Some PPD housecleaning as we enter Holiday season & clear out our notes
Sharp analysis of PA politics and campaigns writ large
Hello and welcome to an unexpected Mid week post here at PA Political Digest - I’m your guide, GOP political consultant Christopher Nicholas.
I did not think I’d post at all this week, but decided to go through/clean out my notes and publish today in order to highlight some stories that I had wanted to get to this year - but just ran out of space and time…it was a very active year politically here in 2025 and 2026 looks to be more of the same.
Including this edition, I’ve written 145,000+ words on PA politics in more than 90 posts in 2025. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time reading PPD.
Next Tuesday Dec. 30 I will post the podcast I just recorded with Kyle Kondik on the 4 big congressional races here in 2026. Kyle serves as Managing Director of Sabato’s Crystal Ball from UVA’s Center for Politics, one of the better-known non-partisan political newsletter/forecasting operations. We take a deep dive into those 4 GOP-held Districts and the Democrat’s desire/dream of beating Congs. Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan and Scott Perry in PA-1,7,8 and 10, respectively.
So below you’ll find links to an eclectic group of stories that I felt newsworthy enough to set aside in my PPD note file, but that for whatever reasons, I couldn’t get to earlier this year…enjoy, and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Is the state’s world renowned health research ecosystem imperiled because of the systemic changes coming out of HHS?
As City and State PA wrote, “At that core is Philadelphia – a city whose legacy of vaccine innovation includes the development of most of today’s most significant, lifespan-extending immunizations. In the decades since World War II, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Wistar Institute have pioneered game-changing vaccines against such erstwhile scourges as rubella and rotavirus, as well as more recent threats like COVID-19.” (no paywall)
And this story notes how cuts to NIH research has cost the Philly area more than $100 million. (no paywall)
A PA Supreme Court Justice makes a plea for civility in the courtroom, saying it can be a model for our public life.
As PA Supreme Court Justice Kevin Brobson writes, “Law is built on the recognition that reasonable, ethical people can look at the same facts and reach opposite conclusions.
“One lawyer argues for conviction, another for acquittal. One sees a statute as broad, another as narrow. Their task is not to despise each other, but to argue — forcefully, yes, but intellectually within rules, procedures, and professional decorum.”
Staying with that judicial theme, former Federal Judge John E. Jones III, now the President of Dickinson College, writes in an Op-ed that “This administration’s clear strategy – to flood the zone by simply challenging every adverse decision against it in the lower courts – means there are an unprecedented number of cases coming up to the Supreme Court.
“It just means that there’s utter confusion in the lower courts, and it’s been the subject of a lot of dissatisfaction among lower court judges. It really puts the federal court system into a state of uncertainty and chaos, and obviously, it’s not good for the public.”
Dave Sload, the President and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Keystone Chapter, writes about the need to end discrimination against nonunion construction workers, who are the bulk of the industry, especially when it comes to PLAs, or project labor agreements.
“Pennsylvania’s hardworking tradesmen and women - carpenters, plumbers, heavy equipment operators - aren’t asking for handouts. They just want a fair shot at the American Dream. However, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is slamming the door on nearly 90% of the Commonwealth’s construction workforce, all because they choose not to toe the union line. This isn’t “getting sh*t done,” it’s a special interest power grab that rigs the game for Shapiro’s big union handlers.” (no paywall)
Sload continues, “Businesses shouldn’t need an army of expensive lawyers to fight for a level playing field. Pennsylvania taxpayers deserve projects built fast and cheap, not held hostage by politicians rewarding their pals. Sadly, it’s not just Shapiro; municipalities across the state are falling for “responsible contractor ordinances” (RCOs), fake ‘standards’ that really just lock out merit-shop warriors.”
ABC represents merit-based (non-union) shops.
As I will note, though it varies, the vast majority of PAC dollars from union groups go to Democratic candidates and interest groups. That’s entirely legal of course, but worth pointing out when our friends on the left continue to go to bat for just a small fraction of the state’s tradespeople, rather than all of them.
A study from the Welcoming Center, a non-profit, and WHYY, the public TV/radio station in SEPA, details “how immigrants in the city and its collar counties over the last decade have made major economic contributions and saved the state from population loss.
“Much of Eastern Pennsylvania is experiencing slight population growth, driven in large part by immigration, while the Western side of the state‘s population is shrinking.”
The story here is from the Philadelphia Inquirer, and here is a link to the study mentioned.
