Tag: Pennsylvania

GOP Secretaries of State, Legislators Fight Against ‘Bidenbucks,’ Federalization of GOTV Efforts

Just the News
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner with Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (composite image)

Republican secretaries of state and state legislators are pushing back against “Bidenbucks,” what call the federalization of voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, claiming that the executive order is unlawful.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner and Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, along with Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, are fighting President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 from March 2021, which turns federal agencies into “Get Out The Vote” (GOTV) centers across all states.

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New Poll Shows Trump Getting Bump in Five Crucial Battleground States

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Donald Trump at a rally event

Former President Donald Trump received polling bumps against President Joe Biden in the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in a survey released Wednesday.

Trump’s advantage grew in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina since March, while he is now leading in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the latest Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll. The former president’s lead in Georgia remained the same, and his margin across all seven battleground states including Michigan also grew to six points in a head-to-head matchup with Biden.

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Black Men’s Support for Trump Doubles in Swing States: Poll

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MAGA Hat

Former President Donald Trump’s support among black men has increased in battleground states ahead of the 2024 election by more than double his support among the same group in 2020’s election, according to a poll published on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has long sought to gain support among black voters, traditionally a Democratic-supporting demographic, by touting his record on the economy and criminal justice reform while in office, among other matters. A recent poll estimated that 30 percent of black men in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “definitely or probably” plan to vote for Trump in November’s election, an increase of 18 percent from his nationwide performance among that demographic in 2020, where he earned 12 percent of their votes, the Journal reported.

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Democrats, Liberals Criticize ‘Election Deniers’ but Face Allegations of Election Irregularities

Just the News
Al Gore and Hillary Clinton (composite image)

While Democrats and liberals criticize Republicans, conservatives, and others who are concerned about election integrity, smearing them with the pejorative label “election deniers,” many allegations regarding election irregularities are now being made against Democrats.

Since the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have raised concerns about election irregularities and are often called “election deniers” by Democrats and the media. However, many Democrats have been accused or found guilty of election crimes, sometimes by members of their own party.

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Trump Leads Biden in Six of Seven Critical Swing States: WSJ Poll

Just the News
Donald Trump and Joe Biden in front of The White House (composite image)

Former President Donald Trump has staked out a significant lead against President Joe Biden in several of the most pivotal states that could decide the 2020 election, a recent survey has revealed.

The Wall Street Journal survey questioned voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and found Trump leading his likely opponent in all of them except Wisconsin, where the pair tied.

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Republicans Take on Ballot Harvesting, Drop Boxes but Legally Using them in 2024 Election Cycle

Just the News
Ballot drop box

As Alabama has banned ballot harvesting and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are fighting ballot drop boxes, GOP campaign efforts are using those same tools where legal.

Democrats have long focused on mail-in and early voting while Republicans have warned of potential insecurities of those methods. Now the GOP is starting to embrace it this election cycle. However, the acceptance of mail-in voting as a tool isn’t preventing Republicans from looking to secure or ban certain aspects of it, such as ballot harvesting and ballot drop boxes.

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New Poll Shows Trump Leads Biden in 5 of 6 Battleground States with RFK Jr. on the Ballot

M.D. Kittle

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s declaration of independence from the Democratic Party is bad news for President Joe Biden’s prospects for a second term, according to a new poll by United Kingdom-based pollster Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

The poll of swing state voters, in partnership with The Telegraph, finds former President Donald Trump leading Biden in five of the six swing states.

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Witness in Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Former Attorney John Eastman Found ‘Vote Laundering’ of 280,000 to 300,000 Votes in Pennsylvania’s 2020 Election

Rachel Alexander

The sixth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up Friday with testimony by two witnesses from Eastman’s team. Attorney Kurt Olsen, who is representing Kari Lake in her election challenge, testified first. Next, Ray Blehar, a retired Department of Defense analyst, testified, discussing his findings that 280,000 to 300,000 votes in Pennsylvania were “vote laundered” through the electronic tabulating machines.
Olsen began his testimony explaining why he decided to become involved in an election lawsuit over the 2020 election. He said, “I believed that something was not right.” He listed what concerned him: video clips of poll workers not allowed to watch tabulation, the controversy in Michigan’s Antrim County, results that didn’t make sense such as the stopping of counting ballots overnight in key counties, and “clear violations of law.” 

