Free Republic

HARRISBURG -- In March, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel did Gov. Ed Rendell a big favor by dropping out of the Democratic race for lieutenant governor, a move that helped incumbent Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll win the May primary. Now, Mr. Rendell has done something nice for Mr. Hoeffel, naming him to a vacant, high-ranking job at the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Mr. Hoeffel started work yesterday as deputy secretary for international business development at a salary of $104,431 a year. Was there a connection between Mr. Hoeffel's new job and his dropping the challenge to...

This may be a repost but an important one.Alexandria, VA) – Even though President Bush took the oath of office last week, taxpayers still have one piece of unfinished business from the election: some federal lawmakers – including many seeking higher office – received thousands of dollars in salary overpayments for being away from their jobs during 2003 and 2004. According to a study released today by the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), an obscure federal statute still on the books requires Congressional absentees to forfeit their pay unless they or a family member are ill; but leaders have failed...

By now we had hoped to be rid of Sen. Arlen Specter. Unfortunately, Pat Toomey, the brave and conservative Lehigh Valley congressman we endorsed in the May primary, could not surgically remove our state's four-term cancer from the U.S. Senate. We have the next-best thing to Mr. Toomey, however, in Constitution Party candidate Jim Clymer, a Lancaster lawyer who is as close to the kind of principled, small-government conservative Republican we can hope for in 2004. Thus, we wholeheartedly endorse Jim Clymer for U.S. Senate.

 President, PA 10/18/2004   Kerry (D) 51%   Bush (R) 45%   Other/Undecided 4%   Data Collected 10/15/04 - 10/17/04   Geography State of Pennsylvania   Sample Population 619 Likely Voters   Margin of Error 4.0%   Client WCAU-TV Philadelphia    WNEP-TV Wilkes-Barre    KDKA-TV Pittsburgh   U.S. Senate, PA 10/18/2004   Specter(R) 48%   Hoeffel (D) 41%   Clymer (C) 6%   Other/Undecided 5%   Data Collected 10/15/04 - 10/17/04   Geography State of Pennsylvania   Sample Population 608 Likely Voters   Margin of Error 4.1%   Client WCAU-TV Philadelphia    WNEP-TV Wilkes-Barre    KDKA-TV Pittsburgh 

Five weeks before the election, CBS decided to give legitimacy to Internet rumors by devoting a "What Does It Mean to You?" segment to "fears" of a supposedly Bush-supporting mother that President Bush will impose a military draft. Dan Rather intoned: "A mother worries her son will be drafted. Does she have good reason?" Richard Schlesinger focused his piece around how the mother "is petrified about a military draft, and she's not alone. Mass e-mails are circulating among worried parents." Schlesinger pointed out how both Bush and Kerry deny that they'd institute a draft, but the mother is "not buying...

Sarah Brady Endorses Joe Hoeffel 8/12/2004 Press Release Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence United with the Million Mom March 1225 Eye Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 www.bradycampaign.org Contact: Peter Hamm Phone: 202-289-5792 "It's Time for Senator Specter's 19th Century Gun Policies to be Retired" Philadelphia, PA - Admired gun violence prevention advocate Sarah Brady today endorsed Congressman Joe Hoeffel in his race for the U.S. Senate. Mrs. Brady also sent a strong message to Senator Arlen Specter that his opposition to the assault weapons ban will put law enforcement officers at risk if the ban expires September 13. Standing...

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - When Jim Clymer announced on Monday that he was going to be on the ballot for U.S. Senate this Nov. 2, a lot of Republicans groaned. They worry that Clymer, who ran a strong but unsuccessful campaign for Lancaster County commissioner in 2003, will doom Republican Sen. Arlen Specter’s chance to win re-election. A conservative, third-party candidate such as Clymer, of the Constitution Party, will siphon votes from Specter and benefit Democrat Joe Hoeffel, they believe. And a Hoeffel victory could tip the Senate’s balance of power in favor of the Democrats. The Democrats think so...

Poll: Problems for Incumbents in PA? Aug 3, 2004 6:32 pm US/Eastern Though the election is still three months away, two new political polls here in Pennsylvania are sure to generate some national attention. The latest numbers from the exclusive KDKA-TV/Survey USA News Poll of 721 likely voters suggests some problems for two prominent incumbents: US Senator Arlen Specter and President George W. Bush. At the Bush-Cheney rally in Pittsburgh last weekend, Senator Rick Santorum got a standing ovation; but that wasn't the case for Specter. GOP supporters actually booed the senior senator, which may explain why Specter -- who...

Events here bank on Hillary Clinton Her visit raised $1.1 million for N.J. Democrats and more than $300,000 for Joseph Hoeffel's campaign against Arlen Specter. By Tom Turcol and Carrie Budoff Inquirer Staff Writer U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of the Democratic Party's star attractions, raised more than $1.4 million at events in New Jersey and Philadelphia yesterday and sharpened her party's attack on the Bush administration. Clinton generated an estimated $1.1 million at a breakfast reception in Collingswood aimed at boosting the campaign coffers of Camden County Democrats, who sponsored the event, and the party's state Assembly political...

