News & Brews September 17, 2024
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Dueling presidential polls in Pa.
Underscoring that the presidential race in Pa. remains neck-and-neck, two recent polls produced different results. A USA Today/Suffolk University Poll of 500 likely voters in Pa. found Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump 49% to 46% (within the poll’s margin of error). Separately, an InsiderAdvantage poll of 800 likely voters found Trump leading Harris 50%-48% (also within the margin of error). The USA Today/Suffolk poll named 3rd party candidates, while the InsiderAdvantage poll did not. See more recent polls here.
Pa. court ruling clears way for mail-in ballots
Nothing like certainty in election processes (but wait, Pa. wouldn’t know about that, would we?). A final Pa. Supreme Court ruling yesterday closed enough of the open questions to allow counties to begin printing mail-in ballots. The court upheld a lower court’s ruling rejecting independent candidate Cornel West’s attempts to get on the Pa. ballot. The AP reports, “Counties, which typically send out mail-in ballots weeks before the election to voters who request them, have been waiting for the court to rule on the final ballot-access cases. Now that it has, county election officials say they will need time to test, print and mail the ballots. That process could drag into October, depending on the county.”
Two special state House elections happening today
Voters in two state House districts in Philly will vote today in special elections to fill two seats left vacant by the resignations of two Democrat House members (former Reps. Donna Bullock and Stephen Kinsey). But the elections aren’t drawing much attention as the two candidates—both Democrats—are running unopposed in the heavily Democrat districts. Not only are they unopposed on the special election ballot, but they’re also unopposed on the Nov. 5 ballot, when they’ll be seeking full, two-year terms.
Johnny Doc’s nephew pleads guilty
The Inquirer reports that former Philly labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s nephew, Greg Fiocca, “pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge Monday, cementing a deal to resolve a case that had threatened to send both him and his uncle to prison for extortion.” Prosecutors had indicated that they were prepared to take Fiocca back to trial, after a previous trial ended in a mistrial earlier this year. “The charge to which Fiocca pleaded guilty cuts the maximum prison time he was facing by decades.” Meanwhile, next week, Dougherty is scheduled to begin serving a six-year sentence following trials and convictions on other charges, and yesterday he “filed formal notice … of his intent to appeal.”
House committee hearing today on fracking
The Pa. House Republican Policy Committee will hold a hearing this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. on “the impact of policies that threaten to eliminate thousands of jobs, leave families without sustainable incomes and push our energy grid to the brink of failure.” The hearing, titled Opportunity Lost: Bureaucracy’s Battle Against Fracking “will spotlight bureaucratic hurdles Pennsylvania companies face and the urgent need to defend our energy independence and protect the livelihoods of hard-working Pennsylvanians.” Watch the livestream today at 2:00 p.m. here.