News & Brews October 6, 2026
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Garrity in uphill battle against Shapiro
It’s no secret that this election season favors Democrats. But the Inquirer has a deep-dive story about Republican Stacy Garrity’s challenge to Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro, noting that with less than a month to go until Election Day, Garrity hopes for an influx of support.
The story notes that Garrity is “bringing with her some creative solutions to address perennial problems facing Pennsylvanians like property and gas taxes — as well as a desire to allow natural gas producers to drill on public lands…. She is loyal to Trump and proud to defend his war with Iran, but said she ‘hopes that it wraps up quickly.’ She has also distanced herself from a handful of his stances, including that she would have taken ‘a more targeted approach’ to his tariffs, and called for a pause on data center development and a ban on farmland construction.”
Of Shapiro, Garrity “believes he lacked transparency around multiple controversies during his administration, discouraged economic development by backing green energy, and recklessly spent more money than the state brings in.” Fact check: true.
Shapiro, Garrity to debate tomorrow
Gov. Shapiro and Stacy Garrity will meet in their only televised debate of the campaign, which will take place Wednesday from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Harrisburg. The debate, which will not have a live audience, will be moderated by Lisa Sylvester of WPXI and Dennis Owens of ABC27. I’ll be sure to include details on how to watch in tomorrow’s News & Brews.
State races ‘more significant’ than federal
An analysis from the Washington Post finds that Republicans could lose big at the state level this year. “Democrats are … making a strong push to win power in state legislatures across the country.” Indeed, “Democrats are on offense. They could break up full Republican control in as many as six states and win unified control in as many as seven of their own.” Pennsylvania is among these seven.
And as the WaPo explains, “The results in these state races could be more significant to many voters than the outcomes in federal contests, given legislatures’ ability to set policy affecting large aspects of life and business. Because Congress is often gridlocked and politics are increasingly polarized, states have become more aggressive in filling the resulting power vacuum. State legislatures determine policies on such issues as redistricting, abortion, voting, education and taxes. A party having unified control of state government by controlling the governorship, the state House and the state Senate … is critical for passing legislative priorities without the opposition party’s veto.”
The end of the Post-Gazette/union fight
Nearly four years after many Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers went on strike, the United States Supreme Court has ended the fight between the newspaper union and the paper’s former owner, Block Communications. Yesterday, SCOTUS refused to hear Block’s appeal of lower court rulings in the union’s favor. WESA reports, “The ruling means the Block family’s company is on the hook to pay current and former newspaper employees for a total that will likely add up to several million dollars, according to union officials.” Block sold the paper earlier this year, and the new owners “cut around half of the paper’s staff, declining to hire back the majority of reporters who had gone on strike for three years.”
Time running out to act on skill games
In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that skill games are, indeed, gambling and gave the legislature several months to come up with a plan surrounding them. Absent such a plan, “Beginning Oct. 14, police have said they will start seizing machines and criminally prosecuting owners who have them,” PennLive reports. Even knowing for months that the deadline was approaching, lawmakers haven’t come up with a solution. And now, they have until tomorrow to do so, as any legislation “would have to be passed by Wednesday, unless more session days are added to the legislative calendar.” We’re not holding our breath.