* Specter leads by 25 points today, 58% to 33%. Hoeffel holds just 54% of Democrat base; 37% of Dems cross-over & vote Spector. By Contrast, Spectors keeps 83% of GOP base. * Independents & Moderates break 5:4 for Spector. Specter leads in SE PA by 13 points.

Patrick Toomey's defeat of Arlen Specter in the GOP senatorial primary in Pennsylvania was a watershed for conservatives. Despite remarkably energetic support for the liberal Specter from President Bush and the conservative Sen. Rick Santorum, Toomey thrust his message for fiscal and cultural conservatism into the maw of the Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party and it choked. There, I got that off my chest.

Senator Arlen Spector (R, PA) might have a tough time beating Democratic candidate Joseph M Hoeffel. Spector, a liberal Republican, barely managed to survive a strong primary challenge from Pat Toomey. Spector defeated Pat Toomey 51% to 49%, a narrow margin of 15,000 votes. Most analysts believe that the support of President Bush and fellow Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum provided Spector with his margin of victory. Many Republicans are concerned that Spector’s razor-thin victory leaves him vulnerable to Hoeffel. During the often bitter campaign, Toomey hammered Spector for his views on abortion and his frequent disagreements with the Republican majority...

http://www.hoeffelforsenate.com/choiceflash.cfm Voting for Joe Hoeffel is not standing up for your conservative principles, it's advancing liberalism.

[Action!] Congressional Candidates for Terrorism. Congressional candidates are advertising on a website that has expressed support for the murder of Americans! Many of you already know that the Daily Kos, a liberal blogger named Markos Zuniga who has around 100,000 daily readers, recently endorsed the murder of American contractors in Iraq. In response to the murder of four Americans and the mutilation of their bodies by terrorists in Fallujah, Iraq, Markos Zuniga refused to condemn the action, then later expressed support for their murders. In case you haven't seen it, here is Markos' original post: Every death should be on...

Will Specter Chair Judiciary? by Timothy P. Carney Posted Aug 18, 2003 Liberal Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) is in line to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005. This means the confirmation of the next Supreme Court justice could be presided over by a pro-choice senator who holds that Roe v. Wade was correctly decided and who helped sink the Supreme Court nomination of conservative judge Robert Bork. If voters do not oust Specter in next year’s primary or general election, the Judiciary gavel—and control over confirmations to the federal courts—will fall into Specter’s hands unless a few powerful GOP...

WESTNevada. Rep. Jim Gibbons, possibly Republicans’ best hope for defeating Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in 2004, is due to arrive in Iraq today as part of a fact-finding mission. Gibbons, who is traveling to Iraq with other members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence -- Chairman Porter Goss (Fla.) and Democrats Jane Harman (Calif.) and Bud Cramer (Ala.) -- is in his fourth term. He won reelection in 2002 with 74 percent of the vote. Nevada Republicans say Gibbons would make a good Senate candidate because he has high name recognition and his district encompasses most of the state....

WASHINGTON - Democratic Rep. Joseph Hoeffel said Tuesday he will seek the Senate seat held by four-term Republican incumbent Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who must first get past a GOP challenger before seeking another term in November 2004. "I believe passionately that Washington can be a powerful and positive force to improve the quality of life for the people of Pennsylvania," the three-term congressman from the Philadelphia area said in a statement. Hoeffel planned to file his official statement of candidacy later in the day. Although Hoeffel's announcement had been expected for weeks, Democrats in Washington and Harrisburg, Pa., had...

An environmental activist stepped out of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race yesterday and pledged support for U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, the Montgomery County Democrat who has yet to officially declare his candidacy. John Hanger, a former state public utilities commissioner who heads the Harrisburg environmental group PennFuture, endorsed Hoeffel as he announced plans to drop his exploratory campaign. Hanger called Hoeffel a candidate who could beat Sen. Arlen Specter or U.S. Rep. Patrick Toomey, who will face each other in next year's Republican primary. Frank Custer, a Hoeffel spokesman, said the congressman will declare his candidacy shortly.

<p>U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, a Montgomery County Democrat, has all but officially announced that he is a candidate for the U.S. Senate, setting the stage for a possible campaign against Republican incumbent Arlen Specter in November 2004.</p> <p>The three-term congressman will make his intentions known "within the next few weeks," a spokesman said.</p>

Summers of non-election years rarely mark the height of campaign combat: Fundraising tapers off after the mad rush of June, the legislative calendar dominates July and many members of Congress head for vacation in August. But for a small group of nervous representatives who narrowly won their seats last year, this summer will be as frenetic and full of politicking as ever. These members -- between 20 and 30 freshmen and a smattering of veterans from both parties -- will spend the next three months at backyard fundraisers, town-hall meetings, church outings and meet-and-greets with veterans, teachers and business leaders....