Pols chime in on Iraq

With Thursday marking the official withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, Pennsylvania’s political candidates were issuing the expected stream of statements.

“I think people will look back at this war as an unnecessary one,” Democrat Joe Sestak, the former Navy Admiral and current Senate candidate, said on MSNBC. “One that we unfortunately harmed our national security fabric as we have lost our focus where the real challenge was and that was in Afghanistan where we…

August 20, 2010 at 9:20 am | Comments (16)

Lingenfelter’s off the ballot in the 8th

Tom Lingenfelter’s latest campaign to represent the 8th Congressional District has ended before it really even began.

Lingenfelter, who was running as an independent, called it quits Thursday in the face of a ballot challenge. Lawyers involved in the case said his withdrawal came after a marathon, all-day court hearing in Harrisburg.

“It was very close, but the progression of numbers didn’t go our way,” said Larry Otter, Lingenfelter’s lawyer. Otter said an early-morning ruling…

August 19, 2010 at 9:30 pm | Comments (16)

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)

Lingenfelter hires prominent attorney for ballot challenge

When Tom Lingenfelter goes to Harrisburg Thursday to defend his right to be on the 8th Congressional District ballot, he’ll have the help of veteran election lawyer Larry Otter.

Otter, a Bucks County attorney who has been involved in a plethora of ballot cases, is representing Lingenfelter.

“I know we should win,” Linenfelter told pa2010.com. “If the law is based on fairness and logic, we should win.”

Otter declined to comment on the case in…

August 19, 2010 at 8:54 am | Comments (2)

LEFTOVERS: More Toomey stuff, Cook on the 8th & 10th, vets for Gerlach

You know that enduring image of a room full of monkeys on typewriters? Well, somewhere in Washington, the Democratic Party must have a roomful of monkeys looking back at every word Pat Toomey ever said as a congressman.

OK, not that research interns are monkeys. But the party is obviously working hard on this, because it keeps dredging up old videos of the Republican Senate nominee talking about derivatives. We already reported on full story

August 18, 2010 at 11:46 pm | Comments (11)

GOP hopefuls sign anti-climate tax pledge

Every Republican challenger in Pennsylvania’s competitive U.S. House race has now signed a pledge to oppose any climate legislation that raises taxes.

Pat Meehan, the Republican candidate in the 7th Congressional District, and Mike Fitzpatrick, the challenger in the 8th District, were the latest to sign the pledge from Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group founded by billionaire David Koch. The pledge commits candidates to oppose any climate change measure that “includes a net…

August 16, 2010 at 12:46 pm | Comments (10)

Four debates in the 8th

Their rematch looming, the candidates in the 8th Congressional District will debate at least four times in the coming months before Election Day.

Democratic incumbent Patrick Murphy and Republican Mike Fitzpatrick are still putting the finishing touches on the campaign debate schedule. But four events are already scheduled for October. And in September, the candidates will host a Q&A-style forum with newsman Larry Kane.

The first debate scheduled is set to take place Oct. 3,…

August 16, 2010 at 8:44 am | Comments (6)

Fitzpatrick supports Lingenfelter ballot challenge

Republican Mike Fitzpatrick’s campaign says it’s supporting an effort to keep independent candidate Tom Lingenfelter off the ballot in the 8th Congressional District. But the campaign won’t disclose the extent of any involvement it has had with pFitzpatrick campaign manager Kyle Whatley called the effort “bipartisan” and said his candidate “shares the concerns” of the four people who brought the challenge. Such challenges are almost always filed at…

August 11, 2010 at 11:16 am | Comments (12)

Murphy answers a call to show the jobs

Republican Mike Fitzpatrick recently called on opponent Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-8) to substantiate a claim made that he had helped bring 3,000 jobs to the Bucks County district. Mocking the claim made in an official congressional mailer as “Murphy’s undocumented workers,” Fitzpatrick said that “Murphy must document these jobs.” Late last week, Murphy did just that.

In a conference call with reporters, Murphy showed off a list of 2,962 jobs brought to the district by…

August 9, 2010 at 4:31 pm | Comments (16)

Former Murphy aides help Lingenfelter

In his rush to get on the 8th District ballot at the last minute, Tom Lingenfelter got some help from a Democratic duo who used to work for one of his opponents.

The Intelligencer

August 6, 2010 at 12:55 pm | Comments (13)