News & Brews August 2, 2024

Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!

Poll: Shapiro largely unknown across the nation 

In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise, polling from the AP-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research found that Gov. Josh Shapiro “is broadly unknown to Americans and Democrats, except in the Northeast.” The poll asked about the various possible VP contenders, and it “found that 6 in 10 U.S. adults — including 57% of Democrats — don’t know enough to have an opinion about Shapiro.” The picture wasn’t much different among several other contenders.

WSJ Op-Ed: Antisemitism targets Josh Shapiro 

It’s no secret that we at Commonwealth Partners are not fans of the vast majority of Gov. Shapiro’s policies. But we stand with him in unequivocally denouncing Hamas terrorists and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. Daniel Rosen, the president of the American Jewish Congress, writes in the Wall Street Journal that even though multiple Democrats being considered for VP also support Israel, Shapiro is the “only one being singled out” and criticized by the far Left for this support, with many Democrats urging Harris NOT to select Shapiro. “Mr. Shapiro isn’t being opposed merely for his political positions, statements or belief,” Rosen writes, “he is being vilified and maligned because he is Jewish. This ugly campaign against him risks showcasing what kind of country we have become and where we are heading.”

RFK, Jr. says he’ll be on Pa. ballot (Dems may want otherwise)

The Delaware Valley Journal reports that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign “announced it’s turning in nearly three times the number of signatures required to appear on the Keystone State ballot.” (The number required is 5,000. RFK Jr. has turned in 13,000). Democrats are trying to boot RFK, Jr. from the ballot in other states, fearful he could siphon votes from their candidate. Isn’t it ironic how the party that wants to “save democracy” not only pushed their own candidate out on fear that he couldn’t win and is working to replace him with a candidate that voters didn’t chose but also wants to kick another candidate off the ballot whom voters petitioned to get ON the ballot? RFK, Jr. isn’t the only 3rd party presidential candidate to file to run in Pa. PennLive reports that Jill Stein (Green Party) and Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation) also filed, as did the Libertarian Party, which plans to run Chase Oliver.

What’s in the 2024-25 Pa. state budget? Watch replay

Yesterday, Pa. House Republican Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Seth Grove (York County) held a public media briefing diving into the details of the Fiscal year 2024-25 state budget. If you like charts and numbers—or if you simply want to know where your tax dollars are going—you can watch the replay here.

Guess what? Mail-in ballots are still in Pa. courts

Who needs a 24-hour Law & Order marathon when you can have years of seemingly endless court cases over Pa.’s mail-in ballots? In the latest in another “I’ve-lost-count-of-how-many-cases-there-are” mail-in ballot case, the Commonwealth Court yesterday heard oral arguments in a case arguing that misdated or undated return envelopes on mail-in ballots should not disqualify those ballots. But there’s this thing called ‘the law’ that requires dates, although the plaintiffs—supported by Gov. Shapiro’s Secretary of State Al Schmidt—apparently don’t seem dissuaded by this.

Sign up to get News & Brews in your inbox