News & Brews December 21 2021

New Castle Mayor Chris Frye is running for lieutenant governor, the Meadville Tribune reports. Frye, a Republican, was elected mayor in 2019, becoming the city’s first Black mayor and also the youngest elected to the post. The story notes, “Frye said he’s going to run on a platform similar to what helped him win the mayor’s race — faith, family and community. He said he wants to have a bottom-up approach to government and noted he’s the only mayor in the race as far as he knows.” Back in 2019 after his election, we sat down with Chris for a podcast to hear more about his compelling story of growing up in the welfare system and then coming full circle and going to work for the same agency that helped his family. Listen to that conversation here!

The AP reports that state Sen. Doug Mastriano (Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, and York counties) is expected to officially announce his candidacy for governor on January 8.Mastriano is a combat veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 30 years. He is also a frequent and favorite target of the Left (and the AP, but I repeat myself) due to his pro-Trump positions.

Not surprisingly, a new poll of likely 2022 GOP primary voters, asking for whom they would vote if the primary were held tomorrow, shows 50.8% of respondents are undecided. Among the five candidate options given (Dr. Mehmet Oz, Kathy Barnette, Carla Sands, Jeff Bartos, and Sean Gale), Oz garnered the most support, at 18.8%, but 10.8% said they would pick someone else. In other words, more than 60% of likely GOP primary voters are either undecided or not enamored with the current choices.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell to 5.7% in November but remains above the 4.2% national average. Even as the rate dropped, however, so did the labor force, decreasing by 10,000. The AP has more.

Even as President Biden’s Build Back Better plan hit a major roadblock this past weekend, City & State PA takes a look at which U.S. Senate candidates from PA would support the plan, which would oppose, and which would vote for it again. (Spoiler alert: There aren’t any surprises.)