Click here to see a chart of all 50 states and where your state stands: http://www.pewstates.org/research/data-visualizations/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-cliff-on-the-states-sequestration-85899435504
You can click on the state of your choice and get all the details broken down for you.
Map of Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Corbett is preparing to unveil a transportation plan funded primarily by nearly $2 billion a year in new taxes on gas stations, sources familiar with the plan told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The Republican governor, who pledged not to raise taxes when he ran for office, will announce the fine points of the long-awaited initiative next week, the sources told the AP on the condition they not be identified.
WASHINGTON — Last-minute efforts to step back from the “fiscal cliff” ran into trouble on Tuesday as Republicans in the House of Representatives balked at a deal that would prevent Washington from pushing the world’s biggest economy into a recession.
House Republicans complained that a bill passed by the Senate in a late-night show of unity to prevent a budget crisis contained tax hikes for the wealthiest Americans but no spending cuts. Some conservatives sought to change the bill to add cuts.
That would set up a high-stakes showdown between the two chambers and risk a stinging rebuke from financial markets that are due to open in Asia in a few hours.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-fiscal-cliff-reuters-20130101,0,6257078.story
Editor’s note: Very interesting election analysis regardless of which side you are on. Shows the differences between McCain and Romney’s efforts in their respective run for President again Obama.
President Obama carried fewer states than he did four years ago. He won a second term by dominating the nation’s large urban areas — although mostly by smaller margins compared to his 2008 vote totals.
To view interactive maps for each state, by county, for 2008 and 2012 click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/obama-better-or-worse/?hpid=z3
English: US_Attorney_Chris_Christie.jpg cropped as square headshot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Interesting opinion piece from the Trentonian on Chris Christie.
Hey Dick Morris: You live up to your first name.
The political commentator lives up to his name not because he predicted a Mitt Romney electoral college romp, although that’s probably reason enough. But nope. Reason is because of his blog post about why he was so miserably wrong in his prediction.
“I did not take full account of the impact of hurricane Sandy and of Governor Chris Christie’s bipartisan march through New Jersey arm in arm with President Obama,” Morris wrote. “Not to mention Christie’s fawning promotion of Obama’s presidential leadership. It made all the difference.”
To recap: Morris blames Romney’s loss on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Many Republicans are also starting to believe this line of reasoning.
A nasty election season that ends with close results is not going to clear the muddy waters of American political discourse.
Many people likely thought that on Wednesday as the nation once again focused on serious yet divisive problems like the national debt and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The election gave President Barack Obama a second term but left control of the Senate and the House divided between Democrats and Republicans.
“The public re-upped on divided government,” said Glenn W. Richardson Jr., an associate professor of political science at Kutztown University.
English: Official portrait of United States Senator Pat Toomey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Oh please, we knew it would be!
HARRISBURG – Tightening independent polls are giving hope to Republicans in Pennsylvania, although the presidential campaigns show no signs of bringing their candidates or TV ads back to the state.
Instead, Pennsylvania’s highest-profile politicians are finding themselves increasingly busy on the campaign trail, including Gov. Tom Corbett and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, both Republicans, and former Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat.
In State College on Monday night, Toomey made time for a crowd of several dozen at a Centre County Republican Party dinner and told them that a sixth straight win for a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s presidential election is not inevitable. After all, Pennsylvanians elected himself and Corbett just two years ago and 12 of 19 U.S. House seats are held by Republicans, he said.
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Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich is considering a run for the White House. He will begin an exploratory process of raising money to “test the waters” and see if there would be enough support for his candidacy.
Gingrich left Congress is 1999 but has stayed very politically active and appears on many television shows where he weighs in on current political events. Gingrich intends to take a formal step in the next two weeks toward running for the Republican nomination in 2012.
Fox News has suspended their contracts with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich while they both explore the possibility of seeking the Republican nomination for President.
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Embattled Montgomery County Commissioner, Joe Hoeffel will not run again. Instead, he will support Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards. Shapiro and Richards are running as a team and joined Hoeffel at a news conference where he announced he would not seek relection.
It looks like Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor will run again. Castor was not involved in the Sunshine Law charges leveled against Commissioners Matthews and Hoeffel. The three commissioners have had a strained relationship and frequently made headlines in local papers with their squabbling.
The Republican nominating convention will be held on February 9th and the Democratic Nominating Convention will take place on February 15th.
Let us hope whoever wins can work together for the good of Pennsylvania’s third largest and second wealthiest county!
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I am and have always been proud to be a Pennsylvanian. When I read about things like this it makes me even more proud to be from this great state!
Our two U.S. Senators, Bob Casey, Jr. (D) and Pat Toomey (R) will sit together during the State of the Union address on Tuesday. This is significant because both parties normally segregate themselves, on opposite sides of the room.
In light of the tragedy in Tucson and the very uncivil political climate in our country, I am pleased that our U.S. Senators will be showing the rest of America that Pennsylvania leads the pack when it comes to bipartisan cooperation!
