News & Brews October 28, 2022

Republican Mehmet Oz leads Democrat John Fetterman in the first poll conducted since Tuesday’s debate. The Insider Advantage poll of 750 likely voters shows Oz at 47.5% and Fetterman at 44.8%. Libertarian Erik Gerhardt garners 2.8%, and 3.6% are undecided. The poll’s margin of error is 3.58%. This is the first major poll showing Oz in the lead in the hotly contested Senate race. An Insider Advantage poll conducted last week had shown the race virtually tied.

A few days ago, I shared that Gov. Wolf and lawmakers were quietly negotiating a $3.6 billion tax break for certain natural gas development. Well, on Wednesday, lawmakers sent Wolf a reduced (but still big) $2 billion package that “would provide $50 million annually for an entity that gets approved for a regional hydrogen hub, $30 million annually to help produce fertilizer and petrochemicals using natural gas, $20 million annually to boost biomedical and semiconductor production and $15 million annually toward milk processing,” the AP reports. While across-the board tax reductions are great, government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. The AP notes, “The House vote was 139-59, with opponents making up an unusual pairing of some of the chamber’s more conservative Republicans and its more liberal Democrats. The Senate vote was 41-8, with … just three GOP votes against it.

A piece in RealClear Pennsylvania notes that while “Fetterman’s campaign touts his idealistic vision for Braddock … his record falls far short of the promise.” For example, “Since he took office in 2006, the town’s population has continued to decline steadily, from 2,481 people in 2005 to 1,721 in the 2020 Census.” The piece dives into how Fetterman used “inconsistent grant funding” in an attempt to achieve his goals. Yet, while “[n]o one disputes that Fetterman brought unprecedented investment into the community … the nonprofit-based investment method he applied did not sustain itself after he left for Harrisburg.” Read more here.

A (now-former) Philly sheriff’s deputy was arrested last week and charged “with firearms trafficking and selling firearms to a person unlawfully in the United States.” As if this weren’t bad enough, among the guns the former sheriff’s deputy sold were two that were used in the deadly September shooting outside Roxborough High School that killed a 14-year-old and wounded several other teenagers. One of the accused gunmen in that shooting was out on bail following a previous deadly crime, as DA Larry Krasner’s office never asked for bail to be revoked.