WASHINGTON -- The first Democrat hoping to take on Bucks County Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick formally opened his campaign Thursday. Kevin Strouse, a 33-year-old former Army Ranger, declared his candidacy for the 2014 race in the Bucks-based 8th Congressional district.

Strouse, who has never run for office, played up his military background and outsider status in a press release announcing his candidacy Thursday morning. He served three tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, and spent the past eight years working in the CIA, according to his campaign.

WASHINGTON – The video-taped ravings of Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice – fired Wednesday morning – show the need for anti-bullying laws at colleges, New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Rush Holt said today.

“This incident shows us that physical and emotional abuse of college students by faculty is occurring right under our noses,” the two Democrats said in a news release. Rice was fired after video surfaced of him berating players with homophobic slurs, shoving them and throwing basketballs at them.

WASHINGTON -- After Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. Bob Casey changed his position on Monday, every Philadelphia-area Democrat now supports same-sex marriage.

That matches the trend nationally -- after Casey, a social moderate, flipped his view Monday, Delaware Sen. Tom Carper shifted his stand Tuesday, leaving just seven Democrats in the Senate who have yet to back same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON -- Count another Senate Democrat as a new supporter of same-sex marriage.

Delaware’s Tom Carper today became the latest Democrat who once opposed same-sex marriage to change his views on the rapidly shifting social issue, announcing his new stand on Facebook.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said today that he supports same-sex marriage, reversing his former stand and joining a long list of Democrats who have changed their minds on an issue that was pushed to the forefront of the news last week.

“After much deliberation and after reviewing the legal, public policy, and civil rights questions presented, I support marriage equality for same-sex couples and believe that (the federal Defense of Marriage Act) should be repealed,” Casey said in a news release issued Monday afternoon.

WASHINGTON -- A plan co-sponsored by both Pennsyvlania senators that would repeal a tax on the sale of medical devices -- created to help fund President Obama's health care law -- won overhelming, bipartisan Senate support Thursday night.

The amendment to a proposed budget was approved 79-20. It would roll back the 2.3 percent tax on the sale of medical devices such as pacemakers and artificial joints.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) said the tax would have a huge impact nationally, but particularly in Pennsylvania, which he said ranks among the top three states in terms of producing such devices. Many come from the medical industry in southeastern PA, he said.

WASHINGTON – Another Paul Ryan budget won passage in the House today, and again Philadelphia-area Republicans voted in favor of the conservative blueprint that was used as a political weapon against them last election – and likely will be again in 2014.

Moments after the vote the Democratic House Majority PAC sent out a release accusing Bucks County’s Mike Fitzpatrick of “embracing dangerous priorities.”

WASHINGTON -- Days after campaigning with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono, Newark Mayor Cory Booker is turning his eyes back to his own hopes for higher office – a move that draws attention to a potential 2014 Senate race even as Democrats try to focus on this year’s contest against Gov. Christie.

Booker is holding a fundraiser Thursday in Newark to raise money for a 2014 run for Senate even though, (wink, wink) he hasn’t officially decided to run.

WASHINGTON – New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is trying to get back to business as usual – this afternoon he chairs a Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on counterterrorism.

But his friend and donor, the under-fire doctor Salomon Melgen, won’t go away.