Internal poll from Knox camp shows tight Guv primary

An internal poll commissioned by Democrat Tom Knox’s gubernatorial campaign shows the wealthy Philadelphia businessman in a dead-heat with Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato in next year’s primary.

The telephone survey of 800 Pennsylvania Democrats was conducted June 4-9 by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Associates. Not surprisingly, more than half of Democratic voters polled were still undecided, with almost a year before primary day.

But in a head-to-head matchup with Onorato, considered by most party…

June 15, 2009 at 2:09 pm | Comments (16)

The Knox camp gives us a spending number—Will it matter?

A while ago I interviewed Tom Knox and asked him how much he was willing to spend on his Democratic run for Governor. Knox, the wealthy Philadelphia businessman, wouldn’t give me an exact number, but made clear that his pWell, his campaign has given friend-of-the-site Alex Roarty more specifics, with campaign manager Josh Morrow saying his boss a href="http://www.politicspa.com/knox%20june%2012.htm" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politicspa.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicspa.com%2Fknox%2520june%252012.htm','will+spend+between+%2420-25+million')" target="_blank"will spend between $20-25…

June 14, 2009 at 12:27 pm | Comments (2)

Knox has message and money

CORRECTION APPENDED (see bottom)

Only one man has declared himself a gubernatorial candidate for the 2010 Democratic primary. Oddly, pKnox, a wealthy businessman who finished second to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in the 2007 Democratic primary, was in Harrisburg this week to start spreading the…

June 2, 2009 at 11:32 pm | Comments (6)

Keeping energy bills low when rate caps expire

With energy rate caps expected to expire soon and rate increases looking like a certainty, energy policy will be at the forefront of the 2010 elections.

Lawmakers are already working to keep electricity rates low. Earlier this month, Montgomery County Republican Representatives Robert Godshall and Bob Mensch sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which works to ensure that utility services are provided to consumers at reasonable rates. They encouraged the Commission to urge…

June 2, 2009 at 9:55 am | Comments (2)

Knox’s guy loses a tough one

Tuesday had to be a disappointing evening for Josh Morrow, the campaign manager for gubernatorial hopeful Tom Knox. That’s because Morrow also managed the Philadelphia District Attorney campaign for Dan McCaffery, who lost last night’s primary by about 12 points.

Morrow has been splitting his time between the two campaigns, and with loads of support from organized labor and a significant financial advantage going into Election Day, McCaffery had been looking strong. Now Morrow will…

May 20, 2009 at 8:37 am | Comments (3)

Energy on the campaign trail

During Texas Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ speech at the Franklin Institute last Thursday, The Inquirer reports, he picked up a marker and began to write on a white board. He wrote the words Oil, Coal, and then the letters “N” and “G,” which stand for natural gas. In his speech, the paper quoted him as saying that natural gas is “abundant, it’s cheaper, it’s cleaner.”

“No question,” he said, “Pennsylvania is going to be…

April 27, 2009 at 10:41 pm | Comments (0)

THE INSIDERS: For Knox’s main man, a few more weeks of double-duty

Part of an occasional series profiling the people behind the scenes of political campaigns.

PHILADELPHIA—Josh Morrow is a busy guy these days. It’s hard enough managing a gubernatorial campaign for Democrat Tom Knox. But Morrow has been wearing two hats of late, also managing the campaign of Philadelphia District Attorney candidate Dan McCaffery. The combination has him working from the crack of dawn until well past dusk, as he juggles laying the groundwork for a…

April 27, 2009 at 3:22 pm | Comments (0)

Despite early start, Knox has done little party outreach

HARRISBURG—Tom Knox decided more than 6 months ago that he would run for governor. Since then, he’s been raising money, preparing policy positions and trying to gain some early traction by

April 22, 2009 at 1:13 pm | Comments (1)

Initial projections, left meaningless by the passage of time

Almost six months ago, I decided to go through the 2010 elections and make my first predictions. Although many candidates weren’t included that are now being mentioned or are officially in, here they are…

Tom Knox beats Tom Corbett for Governor

Joe Hoeffel over Bruce Castor for Lt. Governor

Arlen Specter over Chris Matthews for Senate

Now, obviously some of these things won’t happen since a majority of these candidates aren’t even in the races,…

April 22, 2009 at 11:54 am | Comments (1)

Wagner leaning toward gubernatorial race

Auditor General Jack Wagner says he’s seriously considering a run for governor, and is much more interested in that job than in running for Senate. His comments, during a recent phone interview with pa2010.com, came four months after he said he was considering both races.

“I thought it through, and i decided the Senate race is not of interest to me,” he said, before quickly adding: “At this stage.”

Wagner would be formidable candidate in the Democratic primary, with a long record in elected office, relatively strong statewide name recognition and solid support from military veterans (he served in the Vietnam War).

April 20, 2009 at 12:51 pm | Comments (0)