News & Brews September 9, 2024
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Latest polls show statistical tie in Pa.
Two polls of likely voters released yesterday show Former President Trump and Vice President Harris virtually tied in Pa. A New York Times/Siena College poll has Trump leading 48%-47% (well within the margin of error), while a CBS News/You Gov poll has the race tied at 50%. And the money shows just how important Pa. is. The Post-Gazette reports that per ad-tracking firm AdImpact, “the campaigns and their supporters are closing in on $400 million in ad spending in Pennsylvania.”
Pa. is ‘toughest battleground’ for Harris v. Trump
NBC News reports that Pennsylvania, which could very well be the deciding state in this year’s presidential contest, is “setting up to be the trickiest battleground for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.” Indeed, polling “shows a tighter contest now than at this time in 2016 between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, or in 2020 between Trump and Joe Biden. Trump significantly outperformed polling averages both cycles….” NBC spoke with more than 20 “operatives, candidates, officials and party insiders” on both sides of the aisle “to gain a sense of how the fight for Pennsylvania is materializing as the post-Labor Day sprint begins.”
‘We have already passed peak public school’
Reason reports that although “the U.S. population continues to grow, the number of kids attending public K-12 schools will likely never again reach its 2019 peak.” And along with declining birth rates, “The rise of homeschooling—from around 2.8 percent of the school-aged population pre-pandemic to around 5.8 percent now (reliable statistics are hard to come by)—is a chief contributor to that decline.” And, “Between fall of 2019 and fall of 2030, the National Center for Public Education Statistics (NCES) projected this past February, public school enrollment will decrease by 7 percent, from 50.8 million to 47.3 million.” Of course, if you think spending on public schools will follow the same downward trend, in the words of Reason, “Ha ha, no.”
A look at the Pa. Auditor General race
Spotlight PA breaks down the race for Pa. Auditor General—who’s running, what the auditor general does, and more. In addition to the two major party candidates—incumbent Auditor General Tim DeFoor, whom we are supporting, and Democrat challenger Malcolm Kenyatta—the piece includes brief mentions of three third-party candidates.
Candidates in key Pa. congressional race debate
Pa.’s 7th congressional district in the Lehigh Valley, currently represented by Democrat U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, is considered one of only two dozen toss-up congressional races in the country. Recently, Wild and Republican challenger state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie squared off in a debate that the Lehigh Valley News described as “a testy affair that saw the candidates clash over Social Security, the economy and military intervention abroad.” The debate is scheduled to air in two segments, the first on Sept. 16 and the second on Sept. 23.