Dem leaders rally behind Critz

Democrats from Washington to Harrisburg have serious concerns about Mark Critz.

But you wouldn’t know it from their effusive statements greeting his nomination as the party’s special election candidate in the 12th Congressional District.

“For years Mark Critz has worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional district to help bring jobs and economic development to western Pennsylvania,” Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who chairs the party’s House campaign committee, said in …

March 9, 2010 at 10:44 am | Comments (3)

For Critz, being a ‘legacy’ candidate is a double-edge sword

From the moment Mark Critz got into the Democratic contest to follow his late boss, his staunchest supporters have described him as the natural successor to John Murtha, someone in the best position to carry on the longtime congressman’s work in the 12th District. One person endorsing him even described Critz, Murtha’s former district director, as “the best legacy candidate.”

In a climate hostile to anything resembling political establishment, that could be a perilous message …

March 7, 2010 at 9:11 pm | Comments (0)

Rooney: We’ll think about it

State Democratic Party chairman T.J. Rooney on Saturday thanked the 12th District party faithful for …

March 6, 2010 at 2:18 pm | Comments (2)

12th District notes: Hanna on the process, the delegates

More details have emerged about Democrat …

March 5, 2010 at 1:04 am | Comments (4)

Dems hit Marino on DeNaples and Luzerne, but Carney keeps it civil

Democrats in Harrisburg and Washington were quick to pounce on former U.S. Attorney …

January 27, 2010 at 10:38 pm | Comments (0)

Dems say Barletta’s old news… and raised taxes

After Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta once again …

December 9, 2009 at 4:57 pm | Comments (0)

Smug Democrats sing their own praises—is Pennsylvania listening?

Well I seem to provoked more comments than usual with my pMore sympathetic commenters suggested that Steven Welch would be a strong GOP contender in the 7th District and, even more optimistically, that Allyson Schwartz would “have her hands full” in the 13th./p
pI think the key phrase above is “on paper.” Sure, it will be a great year for Democrats if all the trends from last year continue. But they won’t. With Rasmussen a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.rasmussenreports.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rasmussenreports.com%2Fpublic_content%2Fpolitics%2Fobama_administration%2Fdaily_presidential_tracking_poll','reporting')" target="_blank"reporting/a a -6 presidential approval rating and a 5-point Republican lead on a generic ballot—and the Democrats on the defensive on health care, the budget, and almost everything else—it’s plainly a very different world than it was even three months ago. The news that Pat Meehan is a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/08/meehan-now-seriously-considering-congressional-run/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fmeehan-now-seriously-considering-congressional-run%2F','probably+running+for+Congress')" target="_blank">probably running for Congress only adds to the GOP’s strengths.

Of course, this could change, and the Democrats could cruise. But with unemployment mounting and moderates in their own party jumping ship, is at least as likely to get worse. The biggest mistake in politics is to assume that what happened before will happen in the future.

Smug and self-satisfied, the Democrats are making …

August 8, 2009 at 9:00 am | Comments (4)

Political battleground taking shape in Dem Senate primary

CNN’s political ticker had two pieces running back-to-back earlier that, taken together, paint a fascinating picture of the current politics behind the Specter Party Switch.

On the one hand, amid grumblings from people like James Carville and Howard Dean warning Specter to “ pIt seems Obama is convinced that Specter will play tit-for-tat here and support the most important parts of the President’s agenda. Yet this intuition seems at odd with Specter’s recent statements. On emMeet The Press/em this Sunday, Specter insisted that he had not pledged to be a “loyal Democrat” in his conversations with Obama. He also restated his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, which he came out against while still a Republican, and said he would not support a public option for health care insurance as part of a reform package./p
pWith Specter blazing an independent, center-right trail, why should Democrats line up to support him?/p
pThat’s the argument being made with increasing ferocity by Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7), who every day seems to be inching closer to making this a competitive Democratic primary. a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/05/sestak-questions-specters-reliability/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fpoliticalticker.blogs.cnn.com%2F2009%2F05%2F05%2Fsestak-questions-specters-reliability%2F','CNN+reports')">CNN reports that Sestak publicly questioned Specter’s “reliability,” asking pointedly, “Will he be with us in 2016? This appears to me to be, unfortunately, more of the political Democratic establishment that made …

May 6, 2009 at 7:00 am | Comments (1)