News & Brews February 14, 2022

Citing a recently broken leg and ankle injury, Sen. Scott Martin (Lancaster County) has ended his bid for the Republican nomination for governor. In January, Martin underwent surgery for the injury, which resulted from a fall on some ice. In a statement, he noted the injuries “were beyond a simple broken bone and included a severing of numerous ligaments and tendons in my ankle that are going to require greater and longer rehabilitation than I originally hoped would be necessary.” We wish him a full and speedy recovery.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sat down with Mark Nordenberg, chair of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC), to talk about the recently concluded process of redrawing state House and Senate maps. Nordenberg defended the maps as fair, but not everyone agrees. House Republicans, particularly, have raised objections to the new House map. Anyone can challenge either map in court within 30 days of the LRC’s Feb. 4 vote to approve the maps. Read the story here.

House Speaker Bryan Cutler (Lancaster County) penned an op-ed for the LNP, arguing that Democrats have twisted the mail-in voting law that was passed in 2019 to turn it into something far different from what lawmakers intended it to be at the time of passage. Read his piece here.

The Philly Inquirer likens Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Conor Lamb to Joe Biden and fellow Democrat candidate John Fetterman to Bernie Sanders in a story on how the candidates are working to appeal to Democrat voters in advance of the primary election. “It’s not a perfect comparison,” the piece notes. “But like Sanders, Fetterman has attracted the liberal wing of the party…. And Lamb has cast himself as the kind of moderate Democrat who can recreate the Biden coalition that narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2020.” Read the story here.