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State Rep. Dawn Keefer, R-York County, and other Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers are seeking an audit of the election before the results are certified. On another day of record-smashing new COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania, at least 19 Republican representatives met at the state Capitol, where they ignored the Wolf Administration’s public health orders. They gathered Tuesday morning in close contact, most without masks, in defiance of the rules posted in the building. The group of Republicans was holding a press conference to talk about plans for a legislative-led audit of Pennsylvania’s election results. The effort comes days after a President Donald...

STROUDSBURG — "A funny thing happened on the way to the Republican primary," cracked Pat Toomey at the Monroe County Republican Committee's spring dinner Friday. The crowd, which filled Ridgecrest at Stroudsmoor County Inn in Stroudsburg, broke into laughter. They knew he was referring to Sen. Arlen Specter's sudden party switch. Toomey said Specter is having a tough week. First he lost committee seniority that took years to build, and Democrat Joe Sestak may get into the primary race and nip at Specter's newly Democratic heels. "I had every intention of whopping him," the former Lehigh Valley congressmen told the...

Arlen Specter switched parties for one and only one reason: to save his career. No principle was involved; there was no "the party left me" moment. It was pure, unadulterated political greed; he wanted his seat. Out of honor, Specter should have resigned, had Gov. Ed Rendell reappoint him, and then run in a special election in the fall as a Democrat. Instead, he abandoned his principles and went from a fiscal conservative and social moderate to a social liberal who voted for President Obama's trillion-dollar stimulus package. What he has left behind with his switch to the other team...

When I reported on the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference (PLC) in Harrisburg last month, one of the things that was most startling was the number of elected officials who were critical of Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Penn) and supportive of conservative primary challenger Pat Toomey. Numerous state representatives and senators from the Keystone State among the record crowd of 600-plus attendees freely volunteered to me that they would support the insurgent former Rep. Toomey over the 79-year-old Specter, who has held the Senate seat since 1980. It is easy to get conservative activists to condemn a moderate or liberal Republican incumbent in...

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) may have called for Pennsylvania Republicans to unite behind Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) last week, but GOP members of the Keystone State delegation are choosing to sit on the sidelines in what is expected to be a blockbuster primary in 2010. The state’s Republican House Members indicated in separate interviews that they are not ready to endorse Specter, who faces a challenge next year from former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in what is likely to be the toughest battle of his 30-year Senate career. Specter enjoyed the support of almost everyone in...

Likely Opponent In Primary Looks to Tap Anger on Right. BY PERRY BACON JR. PHILADELPHIA, April 13 -- Sen. Arlen Specter's support for President Obama's stimulus package has recharged a political rivalry, setting up what could be a divisive rematch between one of the GOP's leading moderates and a powerful conservative activist. Pat Toomey, head of the anti-tax Club for Growth, stepped down from the post Monday, the first move in what his aides say is an almost-certain run against Specter in next year's Republican Senate primary. In the 2004 primary, Specter defeated Toomey by 17,000 votes out of more...

HARRISBURG -- A new statewide poll shows 53 percent of Pennsylvanians -- and 66 percent of Republicans -- want someone to replace Sen. Arlen Specter. Asked whether they think Specter, a Philadelphia Republican, has done his job well enough to win re-election or whether they'd prefer a "new person" in that job, registered voters by a 53-38 percent margin said it's time to give someone else a chance, according to the poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research. Eight percent were undecided. The numbers might reflect Specter's vote as one of three Republican senators who enabled passage of President Obama's $787...

Pennsylvania Republican Committee Chairman Robert Gleason Jr. said in an interview today that the state party may not support Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican primary next year -- a day after his national counterpart suggested that GOP supporters of the economic stimulus bill could take a hit in upcoming elections. "Of course, anything is a possibility," Gleason told The Morning Call. "It is up to the committeemen and committeewomen [next February]. … But the headline should not read that the state party is not going to endorse him. He certainly could be endorsed."Gleason said that -- right now --...

