LEFTOVERS: Toomey & privatization, mocking indie cred, a poll, a 22-year-old tax

August 24, 2010 at 11:20 pm

Democrats were scoffing Tuesday at a comment made by Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey the day before: Speaking before the Pennsylvania Press Club in Harrisburg, Toomey asserted that “I’ve never said I favored privatizing Social Security.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, already knee deep in Toomey-related opposition research, had an easier job this time around, considering that Toomey has long been a leading advocate for policies that are widely considered to constitute privatization, or at …

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LEFTOVERS: A Senate poll, Onorato’s cash, small biz for Fitz, CQ on Dent

August 19, 2010 at 9:20 pm

The public polls say pA Democratic operative somewhere must have been peeved by all the coverage these polls get, because a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/19/4929082-first-thoughts-cruel-summer" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Ffirstread.msnbc.msn.com%2F_news%2F2010%2F08%2F19%2F4929082-first-thoughts-cruel-summer','MSNBC+got+its+hands+on+an+internal+poll')" target="_blank"emMSNBC/em got its hands on an internal poll/a. The results? Toomey’s leading Joe Sestak by two points, 46 percent to 44 percent. We weren’t able to get our hands on any of this polling data Thursday—so the usual caveats apply more than usual. Take it with a grain of salt or two./p
pMeanwhile, the party’s gubernatorial candidate just loves telling us about all the money he’s raising. Dan Onorato’s campaign once again boasted some fundraising numbers Thursday, saying it’s raked in more than $1 million in just the last 17 days. That makes more than $4.4 million raised since the May primary, and more than $14 million throughout the campaign. We won’t know until late September how Onorato is faring against Republican Tom Corbett, who entered the general election cycle with a solid cash advantage thanks to a much easier primary./p
p“We are very pleased with the support we’ve received for Dan’s message of economic growth and reform,” campaign manager Kevin Kinross said, “and we are confident our campaign will have the resources to win.”/p
pAlso Thursday, Republican Mike Fitzpatrick boasted some support from his 8th District congressional bid from the small business community. Fitzpatrick, who’s trying to take back the seat he lost to Democrat Patrick Murphy in 2006, was endorsed Thursday by the National Federation of Independent Business. The endorsement was announced at a news conference in Doylestown./p
p“The differences in this race couldn’t be more clear,” Lisa Goeas, the federation’s vice president for political operations, said in a statement later. “Mike Fitzpatrick is a business leader who is a vocal opponent of increased government spending, and advocates for less regulation and fewer taxes so small businesses will have a greater incentive to grow and hire. [Congressman] Murphy has not been a friend to small business, as evidenced by his voting record. His votes against small business supporting the new health care law and cap-and-trade legislation prove that he doesn’t understand the negative impact expensive legislation like that will have on Pennsylvania’s job creators.”/p
pAnd finally, our friends at a href="http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003724511" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cqpolitics.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cqpolitics.com%2Fwmspage.cfm%3FdocID%3Dnews-000003724511','CQ+Politics+had+a+good+piece')" target="_blank">CQ Politics had a good piece about the race in the 15th District and incumbent Republican Charlie Dent. Some of the takeaways? Dent is one of the only incumbents the GOP thinks is vulnerable, but not that vulnerable because, hey, even Democrats think he’s not such a bad fellow. As one Callahan supporter conceded: “Charlie Dent is a nice guy.”

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NYTMag ink for Sestak

August 19, 2010 at 1:38 pm

Democrat Joe Sestak gets profiled by The New York Times Magazine.

…

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LEFTOVERS: More Toomey stuff, Cook on the 8th & 10th, vets for Gerlach

August 18, 2010 at 11:46 pm

You know that enduring image of a room full of monkeys on typewriters? Well, somewhere in Washington, the Democratic Party must have a roomful of monkeys looking back at every word Pat Toomey ever said as a congressman.

