LEFTOVERS: Specter likes Kagan, Schwartz likes Specter, disability advocates like Hoeffel

Arlen Specter seems to be laying the ground work for a vote in favor of Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. The blogosphere got into a tizzy when Kagan was nominated, given the fact that Specter voted against her confirmation as Solicitor General. full story

May 13, 2010 at 9:11 pm | Comments (27)

What’s going on in the 13th?

All three Republican candidates in the 13th Congressional District—Josh Quinter, Brian Haughton and Dee Adcock—have found their nominating petitions subjected to legal challenge.

And interestingly, all three challenges come from the same three people, according to public records: Sharon Boddy and Charles Gramlich of Abington Township, along with former Bryn Athyn Mayor Hyland Johns.

I realize that nominating petitions are challenged all the time, but here’s the skinny: If you check back in the Congressional…

March 19, 2010 at 9:53 am | Comments (12)

The ‘Matthews effect,’ the 13th District and the decline of the MontCo GOP

The Montgomery County GOP has endorsed pEarly comments on the vote have emphasized the so-called a href="http://writemarsh.blogspot.com/2010/02/mathews-effect-claims-its-latest-victim.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://writemarsh.blogspot.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwritemarsh.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F02%2Fmathews-effect-claims-its-latest-victim.html','Matthews+Effect')" target="_blank">Matthews Effect,…

February 12, 2010 at 2:10 pm | Comments (3)

4 fun facts from the 4th quarter

About a week after fourth-quarter FEC reports hit the Web, here are some interesting items that caught our attention.

1. Spending on one’s own campaign is all the rage, and why not? Surely no one believes in a candidate as much as the candidate himself. Be they in-kind expenditures, direct donations or campaign loans, House candidates in Pennsylvania kicked more than $700,000 into their own races in late 2009, according to campaign finance data. There’s…

February 9, 2010 at 10:56 am | Comments (6)

5 fun facts from the 3rd quarter

A few days after third quarter campaign finance reports were published, here’s a handful of interesting items that jumped out at us.

1. Why spend money when you’ve barely started running? Republican 7th District candidate Pat Meehan, only 16 days into his campaign when the third quarter closed Sept. 30, didn’t have to. The former U.S. Attorney spent a paltry $607, full story

October 19, 2009 at 11:00 am | Comments (1)

Dachowski brings civility to the health care town hall

After attending Joe Sestak’s health care town hall in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I was no stranger at seeing the signs “Healthcare Now,” which meant ACORN and MoveOn.org were in the audience. It also meant a contentious night with call-outs and raucous behavior was in store. And, for a candidate to announce his campaign in a crowd this rude and rowdy, I applaud Damian Dachowski for trying to bring a modicum of civility to…

September 8, 2009 at 12:57 pm | Comments (13)

Reflections from a day of GOP events

For some reason, every Republican event that I was invited to this year was scheduled for last Thursday, providing a flurry of choices during an otherwise slow season. I chose to attend Jim Gerlach’s fundraiser (without paying) in Malvern and Congressional candidate Damian Dachowski’s campaign event/health care town hall meeting in Huntingdon Valley.

Between them I saw a lot of what is right about the Republican Party right now… and something about the challenges it…

September 8, 2009 at 10:44 am | Comments (2)

Schwartz: Republicans ‘have not been very constructive’

Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-13) on Tuesday reiterated her support for a public option for health care, but said that Republicans have sought to block any efforts at reform.

“We have always wanted this and would love to see it be a bipartisan bill,” Schwartz said on MSNBC. “[Republicans are] looking for every way to right really doing what we want to do in this country.”

She insisted that when all is said and done, “there…

August 18, 2009 at 11:15 am | Comments (9)

Dachowski aims to give Schwartz a run for her money

I have some idea what it’s like to run a long-shot race against a well-funded incumbent, so when I met pDachowski, a dentist and a previous candidate for county coroner, struck me as personable—one might even say charming—and very much aware of the challenges…

July 22, 2009 at 7:00 am | Comments (2)

THE RUMOR MILL: Fire alarms, Schwartz for Governor and McCaffery for Congress?

An occasional series of articles exploring political gossip in the air, whether there’s truth to it or not.

PHILADELPHIA—Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-13) was at City Hall here today for a press conference on healthcare reform efforts. I made my way up the Mayor’s Reception Room in the hopes of talking to her. Ever since I included her in my list of

July 20, 2009 at 3:18 pm | Comments (10)