News & Brews April 18, 2024
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Despite arrest warrant, Rep. Boyle still ‘voting’ … but from where?
With a warrant out for his arrest, Democrat state Rep. Kevin Boyle (Philadelphia) still had his “vote” recorded in the Pa. House yesterday—including on a measure to determine whether he would be allowed to vote. But here’s the thing: Boyle was nowhere to be found. Democrats had reinstated COVID-Era remote voting rules, meaning members don’t actually have to be present to vote—they can simply vote by proxy. But wait, this would mean House Dems are in communication with Boyle. As House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler put it, “You’ve got an individual who has an arrest warrant out who is either a fugitive from justice and waiting to be processed, or they [Democrats] are in communication with him about his votes and therefore they are harboring him and should communicate that to law enforcement.” This all led one state rep. to announce she would introduce legislation to prevent members with active arrest warrants from voting remotely.
Shapiro in on Dem voter registration website data harvesting scheme
Well, the plot thickens. Continuing its investigation into a Democrat-aligned website that resembles an official Pa. voter registration site, Broad + Liberty reports, “Gov. Josh Shapiro allowed his signature to be used on mailers guiding people to request mail-in ballots through Vote.pa — a URL that closely resembles the official state voter registration website of vote.pa.gov but which also surreptitiously collects user data for political campaign purposes.” Indeed, “The new revelation underscores the deep extent to which Pennsylvania Democrats and left-of-center organizations have invested in the website that one Republican state representative called an ‘obvious attempt to steal information from voters or potential voters.’”
WSJ Editorial: ‘Philly’s law and order reboot’
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board takes note of new Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s efforts to restore law and order to the City of Brotherly Love. There’s just one problem: progressive city District Attorney Larry Krasner. While praising Parker, the Ed Board writes, “The problem is Mr. Krasner, the George Soros-financed DA who since taking office in 2018 has downgraded the charges in more than 14,500 cases involving retail theft, drug dealing or violations of the Uniform Firearms Act. He has declined to pursue more than 1,000 such cases. The mayor and police are going to need the pressure of public opinion against Mr. Krasner’s soft-on-crime methods if they want to make the city’s streets safer.”
Progressives v. AIPAC in Pa.’s 12th congressional district
Amid the Israel-Hamas war, POLITICO looks at how anti-Israel progressives are seeking to “neutralize” any influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in key congressional Democrat primaries. One such primary is in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District (Allegheny/Westmoreland counties), where progressive incumbent Rep. Summer Lee, who has often voted against Israel, is facing a challenge from fellow Democrat Bhavini Patel, who has criticized Lee over her anti-Israel stance.
2 Dem AG candidates apologies for going against their union backers
If you were wondering to whom Democrat attorney general candidates Jack Stollsteimer and Keir Bradford-Gray would be beholden if elected, wonder no more. WESA reports that the two recently apologized to their union backers for—wait for it—giving interviews to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter. Why? Because the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh was on strike against the paper. Bradford-Gray said she “would never cross the picket line intentionally,” while Stollsteimer said, “I have apologized to my supporters in the labor movement in Western Pennsylvania and I will not make that same mistake again.” It seems these two think the job of the attorney general is to back unions, no questions asked.