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DeSantis Enters Presidential Race with ‘Skewed’ Narrative He’s Better Positioned to Beat Biden than Trump

M.D. Kittle

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign Wednesday, ending months of speculation and ratcheting up what promises to be an intense battle for the Republican Party nomination. 

DeSantis enters the race as a top tier candidate, but still lagging far behind frontrunner Donald Trump, according to just about every poll out there. 

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POS Poll Shows DeSantis Faring Better Than Trump Against Biden in the Badger State Despite Many Polls to the Contrary

M.D. Kittle

Public Opinion Strategies is out with yet another poll showing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faring better against former President Donald Trump, this time in battleground Wisconsin. 

But just who is paying for the polling that paints a picture of DeSantis’ presidential strength despite Trump’s significant lead in primary polls remains unclear. 

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Numbers and Methodology Questions Surround Polls Showing DeSantis More Competitive Against Biden Than Trump

M.D. Kittle

New polls in battleground Arizona and Pennsylvania suggest Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — not former President Donald Trump — could prevail in a matchup against President Joe Biden. 

But the Public Opinion Strategies (POS) polls again are raising questions about methodology — and the people behind the DeSantis-friendly poll. 

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Pennsylvania Natural Gas Price up 95 Percent, New Wells up 42 Percent

The Center Square

Natural gas prices are climbing, but overall production in Pennsylvania has lagged year-over-year.

The latest report from the Independent Fiscal Office says prices in the third quarter of 2022 jumped almost 95% compared to the same period last year. Nor will prices drop soon, either. The Pennsylvania average price was $6.89 per million BTU, compared to $3.54 in 2021.

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Pennsylvania’s Thanksgiving Turkey Prices 21 Percent Higher than Last Year

The Center Square

The cost for Thanksgiving dinner has crept up, as has the gas Pennsylvanians buy to get to their relatives.

“The centerpiece on most Thanksgiving tables – the turkey – costs more than last year, at $28.96 for a 16-pound bird,” the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau said in a price report. “That’s $1.81 per pound, up 21% from last year, due to several factors beyond general inflation.”

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Report: Pennsylvania Lags in Health Care Due to Restrictions on Nurse Authority

The Center Square

Pennsylvania is out of step with its neighbors and deregulating some health care services could give residents of the commonwealth better access to treatment, a new analysis argues.

The Commonwealth Foundation released a report arguing that Maryland’s effort to grant nurse practitioners full practice authority is a model for Pennsylvania. 

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Support for Pennsylvania’s 800,000 Veterans Is Still Lacking

The Center Square

Pennsylvania has the better part of a million veterans living within the commonwealth, but support for them can be lacking.

“I don’t like that veterans have to take care of veterans,” Rep. Joe Webster, D-Collegeville, said, noting a lack of centralized support. “Our nation should be taking care of these veterans. It shouldn’t fall to a 501(c)(3) or a group of guys just helping a veteran down the street … Our nation asks for the full measure – we’re not then taking care of them when they have sacrificed greater than the average citizen.”

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Commentary: Early Vote Data Suggests Trouble for Dems in Pennsylvania

RealClearWire

Democrats are getting some warning signs in the mail. Voting data in the key states show that mail-in voting, which traditionally favors Democrats, is down. In-person voting, meanwhile, will likely continue to be dominated by Republicans.

Take, for example, my home state of Pennsylvania. In 2020, there were 1,564,483 ballots cast nine days out from Election Day. As of Sunday, nine days out from the midterm election, there were only 777,309 ballots cast. That’s a drop of more than half. And it is even steeper for traditionally Democratic voting groups like black voters. In 2020, approximately 147,539 black Pennsylvanians had voted at this point; now, it’s only 47,830. 

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Obama Jumps into Pennsylvania Midterms After Fetterman’s Error-Filled Debate Performance

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Former President Barack Obama urged Pennsylvanians to vote for Democratic candidates in the November midterm elections during a campaign ad, just days after Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman struggled during his debate with Republican Mehmet Oz.

Obama told Pennsylvanians that their midterm vote would shape the future of American democracy and women’s abortion rights, according to the 15-second ad which was obtained by Axios. Obama’s efforts to ramp up support for the Democrats in Pennsylvania comes after most of the debate audience believed that Fetterman failed to win, according to a recent poll conducted by WXPI.

