News & Brews October 18, 2021
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Should Shapiro have to ‘resign to run’? (Answer: yes)
In the wake of Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s formal announcement for governor last week, ABC27 reports that some are starting to raise the question of whether he should resign his current office rather than pretend he can both serve as AG and run for governor. As I shared last week, 11 years ago when Tom Corbett was in Shapiro’s shoes, the Inquirer Editorial Board called on him to resign. (I’m still waiting … and waiting … for the Ed Board to issue the same call to Shapiro.) As the ABC27 story reminds us, “state agencies under the governor’s control have a resign-to-run policy.” But the AG’s office does not fall into this category. For his part, Shapiro said there’s “not a chance” he’s resigning.
Rep. Kim eyeing run for Lt. Gov.
After news broke last week that she was on Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro’s short list of folks he’d consider endorsing as his running mate, Rep. Patty Kim (Dauphin County) confirmed she’s considering a run for Lt. Gov. “It’s just something I think I would enjoy doing,” she said. She expects to make her plans known after the Nov. 2 election.
Shift in PA voter registration continues
Capitolwire reports (paywall) that “Democrats’ [voter registration] edge in the state stands at 606,494 voters, down from 685,818 last November.” Last November, Democrats made up 46.5% of registered voters, Republicans made up 38.9%, and independent/third party voters made up 14.5%. Now, those numbers are 46.1%, 39.1%, and 14.6%, respectively. The Hill mentioned PA in an article covering the topic across several states. Also, a quick reminder that today is the deadline to register to vote before the November election.
Current, former state treasurers agree PSERS is suppressing info
Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity and former Democrat Treasurer Joe Torsella “have joined legal forces to challenge the leadership of the state’s biggest public pension plan, saying that the leaders had wrongly cut off information from a dissident board member,” the Inquirer reports. On Friday, the pair filed an amicus brief supporting an earlier lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court by Sen. Katie Muth (Montgomery County) “in which she seeks investment contracts, real estate documents, and other information that the managers of the PSERS pension plan have refused to provide.”
Sen. Mensch to retire
Republican Sen. Bob Mensch (Berks, Bucks and Montgomery counties), who has served in the Legislature since 2007 and served in local office before that, has announced he will retire at the end of his current term next year. Mensch said, “Serving constituents has been a fantastic experience, but the 80-hour workweeks take their toll, so it’s time to open the next chapter in my life.” He added that he’s announcing his retirement now “to allow plenty of time for candidates to come forward to campaign and be vetted by voters.” Mensch won re-election in 2018 with 52.4% of the vote. He recently joined the Delaware Valley Journal podcast to talk more about his decision. Listen here.