Even as state Republicans appear to be lining up behind former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey in the 2010 Senate race, state Sen. Jane Orie of Allegheny County, says she may seek the nomination.

In a statement released today, Orie said, "I continue to be deeply troubled by the direction our country is heading and I am considering future opportunities, including a run for the United States Senate.”

Orie, who as the Senate Majority Whip is the highest ranking woman in the state legislature, travelled to Washington recently to meet with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, (R.,TX), chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and Pennsylvania Republican State Committee Chairman Rob Gleason to discuss a Senate campaign, according to the online news service Capitolwire.com 

Sources close to Cornyn told Pensylvania Republicans that Orie did not "wow" anyone in D.C., Capitolwire.com reported.

Orie described herself as a “pro-gun, pro-life, fiscal conservative,"  in other words, as one said, another Toomey.

She also faces a formidable fundraising opponent in Toomey who has $1.6 million on hand.

Political analyst Terry Madonna said Orie has "the two Gs" in her favor: "gender and geography," but added he couldn't predict whether that would be enough for her to give Toomey a run. Johnstown-based Republican activist and former gubernatorial candidate Peg Luksik also has announced her candidacy for the Senate seat.

Sen. Arlen Specter, now running as a Democrat, may face challenges from U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D., PA) and state Rep. Bill Kortz (D., Allegheny).

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

This just in from our intrepid intern, Lauren Boyer:

Four years ago today, while the rest of the state slept, the legislature voted themselves a pay raise.

Representatives from advocacy organizations like RockTheCapital.org and Democracy Rising joined activist Gene Stilp in the rotunda earlier this morning to commemorate the anniversary. In total, 53 of 131 House members and eight of 27 senators kept the raise - deemed "unvouchered expenses" - which was ordered unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

"The last four years have gone from bad to worse, and the end is no where in sight," said Stilp, flanked from behind by his infamous inflatable pink pig. "You could have received a college diploma in the time we've spent fighting the pay raise. Maybe we'll go for a master's."

The pig was joined by three porcelain snails, to symbolize the "snail's pace of reform" in Pennsylvania, Stilp said.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

The lame-ducks are coming out of the pond to squawk about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's abrupt resignation - in the middle of her first term.

Gov. Rendell - with 18 months left in his second term - was one of them.

Though it's hard to imagine Rendell is not thinking of a quiet island far from the Capitol as he and the General Assembly head into Day Seven of the budget standoff of 2009, he took to the airwaves to castigate Palin for her "ridiculous rationale" for resigning and for abandoning her state during a fiscal crisis.

Here's what he told MSNBC as reported by The Huffington Post:

"To resign after two-and-a-half years in office and somehow to say that she was going to be a lame duck and lame ducks can't get anything done and governors just go on junkets during her lame-duck period is ridiculous. First of all, she's a first-term governor, not a term-limited, second-term governor, and if she hadn't announced she was leaving, she wouldn't have been a lame duck, she would have been in a pretty strong executive position, number one. Number two, this is not the time for governors to abandon their states.... Everyone of us is facing severe financial challenges brought about by the international recession and this is not a time to leave. We pledged to our folks when we asked them to elect to us, we pledged that we were going to serve four years and we serve in the good years, but we also serve in the bad years as well. And for her to leave and turn the state over to a lieutenant governor with less than a month's notice, in the midst of difficult financial times, I think it's just dead wrong."

"Again," Rendell added, "had she just said I'm not running for re-election and announced that, I think that would perfectly fine. But she's really abandoning her state at a very difficult time. And I appreciate the pressures on family. All of us in public life have that. You guys in the media have the same pressures. I appreciate all of that, but I think she made the wrong decision to leave her state. If you want to help Alaskans, lead during tough and challenging times."

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Jonathan Saidel, candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, has won the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers-Pennsylvania, the first big union to weigh in on the developing 2010 statewide campaigns.

Saidel, the former controller of Philadelphia who has deep labor ties, got the nod in a vote during the union’s biennial convention at the end of June, said AFT state president Ted Kirsch.

“We have a history with Jon,” said Kirsch, who was president of the Philadelphia AFT local. He cited Saidel’s role, along with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D.,Pa.), in brokering peace during tense negotiations with the city in 2000.

“Jonathan was up all night with us, and played a big role,” Kirsch said. “He’s a public school graduate who was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He is one of us.”

AFT represents 36,000 educators across the state, including in Pittsburgh and Scranton. So far, Saidel is the only announced lieutenant governor candidate, and he claims a bankroll of $1 million. The union’s executive committee will weigh in later on the governor’s race, Kirsch said.

