Meehan takes to the op-ed pages

Former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan seems a tad op-ed-happy today.

The Republican candidate in the 7th District has not one, but two pieces running in area newspapers.

He’s in The Philadelphia Daily News arguing against civilian trials for suspected terrorists.

And he’s in the local Delaware County Daily Times calling for a payroll tax holiday and tax write-offs for new businesses.

Who said old media was dead?

February 8, 2010 at 12:47 pm | Comments (0)

Less than $500 for Touey

State Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) finished 2009 with more than 140 times the campaign cash enjoyed by both of his primary opponents combined.

Newly-filed campaign finance data shows that political consultant E. Teresa Touey raised about $6,000 for her 7th District congressional race. But she spent almost all of it, and had only $437 on hand at the end of the year. Environmental lawyer Gail Conner, meanwhile, finished the year with full story

February 2, 2010 at 1:09 pm | Comments (17)

Home run: Philliez prez donates to Meehan

The man who likes baseball also like former Pat Meehan.

Philadelphia Phillies president David Montgomery contributed $500 to the former U.S. Attorney’s GOP campaign in the 7th Congressional District. It was only a tiny drop in the $580,000-bucket that Meehan raised in the last three months of 2009. Nonetheless, Montgomery was one donor of at least two locals who could be called quasi-celebrities in the area. The other? Radio talk-show host and columnist Michael Smerconish,…

February 1, 2010 at 9:00 am | Comments (0)

From leaders to rank-and-file, Dems pitch in for Lentz

Whether it’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, freshman state Representative Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) or recently-defeated judicial candidate Nancy Rhoads Koons, Democrats from the top of the party hierarchy to the bottom are giving money to Bryan Lentz.

Lentz, the second-term state Representative from Delaware County, is running to replace Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7), in a conservative-leaning district that will be tough for the party to hold. But even with Lentz likely to be outspent by presumptive…

February 1, 2010 at 8:30 am | Comments (2)

Pols oppose having 9/11 trial in Pa.

Republicans and Democrats alike are coming out against a reported proposal to try the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the Keystone State.

With reports surfacing that the Obama administration might seek to relocated the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from lower Manhattan to western Pennsylvania, GOP candidates are speaking up in outright opposition to the idea, and Democrats are more than lukewarm to the idea, too.

“Holding Khalid…

January 30, 2010 at 4:52 pm | Comments (0)

DelCo leader endorses Lentz

A top official in the Delaware County Democratic Party endorsed state Representative Bryan Lentz for Congress Wednesday, effectively giving Lentz the vast majority of the local party organization’s support.

The backing of the party’s first vice-chair, Tony Campisi, was also the surest indication yet that state Representative Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) is not going to run in the 7th District primary. Vitali has yet to publicly make a decision, but Campisi, who is gunning for the…

January 27, 2010 at 5:44 pm | Comments (4)

Dem leader says Sestak should pull a Gerlach

A funny thing happened on the way to interpreting results of the new Rasmussen poll that has Democratic Senator Arlen Specter trailing Republican Pat Toomey,  49-40 percent: Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman T.J. Rooney made case for Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) to drop out of the Democratic primary against Specter.

Rooney talked what a “good Democrat” is and said it would be “travesty to lose [Sestak] in Congress. This doesn’t seem to be the…

January 21, 2010 at 3:40 pm | Comments (13)

The last refuge of a news anchor

Last Fall I wrote a jocular post concerning, among others, Dawn Stensland, in which I suggested that her tabloid history might not be the best preparation for a run against Pat Meehan in 7th Congressional District. Stensland’s shadow campaign has predictably gone nowhere, and her husband Larry Mendte has now chimed in with a blog post—picked up by The Inquirer, no less—in which he suggests…

January 19, 2010 at 4:07 pm | Comments (6)

The not-so-secret is out: Dems don’t see a primary in PA-7

There are three Democrats running for the party’s nomination in the 7th Congressional District, and one who’s still considering a run, but Thursday quietly brought confirmation of what we had long assumed: Democrats already see state Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) as their candidate.

A Politico report brings us a list of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s top-priority races. In Pennsylvania, the 6th, the 7th and the 15th are all among the party’s…

January 14, 2010 at 11:30 pm | Comments (5)

Meehan says ‘political gamesmanship’ beneath him (Updated)

Former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan’s campaign signaled late Thursday that it wasn’t necessary for him to offer up an opinion on a controversial dual officeholder within the 7th District he’s seeking to represent, declining again to directly answer his Democratic opponent’s call to do so.

“As a candidate for federal office Pat Meehan is not going to take part in the partisan opportunism being engaged in by the Republican and Democrat[ic] parties,” Meehan…

January 14, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Comments (18)