Biden raising cash for Dahlkemper, Critz

Vice President Joe Biden is coming back to Pennsylvania to raise money for two battleground House Democrats.

Biden will be in western Pennsylvania on Oct. 11 to headline a joint fundraiser for Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper (D-3) and Congressman Mark Critz (D-12).

Dahlkemper faces Republican Mike Kelly in one of the state’s most competitive House races. Critz faces a rematch against Republican Tim Burns, who he beat in the May special election.

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September 30, 2010 at 12:36 pm | Comments (0)

LEFTOVERS: More poll results, Critz’s first ad

The number of polls whizzing by us the last few weeks have been dizzying. Naturally, there are two we’ve missed already this week.

The first is Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies. Like other public polls, Magellan found Republicans winning the statewide races. Tom Corbett leads Dan Onorato in the gubernatorial race by 12 points, 50 percent to 38 percent. Pat Toomey leads Joe Sestak in the Senate race by eight points, 49 percent to 41…

September 28, 2010 at 3:44 pm | Comments (6)

Labor’s mailers target Toomey, House hopefuls

The next round of organized labor’s big direct-mail campaign is zeroing in on Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey and five GOP House candidates.

The AFL-CIO mailers, obtained by pa2010.com ahead of their formal release Monday morning, are part of pThe direct-mailers, part of a campaign that includes more than 2 million mail pieces that will hit homes across the country, hew to the familiar Democratic attack lines this cycle. The mailer targeting Toomey says he “profited while working families struggled.” The pieces targeting 8th District Republican Mike Fitzpatrick and 10th District Republican Tom Marino depict an elderly union couple saying: “We worked hard. We did everything we were supposed to do. Now Mike Fitzpatrick wants to change the rules.”/p
pOther mailers targeting Mike Kelly in the 3rd District, Pat Toomey in the 7th District and Tim Burns in the 12th District accuse the GOP nominees of pledging to protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. The attack refers to the Americans for Tax Reform pledge that a plethora of candidates have signed. It doesn’t actually pledge those candidates to protect such tax breaks as a rule, but the conservative group has said that some measures which would end the tax breaks would also violate the pledge./p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/PA-SEN-Toomey-neg-2-FINAL.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F09%2FPA-SEN-Toomey-neg-2-FINAL.pdf','Click+here+to+see+the+mailer+targeting+Toomey.')" target="_blank"Click here to see the mailer targeting Toomey./a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AFL1039_PA031.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F09%2FAFL1039_PA031.pdf','Click+here+to+see+the+mailer+targeting+Kelly.')" target="_blank">Click here to see the mailer targeting Kelly.

pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AFL1084_PA081.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F09%2FAFL1084_PA081.pdf','Click+here+to+see+the+mailer+targeting+Fitzpatrick.')" target="_blank"Click here to see the mailer targeting Fitzpatrick./a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AFL1084_PA101.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F09%2FAFL1084_PA101.pdf','Click+here+to+see+the+mailer+targeting+Carney.')" target="_blank">Click here to see the mailer targeting Carney.

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September 20, 2010 at 9:09 am | Comments (0)

Dems claim seven-point edge for Critz

Democrats say that Congressman Mark Critz (D-12) is enjoying a seven-point lead over Republican Tim Burns ahead of their November rematch.

The claim, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was set to make in a statement late Monday afternoon, was based on a new Grove Insight poll. It came as both parties have leaked polling data to paint their candidate as holding the edge almost four months after Critz topped Burns in the May special…

September 13, 2010 at 3:01 pm | Comments (25)

Critz bucks White House on spending

Congressman Mark Critz (D-12) came out against President Obama’s proposal for $50 billion in infrastructure spending Thursday, as he continued to distance himself from the Democratic leadership ahead of his November rematch with Republican Tim Burns.

Critz voiced some support for proposed tax cuts targeted toward small business. But less than four months after prevailing in the May special election with the help of his party’s leadership, he said Obama’s spending plan is “too expensive.”…

September 9, 2010 at 10:18 pm | Comments (1)

Internal poll puts Burns up narrowly (Updated)

Two months before a special election rematch in southwest Pennsylvania, Republican Tim Burns is sporting a five-point lead over Congressman Mark Critz (D-12), according to a GOP poll memo obtained by pa2010.com.

The memo from pollster Gene Ulm of Public Opinion Strategies says that a survey of 400 likely voters conducted late last month found Burns garnering 48 percent of the vote, compared to 43 percent for Critz. But the margin of error is 4.9…

September 2, 2010 at 2:33 pm | Comments (8)

LEFTOVERS: Onorato on the shale, a cancellation in the 3rd, Critz on Simpson

Another day, another news conference for Democrat Dan Onorato to hammer gubernatorial rival Tom Corbett.

This time Onorato was in Harrisburg talking up his plan for getting all that natural gas out of the Marcellus Shale—and talking down Corbett’s plan. The main difference between the two? Onorato supports a severance tax on the drilling companies, Corbett doesn’t. Corbett’s support for what’s been called “voluntary” drilling standards; his opposition to limiting new drilling in state forests;…

September 1, 2010 at 11:07 pm | Comments (2)

Critz confident ahead of 12th District rematch

PITTSBURGH—Against a backdrop of monstrous cranes, dump trucks myriad other construction vehicles, Congressman Mark Critz (D-12) took time to tour an expanding Veterans Affairs hospital here Wednesday, and sounded a confident note less than 70 days before his rematch against Republican Tim Burns.

Critz, who was visiting VA facilities in Pittsburgh and Washington, Pa., came to town with Congressman Bob Filner (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

“I’m happy the chairman is…

August 26, 2010 at 7:00 am | Comments (0)

GOP pollsters see challengers leading in four Pa. races

Republican pollsters looking at four competitive House districts in Pennsylvania say the GOP challengers in those races are holding leads over Democratic incumbents—and sometimes big leads that come in spite of low name recognition for the Republicans.

Whit Ayres’ polling firm conducted the surveys on behalf of American Action Forum—part of the conservative group American Action Network led by former Senator Norm Coleman, among others. The results were first

August 17, 2010 at 8:15 am | Comments (7)

Critz skeptical on Afghan war outlook

Congressman Mark Critz (D-12) isn’t sure that the war in Afghanistan can end successfully.

The newly-elected successor to the late John Murtha returned from a trip to Afghanistan this week. In comments

August 11, 2010 at 12:49 pm | Comments (0)