Cunningham out of Governor’s race

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham said Thursday that he would not run for governor in 2010, calling off a campaign that had barely started and leaving the small field of Democrats even smaller.

Cunningham, who faces reelection this year and had been slower than Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato in building a statewide political apparatus, said in a statement that “neither the time nor the circumstances are right for me at this time to take …

June 25, 2009 at 6:00 pm | Comments (12)

Ridge: ‘Never say never’ to presidential run

Former Gov. Tom Ridge said on C-SPAN this morning that it is “unlikely” he would run for president in 2012, but that he “learned a long time ago never to say never,” …

June 25, 2009 at 2:50 pm | Comments (4)

Gerlach says Senate run ‘off the table’

defend his House seat or run for governor.

“[A Senate run] is pretty much off the table,” said Gerlach, now in his fourth term.

The announcement leaves Republican Pat Toomey without any significant opposition, for now, in the party’s Senate primary.

As for the governor race, many GOPers have already rallied around Attorney General Tom Corbett, leaving Gerlach’s potential candidacy a long shot.

“It’s up to him,” state party chairman Robert Gleason Jr. told The …

June 24, 2009 at 3:16 pm | Comments (2)

Aichele makes Lt. Gov. run official

announced today. The Republican had already effectively said she would run …

June 23, 2009 at 12:32 pm | Comments (1)

Philly’s best-known fiscal watchdog eyes a spot in Harrisburg

PHILADELPHIA—Ask a handful of people who know Jonathan Saidel, and most will use the same word to describe how he’s feeling right now: restless.

It’s understandable. In the 1990s, he was a political star, a City Controller in Philadelphia who built a reputation as a fiscal reformer, transforming an office of less-than-token importance into a thorn in local politicians’ sides. He was in office less than a year when he blocked former Mayor Wilson Goode’s …

June 18, 2009 at 9:30 am | Comments (0)

GOP hopes for Gerlach decision ‘sooner rather than later’

Republican leaders are apparently getting antsy with Congressman Jim Gerlach’s (R-6) extended flirtation with a run for higher office, and are hoping he’ll make his plans known soon.

Politico …

June 17, 2009 at 9:06 am | Comments (5)

Internal poll from Knox camp shows tight Guv primary

An internal poll commissioned by Democrat Tom Knox’s gubernatorial campaign shows the wealthy Philadelphia businessman in a dead-heat with Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato in next year’s primary.

The telephone survey of 800 Pennsylvania Democrats was conducted June 4-9 by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Associates. Not surprisingly, more than half of Democratic voters polled were still undecided, with almost a year before primary day.

But in a head-to-head matchup with Onorato, considered by most party …

June 15, 2009 at 2:09 pm | Comments (16)

Schenker says he’d step aside for Meehan in Lt. Gov. race

Republican Lieutanant Governor candidate Rick Schenker said Friday that he would drop out of the GOP primary if gubernatorial candidate Pat Meehan opts for a run for Lt. Gov. instead.

In a brief interview with pa2010.com, Schenker, the former Erie County Executive, said he wanted to be Lt. Gov. and push important policy issues onto the public agenda. But he said he was under no illusions that a race against someone like Meehan would …

June 12, 2009 at 2:40 pm | Comments (5)

Getting a head start, Saidel holds a fundraiser

Former Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel was one of the first people to signal his intention to run for Lieutenant Governor, and ever since then he’s been trying to get a head start on the race.

The momentum the Democrat hopes to build was on display Wednesday evening at a fundraiser he held at The Phildelphia Zoo. The Inquirer reports that Saidel pPhiladelphia City Council members Frank DiCicco, Bill Green and William Greenlee were all on hand, emThe Inquirer/em reports, as was state Senator Larry Farnese (D-Philadelphia) and Allegheny County Democratic Chairman Jim Burn./p
pSaidel is the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/wanted-democrats-for-lt-gov/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fwanted-democrats-for-lt-gov%2F','only+Democrat')" target="_blank"only Democrat/a to signal he is definitely running for the second-ticket office, but numerous Rebpublicans are in the race. Scranton Mayor a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/05/after-an-electoral-sweep-doherty-eyes-higher-office/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fafter-an-electoral-sweep-doherty-eyes-higher-office%2F','Chris+Doherty')" target="_blank">Chris Doherty and Bucks County Democratic chairman …

June 11, 2009 at 1:28 pm | Comments (0)

Former state Rep. Kennedy considering jumping into Lt. Gov. race

More than a dozen Republicans are already thinking of running for Lieutenant Govenor, but former state Representative John Kennedy is mulling adding his name to that list, too.

Kennedy, who represented Cumberland County in the 1980s before losing GOP primaries for state Tresurer and state Senate, told pa2010.com that he was considering a run for the office, which he said could be far better utilized than it has been in the past.

“I’m not looking …

June 9, 2009 at 3:55 pm | Comments (1)