Marino camp spins fundraising numbers, promises better (Updated)

For Republican Tom Marino, there’s pretty much no place to go but up.

When campaign finance disclosures were filed last week, Marino, the former U.S. Attorney and 10th District hopeful, reported having a paltry $11,000 in the bank. It was the smallest haul of a fundraising cycle that was disappointing for Republican candidates across the Pennsylvania. And among more than 100 top-tier Republican challengers throughout the country, Marino’s cash-on-hand ranked dead last, according to research…

Revisiting Research 2000

Late last month, Daily Kos made a claim that naturally caught our eye: The liberal Web site pemDaily Kos/em cited an independent investigation and said it would sue, while a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39497.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politico.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2Fstories%2F0710%2F39497.html','Research+2000+denied+wrongdoing+but+soon+took+down+its+Web+site')" target="_blank"Research 2000 denied wrongdoing but soon took down its Web site/a.em Daily Kos/em founder Markos Moulitsas wrote: “We were defrauded by Research 2000, and while we don’t know if some or all of the data was fabricated or manipulated beyond recognition, we know we can’t trust it.”/p
pConsidering our propensity here at empa2010.com/em to report any little morsel of polling data we can get our hands on, it seemed prudent to look back at our reporting of Research 2000 surveys, so we deployed the staff to do a little research./p
pBetween August 2009 and May 2010, empa2010.com/em published at least five articles about emDaily Kos/em/Research 2000 polls. From the limited sample size we examined, it was difficult to discern any pattern of discrepancies between Research 2000 surveys and other polls conducted about the same time. Sometimes, the results were in line with other public polling data. Other times, the results differed, but by statistically insignificant margin./p
pRegardless, it is important the record be corrected. Because of that, updates that mention emDaily Kos’/em disavowal of Research 2000 have been appended to all the stories in question. This post has also been added to our a href="http://www.pa2010.com/tag/corrections/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Ftag%2Fcorrections%2F','Corrections+page')" target="_blank">Corrections page.

For those polling junkies who want to do their own investigation, we’ve included a list of the stories in question below. Please e-mail us if you find that we missed anything important.

a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/03/corbett-still-up-over-dem-opponents/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F03%2Fcorbett-still-up-over-dem-opponents%2F','Corbett+still+up+over+Dem+opponents')" target="_blank"Corbett still up over Dem opponents/abr /
a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/03/specter-leads-toomey-by-6-in-new-poll/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F03%2Fspecter-leads-toomey-by-6-in-new-poll%2F','Specter+leads+Toomey+by+6+in+new+poll')" target="_blank">Specter leads Toomey by 6 in new poll

Republicans Agree on Toomey’s ‘Club for Greed’

By SESTAK FOR SENATE

MEDIA, Pa. – Republicans may differ on policies and beliefs even amongst themselves, but one thing many of them seem to agree on is that Wall Street’s Club for Growth and its former president Congressman Toomey are too out of touch even for their own party.

As the video below shows, Republicans from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to Senator John McCain agree that the Club for Growth — an organization…

Who is the GOP talking to?

Last month, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), echoing talking points released by the House Republican Study Committee, apologized to BP for its ill-treatment at the hands of the Obama administration, calling the establishment of the $20 million trust fund set up to help Gulf residents affected by BP’s massive oil spill a “shakedown” and the trust itself an administration “slush fund.”

A couple weeks later, in an interview with The Tribune-Review, House Minority Leader John Boehner,…

Corbett Uses ‘Next Major Policy Announcement’ To Seek New Spending

By ONORATO FOR GOVERNOR

PITTSBURGH: After calling for “across the board” spending cuts and vowing not to raise taxes, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett yesterday unveiled another plan for millions of dollars in new spending.

Just weeks ago, Corbett’s ally Senate Republican Leader Dominic Pileggi said that “Corbett, the Republican nominee for governor, should tell Pennsylvanians in ‘his next major policy announcement’ how he would avoid a tax increase.” [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, June 28, 2010]

Instead,…

Murphy looks to claim toughness mantle on immigration

With immigration increasingly in the Washington spotlight, Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8) is looking to position himself as the candidate who’s tough on illegal immigration. And he’s using

Rothfus staffs up for November

Slowly but surely, Republican Keith Rothfus is building a bit more of a campaign in the 4th Congressional District.

Rothfus, who provided the rare fundraising bright spot for GOP challengers in recent campaign finance disclosures, has made two senior-level hires, with plans for at least one more later this summer. Jonathan Raso is the campaign’s new, full-time finance director, while Jared Stutzman is the new volunteer coordinator.

Stutzman recently worked on Tim Burns’ 12th District…

Rendell: Corbett is ‘totally out of touch’

Gov. Ed Rendell joined the rest of his party in criticizing Attorney General Tom Corbett’s much-publicized pRendell’s comments, a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/07/gov_ed_rendell_blasts_gop_gube.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pennlive.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pennlive.com%2Fmidstate%2Findex.ssf%2F2010%2F07%2Fgov_ed_rendell_blasts_gop_gube.html','reported+by+The+Patriot-News')" target="_blank"reported by emThe Patriot-News/em/a, came more than a week after Corbett said that “the jobs are there” and that some unemployed are staying jobless to collect…

Rudy Giuliani’s busy day in Pa.

Former New York Mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani had a busy day scheduled for Monday, with three campaign stops for Pennsylvania Republicans from Wilkes-Barre to Philadelphia.

Giuliani started his day with an afternoon appearance for Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) in Bethlehem.

He was set to continue at a fundraiser for 11th District candidate Lou Barletta in Wilkes-Barre. And his day was scheduled to wrap up with a “late dinner and cigar smoke” on behalf…

Toomey up seven in new poll

Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey holds a seven-point lead over Democratic rival Joe Sestak, according to a new poll.

pA recent Rasmussen poll last month found a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/07/rasmussen-toomey-up-six/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F07%2Frasmussen-toomey-up-six%2F','Toomey+winning+by+six+points')" target="_blank"Toomey winning by six points/a, 45 percent to 39 percent. But a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/07/sestak-toomey-dead-even-in-new-poll/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fsestak-toomey-dead-even-in-new-poll%2F','a+Quinnipiac+University+poll+last+week+showed+the+race+dead+even')" target="_blank">a Quinnipiac University poll last week showed the race dead even.

The latest poll of 750 likely voters, conducted July 14, had a margin of error of 4 percent.

…