News & Brews December 15, 2021

Yesterday, the Senate unanimously approved legislation that would move Pennsylvania’s primary election in presidential years to the third Tuesday in March—five weeks earlier than the current fourth Tuesday in April. The thought is that moving the date will give Pennsylvania a greater role in selecting presidential nominees. The Senate passed a similar bill last year, but the House did not take it up. This year’s bill now heads to the House, where its future is unclear.

This morning at 11:30, the House State Government Committee will hold a hearing to vote on the preliminary congressional redistricting map submitted by Lehigh County resident Amanda Holt. Committee Chair Seth Grove is offering an amendment, which “would make minor adjustments … to improve the compactness of districts, respond to citizen concerns regarding communities of interest and increase minority representation in Philadelphia.” The meeting will be live-streamed at paredistricting.com.

Yesterday, the House voted 113-90 in favor of legislation, sponsored by Rep. Eric Nelson (Westmoreland County), that would ban election officials from receiving private contributions to administer elections. The bill comes after investigations revealed that Democrat-leaning counties were selectively invited to apply for grants from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life. The vote on the bill was party line, with all Democrats opposing it.

As the General Assembly plans to take up a disapproval resolution of Gov. Wolf’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the PA Power Jobs Alliance has an op-ed in Broad + Liberty warning that RGGI would hike residential energy bills for Pennsylvanians. Notably, according to Boilermakers Local 13 Business Manager John Bland, “The only people harmed more than organized labor by RGGI are poor and senior households, including our retirees, who will be faced with massive electric rate increases caused by the RGGI Carbon Tax on our electricity and will realize none of the alleged benefits.” Read more here.

The Post-Gazette reports that Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro will be in court today to fight a subpoena from Senate Republicans seeking voter information in the ongoing investigation of last year’s presidential election. The case is currently in Commonwealth Court.