pBut as party pundits peg front-runners Onorato and Wagner as equally conservative Democrats, Hoeffel appears to be going to deliberate measures to ensure that the progressive positions and issues remain front and center in the race to replace Gov. Ed Rendell, whose second term is coming to a poll-sliding end./p
pWhether this is truly a winning strategy remains to be seen, especially with President Obama taking fire on the scope of his agenda and the stabilized-but-sluggish economy./p
pAs one Democratic Party insider put it: It’s not exactly as if Pennsylvania is Connecticut. Progressives make up about three percent of the party./p
pStill, it is interesting to see Democratic candidates begin the process of carving out a niche for the upcoming gubernatorial race./p
pWith a href="http://tomcorbettforgovernor.com/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://tomcorbettforgovernor.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Ftomcorbettforgovernor.com%2F','Attorney+General+Tom+Corbett')"Attorney General Tom Corbett /alooking to assert his front-runner status for the Republican nomination—coming out last week in an interview with the a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090829_ap_agcorbettrespondstolegislativeprobecritics.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fwires%2Fap%2Fnews%2Fstate%2Fpennsylvania%2F20090829_ap_agcorbettrespondstolegislativeprobecritics.html','Associated+Press+in+which+said+there+will+be+more+indictments+out+of+the+state+General+Assembly+probe')">Associated Press in which said there will be more indictments out of the state General Assembly …

A dissenting view on Senator Kennedy

I posted …

Catching up…

Damian Dachowski should know that he is entering an uphill battle against Allyson Schwartz, but his presentation of his candidacy is actually a nice one. In the past, I have felt that candidates like Peter Raj Bakhta in 2006 kind of made their candidacy look like a joke.

However, Dachowski seems serious.

Next, I have a one phrase response to Joe Hoeffel’s plea for help in his decision on whether to seek the Governor’s Mansion… …

The GOP stars come out for a Clambake

Where can you find elected officials, former elected officials, candidates and Republican activists on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon the likes of: Al Schmidt, Bob Kerns, Joe Watkins, Fred Anton, Tom Corbett, Frank Rizzo, Tom Gannon, Scott Petri, John Perzel, Jay Moyer, Kevin Brobson, Temp Smith, Garrett Page, George Kenney, Joe Waters, Marc Collazo, Kevin Kelly, Adam Lang, Joe DeFelice, Vito Canuso, Tom Judge, Sr., Mike Oscar, Jim Schultz, Bob Judge, Vince Fenerty, Aaron Finestone, …