Governor-elect Tom Corbett (R) is going to try and get Pennsylvania out of the liquor store business. Two other governors have tried and failed, however, the new power shift in Harrisburg may finally enable this measure to go through. House Bill 2350 will be reintroduced. Estimates put the sale of the stores at $2 billion dollars. It is also hoped to substantially reduce the number of Pennsylvania residents, who live near bordering states, from purchasing alcohol outside of Pennsylvania.
The mayor of McKeesport, Jim Brewster (D) won the 45th District State Senate seat on Tuesday. Brewster has been involved in McKeesport politics for many years, first serving a ten-year stint on city council and then as mayor for the last seven years. The mayor has helped improve conditions in McKeesport and hopes to do the same thing in Harrisburg.
On the other side of the state, 3-term Hazleton Mayor, Lou Barletta (R) finally ousted 13-term incumbent Paul Kanjorski (D) on his third try and is headed off to represent the 11th Congressional District is Washington, DC. Mayor Barletta made national headlines when Hazleton passed an immigration law which is being challenged in a federal case by the ACLU. Barletta said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Barletta feels being in Congress is the best place to address the immigration issue.
Now that the dust has settled, we have some new elected officials and hopefully those annoying phone calls and all the junk mail is over until the next election!
Some interesting facts about the election and maybe something Democrats need to think about for the future. Winning an election in Pennsylvania can’t be done by concentrating on Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties. Corbett carried Allegheny County, not by much, but he did. Can’t say that Onorato should feel too good about losing the county he is Executive for. Onorato lost Allegheny County by 649 votes. Another reason everyone should vote! Toomey didn’t lose by much in Allegheny County and he carried most other large counties. He did take a beating in Philadelphia as expected.
Pennsylvania is a diverse state. There are other heavily populated areas that are or lean Republican. Lancaster County has over 500,000 people, York County has over 400,000 residents, Chester County has almost 500,000 residents, Berks has over 400,000 residents so I submit these counties more than make up for Philadelphia. Bucks County with its 600,000+ residents swung Republican for governor and the US Senate races. Can’t put all your eggs in one basket and win in PA.
We congratulate the winners. We expect big things. We will be watching and reporting in our usual no-nonsense style so don’t screw up!
Tom Corbett has a big task ahead of him. This editorial from the Harrisburg Patriot outlines the road ahead: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/11/governor_corbett_hit_the_groun.htmlhttp://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2010/11/governor_corbett_hit_the_groun.html
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Former President Bill Clinton will be campaigning in Bethlehem for Dan Onorato (D), candidate of governor of Pennsylvania, on Thursday of this week. The rally will be held at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem.
In other political news, several major newspapers have endorsed Tom Corbett (R) and Dan Onorato (D). The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is endorsing Corbett while Onorato received the support of the Philadelphia Daily News, the Scranton Times-Tribune and the Easton Express-Times.
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Popular NJ governor Chris Christie was in Williamsport on Monday supporting Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett.
Christie said he supports Corbett so they can join forces and slash government spending on both sides of the Delaware River that is holding back jobs. Corbett said “We’re going to create an economic climate where the private sector provides the jobs, not government.” “We’re going to get out-of-the-way.”
Christie warned the audience not to become complacent about polling that shows Corbett solidly in the lead over Democratic challenger Dan Onorato.
Christie was in town for a GOP fundraiser for Corbett.
Many people are analyzing the election results in various ways. Some are saying it is Obama backlash, some as saying it was time for change in their corner of the world and so on and so forth. For whatever reason(s) there were some major shake-ups yesterday.
New Jersey governor Jon Corzine (D) was defeated by Chris Christie (R) and Virginia governor Creigh Deeds (D) was defeated by Bob McDonnell (R).
Closer to home, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was returned to a 4-3 Republican majority with Joan Orie Melvin’s victory over Jack Panella. One experienced state court watcher said he doesn’t see this change moving the court away from being ideologically centrist.
That being said there were plenty of Democrats who won races as well. The mayoral race in Harrisburg made history yesterday when the first African-American female became the mayor of our state capital. After 28 years as Harrisburg Mayor, Stephen Reed was defeated in the Democratic primary. City Council President, Linda Thompson (D) defeated Nevin Mindlin (R) to make history.
In Pennsylvania’s second largest city, Pittsburgh Mayor, Luke Ravenstahl (D) was re-elected. Ravenstahl, who is only 29 years old, inherited the job in 2006 after then Mayor Bob O’Connor died in office. He won an election in 2007 to complete O’Connor’s term.
Bill Owens (D) defeated Doug Hoffman (R) in the 23rd Congressional District in New York state. The race has drawn national attention. This district is a GOP stronghold and Republians haven’t lost in the region for over a century! While some are viewing this race as a referendum on Obama, others are viewing this election as local people voting for the candidtate who will best represent their interests in Washington.
