Mr. DeWeese said he was thankful for the victory, especially in light of the anti-incumbent surge that ousted other long-term House members, including House Majority Leader Todd Eachus and former House Speaker John Perzel.

Mr. DeWeese said the charges that he used state resources for political gain worked in his favor because many supporters believe he was unfairly targeted by state Attorney General Tom Corbett, who was elected governor Tuesday night.

“I’m gratified that I was able to do well,” Mr. DeWeese said. “Had the attorney general not hurled these challenges at me, I believe the outcome would have been different.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10308/1100488-58.stm?cmpid=localstate.xml#ixzz14hlSwV9L

What do you think? Did Corbett’s charges help DeWeese win reelection? The idea that a vote for DeWeese was an anti-Corbett vote doesn’t make much sense.  Corbett did better in Green County than Dan Onorato.

Image via Wikipedia

…we’re going to need a better ad than this.

In case you missed this one in the shuffle of all of the political commercials last week.  Here is the ad for Dan Connolly – who was not able to beat Tim Murphy for the 18th Congressional seat.

Who do you think should run against Tim Murphy in 2 years that could win the seat?

With election day fast approaching – the Sestak campaign is in full swing. For $500 you can support Joe Sestak and have drinks with John Kerry and Teresa Heinz right here in Fox Chapel.   As of today there has only been 1 $500 contribution on the ActBlue page for the event.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz
Christopher and Sasha Heinz

Edwin Beachler ? Georgia Berner ? Doug & Shelley Campbell ? William Caroselli & Dusty Kirk
Pat Farley ? Frederick Frank ? Steve Frobouck ? Charles Gibbons
Dana & Franco Harris ? F. Dok Harris ? William Isler ? Greg Jordan
Charles Kolling ? Cliff & Rosanne Levine ? Michael Manzo
Leslie Merrill McCombs ? Ted McConnell ? Lazar Palnick & Susanne Gollin
Louis & Ilene Schwartz ? Jack Shea ? Cindy Shapira ? Peter Smerd
Ritchie & Rachel Tabachnick ? Milton & Nancy Washington
(host committee in formation)

Cordially Invite you to a Reception to Meet and Support

Congressman Joe Sestak, PA
Democratic Candidate for the U.S. Senate

Monday, September 27, 2010
5:30pm – 7:30pm

Rosemont Farm
Fox Chapel, PA

VIP Reception           5:30pm – 6:15pm

Individual:  $2,400  or  $1,000

General Reception     6:00pm – 7:30pm

Individual: $500

Please RSVP to Patricia Sestak at:
patricia.sestak@joesestak.com or call 610-891-8956

To contribute online for this event, copy and paste the following url:
http://www.actblue.com/page/sestakeventsept272010

Individual contributions to Sestak for Senate are limited to $2,400 per election cycle.  Contributions from corporations are not permitted.  Contributions to Sestak for Senate are not tax deductible.

Paid for by Sestak For Senate

A week before election day and Dan Onorato has sent around a Facebook invite to his election night party which invites guests to “Come Celebrate with Dan as we make a big step in bringing real reform to Harrisburg! ”

Thus far 55 people have RSVPed yes for the event.

Looks like the Onorato campaing is confident about election day.

Details for Onorato’s election night event:

International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers
5 Hot Metal Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Google Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=5%20Hot%20Metal%20Street%20Pittsburgh%2C%20PA%2015203

Here’s the ad:

It has taken a while for this race to really start getting wide attention.  With plenty of undecided voters still out there, the compressed timeline may serve to level the playing field.  If the other candidates are able to afford TV in these final weeks up until the election, then Onorato has essentially lost his fundraising advantage.  With all 4 candidates expected to be on TV this week, the volatile race may be settled by the campaign that is better able to put together a strong field campaign and who can run the best Election Day program.

Anthony Williams launched an ad challenging Dan Onorato‘s record on change.  The Onorato campaign has used this ad in 2 different fund raising emails this week.  The polls released today show Onorato way ahead of the other candidates in the race.   If Onorato is so far ahead of the other candidates why is he sending out multiple emails about the ad from the Williams campaign and drawing more attention to the ads from Williams.  What do you think?