OK, not that research interns are monkeys. But the party is obviously working hard on this, because it keeps dredging up old videos of the Republican Senate nominee talking about derivatives. We already reported on pThe second was a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/harrisburg_politics/On_Tape_Toomey_Pushes_De-Regulation_of_Derivatives_in_Congress.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fharrisburg_politics%2FOn_Tape_Toomey_Pushes_De-Regulation_of_Derivatives_in_Congress.html','reported')" target="_blank"reported/a by emThe Inquirer/em. In that one, Toomey said that a 2000 deregulatory measure would “allow greater flexibility in the electronic trading” of over-the-counter derivatives (the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support). And the third one was a href="http://blogs.mcall.com/penn_ave/2010/08/more-video-of-toomey-praising-derivatives.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://blogs.mcall.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.mcall.com%2Fpenn_ave%2F2010%2F08%2Fmore-video-of-toomey-praising-derivatives.html','reported')" target="_blank">reported by …

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More on those AAF polls

August 18, 2010 at 12:17 pm

On Tuesday we reported on a series of surveys, conducted by a GOP pollster and commissioned by a prominent conservative group. pAt the time, we didn’t have any documentation about the polling methodology, questions or anything else. So naturally, as always, we reported the results with a great deal of skepticism./p
pWell, we now have our hands on a significant amount of data from the polls, including toplines and crosstabs. We haven’t reviewed every inch of data here, and it’s always a question as to how pollster pick their samples. But the polls seem pretty darn legitimate. No push-poll style questions or flimsy methodology./p
pSo what’s the takeaway? Obviously, Democrats of all stripes in any competitive district are in trouble. And less than three months before Election Day, that trouble is serious enough that voters say they’ll support a candidate they don’t really even know./p
pWhether that will remain their answer as Nov. 2 approaches in another matter, and here’s where the skepticism is still warranted. It’s one thing to say you’ll vote for a guy you’ve never heard just because he’s not the incumbent to a pollster. It’s another thing to actually pull the lever for that guy once you’re in the booth./p
pThis is especially true in races like the 10th District, where the poll found Republican Tom Marino leading incumbent Democrat Chris Carney despite Marino still lacking wide name recognition. Marino has the climate on his side. But the particular circumstances are a different story. Marino is vastly underfunded, and Carney will have every opportunity to define the opposition on his own terms./p
pAnyway, you can review the polling data for yourself./p
pHere’s the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AAF-PA03-Memo.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FAAF-PA03-Memo.pdf','memo')" target="_blank"memo/a, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PA-03-Toplines.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FPA-03-Toplines.pdf','toplines')" target="_blank">toplines and pHere’s the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AAF-PA10-Memo.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FAAF-PA10-Memo.pdf','memo')" target="_blank"memo/a, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PA-10-Toplines.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FPA-10-Toplines.pdf','toplines')" target="_blank">toplines and pHere’s the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AAF-PA11-Memo.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FAAF-PA11-Memo.pdf','memo')" target="_blank"memo/a, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PA-11-Toplines.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FPA-11-Toplines.pdf','toplines')" target="_blank">toplines and pHere’s the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/AAF-PA12-Memo.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FAAF-PA12-Memo.pdf','memo')" target="_blank"memo/a, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PA-12-Toplines.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2FPA-12-Toplines.pdf','toplines')" target="_blank">toplines and …

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LEFTOVERS: RJC on Sestak, Onorato on corruption, labor for Callahan

August 17, 2010 at 11:10 pm

Democrat Joe Sestak continues to take hits on the Israel issue.

The Republican Jewish Coalition unveiled the latest anti-Sestak ad this week. It revives a common complaint Sestak has faced from conservatives: that during the most recent war in Gaza, Sestak signed onto a letter calling for more humanitarian aid. But it seems to go a little far in implying that Sestak wasn’t on Israel’s “side”—the letter in question made the signers support for Israel …

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Down-ballot update

August 16, 2010 at 4:27 pm

This is outside our coverage umbrella here, but an e-mail showed up in the pa2010.com Central inbox that was worth a mention:

The Democrats’ state Senate campaign committee has a new chairman, and it’s the always unfiltered Daylin Leach.

