Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Gov. Corbett had his monthly hourlong radio show Tuesday morning with host Dom Giordano on WPHT 1210 the Big Talker. Some highlights:
Corbett said news reports of protests during his commencement speech at Millersville University over the weekend were exaggerated. "Now there was a large crowd --. 1200 people sitting on the football field in front of us. Some turned their backs. Fine. They were courteous; they didn't disrupt the ceremony for anyone else. That’s why we have the First Amendment, it’s a wonderful tool."
The governor also said he was confident that there would be a liquor privatization bill on his desk by June 30, though he did betray some irritation with the Senate's slow pace.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
If Democrat Joe Sestak wins his party’s primary and runs against incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in 2016, it would be the first rematch of major party candidates in Pennsylvania’s history of U.S. Senate elections, according to a review by the blog Smart Politics.
Pennsylvania has held 38 special and general elections for U.S. Senate since 1914, when the state began choosing senators based on direct popular vote. In that time, a defeated candidate has never sought and earned the right to take another shot at the victor, Smart Politics found. The data-driven blog is written by Eric Ostermeier, a researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak announced in an email Tuesday morning that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for the Senate in 2016, setting up a likely rematch with incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
That explains where the $460,000 Sestak raised in the first quarter is going to go. The announcement also comes a day after Pennsylvania Republicans filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, saying Sestak had violated campaign-finance regulations by raising the money without declaring what office he was seeking.
Democrats, too, have been trying to divine Sestak's intent. He was the party's 2010 nominee for U.S. Senate, losing to Toomey, but had been talking to some supporters about possibly jumping into the Democratic primary for the nomination to run against Gov. Corbett in 2014.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D.,Pa.) likes to hold his plans close, saying that he is interested in “public service” but refusing to discuss whether that means he is aiming at the 2014 governor’s race, or the Senate race two years later.
Sestak’s strategic vagueness is illegal, according to the Pennsylvania Republican Party, which has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that since Sestak has raised more than $5,000 in his federal campaign account, he must file a statement of candidacy that describes the office he is seeking. Sestak also should have filed a personal financial disclosure, the complaint says.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
It’s become an article of faith in national politics that Pennsylvania is pretty much out of reach for Republican presidential candidates.
But Amy Walter, the top-flight analyst who is national editor of The Cook Political Report, argues in a new piece that Pennsylvania holds the biggest promise for the GOP in 2016. Not only is it gettable, but it has a big enough cache of electoral votes to offset losses elsewhere.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
This is becoming a drumbeat: Wednesday brings another bad poll for Gov. Corbett.
Only one in four Pennsylvania voters believes he has performed well enough in office to deserve reelection, according to a Franklin & Marshall College poll released Wednesday. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the number is even lower among Democrats (12 percent) and even independent voters (20 percent), but the pollsters also find that 48 percent of his fellow Republicans believe Corbett deserves reelection.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz on Tuesday announced the appointment of nine top operatives for her campaign for the 2014 Democratic nomination for governor:
Rich Davis, partner in the Davis/Dixon Media Group, will be the media consultant. Davis has worked with Schwartz for 14 years, including her 2004 election to Congress. The firm’s clients include Govs. Martin O’Malley (Md.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.) as well as U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) , Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Debbie Stabenow (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii),Mark Udall (Colo.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and Brian Schatz (Hawaii).
Pete Brodnitz, Beneson Strategy Group, will be the pollster. In Pennsylvania, he worked for Kathleen Kane last year, helping her win the Democratic primary and go on to become the first woman elected attorney general in state history. He is perhaps best known for two wins in Virginia – Gov. Tim Kaine in 2005 and Sen. Jim Webb in 2006 – widely considered the breakthrough that turned the perception of the state from red to purple.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
State Sen. Chuck McIlhinney (R.,Bucks) told constituents last week that he opposes a “poorly thought out” GOP bill to change the way Pennsylvania awards its presidential electoral votes from a winner-take-all to a proportional system.
The bill is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R.,Delaware), who has 12 cosponsors for the measure. “I respect Sen. Pileggi a lot but I wouldn’t support it,” McIlhinney said, in a tape of a May 1 New Hope, Pa. town-hall meeting released by the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Welcome to Day Two of the hubub over Gov. Corbett's comments on Radio PA blaming stoners for Pennsylvania's poor job growth.
John Hanger, a candidate for the Demoratic nomination to take Corbett on, argues in a new video released Wednesday that the governor is the one who's fried - "under the influence" of bad GOP economic policies.
“The real reason Pennsylvania has created zero jobs over the last 12 months is because Corbett is under the influence of failed economic policies and Grover Norquist," Hanger, a former state environmental secretary, said.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
Former state Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf, a Democratic candidate for governor, announced Monday that he has hired as campaign manager the strategist who managed two winning races for the governor of West Virginia.
Joe Shafer, a native of Athens, Pa., ran winning special election and re-election campaigns for Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2011 and last year. He was Northeast regional political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, based in Washington. In the 2008 election cycle, Shafer was executive director of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee.
“We are committed to running a campaign that we can all be proud of, holding Gov. Corbett accountable for putting special-interests over the interests of the middle-class,” Wolf said in a statement. “We are lucky to have Joe on board. There is no better tactical and strategic mind in Democratic politics today than Joe’s."
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
