The First Read — July 14, 2009

Every Monday-Thursday morning, pa2010.com compiles the most important political news of the day, from newspapers to the blogosphere and back. Enjoy this edition.

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Orie says she won’t run against Toomey
State Senator Jane Orie (R-Allegheny) said Monday that she would not run for U.S. Senate next year, removing yet another name from the list of possible GOP challengers to Pat Toomey and making it more likely that Toomey will emerge from the primary largely unscathed. Read More

Campaign finance preview: Sestak, Toomey over $1M, big House reports loom
Good morning political junkies. Here’s a friendly reminder that Wednesday is the day federal campaign finance reports are published online. As I wrote when pa2010.com first launched, campaign finance days are a great time for you to get involved in shaping the news yourself. There are literally dozens of reports filed with hundreds of lines of numbers to review. We can only do so much here, but you can help. The Web gives all of us access to these records, and together we can have many more eyes on the story. Read More

Sestak boasts $4.2M on hand; Toomey says he has $1.1M
In messages to supporters Monday, Senate candidates Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey each said they had raised more than one million dollars over the last reporting quarter. Read More

Onorato wins SE endorsements in race for governor
Reaching across the state, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato has won the endorsements of a pair of influential state senators from suburban Philadelphia in his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010. Read More

Rendell says he won’t accept cuts for kids in budget battle
HARRISBURG — After taking the weekend off, the battle over a new state budget resumed today, with Governor Ed Rendell claiming a budget plan passed by Senate Republicans is dead. Read More

Specter Urges Sotomayor to Allow TV Cameras in the Court
Senator Arlen Specter, formerly the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, used part of his time today during the confirmation hearing of Sonia Sotomayor to push for something her predecessor strongly opposed: allowing television cameras in the Supreme Court. Read More

Did Rick Santorum tip off John Ensign?
Doug Hampton, husband of Cindy Hampton, Senator John Ensign’s (R-Nev.) mistress, claims that former GOP Senator Rick Santorum may have tipped off his ex-colleague that the Hamptons were going public with the story over the adulterous relationship. Read More

Specter Finally Shows Up
Arlen Specter regularly groused about sparse attendance at Senate Judiciary Committee meetings when he was the chairman. But he was in no hurry to show up today, now that he’s been relegated to the second-most-junior slot among Democrats. (He outranks only Minnesota’s newly minted senator, Al Franken.) Read More

Rate hikes power Knox’s candidacy
With electricity prices scheduled to jump steeply as rate caps continue to expire in the next few years, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Knox is banking on a public outcry to help carry him to Harrisburg. Read More

An ethical question for leading Democrat
HARRISBURG – Taxpayers have spent more than $200,000 for the state’s top Senate Democrat, Robert J. Mellow, to rent an office in a building partly owned by his wife – and later himself – in a business she said was largely a mystery to her. Read More

Have a great day!

July 14, 2009 at 5:30 am

--pa2010.com Staff

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