“I am honored to accept the position of Chairman of the DSSCC, and to do so with the support of Senators Costa and Stack, as well as the full support of my Democratic colleagues in the …

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LEFTOVERS: FactCheck hits Toomey, Corbett’s tour, Boehner for Barletta, more

August 13, 2010 at 4:16 pm

Not too long after we took Democrats to task for their latest ad hitting Republican Pat Toomey, pThe ultimate referees issued some similar findings to what we said when we first a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/08/new-toomey-ad-says-washington-is-failing/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fnew-toomey-ad-says-washington-is-failing%2F','reported+on+Toomey%22s+ad+earlier+this+week')" target="_blank"reported on Toomey’s ad earlier this week/a, though we’ll give them credit for blowing the whistle louder and more effectively. The crux of it: Toomey is wrong to say the stimulus package “gave us record debt without creating jobs”—because the debt is piling up thanks to unsustainable entitlement spending, and yes, the stimulus definitely did create some jobs./p
p“Toomey would be on safe ground if he said the stimulus added to the debt without creating enough jobs—those would be his opinions, and defensible ones at that,” the Web site concludes. “But he can’t say it didn’t create any jobs and caused a record debt.”/p
pThe Toomey people couldn’t exactly argue with emFactCheck.org/em on Friday—only hours earlier they had trumpeted some of its earlier findings to make the case that the Democrats had misfired with their ad./p
pBut don’t expect this larger debate to leave the campaign trail anytime soon./p
pMeanwhile, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett is set to hit the road with a little bus tour. It looks like he’ll be doing a bunch of these as the election heats up, but his campaign said the first tour would be a six-county swing through northwest Pennsylvania on Saturday. He’ll talk about “bringing jobs and fiscal discipline” to the state./p
p“The media is not permitted on the Tom Corbett for Governor bus,” the campaign said, “but are welcome to attend any of the events on the bus tour.”/p
pShucks. Just when we thought he could emerge as a media darling a la John McCain’s Straight Talk Express./p
pAlso, House Minority Leader John Boehner has another stop during his massive Pennsylvania tour: a Saturday breakfast for 11th District candidate Lou Barletta. The event is $25 per head, and that makes seven GOP House candidates who are benefiting from Boehener’s Keystone State travels./p
pAnd finally, there’s a grassroots advocacy group that’s sick of all the ballot challenges. There’s plenty of them to be sick of, including challenges to the entire Libertarian Party’s statewide ticket, a Green Party senate challenge and third-party House candidates being challenged in competitive races. The group, VotePA, a href="http://www.votepa.us/newsarchive/2010/PetitionChallenge8-11-2010.html?VotePA+on+Facebook.x=10&VotePA+on+Facebook.y=11" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.votepa.us']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.votepa.us%2Fnewsarchive%2F2010%2FPetitionChallenge8-11-2010.html%3FVotePA%2Bon%2BFacebook.x%3D10%26amp%3BVotePA%2Bon%2BFacebook.y%3D11','called+for+all+Democrats+and+Republicans+to+withdraw+their+ballot+challenges')" target="_blank">called for all Democrats and Republicans to withdraw their ballot challenges—unless, that is, their are claims of “willful election fraud” at play.

“Challenging candidate nominations in a court of law is serious business that can hurt the democratic process for everyone,” the group said in a statement. “Legal challenges should be reserved for situation with clear evidence …

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A Bonusgate doc, and a 7th District self-appraisal

