News & Brews May 9, 2023

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Pa. on McConnell’s top 4 list for 2024 U.S. Senate

Pennsylvania is among the top four states Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is targeting in 2024 Senate races. (The other three are West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana.) And in Pa., McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are reportedly expected to toss their support behind Dave McCormick.

Shapiro abortion ad ‘brews controversy’ 

ABC27 reports that as the May 16 elections approach, “campaign ads with questionable claims and uncertain origins are flooding mailboxes.” And a recent ad by Gov. Shapiro supporting Democrat Heather Boyd in the special election in House District 163 (Delaware County) is ‘brewing controversy’. The ad by pro-abortion Shapiro says Republican Katie Ford would “threaten” abortion in Pennsylvania. But Ford insists she’s pro-abortion like her Democrat opponent and would oppose an effort to allow voters to weigh in on the issue.

Shapiro’s road tour for property tax/rent rebate plan

The Center Square reports that Gov. Shapiro is undertaking an “unofficial statewide budget tour touting many of the administration’s key spending proposals.” He stopped in Erie last week “to highlight his plan to grow the state’s property tax and rent rebate program for the first time in nearly two decades.” (He also stopped yesterday in New Cumberland.) The story notes, “Although lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree the current payout isn’t high enough, many have been wary about Shapiro’s plan to tie future raises to inflation.”

Q&A with judicial candidates

We’re one week out from primary election day. And the Legal Intelligencer has compiled interviews with judicial candidates including those running for Supreme, Superior, and Commonwealth courts. You can find those interviews here. Commonwealth Partners has endorsed Judge Carolyn Carluccio for Supreme Court, Megan Martin for Commonwealth Court, and both Maria Battista and Judge Harry Smail, Jr. for two open seats on Superior Court.

Op-Ed: Proposed amendment would harm public sector union employees

The Commonwealth Foundation’s Jennifer Stefano writes in the Inquirer of the dangers of the proposed constitutional amendment that would elevate union contracts above state law. “The proposed amendment,” Jennifer writes, “undermines the ability of the legislature to do its job and allows collective bargaining agreements to trump state law, giving union executives more power than the people elected by voters.”

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