News & Brews August 9, 2024
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Dems aim to keep RFK, Jr. off Pa. ballot
Whelp, the party that aims to ‘save democracy’ (cough cough) is working to make sure voters don’t have the choice to vote for independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president. Spotlight PA reports that a Democrat-aligned group has filed a legal challenge to Kennedy’s candidacy (no doubt fearing he may draw votes away from Kamala Harris). You’ll recall back in 2020, Democrat successfully kicked the Green Party candidate off the ballot.
Did union dues illegally fund Shapiro’s campaign?
The Center Square reports that a recent complaint filed with the state attorney general’s office alleges that the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) illegally “funneled nearly $1.5 million in membership dues into Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2022 campaign” for governor. While union political action committees can donate directly to candidates, dues money is prohibited from being used for such donations. The complaint, filed by the Freedom Foundation, “says the teachers union took extra steps to conceal the donation by routing it through unauthorized political funds and the Democratic Governors Association, violating state and federal campaign finance law.” The complaint was also filed with the Pa. Department of State, the Dauphin County district attorney’s office, the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Philadelphia field office.
New bodycam footage released in Trump assassination attempt
New police bodycam footage was released yesterday in the ongoing probe into the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Trump. The videos show, among other things, the moment a Butler Township police officer first encountered the gunman just prior to the shooting. The raw footage is available here (some of it does not have audio). The Post-Gazette reports, “The footage, broken into 12 videos from different bodycams and dashboard cameras, adds to the growing evidence that communications broke down July 13 as law enforcement officers spotted and lost the suspicious-looking [Thomas Matthew] Crooks multiple times in the hour before Trump took the stage.”
Op-Ed: ‘Echoes of Casey in Shapiro’s shunning’
Matthew Schmitz, founder and editor of Compact magazine, writes in the Wall Street Journal that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s getting passed over for VP may have some similarities to Sen. Bob Casey Sr.’s exclusion from speaking at the Democrat National Convention in 1992. “When Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate,” Schmitz writes, “some worried she’d passed over Mr. Shapiro because he’s Jewish and Zionist, much as Casey was slighted for being Catholic and pro-life.” He continues, “Other factors doubtless played a role in her choice, but it would be a striking coincidence if two popular Pennsylvania governors came to represent the Democratic Party’s turn away from core constituencies.”
Fetterman says he didn’t oppose Shapiro for veep
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has denied reports that he opposed—or directed his staff to oppose—the possible selection of Gov. Josh Shapiro as VP Kamala Harris’ running mate. The Post-Gazette reports, “In an interview with MSNBC, the Pennsylvania Democrat and longtime rival of Mr. Shapiro’s characterized as false an Aug. 3 Politico report that he was concerned about the governor being too focused on his own political ambition. The senator denied that he ordered his aides to warn the Harris campaign about his concerns. ‘No, I never directed anyone on my team or anyone to do that,’ he said. ‘So that’s just not true.’”