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Monday, February 8, 2010

Gov. Rendell said he has not decided when to schedule a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha.

Murtha, a Democrat, died Monday at Virginia Hospital Center after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. Rendell has 10 days by law to schedule an election to replace the 35-year lawmaker.

Rendell must pick a day that is at least 60 days later. He told reporters on a conference call that it would save taxpayers' money and hold the election on the state’s May 18 primary date.

"I have to think about a special election," said Rendell. "My inclination is to save money, so my first reflex is to hold a special election on primary day. On the other hand, there are big issues that Congress has to face before primary day, so I will look at that (in making my decision)."

 

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Posted by Amy Worden @ 5:41 PM  Permalink | 8 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:24 PM, 02/08/2010
    Yet this means one fewer democrat to vote for Obamacare. That's all that matters! The reconciliation "instructions" expire in early April. Sorry Fa(s)T Boy!
    jowillia1
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:48 AM, 02/09/2010
    We are past the need for another republican vote, we have that. What I want to see, if the voter's do what Massachusetts did. I'm prepping for the primaries catastrophe.
    FJG JR
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:21 AM, 02/09/2010
    No matter what happens in Harrisburg, the voters of Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District who had inflicted Jack Murtha on the nation are going to get punished. All the pork he plundered for them has now just disappeared into thin air. All the "defense spending" (and the defense contractors' presence) in his former district is GONE. Bye-bye. No more boondoggles. The big, hardly-ever-used-by-anybody John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria Airport is about to get "donated" to the Cambria County government for whatever use they might find. Possibly it'll get turned into one of those uninhabited "industrial parks" we see all over the country. ### Let this be a foretaste of what the voters in West Virginia are going to get when THEIR federal meal ticket - Robert C. Byrd (born 20 November 1917) - kicks the bucket in the near future. ### If there was ever an argument for term limits, Jack Murtha was the personification of that argument. -30-
    Tucci78
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:40 AM, 02/09/2010
    @janann - Just prowling the Inquirer Web site today, ain'tcha? Let's see, is there a point in THIS bolus of your puke? Hm. Nope. Nothing pertinent to precisely what it is that Klansman Byrd and pork-sucker Murtha "decided to do...with their lives" (and to the people of these United States in order to preserve their ride on the government gravy train). ### D'you think that either Bobby Byrd or Jack Murtha might have found some other way to spend their lives - even while feeding at the public trough as they've done - without wasting billions (in Byrd's case, TRILLIONS) of other people's money not only in the unlawful (unconstitutional) enrichment of their constituencies but also in the damage they inflicted to get it? ### Oh, heavens forbid. A "Liberal" asked to think. Impossible. Unreasonable of me. Forgive me, janann. Might as well have asked you to jump off the Walt Whitman Bridge. ### Hm. While we're at it, though.... I'd bet people would just love to see you making that long swan dive. Why not give it a try? -30-
    Tucci78
  • Comment removed.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:38 PM, 02/09/2010
    Well, I lived in the 12th District most of my life and have seen the benefits that "pork" can bring; jobs, hope (we have had 3 National Disaster Floods), pride, economy and of course jealousy. I now live in Las Vegas - 13.5% unemployment & the 2nd highest foreclosure rate in the Country. My house has lost 65% of its value in the 3 1/2 years I have owned it! OF THIS YOU CAN BE SURE - OUR VETERANS HAVE LOST ONE OF THEIR GREATEST PROPONENTS IN JACK MURTHA! I knew him personally and he never stopped caring for "his men" - from Viet Nam until yesterday. Jack, thank you for being there for me & all of us vets!
    JTownMatt


8 comments
About Commonwealth Confidential team
Commonwealth Confidential gives you regularly updated coverage of the state legislature, the governor and the workings of the state bureaucracy. It is written by correspondents in the Inquirer's Harrisburg bureau, based right in the statehouse, and by the newspaper's far-flung campaign reporters.

Angela Couloumbis (left) joined The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1998, and has covered government and politics in New Jersey, Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania, including Gov. Rendell’s 2006 race against former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann.

Amy Worden (right) joined the Inquirer in 2000 and has covered governors, gubernatorial races, U.S. Senate races and three presidential campaigns. When not covering politics she can be found filing dispatches from disaster scenes or digging into local stories of national import.