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Commentary: Fetterman’s Record in Braddock Is No Roadmap for Pennsylvania

RealClearWire

Aliquippa, Duquesne, Greenville, New Castle, and Rankin: western Pennsylvania has no shortage of economically distressed municipalities that seem to have been left by the wayside and forgotten. But the town of Braddock got something different: a political figure standing 6-foot-8, draped in gym shorts and a Carhartt hoodie. He promised to turn around a persistent economic depression, and he brought national media attention to the small town, which had seen a population decline from a peak of 20,000 in the 1920s to under 1,800.

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Appalachian Commission Sends $7 Million for Workforce Projects in Pennsylvania

The Center Square

The Appalachian Regional Commission has announced almost $50 million in grants across the 13-state region, and Pennsylvania will receive $7 million to encourage economic growth.

Nine projects in Pennsylvania will receive about $50,000 to $1.5 million for workforce training, manufacturing, child care and feasibility studies for potential development.

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Fiscal Policy Report Card Gives Pennsylvania Low Grade

The Center Square

In a recent ranking of America’s governors, Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf ranked at the bottom of the pack – 44th for his fiscal policies.

An annual fiscal policy report card from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, graded the nation’s governors “from a limited-government perspective.” In their grading that emphasized lowering taxes and cutting spending, Wolf earned an “F.”

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After Chaotic 2020 Process, Pennsylvania Still Won’t Have Midterm Results on Election Day

Just the News

Pennsylvania during the 2022 midterms will once again fail to produce election results on election day itself, a shortfall the secretary of state’s office is blaming on a recently passed law that fails to permit pre-election counting of mail-in ballots.

Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said in a briefing on Tuesday that state officials are anticipating “that once again Pennsylvania will not have unofficial results on election night.”

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Commentary: Pennsylvania Democrats’ Abortion Mirage

RealClearWire

In the final weeks of the 2022 midterm campaign, Pennsylvania Democratic candidates continue to bet big on abortion. It was the dominant theme of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman’s first rally in Philadelphia. And the party’s candidates in swing U.S. House districts, like the 1st in suburban Philadelphia and the 17th in suburban Pittsburgh, are hoping that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will entice voters to go blue.

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Commentary: The Importance of Doug Mastriano

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Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor — that would be state Sen. Doug Mastriano — is under attack by the establishment elite for not being … part of the establishment elite. And, of all people, the Republican Governors Association has signed on for the attack.

For those who have not followed the tale, Mastriano is a 30-year active-duty combat veteran who retired as a colonel in the Army. Apart from being deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm (1991), assigned to the U.S. forces liberating Kuwait, in the post–9/11 world he was assigned to NATO and had three tours in Afghanistan. He ended his military career as a professor at the U.S. Army War College, in nearby (to me) Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He has four master’s degrees and holds a doctorate in history.

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Fetterman Being Outspent by Oz as Polls Show Narrowing Race

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Allies of Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania have dramatically increased their funding for his candidacy in the state, with new polls released Tuesday suggesting that their contributions are impacting the race.

John Fetterman currently leads Oz by under 2%, gaining 47.7% of the vote to Oz’s 45.9%, per a September poll by the Trafalgar Group – within the margin of error of 2.9%. In July, the same poll showed Fetterman leading Oz by 5%, outside the margin of error.

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Pennsylvania’s Approach to Sealing Criminal Convictions Could Go National

The Center Square

Criminal justice reform that started in Pennsylvania to clear previous convictions may become the standard in federal law.

Two criminal justice reform bills, the Clean Slate Act and the Fresh Start Act, would “enable people with federal arrest and conviction records to petition to clear those records and support increased access to automatic record sealing for eligible offenses at the federal and state levels,” as described in a news release from the Clean Slate Initiative, a pro-reform group.

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Pennsylvania Counties Take the Lead in Spending Opioid Settlement Dollars

The Center Square

Pennsylvania is set to spend $1 billion from the National Opioid Settlement – and the focus is on the county level.

Pennsylvania’s share of the $26 billion settlement will be divvied up so that 70% goes to counties, 15% is appropriated by the General Assembly, and 15% goes to counties involved in the opioid litigation, subdivisions, district attorneys, and special districts.

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