News & Brews October 22, 2024
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Cook moves Casey/McCormick race to toss-up
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has moved Pa.’s U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick from “lean Democrat” to “toss-up.” Per Cook’s Jessica Taylor, “While public polling in the Keystone State still shows Democratic Sen. Bob Casey with a slight lead, both Republican and Democratic internal polls show this is now a margin-of-error race, with Casey holding a slim, statistically insignificant lead of between one and two points. Though many of the fundamentals may still very slightly favor Casey, this race is now close enough that it belongs more in the Toss Up column than in Lean Democrat….”
Dems’ voter edge drops below 300K in Pa.
Registered Democrats in Pennsylvania now outnumber registered Republicans by less than 300,000, a stunning decline from just 10 years ago when the gap was more than 1 million. CNHI news reports, ”Republicans more than doubled Democrats in registering new voters last week.” And the new Dem advantage is now just 297,824. Yesterday was the last day to register to vote before the election, and the Pa. Department of State will reportedly issue its final pre-election voter registration numbers on Monday.
Harris campaign’s fracking comment raises concern
Well, oops? In apparently trying to clarify things, the Harris campaign’s new climate engagement director recently told POLITICO regarding Harris’ fracking flip-flop, “Just to be clear, Vice President Harris hasn’t said anything that the administration hasn’t already said. She is not promoting expansion [of fossil fuel drilling]. She’s just said that they wouldn’t ban fracking.” This led a CNN reporter to post, “Harris campaign aide seems to be walking back her support for fracking on campaign trail….” The Delaware Valley Journal reports that after the campaign statement “caught the attention of the Trump campaign and the press,” the campaign staffer “posted an updated statement on social media declaring Harris ‘doesn’t support banning fracking.’” Why are we not convinced?
Pa. Revenue Secretary must testify or risk jail
Yesterday, the state’s high court rejected an appeal from Pa. Revenue Secretary Pat Browne to help him avoid testifying before the state Senate on his refusal to provide certain tax records regarding the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone. This means Browne must appear before the Senate today, or risk being sent to jail. Following yesterday’s court ruling, the Senate voted on party lines in favor of a resolution establishing rules to guide how the questioning process will go. Of course, now the question is, Will Browne show up?
‘J.D. Vance & the fight for Pa. Catholic voters’
The New York Times looks at how Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance—”the only Catholic on either national ticket” is appealing to Catholic voters in the commonwealth. “With Election Day closing in,” the Times notes, “white Catholic voters could prove important to the G.O.P. in Pennsylvania, a swing state often won by razor-thin margins. White Catholics tend to be reliably Republican, but in 2020, Mr. Biden, a Catholic born in Pennsylvania, capitalized on his cultural affinity with them, at least enough to narrow the partisan gap, and won the state.” For the Times, the story is surprisingly (mostly) even-handed.