Pennsylvania Republican Committee Chairman Robert Gleason Jr. said in an interview today that the state party may not support Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican primary next year -- a day after his national counterpart suggested that GOP supporters of the economic stimulus bill could take a hit in upcoming elections. "Of course, anything is a possibility," Gleason told The Morning Call. "It is up to the committeemen and committeewomen [next February]. … But the headline should not read that the state party is not going to endorse him. He certainly could be endorsed." Gleason said that -- right now...

ELLWOOD CITY — Since voting last week to approve the $787 billion stimulus package, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has caught a little heat from fellow Republicans for breaking ranks with his party. Passage of the stimulus package was regarded as the first major legislative victory for President Barack Obama and a defeat for Republican opponents, and some of them, Specter admits, were a little sore over it. But Specter said Thursday during a business forum at ESB Bank’s corporate office in Ellwood City that other Senate Republicans had a different view. “One of my colleagues said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud...

Violates Military Uniform Code by wearing uniform while campaigning, Wears officer's uniform that does not match rank at which he retired HARRISBURG - Republican State Committee Executive Director Scott Migli today questioned Joe Sestak, Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, for his repeated violations of federal law and U.S. Navy regulations as it relates to appropriate conduct for the wearing of military uniforms. Those violations include wearing his uniform while engaged in campaign activities and wearing a uniform that displays a rank above what the grade at which he retired from service. "Joe Sestak's improper use of the military...

In fundraising, Rendell piles it on as Swann plays catch-up By David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, June 16, 2006 Lynn Swann was fleet on the gridiron, but the former Steelers star is eating Gov. Ed Rendell's dust in the dash to raise campaign cash.

In the beginning, experts gave it a week. Two, tops. Now, a state Supreme Court justice finds himself out of a job, and other incumbents in Harrisburg are left sweating over their political futures because of what pundits are calling a "populist insurrection." The anti-pay-raise movement that many had dismissed early on as a passing thunderstorm is developing into a Category 5 hurricane that threatens to uproot incumbents across the state next year. "Rome is burning, and the empire is crumbling," said State Rep. Thomas C. Petrone (D., Allegheny), who took the raise but later donated it to charities, including...

As the controversy over a pay raise for Pennsylvania lawmakers continues, a public relations event at a Pittsburgh elementary school this week turned out worse than state House speaker John Perzel of Philadelphia could have pictured -- literally. At the school event, Speaker Perzel again tangled with reporters over the pay raise (see related story) -- prompting a blistering editorial in Friday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saying the speaker’s “arrogance was on full display.” But to make matters worse, says Prof. Terry Madonna, political analyst and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College, a photograph (above right) published by another Pittsburgh newspaper, the...

About 1,500 protesters stood in a steady rain on the steps of the state Capitol this afternoon to demand that the legislators huddled inside repeal the 16 to 34 percent pay raise they approved for themselves in July. "We are revolting against the opulent lifestyle these people have given themselves with our money,'' Harrisburg radio talk show host Bob Durgin thundered. "Do you want to repeal the raise? Do you want to get rid of legislators' car leases? Are you angry?" he asked the crowd, which boomed back "YES!" to each question. Other speakers took to the microphone and got...

Melissa Hart jumped into her first campaign with plenty of heart.Hart, a three-term congresswoman from Bradford Woods in Allegheny County, has always enjoyed her strongest advantage by being herself, according to those who know her best. With a frank, friendly demeanor and low-key personal charm, she conveys a down-to-earth quality that's politically captivating, they say. Starting out, she wasn't going after the moon.

<p>Lawyer Mark Patrick Flaherty easily defeated County Council President James Simms and four other candidates for Allegheny County controller yesterday as the Democratic Party organization voted on its choices for support in the looming primary campaign.</p> <p>While the victory margin for Flaherty, the son of a former county commissioner and appellate court judge, was decisive, that contest produced the sharpest note of controversy in daylong balloting that determined the party's slate for countywide offices, judgeships and seats on Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Council.</p>