…may be switching parties. From TPMDC:
Former Rep. Pat Toomey, who challenged Specter from the right in the Republican primary back in 2004, then went on to head the Club For Growth, is reportedly running again in 2010.
In this case, bad news for Specter could also be good news for Democrats — if the ultra-conservative Toomey […]

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Arlen running uphill:
A new statewide poll shows 53 percent of Pennsylvanians — and 66 percent of Republicans — want someone to replace Sen. Arlen Specter.
Limbaugh, in other words, speaks for about two-thirds of Pennsylvania Republicans.
Among registered Republicans, 66 percent favored a new senator and 26 percent backed Specter. The margin of error on that question […]

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So my brother used to live down the street from this bar in Pittsburgh that had video poker machines. Two of them, actually; and virtually anytime you went into the place, there was someone in front of the machine, playing the game.
I didn’t go in often enough to know the names of the people at […]

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Via conservative blog PowerLine - of all places - comes a report from Rasmussen that Specter’s vote on the stimulus package could “cost him” in Pennsylvnia:
Just 31% of Keystone State voters say are more likely to vote for Specter because of his position on the stimulus package while 40% are less likely to do so.
A […]

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You read it here first last week. But check this out, from Elena Schor over at TPM DC:
President Obama talks about seeking bipartisan accord … and he reaches out to GOP senators … but how many Republicans are even open to the need for fixing the economy through government spending?
As The Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel […]

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Via Josh Marshall, if you listen to KYW or other Philly stations, you might be hearing this ad:
tpmtv-americansunitedforchangeradioadlimbaugh642.mp3
Josh:
“Every Republican voted with Limbaugh, and against creating 4 million new American jobs,” the announcer says, referring to the House Republicans’ unanimous vote against the stimulus package.
The announcer goes on to say: “Will our Senator, Arlen Specter, side […]

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I always read Bob Smizik in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as a sports columnist he was always willing to be the bugger, the bad guy - I’m in touch with that emotion. Though I sometimes wondered how he got out of locker rooms alive.
In any event, he’s calling it a career, and it doesn’t get more […]

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Had half an eye on this for a few months, but sounds as if it’s becoming more serious:
The Northeast’s dwindling cast of Senate Republicans has Democrats circling Arlen Specter’s seat in Pennsylvania, convinced the party is well-positioned to make a competitive race out of the 2010 election.
Leading the pack of prospects — at least in […]

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Hm. While the feds mull a bailout for Detroit, Gov. Rendell has apparently already decided on a bailout for Boscov’s:
Gov. Ed Rendell says the state has secured $35 million in federal loans to help regional department store chain Boscov’s exit bankruptcy.
Rendell said today that the loans will be financed through a program that allows governments to […]

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Pennsylvania Jooos, be afraid of Obama!!!

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Too bad, so sad:
A Commonwealth Court judge yesterday effectively allowed counties to let voters wear partisan attire to the polls and refused to clamp down on the voter-registration group ACORN as the state Republican Party had sought. …
<snip>
Simpson refused the state Republican Party’s request to order ACORN to turn over a list of the 140,000 […]

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Hm. Best/most plausible explanation as to why McCain/Palin are staking the election, it would seem, on the outcome in Pennsylvania:
If McCain wins all the states that President George W. Bush won four years ago, he’ll have the 270-plus electoral votes necessary to take the White House. (Mr. Bush won 286 electoral votes.) But with polls […]

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Or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL20TdHjX2s

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Dauphin Co. reader who saw the post here on that “non-partisan” Pa. Family Voters Guide sends me something he’d sent to the Patriot-News when he thought it was their doing… they said it wasn’t. So worth publishing her thoughts here:

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Your Pennsylvania GOP:
Pennsylvania Republicans are disavowing an e-mail sent to Jewish voters that likens a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to events that led up to the Holocaust.
“Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008,” the e-mail reads. “Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in […]

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Note from a colleague:
…on NPR this morning: Again, the old “abortion/same-sex marriage” response, followed by
“The country can go broke. As long as we have morals, the Lord will watch over us,”
Sweet. We don’t need to do anything about the economy. So long as God is hooking us up - it’s all good!
Whew.
Funny, then, to see […]

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Al Giordano on why McCain seems to be specifically targeting Pa.:
The senior staff seems to think it has convinced McCain to drop his reluctance to play the race card, with trial balloons afloatin’ that Obama’s ex-reverend will get an encore in the coming days in negative ads and such.
And if they’re really going to go […]

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McCain focusing on Pa.:
All the McCain activity is happening in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 1.2 million, double from four years ago; where Obama, flush with cash, is outspending McCain on television by several orders of magnitude; and where the Democrats have an organizational advantage.
Indeed, Obama - who announced last night […]

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So is Lancaster County “real America” or not?
It was veddy veddy interesting to have Sarah Palin in town last weekend, not for what she said or didn’t say while she was here, but the fact that so close to the general election, the GOP felt it important for her to be here.
In large part that’s […]

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Occasionally a good idea, or was before I got so old.
In any event, I must take issue, as I always do, with the Era when it editorializes about beer sales:
Today we quote the president of the PA Malt Beverage Association, who says hey - you, Joe Consumer, already have plenty of convenience when it comes to […]

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