PA Political Digest -- Will Shapiro's Lucky Star continue?, McSwain Dunks on Krasner (again) & Casey guests on TWIP
Sharp analysis of PA politics and campaigns write large
“Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race was so successful at helping Democrats raise money, Kamala Harris raised $250 million in just 10 days as their candidate, that Democrats are going to have Biden drop out again in October.”
— Yours truly, in an interview with KYW News Radio, Philadelphia
Hello and Welcome to our Friday End of Week post here at PPD. I’m your guide, GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas.
We have settled into a Tuesday morning/Friday afternoon publishing schedule. Enjoy. Thanks for Liking and Sharing these posts, and thanks also to those of you upgrading to PAID status for $7/month or $75/year.
For you today, we have:
Did you notice the Inquirer, et al doing more in-depth examination of our governor now, as he’s under consideration for VP, than when he actually ran for/became Gov? Of course, now he has a record
Our 5 Questions With… segment features former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District and former ‘22 GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McSwain, who fills us in on filming a TV ad in a helicopter, and on the similarities between life in the Marines/on the campaign trail
This Week in Pennsylvania has an interview with our senior Senator, Bob Casey, Jr.
Did you notice
The feeding frenzy of speculation on whether VP Kamala Harris will choose Gov. Josh Shapiro as her VP continues unabated.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch wrote a column about PA progressives having it out for Shapiro. Their complaints revolve around his positions on:
school choice fracking student protests/Gaza (mis)handling of sexual harassment
“But for local progressives, the emergence of Shapiro as top-tier veep contender is a double-edged sword. [Anti-fracking activist Karen] Feridun told me she would work like crazy to get a Harris-Shapiro ticket elected — “not just because of Trump” but also with the goal of “getting him (Shapiro) the hell out of the governor’s office.”
Ok then.
Team Harris, perhaps inadvertently, added to that frenzy when it revealed that she and her VP-designee will make their official Team debut next Tuesday in…Philly. Perhaps the VP just really wants a Philly soft pretzel.
Another Inquirer story (front page Thursday) drew on their own prior reporting that Shapiro waited to publicly call on UPenn officials to disband the student protestors there until AFTER he already knew the school was going to do just that. Their story yesterday then declared, without attribution, “It made him [Shapiro] look fully in control of the situation.”
As his record gets reviewed by the public, the press and the Harris campaign, let’s hope no one forgets this story about Shapiro requiring the people on his transition committee to sign NDAs (he really likes those) and hiding his committee behind a dark money 501c4 group:
That is because the more than 300 members of the Democrat’s transition were required to sign a three-page nondisclosure agreement that bars them from publicly sharing information about their activities. If they breach the agreement, they can be sued and face a heavy fine.
And because the team is organized under the federal tax code as a so-called “dark money” group, it does not have to publicly disclose the private interests that may be underwriting its work. Shapiro’s inaugural team, which will pay for his swearing-in day events next week, is similarly organized and is also shielding donor details.
The tight grip on information suggests Shapiro is already running his administration differently than recent predecessors in at least one way: transparency. And there are signs that he may maintain a level of obscurity about his administration’s inner workings as he begins his first term next week.
Read that WHYY story (via SpotlightPA) here (no paywall).
If Shapiro becomes the Democratic VP-designee in the days ahead, will he promptly and publicly disclose those donors and release folks from their NDAs (which have since been essentially eviscerated legally)? Has he shown that list to Team Harris as part of their vetting process?
Politically, as he and his supporters try to paint him as always having been an electoral juggernaut (as he actually was in ‘22), it’s important to note this:
Apparently, Shapiro met with Harris officials earlier in the week regarding the VP slot.
Donald Trump brought his campaign to central PA Wednesday, at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg — his first time back in the Commonwealth since he survived an assassination attempt last month in Butler, PA.
The rally took place several hours after Trump spoke to the National Assoc. of Black Journalists at their meeting in Chicago. That event did not start, nor end well for the former president, and was "apparently cut short at the instruction of the Trump campaign.”
Meanwhile, Harris was busy flip-flopping on key issues such as her support for the Green New Deal and banning fracking. National Review reviews the tough days for both presidential candidates.
The Harrisburg rally was standard issue Trump, several hours long overall, with his 90-minute speech preceded by remarks from numerous GOP officials. The previous day Harris held her first big-time rally, in Atlanta, and talked for just 20 minutes.
It was the Democrats first time back there since Joe Biden’s terrible Hot Mess in Hotlanta debate performance in June.
You remember Joe Biden, right? He’s our current president…who dropped off the Democratic ticket only 13 days ago.
5 Questions With…Bill McSwain
5 Questions With… today talks to Chester County's Bill McSwain, who graduated from Yale University, spent four years in the Marines as an Infantry Officer and later graduated from Harvard Law. He served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of PA from 2018 to 2021 and ran for the GOP nomination for governor in 2022, finishing third in a crowded nine-way primary. He lives in West Chester and is now back in private practice at Duane Morris in Philadelphia.