Archive: August, 2012
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
The battle over Mitt Romney's tax returns has returned to the campaign fray with new information from Mitt and a new challenge from the Obama camp.
On Thursday, Romney said he paid at least 13 percent of his income in taxes in each of last 10 years.
The Associated Press, citing the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, reports middle-income families making $50,000 to $75,000 pay an average of 12.8 percent.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
As state Republican House Leader Mike Turzai's name continues to spread across the political landscape, the controversy over voter ID and questions about its actual impact, one thing is clear: he is not changing his tune.
No matter what he was asked Wednesday during an impromptu press conference in the state Capitol newsroom, he stuck to the lyric of the law, saing it's about protecting the principle of "one man, one vote" and "the integrity of each and every valid vote."
He sang this chorus when asked if maybe he should not have offered (or differently phrased) his now-famous assertion that passing the law will "allow" Mitt Romney to win Pennsylvania and that it was part of the GOP legislative agenda that can be labeled as "done."
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
There's a tasty little item in this week's Harrisburg Patriot-News about how PennDOT publishes guides to some Philly cheesesteak restaurants that kinda makes one wonder about, you know, core functions of government.
The agency of highway cones, potholes and dilapidated bridges operating in an administration constantly criticized for failure to enact badly need transportation-related repairs offers a two-page "Philadelphia Cheese Steak Guide" for free at its welcome centers in the southeastern part of the state.
Agency officials swear the guide is not advertising despite the fact it lists only six of Lord know how many cheese steak places in the city.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
You won't see this often, especially from someone who daily growls about the state of our politics, but there's a nice piece of political news related to both national coventions.
Craftsman Tools, in cooperation with a bunch of other companies, is heading up an interesting effort to build a house for a deserving military veteran; it's to be built in parts, one half at the Republican convention in Tampa, the other at the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
The program is called a "House United" and offers a starkly different approach than our national political parties offer.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
Despite Gov. Corbett's avowed advocacy of transparency in state government, there is further evidence that exactly the opposite is administration policy.
Last week, in a column about the administration going to court to prevent public access to state employee work email addresses and work phone numbers, I noted Corbett as a candidate and as governor has pushed openness, including asserting in his January 2011 inaugural address that, "We must restore transparency."
I suggested spending taxpayer resources to legally battle right-to-know requests to government assets such as work emails and phone numbers, paid for by taxpayers, seems an odd path to such restoration.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
So Romney picked Ryan and the GOP ticket is R and R.
The pick, announced Saturday morning, makes me dead wrong on two counts: I thought it would be Portman and I thought it would Tuesday.
My reasoning was Portman's home state of Ohio (with 18 Electoral College votes) is critical to victory in November, and Portman, a former House member, former White House top aide and now a Senator, would greatly help Mitt's chances of carrying the state.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
Amid campaign squabbles over the "war on religion," welfare policy, taxes, tax returns, voter supression, voter fraud, super PACs, socialism, Bain and what happened to whom after "Mitt Romney came to town," there's an opportunity just ahead to alter the conversation.
At least temorarily.
It would be a welcome relief, for example, if Mitt Romney announced his choice of a running mate on Tuesday.
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
A pair of Pennsylvania pols, one a former state House leader, one a current state House leader, are in the news in ways that says a lot about the state's political culture.
Wednesday, the state Democratic Party, which apparently was just informed that one of its former big dogs, one-time House Speaker H. William "Bill" DeWeese, is actually in prison, was in court asking that he be knocked off the ballot in November's election.
I suppose someone pointed out to party leaders that the state Constitution (Article II, Section 7) bars convicted felons from serving in the Legislature "or any office of trust or profit in this Commonwealth."
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
A powerful and effective Romney campaign TV ad that began airing Tuesday is drawing heavy fire from the Obama camp and ad analysts and serves as a good example of how voters (and the truth) get stretched in major campaigns.
The ad, called "Right Choice," slams Obama for wanting to pitch federal welfare-to-work rules enacted in 1996 and return to old-style welfare under which "they just send you your welfare check." The ad says Romney as president will restore work requirements.
Tuesday, both campaigns held national press calls with Romney advisors supporting the claim and the Obama camp calling it "completely false."
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
In the onoing, seemingly endless video battle between Mitt Romney and President Obama, the latest round clearly goes to the Mitt-man.
Two new efforts, one an online video from Obama for America, the other a new TV ad from Romney for President and the Republican National Committee, show sharp contrasts in effectiveness.
The Obama video includes annoying 1950's-style TV sitcom music under a variety of scenes of "middle-class" voters checking a hand-held electronic "tax calculator" to compare Romney's tax plan to Obama's.
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
