Doherty: Gimme money now, I won’t ask later

From the annals of late-year fundraising, Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty’s campaign offers up a quirky approach to racking up his numbers before the reporting period closes this month: promising not to e-mail his supporters again.

In an e-mail with subject-line “Let’s Make A Deal,” campaign manager Corey Platt writes that if you give $100 or more to the Democrat’s campaign now, “we won’t send you another fundraising email until 2010.”

“December is an important month…

Follow complete coverage of the Pa. Society weekend

Starting Friday morning and ending Sunday afternoon, pa2010.com is in New York City covering pTo see our complete coverage, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/tag/pennsylvania-society/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Ftag%2Fpennsylvania-society%2F','click+here')" target="_blank">click here throughout the weekend.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we’ll be sending out special editions of The First Read morning e-mail (the special editions won’t be published online, so you can only get them by pTo follow the daily live-blog on empa2010.com Central/em, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/author/admin/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fauthor%2Fadmin%2F','click+here')" target="_blank"click here/a./p
pYou can follow empa2010.com/em reporter and editor Dan Hirschhorn’s every move of the weekend on a href="http://twitter.com/danpa2010" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://twitter.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fdanpa2010','his+Twitter+feed')" target="_blank">his Twitter feed, and pa2010.com micro-blogger Benjamin Barnett on

The ultimate insider’s guide—and schedule—to the Pa. Society weekend (Updated)

This weekend in New York City is where past political folklore and present electoral jockeying meet at a crossroads—as they do every winter in the Big Apple.

That’s right political junkies, it’s time for the annual Pennsylvania Society weekend, a 48-hour orgy of political hob-knobbing mixed with copious amounts of food and alcohol, a rare chance for a far-flung political establishment from one of the country’s largest states to convene within literally just a few…

EXCLUSIVE: Lower Merion commish might join 6th District Dem primary

Democratic insiders across the 6th Congressional District have increasingly been seeing next year’s primary as a pLower Merion Township Commissioner Brian Gordon confirmed Thursday that he is seriously considering a run and will make a final decision within a week. In an interview with empa2010.com/em, Gordon said he was moving “quickly because I…

Holidays come early for Stensland, Specter and Kanjo

You know it’s the holiday season when everyone gets, well, a bit silly. A couple of examples:

Dawn Stensland—Let me get this straight. She pArlen Specter—He’s to the right of Sestak! He’s to the left of Sestak! He’s a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/12/specter-leads-sestak-by-13-in-new-poll/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fspecter-leads-sestak-by-13-in-new-poll%2F','up+in+the+polls')" target="_blank"up in the polls/a! He’s a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/12/rasmussen-toomey-narrowly-leads-specter-and-sestak/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F12%2Frasmussen-toomey-narrowly-leads-specter-and-sestak%2F','down+in+the+polls')" target="_blank">down in the polls! Who needs Santa Claus when you still have Arlen?

Paul Kanjorski—Let me get this straight, again. He managed to eke out a narrow win in the 11th over Lou Barletta in the biggest Democratic year since the Flood (Noah, not Johnstown). And he’s telling Barletta

The dangerous proliferation of Dawn Stensland puns

Journalists love a good pun. p“New Dawn Rising?” a href="http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/20091210_New_Dawn_Rising_.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fdailynews%2Ftop_story%2F20091210_New_Dawn_Rising_.html','asks+The+Daily+News')" target="_blank"asks emThe Daily News/em/a./p
p“Dawn of a New Era?” a href="http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/12/09/news/doc4b1fc638e190b278485864.txt" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.delcotimes.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delcotimes.com%2Farticles%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fnews%2Fdoc4b1fc638e190b278485864.txt','echoes+The+DelCo+Times.')" target="_blank">echoes The DelCo Times.

We’d offer up our own puns, but would rather see what you have to offer.

Let’s hear ‘em.

Why the wealthy candidate isn’t throwing a party

NEW YORK—There are five Democratic candidates for governor. Four of them are throwing parties of one kind or another here this weekend.

The holdout? Philadelphia millionaire Tom Knox.

It might seem a quirky decision for the one independently wealthy candidate in the race not to shell out so the state’s political insiders can party with him during the Pennsylvania Society weekend. But it actually dovetails nicely with what’s becoming a central theme of Knox’s candidacy—that…

Rasmussen: Toomey narrowly leads Specter and Sestak

Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey is holding a slight edge over both his potential Democratic opponents in next year’s general election, according to a new poll.

pIf a general election were held today, according to the poll, Toomey would beat Senator Arlen Specter by 4 points, 46 percent to 42 percent, a lead just outside the margin of error. That result is consistent with a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/pennsylvania/2010_senate_election/2010_pennsylvania_senate_toomey_leads_specter_runs_even_with_sestak" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.rasmussenreports.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rasmussenreports.com%2Fpublic_content%2Fpolitics%2Felections2%2Felection_2010%2Felection_2010_senate_elections%2Fpennsylvania%2F2010_senate_election%2F2010_pennsylvania_senate_toomey_leads_specter_runs_even_with_sestak','Rasmussen%22s+October+survey')" target="_blank"Rasmussen’s October survey/a. Less than 10 percent of voters are undecided in that matchup this month./p
pToomey would edge Congressman Joe Sestak (D-8) by 6 points, 44 percent to 38 percent. But 13 percent of voters were undecided in that race. The October poll showed Toomey and Sestak in a dead-heat./p
pThe survey of 1,200 likely voters had  a margin of error of three percent./p
p•Earlier on empa2010.com: /ema href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/12/specter-leads-sestak-by-13-in-new-poll/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fspecter-leads-sestak-by-13-in-new-poll%2F','Specter+leads+Sestak+by+13')" target="_blank">Specter leads Sestak by 13

Carney endorses Trivedi in 6th District primary

Congressman Chris Carney (D-10) became the first member of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to endorse Manan Trivedi for Congress on Thursday, giving Trivedi his most high-profile backer yet as he seeks to convince party insiders it’s not too late for him to make up ground against primary front-runner Doug Pike.

“Through his work as a physician, healthcare reform advocate and military officer, Manan Trivedi has shown an admirable dedication to service,” Carney, himself a Navy Reserve…

Congressman Carney endorses Manan Trivedi for Congress

By TRIVEDI FOR CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Congressman Chris Carney today endorsed Manan Trivedi for Congress, becoming the first member of the Pennsylvania delegation to publicly support the Democrat from Reading in his bid for the 6th District Congressional seat. Carney, a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve who represents the 10th district, was elected in 2006.

“Through his work as a physician, healthcare reform advocate and military officer, Manan Trivedi has shown an admirable…