Archive for January, 2010
The latest on the Knox exit (Updated)
Well, the chatter continues, albeit without any concrete, on-the-record facts.
On Wednesday night we pOne little nugget that did emerge: emThe Inquirer/em a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/82281847.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fnews%2Fbreaking%2F82281847.html','reports')" target="_blank"reports/a that a scheduled meeting between Knox and Dan Onorato was canceled, apparently because friend-of-the-site Pete DeCoursey broke the news before it could happen./p
pWe’ll continue looking into it. Stay tuned./p
pemUPDATE: Captiolwire has posted an updated story that also reports the Thursday morning meeting between Knox and Onorato was called off. Meanwhile, we’re hearing murmurs of job inquiries coming from current Knox campaign staffers who think they’ll soon be out of a job./em/p
pemUPDATE: The Tribune-Review now a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_663461.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pittsburghlive.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pittsburghlive.com%2Fx%2Fpittsburghtrib%2Fnews%2Fbreaking%2Fs_663461.html','reports')" target="_blank">reports that Knox is dropping out, citing sources close to him. This looks more and more like a definite. The silence from the campaign is deafening.
UPDATE: PoliticsPA
Full StorySaidel camp warns guv candidates not to go looking for a Lt. Gov. deal
Former Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel’s campaign has a stern warning for any gubernatorial candidates thinking they might be able to leverage their exit from the race for a spot on the ticket as Lieutenant Governor:
Don’t even try it.
Saidel has been laying the groundwork for over a year and will formally announce his candidacy for Lt. Gov. Monday afternoon. But responding to increased speculation that a candidate for governor could join Allegheny County…
Full StoryDem leader says Sestak should pull a Gerlach
A funny thing happened on the way to interpreting results of
Full StoryChallenging Gerlach, Welch will stay in the race
Republican Steven Welch said Thursday that he is continuing his campaign in the 6th Congressional District, setting up a potentially bloody primary battle with incumbent Congressman Jim Gerlach.
“People are looking for new direction,” Welch told pa2010.com. “People realize that the only way to rebuild the party is through new faces and a fresh perspective.”
Welch’s decision, disclosed first in an interview with PoliticsPA and later in an e-mail to supporters, was the first time…
Full StoryToomey leads Sestak by 9 in poll; up 8 over Sestak
Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey appears to be closing in on a double-digit lead over both his potential general election rivals, according to a new poll.
The
Full StoryCommon sense solutions for the economy
The economy in the United States is bad and Pennsylvanians are hurting. Our families are being squeezed by high and prolonged unemployment, by rising costs for gasoline, electricity, health care, and education, and have suffered a dramatic reduction in pensions and other forms of savings. One in five Americans is currently unemployed or underemployed. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. Allegheny and Philadelphia counties each lost 20,000 jobs in 2009, nearly 20 percent…
Full StoryDems have no one but themselves to blame in Massachusetts
Back when Barack Obama won the White House and Democrats solidified their control of both houses of Congress—and intermittently since then—I heard everyone from progressive pundits to Democratic leaders to members of the media talking about how the country had changed, how ideological and political leanings had shifted under the feet of a Republican Party that was now out of touch, regional, and slowly becoming irrelevant, and how we were in a new, post-modern era,…
Full StoryTHE RUMOR MILL: Word of a Knox exit swirls, but campaign chief says no
Rumors were spreading like wildfire Wednesday night that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Knox is planning to drop out of the governor’s race and endorse Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. We heard it from a few knowledgeable Democrats, but no one who had spoken directly with Knox.
We called around a lot—to Democratic insiders, rival campaigns and people close to Knox. While we were working on that, Capitolwire (subscription only) reported that Knox and Onorato are…
Full StoryTop Dem fundraiser helping Onorato
It’s long been assumed that the state’s leading Democratic fundraisers are behind Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato in this year’s gubernatorial race. A more comprehensive picture of that will emerge when campaign finance reports are published next month, but it’s already clear that Mark Aronchick—a Philadelphia attorney who was one of Hillary Clinton’s top area fundraisers during her presidential race—is with Onorato.
In an e-mail late last month, obtained by pa2010.com, Aronchick invited like-minded friends…
Full StoryWhy Massachusetts matters here—and everywhere else
The Republican victory in Massachusetts—coupled with similar if less dramatic victories in New Jersey and Virginia—is a clear warning shot, but could still be one of a cyclical rather than a deeply philosophical variety. Its long-term significance depends on how the Democrats react.
If President Obama and the congressional leadership take the warning to heart—if they tack forcefully to the middle as Bill Clinton did in similar circumstances 15 years ago—they have a very good…
Full Story
