Early evening polling reports, from Philly to Westmont (Updated)

There’s still time before the polls close, but the early consensus from political operatives across the state is that turnout was pretty low, with the 12th Congressional District being a notable exception, considering the special election there.

We’ll also hearing that turnout was higher in western Pennsylvania than in the Philadelphia region, where there was more rain.

The Committee of Seventy, the prominent government watchdog group that monitors the polls in Philly, has said turnout…

Getting out the Specter vote

On the ground in Philadelphia, Politico‘s Jonathan Martin has a nice story on Arlen Specter’s get-out-the-vote operation.

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Gerlach says he’s ready for whichever Dem wins

CHESTER SPRINGS—With Democrats battling it out for a chance to take him on, Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) sounded confident Tuesday that he’ll win another term in November.

In a brief interview after he cast his vote here, Gerlach told pa2010.com that he feels good about his chances in the general election—regardless of which Democrat prevails Tuesday. Gerlach is expected to cruise against underdog Tea Party candidate Patrick Sellers in the Republican primary.

With the political…

Despite voting for neutrality, Bucks GOPers backing Fitzpatrick at the polls

RICHBORO—Earlier this year, the Bucks County Republican Party voted not to endorse a candidate in the 8th Congressional District primary. But despite that, Republicans working the polls today were highlighting Mike Fitzpatrick’s name on sample ballots, seemingly supporting him over Gloria Carlineo and two other candidates in what could be a violation of party rules.

The local party infrastructure overwhelmingly supports Fitzpatrick, a former one-term congressman. But it opted against a formal endorsement, partly at…

Obama and Specter, hands held high

Here’s a state Democratic Party-funded piece of campaign literature making the rounds in Philadelphia, first published by

The path to real school choice

I have been an advocate for increased school choice options for a very long time. This year, state Senator Anthony Williams has done a lot of work to raise the profile of this cause, and for that I thank him. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of confusion on the role of school choice as well as the role of public education, as can be seen from

Dems frame 12th District special as a must-win… for GOP

On the eve of a special election being closely watched outside Pennsylvania, Democrats sought to frame the debate early, saying the 12th District contest is only a must-win for Republicans and apparently looking to preempt any possible narratives that might arise from a Democratic loss.

In an e-mail blast to reporters Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it’s “important to remember that only one election [on Tuesday] features a Republican versus Democrat.”

“The NRCC…

The Specter camp’s messaging failure

Facing the ballot Tuesday and the choice between Arlen Specter or Joe Sestak for Senate, I found myself walking back events of the past year in order to see if there was a single, critical and deciding issue upon which to make a decision.

This question presumes that both candidates were equally acceptable or annoying and a tie-breaker was necessary.

But it struck me that the critical mistake made by the Specter campaign was the…

In Philly, early voter turnout is low (Updated)

With voting open for several hours now, a government watchdog group that closely watches the polls in Philadelphia says the rainy weather is definitely yielding lower turnout.

While it’s still far too early to draw any conclusions, conventional wisdom is that a low turnout in Pennsylvania’s largest city hurts Arlen Specter’s Senate chances and Anthony Williams’ gubernatorial chances. While it hasn’t been pouring, one weather forecast said an inch of rain would fall throughout the…

When children vote

There’s something sordid happening today… children are going into the voting booth. We received this shocking photo from the 11th District congressional campaign of Republican Lou Barletta.

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