PA-08 race gets nasty as both sides trade fraud allegations in the closing hours

pThe candidates running to represent Pennsylvania’s 8supth/sup Congressional District are trading a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44492.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politico.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2Fstories%2F1110%2F44492.html','allegations')" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"allegations/a of voter fraud in the closing hours of a closely contested race. A decision by the Bucks County Board of Elections could mean that we might have to wait to learn the results of the race between incumbent Democrat Patrick Murphy and challenger Mike Fitzpatrick./p
pAt issue are at least 8,000 absentee ballots. On Friday, the Republican-controlled elections board voted to sequester the ballots until they can investigate the allegations. If the election is as close as it was in 2006 – Murphy beat Fitzpatrick by 1518 votes – and the a href="http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/forecasts/house/pennsylvania/8" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://elections.nytimes.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Felections.nytimes.com%2F2010%2Fforecasts%2Fhouse%2Fpennsylvania%2F8','polls')" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">polls showing a close race are accurate, then those ballots could swing the election.

The Allentown Morning Call pMurphy and the Democratic Party counter that Republicans are engaging in illegal voter suppression and fraud. The day before the Bucks County Board of Elections meeting, Murphy put out a a href="http://www.patrickmurphyforcongress.com/release_details.asp?id=127" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.patrickmurphyforcongress.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.patrickmurphyforcongress.com%2Frelease_details.asp%3Fid%3D127','press+release')" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">press release accusing the Fitzpatrick campaign of instructing voters to forge the signatures of students away at college on absentee ballots. The Murphy campaign is also alleging voter suppression because six times as many ballots from Democrats as Republicans have been rejected in Bucks County.

On Monday, Murphy fired the latest salvo, issuing another

November 1, 2010 at 10:34 pm | Comments (3)

LEFTOVERS: A guv debate, more Senate ads, a Callahan spot, cops for Fitz

Looks like we’ll actually be getting two more gubernatorial debates before Election Day.

One more has been added to the schedule, and this one is set to go down Oct. 18. It’ll be aired on the local ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, giving Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Dan Onorato what could potentially be their biggest debate audience of the campaign.

That debate will come just two days after the candidates have their second debate, a…

October 6, 2010 at 5:07 pm | Comments (3)

GOPers back Murphy’s reelection bid

Two Bucks County Republicans have endorsed Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8), giving the embattled Democrat some badly-needed bipartisan cred as he faces a potentially perilous rematch against former Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick.

Former Riegelsville Borough Mayor Tood Myers and current Nockamixon Township Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nancy Janyszeski both threw their support behind Murphy in statements Wednesday. Their endorsements came as most polls show Fitzpatrick holding a lead against Murphy, who unseated him after one term in…

October 6, 2010 at 11:12 am | Comments (81)

LEFTOVERS: McClatchy polls Pa., Murphy’s COS to Rahm, Dent’s new ad

Polling data, anyone?

Yes, there’s yet another set of numbers we missed,

October 3, 2010 at 3:54 pm | Comments (23)

More on that 8th District poll

When we reported on pWell, we recently got our hands on much more data from the poll, which was commissioned by a liberal-leaning veterans’ organization and a labor union—groups that obviously favor Murphy./p
pWhile it’s always a question how pollsters select and weight their samples of likely voters, the methodology by Harstad Strategic Research appears to be more than Kosher. The questions aren’t designed to sway respondents one way or another. Others questioned the results because they came from a Democratic poll firm, commissioned by Democratic-leaning groups. But that’s the nature of all internal polling, and we’re in the business of reporting these results./p
pAnd while our headline appeared to peeve some people by describing the poll as “third-party,” that description is only meant to imply that neither campaign commissioned the survey itself./p
pThis isn’t to say the poll is right or wrong. It found a more narrow margin in the race than any public or private poll reported to date./p
pBut it’s legit./p
pYou can check out a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/9-29-Harstad-Poll-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%2F10%2F9-29-Harstad-Poll-Memo.pdf','the+poll+memo+here')" target="_blank">the poll memo here, and the full

October 1, 2010 at 8:43 am | Comments (16)

New Murphy ad keeps up the outsourcing charge

Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8) continues to make outsourcing a key pillar of his TV advertising campaign, with a new charging that Republican opponent Mike Fitzpatrick’s policies led to the shipping of American jobs overseas.

The new 30-second spot, unveiled Tuesday, is Murphy’s second of the campaign. He has been advertising heavily in a tough Bucks County race, with most polls showing Fitzpatrick, the one-term congressman who Murphy knocked off in 2006, holding a lead.

In…

September 28, 2010 at 12:31 pm | Comments (24)

Third-party poll finds Murphy up narrowly

Two groups say a poll they commissioned has found Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8) holding a slight edge in his rematch against Republican Mike Fitzpatrick.

The survey commissioned by the Service Employees International Union’s and Vote Vets found Murphy winning 49 percent of the 8th District vote, just more than Fitzpatrick’s 46 percent. With just five percent of likely voters undecided, the results make the race essentially a dead heat. A three-point lead is better than…

September 28, 2010 at 6:00 am | Comments (13)

LEFTOVERS: Labor mail, Dukakis for Trivedi, Lentz mocks Meehan’s debate skills

Organized labor continues to play big in the direct-mail game ahead of November.

The state’s AFL-CIO rolled out its latest mail pieces Monday, the third week in a row it’s hitting up homes across Pennsylvania. The new mail pieces, targeting Senate candidate Pat Toomey and six GOP House candidates, paint Republican hopefuls as friends of Wall Street who want to outsource American jobs.

They err on at least one count, the same count that has…

September 27, 2010 at 4:19 pm | Comments (11)

Fitzpatrick up big in new poll

The first public poll taken in the 8th Congressional District this cycle has bad news for incumbent Democrat Patrick Murphy—he’s trailing big against Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, the man he knocked out of office in 2006.

The Franklin & Marshall College survey released Thursday found Fitzpatrick leading by 14 points among likely voters, 49 percent to 35 percent. That’s a leader larger than the ones documented recently by both candidates’ internal polling. Fifteen percent of likely…

September 23, 2010 at 9:57 am | Comments (25)

NRCC polls four Pa. districts

Republicans recently spent more than $75,000 for snapshots of the political climates in four Keystone State House districts.

The National Republican Congressional Committee commissioned polls in the 3rd, 7th, 8th and 11th Districts—

September 20, 2010 at 9:40 am | Comments (4)