Announcement week (Updated)

An off-year election in the books means it’s time for the 2010ers to announce.

And it’s a busy week of candidate announcements. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty is widely expected to formally declare his candidacy for governor Tuesday. And state Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) will announce Thursday morning, according to a local party announcement a reader sent pa2010.com Central.

Stay tuned for more.

UPDATE: Oh, and

Democrats ignore voters at their peril

Interesting item

Two Pa. Dems vote against health care bill

Two House Democrats from Pennsylvania bucked their party late Friday night to vote against the party’s health care reform bill, which

ALTMIRE STATEMENT ABOUT HOUSE HEALTH CARE BILL

By THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JASON ALTMIRE (D-4)

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire (PA-04) tonight released the following statement after voting against the health care reform legislation (H.R. 3962) debated today in the House. Please note that last week, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that under the terms of H.R. 3962, both federal and overall health care expenditures would actually increase in the long-term compared to current law.

“As I said following the…

Gerlach Opposes Job-Crushing Tax Hikes, Medicare Cuts and Expanding Government Control Over Health Care Decisions

By THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JIM GERLACH

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used a rare Saturday session to pass a nearly 2,000-page bill that would lead to more jobs losses, painful cuts in medical care for seniors and unprecedented power for government officials to fine and throw in jail those who cannot afford or chose not to buy health insurance.

Congressman Jim Gerlach (PA-6th District) stood with the workers, job creators and taxpayers in…

Rep. Pitts on Passage of Pelosi Healthcare Reform

By THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JOE PITTS (R-16)

Washington– Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s healthcare bill, H.R. 3962, passed the House of Representatives this evening 220-215. Rep. Joe Pitts (PA-16) voted against the bill.

Rep. Pitts statement follows:

“Instead of passing healthcare reform with a united front of Democrats and Republicans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose to reject bipartisanship and twist arms to pass this bill with a slim majority. The American people can have no confidence in…

Sestak Statement on Passage of Health Insurance Reform

By SESTAK FOR SENATE

MEDIA, PA – Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Congressman Joe Sestak, who has been fighting for health care reform since he entered Congress as a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) sub-committee, issued the following statement in honor of tonight’s passage of the historic Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962):

“Today, I proudly voted to pass the Affordable Health Care for America Act (AHCAA). This legislation will…

Kanjorski Supports Health Care Reform Bill to Reduce Costs for All Americans

By THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN PAUL KANJORSKI (D-11)

WASHINGTON – Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) provided the following statement explaining his vote for H.R. 3962, The Affordable Health Care for America Act.  The House passed the bill today by a vote of 220-215.  Once the Senate has completed action on its own bill, it is expected that a conference committee of representatives from each body will negotiate compromise legislation which will need to be adopted…

WEEKEND LEFTOVERS: Yeakel’s with Sestak, a Corbett conflict, a Barletta sighting and more Rohrer

In the hustle-and-bustle of our late-week traveling, here’s a few items that slipped by pa2010.com Central.

Lynn Yeakel, who came close to knocking off Senator Arlen Specter in 1992, is, not too surprisingly, giving her support to the man who hopes to beat the Republican-turned-Democrat next year. CQ Politics p“I’ve known Joe for four years and he has the character and integrity to represent our party and our Commonwealth in Washington,” Yeakel said./p
pOf course, the Specter campaign was quick to point out that Yeakel had kind words for Specter when he switched parties earlier this year./p
p“Obviously, I’m delighted that he’s making this move,” Yeakel a href="http://www.observer.com/3315/lynn-yeakel-isnt-angry-anymore" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.observer.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.observer.com%2F3315%2Flynn-yeakel-isnt-angry-anymore','told+The+New+York+Observer')" target="_blank"told emThe New York Observer/em/a at the time. “I think he’s always been more of a moderate.”/p
pNice, but she did leave herself wiggle room: “Unless there’s somebody else in the Democratic primary who, for whatever reason, I found myself more in agreement with, I certainly would support him,” she added, saying specifically that she didn’t think Sestak would run./p
pstrongMeanwhile,/strong friend-of-the-site John Micek got a great tip on a fundraiser for Tom Corbett, where a member of the host committee was none other than Timothy Carson, a vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which is being investigated by Corbett’s office. This should give the Gerlach folks more ammunition for the conflict-of-interest meme, and we’ll be looking into it more ourselves./p
pstrongIf at first you don’t succeed,/strong try again, then try again. That’s what Hazleon Mayor Lou Barletta might be thinking, as he considers whether or not to run against Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) for a third time. Most pollsters and political-watchers expected Barletta to unseat Kanjorski last year before a wave of Obama supporters helped push Kanjorski to reelection. Now we read that Barletta will a href="http://www.politicspa.com/politicspa-reports-barletta-eyeing-early-dec-decision-on-campaign/1593/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politicspa.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicspa.com%2Fpoliticspa-reports-barletta-eyeing-early-dec-decision-on-campaign%2F1593%2F','decide+whether+to+make+another+run+later+this+month.')" target="_blank">decide whether to make another run later this month.

And a few days after we reported that state Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks)

Voting against the champs

As if the