Talk about the perfect tonic to help you forget about the recession and the continuing budget mess in Harrisburg…

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow, July 7, the Stanley Cup and the Lombardi and World Series trophies will be on display at the state Capitol.

All three were captured by Pennsylvania teams -- the Penguins, Steelers and Phillies, respectively.
 

If only the Sixers had a better season.
 

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

So far a petition hasn't worked, nor has a videotaped confrontation in the state Capitol.

Now gay activists demanding an apology from Sen. John Eichelberger are considering taking out newspaper ads in his Altoona district for what they call "bigoted" comments he made in a saying in a recent radio debate.

Eichelberger, sponsor of a  constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage said on a WHYY radio debate of gays "we allow them to exist." 

Eichelberger was responding to a question from Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery) about whether Pennsylvania’s policy toward same-sex couples should be punitive. He said, “They’re not being punished. We’re allowing them to exist, and do what every American can do."

Michael Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress, a multi-issue advocacy group, said he can't imagine any other ethnic group where such a comment would be considered acceptable.

Morrill led a group of about 20 activists who confronted Eichelberger on Monday outside the state Senate chamber. They presented him with a petition with 5,000 signatures seeking an apology.

When asked directly for an apology by Morrill Eichelberger said, "I think you know my answer to that," before disappearing into the Senate chamber. Morrill said activists are working on newspaper ads targetting the Senator next. "We want to voters in his district to known how he is representing them."

 Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

After weeks of playing footsie with the media about his intentions to run against Sen. Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senate seat, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak officially announced that he will run. Except not really.

Twitter and the internet started buzzing this morning after The Wayne Independent posted a teaser from an interview with Sestak this morning. Sestak is kicking off a tour of all 67 counties in the state, and Independent reporter Steve McConnell asked him why. McConnell said he asked Sestak “straight off the cuff” if he had “higher political ambitions.”

He said Sestak told him, “I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter … for senator.”

The delicious morsel of certainty was a meaty treat to the pack of hungry political reporters, antsy for Sestak to make it official. By noon, political websites had re-posted a link to McConnell’s brief story and Sestak fans were cheering him on.

But Sestak hadn’t made it official. Spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said Sestak made no formal announcement and told McConnell the same story he’s been saying for weeks: that he is still discussing the matter with his family. Sestak intends to make an official announcement in about a month, Dworkin said.

“Nothing has changed in the last four hours,” Dworkin said around noon. “There has been no announcement.”

McConnell admits that Sestak did say he is still discussing it with his family, but it sure sounded like an announcement to him.

“Maybe he slipped,” said McConnell, 26, who is a general assignment reporter at the paper and has worked there 10 months.

McConnell did his homework on where Sestak was in the announcement process and said when he heard the quote, “I knew I had something, so that’s why I just rushed to get it out there.”

UPDATE: Although McConnell in an interview earlier Wednesday said that Sestak “did kind of hedge with me too” about his Senate run and did “mention a little bit about his family and talking to his wife,” the reporter now says upon review of his taped interview, Sestak did not connect the two. Sestak said he would run for Senate, and talked about his family later in the interview, McConnell said in an email.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

With the political eyes of the nation on Sen. Specter's party switch and a potential clash with Rep. Joe Sestak (D., PA) in the 2010 Democratic Senate primary, it's easy to forget that Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey has a primary opponent.

Peg Luksik, the self-described "kitchen table mom" and former gubernatorial from Johnstown, has launched a listening tour to give voters a chance to interview her. Luksik is making appearances in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton this week before heading west after the July 4 holiday.

Her Website design recalls the 1950s and "Kitchen Table Blog" offers observations on free trade, judicial elections and the founding fathers. In her "Ask Me" section, Luksik defends her right to run against those who call her candidacy against GOP frontrunner Pat Toomey "divisive."

"Elections are, by definition, about making choices," Luksik writes. "If there is only ever one candidate, there is only ever one choice - so why have an election at all? "

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

All the brouhaha over South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's unscheduled trip to Argentina for a rendezvous with a girlfriend has gotten people wondering what their governor's up to - even during working hours.

Fact is, most of the time we don't know.

So the Associated Press dispatched reporters in 40 states to try to find out what the governor was doing at a certain moment and ran into roadblocks in almost every one of them, including Pennsylvania. Reporters were routinely told that the governor's private schedules was off limits, citing privacy and security concerns, and that they would have to file open records requests to receive them.

The staff of Gov. Rendell, who was just leaving Harrisburg after a state budget meeting, did not provide AP with a schedule. (While Rendell's staff puts out daily calendar of public events, it never publishes information about non-public events and only rarely provides information about national media appearances.)

We did learn that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley - at the time his office was contacted - was in New York fishing with his son, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe was at the dentist and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was visiting troops in Kosovo.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.