News & Brews June 3, 2025
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Did Trump just endorse for Pa. governor?
No Republican candidate has officially announced his or her candidacy for Pennsylvania governor next year, but President Trump is already getting into the fray. The Inquirer reports that at his western Pa. rally last Friday, the president “quipped that he had heard a rumor [U.S. Congressman Dan] Meuser was considering a run. If he does, Trump said he will be behind him.” For his part, Meuser is “strongly considering” running and plans to decide this summer. Also “strongly considering” running is Pa. Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who holds the record as the top vote-getter for statewide office in Pa., beating Gov. Shapiro. Garrity said, “President Trump is the leader of our party, and I will support whichever candidate — myself or not — that he decides to endorse.”
Pa. House Dems push school funding cuts
Yesterday, the Pa. House Education Committee voted on party lines to cut funding for students who attend Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools. The legislation would benefit union-run, district operated schools by letting them keep money for students they don’t educate, at the expense of families who select alternative public school options. Democrats voting in favor of the bill are the same Democrats who believe children should stay trapped in terrible schools unless their parents are wealthy enough to either move or pay private school tuition.
About that Medicaid fraud…
You know how Democrats scream bloody murder at efforts to weed out waste and abuse in Medicaid? Maybe they should read this story. A Philadelphia journalist who has contributed to outlets including the Inquirer just pleaded guilty to his role in a $12 million Medicaid fraud scheme. Philly Mag reports that the journalist, Angelo Amorosi (who goes by A.D. Amorosi) was a co-conspirator in a scheme that “involved fraudulent claims to those government programs [Medicaid and Medicare] for pricey medications and prescriptions for those medications that were never actually filled, and cash kickbacks to customers for bringing their prescriptions to the pharmacy.”
Fetterman & McCormick meet in friendly ‘debate’
At a debate-type event yesterday hosted by The Senate Project, an initiative designed to encourage “bipartisan bridge-building,” U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick addressed topics ranging from this week’s antisemitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado to the ongoing budget debate in Washington, D.C.
Former Fetterman staffer launches think tank
Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman and aide to the late former Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada is forming a new think tank to try to help Democrats win again. POLITICO reports that the group’s goal is to “push the Democratic Party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions regardless of which wing of the party they come from.” But per one Democrat donor-advisor who listened to Jentleson’s pitch, his effort may be one too many. “They’re saying, ‘we need a moderate voice, because we’re losing everyone and we have to come back to the center and get away from woke, identity politics,’” the person said. “They want to become a research and communications hub for that, which is great, but we already have a bunch of entities who do that.”