August 13, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Loyal readers will surely remember our coverage of pWe got some flak at the time, not surprisingly so. But we made one important promise: The Meehan campaign referenced a court document as evidence to back up its claims that Lentz was a “key beneficiary” of the legislative corruption scandal, and empa2010.com/em committed itself to “independently assess the full document.”/p
pWell, thanks to a very helpful Judge Richard Lewis, yours truly recently made a trip to Harrisburg to give the document a look at the Dauphin County Courthouse. What I learned confirmed pretty much what I had expected: Team Meehan had its facts right, but the larger context was still, to put it generously, very incomplete./p
pMore than two-dozen staffers of the state House Democratic Caucus a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/06/meehan-camp-says-27-dems-who-helped-lentz-got-bonuses/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fmeehan-camp-says-27-dems-who-helped-lentz-got-bonuses%2F','did+indeed+do+some+work+on+behalf+of+Lentz%22s+election+to+the+state+House+in+2006')" target="_blank"did indeed do some work on behalf of Lentz’s election to the state House in 2006/a. The emvast/em majority worked on the campaign for only one day, after Lentz won an online contest to receive a “campaign invasion” of volunteers for a day of canvassing. Others did research from within the Capitol on behalf of the party’s House campaign committee. Only one could possibly be called a “Lentz staffer” by any stretch./p
pHere’s the important point: The Meehan campaign’s attack hinged on a fundamentally flawed understanding of what Bonusgate actually was. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake that my coverage focused more on their rhetorical overreach and less on this dynamic./p
pYes, Lentz benefited from Bonusgate. But according to the documentation I saw, more than two-dozen state House candidates across Pennsylvania benefited, too. To say he benefited from Bonusgate is simply to say he was a Democratic candidate for state House in 2006. And the courts have held that it’s the leaders of that conspiracy who are legally responsible, not the candidates who simply had no idea what was happening./p
pFrom a purely political standpoint, there’s pretty much unanimity of opinion, among both Democrats and Republicans, that the execution of this attack was botched by the Meehan campaign. I’m confident they now understand that. They kept a relatively lower profile in the aftermath, and didn’t come at Lentz hard again until a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/08/lentz-volunteer-other-dems-helped-schneller-get-on-the-ballot/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F08%2Flentz-volunteer-other-dems-helped-schneller-get-on-the-ballot%2F','this+whole+Jim+Schneller+fiasco')" target="_blank">this whole Jim Schneller fiasco, at which point they had pAll this having been said, I think it’s a good time to take stock of coverage of this race to date./p
pLook, I know people have had problems with how the race has been covered by empa2010.com/em, and I don’t blame them. A confluence of factors—geographical proximity to the district, no primaries, heated competition that started early—have made it the most thoroughly covered contest in the state, one in which we’re playing referee to a greater extent than anywhere else./p
pFor months, the Meehan people were getting smacked back on these pages because they couldn’t get their facts right. More recently, the Lentz people have been subject to that treatment./p
pThese candidates and the people around them share absolutely no love for each other. There is arguably no race in the state so filled with vitriol, and as things have swung back and forth, yours truly has often been caught in the middle. That’s the way it should be./p
pIn an effort to really be honest with myself here, I went back and re-read pretty much every word I’ve ever written about the race (a href="http://www.pa2010.com/tag/pa-7/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Ftag%2Fpa-7%2F','you+can+do+the+same+by+clicking+here')" target="_blank"you can do the same by clicking here/a, but be sure to differentiate between the news stories and the blog/op-ed content). In more than 100 stories dating back to last April, I did find one clear mistake: a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/05/meehan-camp-has-yet-to-pay-legal-costs-for-ballot-challenge/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fmeehan-camp-has-yet-to-pay-legal-costs-for-ballot-challenge%2F','this+article+about+the+Meehan+campaign%22s+unpaid+legal+bills+from+fending+off+a+ballot+challenge')" target="_blank">this article about the Meehan campaign’s unpaid legal bills from fending off a ballot challenge.

There was nothing factually inaccurate about the story, and the crux of it was newsworthy because anything that substantively affects a candidate’s cash-on-hand is important. But the tone of it was completely out of whack. No one was accusing anyone …

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Bykofsky’s night

August 13, 2010 at 11:32 am

Here’s a belated shout-out to Stu Bykofsky, the Daily News columnist and the man who gave us all …

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