There’s so much chatter now, and reporting, deservedly so, about widespread abuses of pandemic-era aid fraud. As the Christian Science News Monitor reported, “A lot of the [aid] money, it turns out, went to fraudsters. Five years on, the total amount of pandemic relief fraud remains unknown, with estimates ranging from hundreds of billions of dollars to $1 trillion.” (no paywall)
With that in mind, it would be wise for our leaders (and us) to heed the words of my late client, Paul Addis, who wrote in a 2017 Patriot-News Op-ed, “Countless studies show that a caring and compassionate society offering a safety net to help those in need must never lose sight of the dangers of fostering dependency.”
This is especially important as we debate the role of government in using our tax dollars to supply that safety net, which we all pay for in some way. Addis continued, “Too much assistance saps initiative, can lead to lifetime dependency, often leads to health problems, and is inconsistent with the efficient allocation of limited government resources. (no paywall)
“A reasonable work requirement for able-bodied recipients of Medicaid would also encourage societal cohesiveness as it would encourage tax payers to believe that their hard earned money is being spent wisely.”
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I have a deep curiosity about how we use our language and where so many of our time-honored phrases come from. One such phrase is “poster child,” which we in politics use often to make grand, sweeping statements about opponents and/or movements. So where did we get that phrase?
An article entitled Who was the original poster child, explains, “The phrase poster child is deeply ingrained in the American lexicon, used to describe exemplars in everything from international politics to failed films to endangered plants, especially in academic papers. It’s often applied negatively for how not to do something. But the origins of the term are actually much more literal. (no paywall)
“The National Society for Crippled Children, founded in 1919 to increase visibility for children with disabilities, sold “Easter seals” as a fundraiser in the 1930s. These adhesive stamps, designed by cartoonist J.H. Donahey, featured drawings of kids with crutches and the words “Help Crippled Children.” People could purchase seals for a penny apiece and apply them to letters to show their support of the organization. The seal campaigns were so successful that the organization renamed itself the National Easter Seal Society, now shortened to Easterseals.”
And speaking of podcasts like PPD’s, here is a study from the Annenberg School at Univ. of Southern California (USC) about ‘Inequality in popular podcasts.’
Farmers for Free Trade held a presser in November up in NEPA to highlight the importance of free and fair trade for American, and Pennsylvania, farmers.
As WVIA reported, “In Clarks Summit, two dairy farmers, two hog farmers and a potato farmer discussed how trade with countries around the world would benefit Pennsylvania’s agricultural industry.” (no paywall)
In the story, PA Farm Bureau President Chris Hoffman said, “If we don’t move our products, there’s only so much availability for the demand that some of us will disappear, and it’s going to be the family farm.”
Ho-hum, another less than stellar Philly Judge. As the Inquirer wrote, “The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board on Tuesday charged a Philadelphia judge with committing ‘a host of ethical violations,’ and recommended that he be suspended without pay, after officials said he attempted to influence a colleague’s decision in a case with ties to Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill.”
The Conduct Board “charged Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio with violating the code of judicial conduct by seeking to affect the outcome of a case being handled by a fellow judge.”
The board said the judge “engaged in conduct that was so extreme that it brought the judicial office itself into disrepute.”
“DiClaudio was placed on administrative leave in June after a fellow judge told his supervisors DiClaudio had approached him about a case earlier that month and intimated that he should give the defendant a favorable sentence.”
I am reliably informed that Meek Mill is Robert Rihmeek Williams, “a Grammy-nominated rapper, activist, and entrepreneur from Philadelphia.”
Judge DiClaudio continues to protest his innocence.
Philly’s court system once again earned the unenviable title of Judicial Hellhole, ranking in 2025’s Top 5 in 2025.
“The offense which earned Philadelphia the moniker this year? [The American Tort Reform Foundation] points to repeat problems including ‘nuclear verdicts’ with huge payouts, the ability to ‘forum shop’ for venues perceived to be friendly toward plaintiffs, and the frequency of asbestos and medical liability litigation. The report also cites alleged judicial fraud and the city’s Complex Litigation Center as ‘emerging concerns.’” (no paywall)
And finally, a look at the Top 100 photographs of 2025, courtesy of the AP…below are three.
Thanks for reading PPD…and feel free to slam that Like button below. Be on the lookout for our podcast that takes a deep dive into the state’s 4 hottest congressional races, which will drop here Tuesday, Dec. 30.