Callahan changes finance directors

Democratic congressional candidate John Callahan quietly parted ways with longtime finance director Leora Rothenberg earlier this month, making a major staff change less than 100 days before the election.

Callahan campaign manager Justin Schall cited “undisclosed personnel matters” for the change, but declined to go into specifics. Callahan has been a fundraising success story for the Democrats, with the White House recruit in the 15th Congressional District staying neck-and-neck with incumbent Republican Charlie Dent in…

August 23, 2010 at 1:21 pm | Comments (2)

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

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…

August 19, 2010 at 9:20 pm | Comments (21)

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

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…

August 17, 2010 at 11:10 pm | Comments (8)

Dent takes a casino message to the streets

BETHLEHEM—Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) is trying to tie his opponent to a sometimes-unpopular gaming industry, arguing that he’s failed to deliver property tax reform that was supposed to come with casinos.

Dent, in a new campaign billboard here pictured above, depicts Callahan’s face in a slot machine. It asks the Bethlehem mayor:  “We got the casino, now where’s our property tax cut Mayor Callahan?”

Local property tax relief was a key selling point when state…

August 11, 2010 at 4:02 pm | Comments (2)

Callahan nets $150K from Clinton fundraiser

In addition to

August 10, 2010 at 11:19 pm | Comments (2)

Towne blames 9/11 on American foreign policy

Grilled by a conservative talk show host Wednesday morning, the independent candidate in the 15th Congressional District blamed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on American foreign policy in the Middle East.

“They’re not attacking us because we’re free or we wear blue jeans or we listen to rock music,” Jake Towne said. “They’re attacking us because we’ve been over there. We’ve had troops in Saudi Arabia for many years before that. We were engaged with…

July 28, 2010 at 3:35 pm | Comments (19)

DCCC adds Callahan, Lentz to ad buy list

National Democrats have added two more competitive Pennsylvania House districts to the long list of races they are targeting for advertising buys in the coming months.

Politico pIn a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/07/dccc-ad-buys-include-four-pa-incumbents/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fdccc-ad-buys-include-four-pa-incumbents%2F','the+first+slate+of+ad+buy+reservations+disclosed+last+week')" target="_blank"the first slate of ad buy reservations disclosed last week/a, the DCCC looked to shore up vulnerable incumbents. In Pennsylvania, that meant promising airtime for Kathy Dahlkemper in the 3rd District, Chris Carney in the 10th District, Paul Kanjorski in the 11th District and Mark Critz in the 12th District./p
pThe DCCC holds a significant financial advantage over its GOP counterpart, the benefit of which is quickly becoming clear. Of the 10 House races considered competitive by empa2010.com/em, the DCCC has already signaled it will make ad buys in six districts./p
pThe 7th District is currently No. 1 on the empa2010.com/em a href="http://www.pa2010.com/congressional-power-rankings/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fcongressional-power-rankings%2F','Congressional+Power+Rankings')" target="_blank">Congressional Power Rankings, while the 15th District is currently No. 5.

July 28, 2010 at 10:45 am | Comments (8)

In debate flap, Dent shifts focus to rock band playing for Towne

A rock band set to perform at a campaign event for Jake Towne have given Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) an opening to make a less overtly political argument for excluding the independent candidate from campaign debates.

Dent has taken some flak on the blogosphere ever since pa2010.com reported last week that

July 27, 2010 at 12:03 pm | Comments (11)

Boehner set to pitch in for Dent

House Minority Leader John Boehner will be helping Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) raise some campaign cash next month.

Boehner is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for Dent on Aug. 13. That’s just three days after pThe Lehigh Valley race is currently No. 5 on the empa2010.com/em a href="http://www.pa2010.com/congressional-power-rankings/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fcongressional-power-rankings%2F','Congressional+Power+Rankings')" target="_blank"Congressional Power Rankings/a./p
pNews of the fundraiser was first a href="http://blogs.mcall.com/penn_ave/2010/07/boehner-to-stump-for-dent-next-month.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://blogs.mcall.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.mcall.com%2Fpenn_ave%2F2010%2F07%2Fboehner-to-stump-for-dent-next-month.html','reported+by+Pennsylvania+Ave.')" target="_blank">reported by Pennsylvania Ave.

July 27, 2010 at 8:00 am | Comments (5)

Story on Dent’s debate stance ends up having some legs

It’s hardly what we saw from the Shirley Sherrod controversy. But the comments from Republican Charlie Dent’s campaign about debates got a lot of play on the blogosphere in recent days, and even earned some mainstream media TV time.

In case you missed, pa2010.com‘s Donald Hoegg first reported that story that Dent, the 15th District incumbent, here and

July 26, 2010 at 10:30 am | Comments (4)