Grotevant is the best of candidates. He’s not well known but has the pedigree of having worked for both Bob Casey, Sr and Jr. The state Dems will have to spend for his campaign, but a few joint appearances with Sen Casey will go a long way toward helping Grotevant get elected. Regardless of whether the Dem parties in Beaver, Lawrence and Allegheny counties agree on a candidate, expect the state senate Dems to have the last word on approval.  read more »

We’ve noticed a lot of this attack dog mentality among supporters of both candidates recently at KP.

Democratic Party chief Howard Dean says Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their supporters should beware of tearing each other down, demoralizing the base and damaging the party’s chances of winning the White House in November. ...

Mr. Dean said the charges and countercharges between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have gotten too personal at times. He declined to say how they have crossed the line, but said he has made it clear privately when it has happened.  read more »

Pennsylvania Democrats have added more than 65,000 voters to their rolls since last fall, a reflection of the high level of interest in the contested race for the party’s presidential nomination and the state’s April 22 primary.

The number of Democrats increased 1.7 percent — from 3,883,378 in November to 3,948,775 as of March 4.

GOP enrollment grew by 0.1 percent, from 3,245,271 to 3,248,583, during the period.

As the incomparable Robert Byrd would say: “Shame!”

You knew this was coming: When State Rep. Tony Payton Jr. challenged the Democratic Party establishment two years ago — and had to go to court to win the 179th Legislative District over Emilio Vazquez, the party-backed candidate who had been forced to wage a write-in campaign — we knew the party would return for Payton’s head. On Saturday the party endorsed newcomer Guy D. Lewis to challenge Payton, identified in Lewis’ press release as “the incumbent,” in the May primary.

I’m not too surprised about this; DeWeese is a survivor. I guess my only question to House Democrats is – after all that’s happened over the past year, didn’t you think that maybe new leadership was necessary?

State Rep. Bill DeWeese of Waynesburg will remain as head of the 102 House Democrats, despite some questions about his leadership ability, a bonus investigation hanging over the House and a lack of progress in moving Gov. Ed Rendell’s political agenda forward.

House Democrats met for several hours at a suburban Harrisburg hotel yesterday to discuss how to proceed on substantive issues — health care, energy, open records, property tax relief — as well as to air concerns about Mr. DeWeese’s leadership style.  read more »

A former assistant to ousted House Minority Whip Mike Veon confirmed Wednesday that she will appear before a state grand jury investigating House Democrats.

Esther Reever, who served as an administrative assistant to Veon, told the Tribune-Review she received a subpoena to testify this week before the grand jury in Harrisburg. She told a reporter that she couldn’t talk about it.

Reever is one of three House Democratic staffers ordered to testify this week before the grand jury, which is investigating whether legislative staffers received bonuses from taxpayers for doing campaign work.  read more »

With 97.86% reporting:

TODD 1,031,490 26.3%
MCCAFFERY 1,177,057 30.0%
LALLY-GREEN 957,247 24.4%
KRANCER 755,296 19.3%

Donohue (D), Allen(R ), Shogun(R ) appear also headed for election to Superior Court.

In Beaver County, Dems retain control of county commission with Tony Amadio replacing the retiring Dan Donatella. Joe Spanik (D) and Charley Camp(R ) were reelected.

Courtesy of AAJ
links to MontCo, BucksCo and DelCo county elections. The GOP held on to both MontCo  read more »