News & Brews December 16, 2024
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All eyes on Pennsylvania … for 2026?
We knew all eyes were on Pa. in the 2024 elections, but the Post-Gazette reports that our commonwealth “already finds itself at the center of the political attention for 2026.” According to the Democrats’ House Majority PAC, Pa. will see more competitive U.S. House races in 2026 than any other state save California. The PAC has identified three competitive congressional seats here (which is the same number they’ve identified in Arizona and Michigan, respectively). Not surprisingly, though, those three seats are the same three that were competitive this year. In two of them, Republicans flipped the seats from blue to red, and in the third, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry narrowly fended off a challenge from Democrat Janelle Stelson. Underscoring Pa.’s importance, the story points out, “Had the Democrats prevailed in all three races last month, they’d be the ones electing a House speaker in January.”
McCormick backs state Sen. for Pa. GOP chair
State Senator Greg Rothman (Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry counties) has entered the race to be the next chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, and he has the backing of U.S. Senator-elect Dave McCormick. In a statement, McCormick thanked current chair Lawrence Tabas (who is not running for re-election) “for his years of leadership and dedication” and went on to say, “I believe State Senator Greg Rothman would be an outstanding chair to lead us forward.” Bucks County resident Ted Christian has also entered the race.
Shapiro: Biden was ‘absolutely wrong’ on commuting sentence of Kids for Cash judge
After President Biden last week commuted the sentence of former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted as part of the infamous Kids for Cash scandal, Gov. Shapiro said that Biden “got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain … in northeastern Pennsylvania.” Further, Shapiro said he believes the original sentence issued to Conahan for sending juveniles to detention center in exchange for cash was too light.
2025 to be ‘year of reckoning’ for Philly office market
The Inquirer reports that nearly five years after COVID shutdowns, the Philly “region’s office landscape is smaller than it was and may shrink further amid a tide of expiring leases in 2025.” And now, “aging structures like Centre Square face staggering levels of vacancy, and their owners are awash in bad debt.” That said, one analytics firm “projects that 2024 will be the first year since 2018 that the Philadelphia region or Center City’s West Market Street corridor has seen more space leased than vacated.”
Penn State union complains university is focused on ‘bottom line’
A local Teamsters union, which reportedly represents more than 2,400 Penn State employees, has “filed a grievance with university trustees and to Governor Josh Shapiro’s office,” disputing the university’s decision to contract with a private company to run a new housing development on campus. WVIA reports that the union head says that by leaving the union out of staffing the new development, the university is “treating us like third class citizens.” The story also reports that the union head “said this decision to outsource labor follows a trend of Penn State focusing on what he calls their ‘bottom line.’” Given how much taxpayer funding Penn State receives, it seems taxpayers would appreciate the university considering the ‘bottom line.’ Indeed, one wonders the amount of the cost differentiation.