Here is the ad from the Williams campaign (h/t to PA2010.com – it took us a while to find this ad on youtube)

The onorato campaign has sent fundraising emails on Monday May 2 and Tuesday May 3 – asking for contributions to help to grow support for Onorato.

Here is the email from today:

Dear Friends,

With the May 18th primary two weeks away, two new polls show that our campaign is building even more momentum and Dan Onorato is establishing big leads over his competitors.

These results prove that Dan’s message of economic growth and government reform is resonating with Pennsylvanians.  His opponents, on the other hand, are not connecting with voters and are failing to gain any traction.

As a result, they are becoming desperate.

Tony Williams released a new attack ad yesterday that attempts to mislead voters on Dan’s record and accomplishments in Allegheny County.

Williams’ ad is so misleading and dishonest that it really shouldn’t merit a response.  Unfortunately, we cannot allow these false attacks to go unanswered.

We need your help to fight back and continue telling Pennsylvania voters the truth about Dan Onorato.  With only days left before Election Day, it is now more important than ever that we ensure our message is reaching everywhere in the state.

Click here to make a contribution and help us fight back.

The truth is that Dan has been a strong and effective County Executive.

His county’s unemployment rate is below the state’s and the nation’s, and he has helped drive Pittsburgh’s turnaround over the last few years – a fact highlighted yesterday by Forbes Magazine’s designation of Pittsburgh as “America’s Most Livable City,” because of its low unemployment, high income growth and low crime rate.

We definitely have the momentum.  In the Muhlenberg/Morning Call daily tracking poll, Onorato earns 36%, Joe Hoeffel and Tony Williams each earn 9% and Jack Wagner earns 8%.

A Quinnipiac University poll shows Onorato at 36% and Hoeffel at 9%, with Williams and Wagner each at 8%.

And I know that with your continued help, we can send Dan to Harrisburg to create the kind of real change Pennsylvania needs.

Click here to make a contribution so we can fight back against the false attacks.

Thank you,

Mike Butler
Finance Director

From Arlen Specter -  “No Show Joe”

Just before the close of business on the final day that petitions could be challenged, the Onorato campaign filed objections trying to block Joe Hoeffel from being on the ballot.

The Hoeffel campaign fired back in a statement from co-manager Lauren Townsend:

“We filed petitions with 7,632 signatures from 33 counties…”

[State law requires gubernatorial candidates to have at least 2,000 signatures in total and have at least 100 signatures from 10 counties.]

“Dan Onorato has good reason to be scared, and now he has turned desperate.  This is a cowardly act.”

Press was rough for team Onorato all across the state.  For example, NEPArtisan  said, “Dan Onorato has gone the low road.”

Throughout the campaign, Onorato has been attempting to paint the race as a fait accompli. If this is the case, why challenge someone who clearly had exceeded the signature requirements?

Maybe it has something to do with these polling results, touted by team Hoeffel a few days ago. They show that, in a general election matchup, in vote-rich Southeast PA (a region that a Democratic nominee MUST win big to have any hope of winning statewide), Hoeffel leads Corbett, while Onorato trails.

Things got even stranger later in the day when Onorato withdrew his challenge. Their explanation raises more questions than it answers. In a statement to Politics PA, team Onorato said–and try to stay with me here–that they filed the suit, because they thought that Hoeffel might challenge Williams’ petitions. In what universe is this how a serious candidate for governor makes decisions!?  For his part, Hoeffel called it a “lame-ass” excuse; a “cynical effort to play around with the Democratic process”, and it’s hard to disagree.

So what is really going on? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think these poll results (and what we can infer about Onorato’s internal polling) must have a lot to do with it. It’s not unusal that when campaigns of so-called front-runners start to spudder or slide, they begin to show signs of disorganization, bad political decision-making, and irrational behavior.

Yesterday the Triadvocate (the blog from the folks at Triad Strategies) had a post about which of the candidates in PA is leading in tweets and followers.   They have a detailed list of candidates in PA for many offices with how many followers and tweets have been posted.  Also, Huffington Post links to a LA Times article about congressional representatives who use twitter.

So we thought it might be helfpul to create a Twitter list and ticker for the candidates for PA governor.
You can see all of the candidates Twitter accounts that are included below here: http://twitter.com/progresspgh/pa-gov-2010-candidates