PA Political Digest -- Dems worried about Philly turnout + Charlie Dent on monetizing political craziness; Chinooks, Fetterman & merch!
Sharp analysis of PA politics & campaigns writ large
Welcome to our Friday End of the Week Post. I’m your guide, GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas. Our goal here at PPD is to offer you sharp analysis of PA politics and campaigns writ large. Oh, and we have PPD Merch now too.
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For you today we have:
Did you notice? Philly Dems are already worried about turnout, and Biden shows some momentum
5 Questions With…former Lehigh County Congressman Charlie Dent
This Week in PA welcomes the state’s junior senator, who takes center stage for the entire show.
Did you notice?
Did you notice the new national FOX News poll, which showed Pres. Joe Biden ahead nationally, 50-48%? Overall it showed a 7-pt net gain for Biden over Donald Trump since March. Biden moved up from 45-50% while Trump showed a marginal decline from 50-48%.
Obviously, though we are a nation of elections, we only have one national election, which occurs every 4 years, and it isn’t even a national election. Instead we enjoy a collection of 51 contests (50 states + D.C.)…so never put too much emphasis on national presidential polls.
But such polls can demonstrate who has, in the words of Bush 41, the Big Mo’.
And although it’s just turned to summer, did you notice we’ve already seen the obligatory Phila. Inquirer story about Democrats in Philly kvetching about whether they (Democratic City Committee) will be able to turn out Democrats in the city they’ve controlled for 60+ years.
Democrat politicos realize that their winning margin in our largest city is key to winning the state, not just for the President but also for the rest of their ticket. And remember that Trump’s % and raw vote in the city both increased from 2016 to 2020, and looks to be on the increase again this year.
This story actually ran in May, so it’s already time for another one…
5 Questions With…
Today our usual Friday 5QW feature spotlights Charlie Dent. I first met Charlie in 1990 when, in an otherwise terrible year for the GOP, he beat an incumbent Democrat member of the PA House. He later served in the State Senate and then Congress. He now serves as a VP at the Aspen Institute, a Senior Policy Advisor at DLA Piper, a Senior Advisor with the new group, Our Republican Legacy, and frequently appears as a commentator on a variety of news channels.
This Week in Pennsylvania
TWIP, the only state-wide political Sunday talk show, this week features Sen. John Fetterman. Host Dennis Owens traveled to DC to interview our Junior Senator, who continues to be in the news a lot. Dennis’ talk with the Senator is the entire show, so no analysts this week.
Watch TWIP Sundays across the state:
Phila. Phl17 6:30am
Pittsburgh KDKA+ Ch. 19 Noon
Harrisburg ABC27News 10am (also 7pm Sat.)
Scranton WBRE Ch. 28 11am
Johnstown WTAJ Ch. 10 6:30am
Erie JET-TV Ch. 24 10am
You may also stream the show here — the new show loads around Noon time on Sundays.
Errata:
CNN will host the first debate of the 2024 presidential contest a week from yesterday, at 9pm from Atlanta. It is allowing other networks to broadcast its live feed of the debate, though those networks will need to display CNN’s ‘bug’ during the entire 90-minute event. Biden will get the podium stage right, and both candidates agreed to have their mics muted when they are not answering questions.
Though he won’t be in that debate, RFK, Jr. filed petition signatures yesterday to get on the PA ballot as an Independent, according to the AP. The deadline to do so is early August.
In an earlier post, we mentioned the relatively high % of PA politicos here who were/are combat helicopter pilots. Though we mentioned three — Cong. Scott Perry, St. Sen. Tracy Pennycuick and 1st Cong. District Democratic nominee Ashley Ehasz — we inadvertently overlooked St. Rep. Zachary Mako. He flew Chinooks for the PA Army National Guard in Afghanistan.
Thanks to all for your service and thanks as well to loyal reader Tom Shaheen for alerting us to the oversight.