News & Brews March 30, 2026
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Who’s getting primaried this year?
Spotlight PA gives its opinion of the primary election landscape this year for state House and Senate seats, complete with lists of contested primaries, primaries in seats that may be competitive in November, primaries in seats that may not be competitive, and handy dandy color-coded maps to top it all off. As is typically the case in recent elections, even though all 203 House seats and 25 Senate seats will be on the ballot, only a handful of them are truly competitive.
Dems take aim (again) at Fitzpatrick
The Inquirer reports that for the past decade, Democrats have tried—and failed—to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st congressional district in Bucks and a bit of Montgomery County. This year, they’re trying again and hoping that Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie is their ticket to success. But Harvie’s path to success is by no means clear. Fitzpatrick’s “hold on the purple district has been impenetrable thanks to his name recognition and massive fundraising war chest.” Sill, Harvie hopes his message of affordability will persuade voters. (And, of course, the national Left will pour its own money into this race to bolster that message.)
Pa. Game Commission investigating toxic work environment
After Broad + Liberty reported allegations of a toxic work environment in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s dispatch center, the commission “has launched an investigation and suspended one employee…. Seven former dispatchers for the PGC say they were subjected to a workplace where a supervisor made sexual comments about female employees, wished violence on game wardens, and used mandatory training sessions to humiliate staff.” B+L notes that “the PGC is a commission and not a department, therefore it operates somewhat out of the regular orbit of accountability of the General Assembly.”
‘Shapiro’s brand is high gloss and high cost’
Writing in RealClear Pennsylvania, GOP consultant Christopher Nicholas notes that Gov. Shapiro’s Office of Transformation and Opportunity has about a dozen staffers; the state Board of Pardons has about 14; and the state’s Open Records Office has 19. But Shapiro’s taxpayer-funded ‘Department of Self Promotion’ has 21. “Does Pennsylvania need a governor who requires 21 PR staffers to convince us he’s working?” Nicholas asks. “No. We need a governor who spends more time working for us and less time posing for selfies and cosplaying as an influencer. The Shapiro brand is high-gloss, high-cost, and increasingly hollow. When the PR staff outnumbers the policy experts in critical units, the transformation we were promised looks like nothing more than a fresh coat of paint on a crumbling foundation.”
In praise of philanthropy
An op-ed in PennLive offers that “Pennsylvania has long had a complicated relationship with wealth. We praise entrepreneurs for building businesses, creating jobs, and strengthening our communities. But once they become wealthy, the tone often shifts. Suddenly, they are cast as villains in political stories, as if every dollar they keep is a moral failure and every dollar the government spends is automatically justified.” But this “doesn’t align with Pennsylvania’s reality.” Indeed, “Our universities, hospitals, museums, libraries, and research centers didn’t just come into being through legislative goodwill and well-timed appropriations.” Instead, private giving “has funded the libraries, labs, and public-serving places we rely on most.”