News & Brews July 30, 2024
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Shapiro’s Vereb cover-up and the veepstakes
The Inquirer considers how the sexual harassment scandal involving Gov. Shapiro’s former top aide, Mike Vereb, might impact the veepstakes (spoiler alert: the Inky doesn’t really answer this question). You’ll recall that Shapiro kept Vereb on staff for months after he was credibly accused of sexual harassment, and even after Vereb finally resigned, Shapiro stayed silent on the issue for more than a week. When he finally gave a comment, it was pretty much a non-comment, and Pennsylvanians still don’t know the extent of the cover-up. Will it matter as Shapiro is on the short-list for VP? Eh, TBD. But I’m sure Shapiro isn’t thrilled to have the scandal back in the news.
Rep. Mike Kelly to lead task force probing assassination attempt
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, whose district includes Butler and who was at the July 13 rally, will lead the House task force investigating the assassination attempt against former President Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced yesterday that 13 members had been appointed to the task force, which will issue its final report by Dec. 13. Two additional reps from Pa. on the task force are Democrats Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan.
3 Pa. candidates make GOP ‘Young Guns’ program
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has named three Republican congressional candidates in Pa. to its “Young Guns” program, which, as The Hill explains, “highlights nonincumbent candidates and challengers in competitive districts.” These candidates “receive extra mentorship and assistance from the House GOP campaign arm, and are required to meet certain goals and benchmarks through the election cycle, according to the NRCC.” In Pa., the three are Rob Mercuri, who is challenging Democrat Rep. Chris Deluzio in PA-17 (Allegheny), Rob Bresnahan, who is challenging Rep. Matt Cartwright in PA-8 (northeast Pa), and state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who is challenging Rep. Susan Wild in PA-7 (Lehigh).
Shapiro’s trail of broken promises
Politicians’ breaking promises is nothing new. But when a politician breaks his own promises despite their having bipartisan support—as Gov. Josh Shapiro has done—well, that’s a level all its own. Our president and CEO, Matt Brouillette, maps out Shapiro’s trail of broken promises and how “it’s kids trapped in awful schools, families struggling to pay bills, and workers hoping to find jobs who bear the consequences.”
Pa.’s alarming energy future
Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow Gordon Tomb writes in Broad + Liberty, “The Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM), the grid manager for the commonwealth plus twelve other states and the District of Columbia, is worried about our future energy needs. As existing power plants come offline and lawmakers seek to replace them with woefully inadequate alternatives, PJM estimates electricity shortages as early as 2027.” Exacerbating this, Gov. Shapiro’s “energy proposals would decrease the amount of dependable power, risking reliability for Pennsylvanians and neighboring states that depend on Pennsylvania generators.”