Politics Election category, Page 193
Pa. lawmakers weigh bills that would allow independents to vote on primary candidates
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Former elected officials and government experts told a panel of state lawmakers that Pennsylvania’s primary system should be opened...
Pa. lawmakers are set to get huge raises next year
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Fiscal responsibility is an axiom in Harrisburg, but nearly none of Pennsylvania’s 253 state lawmakers seem to mind when...
Pence tells GOP to stop lashing out at FBI over Trump searchVideo
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday implored fellow Republicans to stop lashing out at the FBI over the search of Donald Trump’s Florida home and denounced calls by some of the former president’s allies to defund the FBI, saying that was “just as wrong” as a...
Doug Mastriano challenges Josh Shapiro to 2 debates, but only on his terms
State Sen. Doug Mastriano has proposed two debates in October with Attorney General Josh Shapiro, his Democratic rival for Pennsylvania’s governor’s office, but this particular offer appears to be dead on arrival. The Republican nominee’s proposed rules of engagement — cutting out all outside organizers and allowing debate questions only...
Biden signs massive climate and health care legislationVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections. The...
Florida Gov. DeSantis wants retired police, firefighters to be teachersVideo
Describing college education programs as “overtaken by ideology,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he wants to expand a new law that allows military veterans to become classroom teachers to include retired first responders such as police, firefighters and EMTs. “We believe that the folks that have served our communities have...
Shopping at Wegner’s? Fetterman picks on Oz’s choice of words, groceries in latest salvo
U.S. candidate John Fetterman’s campaign reached back a few months to find a video that it used to make fun of Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz. The video, published in April, shows Oz walking through a store’s vegetable section to help his wife build “a crudité,” according to Huffington Post,...
Abortion foes tap credit cards to get partial Kansas recount
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas plans to do a partial hand recount that won’t change the outcome of this month’s decisive vote in favor of abortion rights after abortion opponents charged almost $120,000 to credit cards Monday to cover the cost. The Kansas secretary of state’s office said the recount will...
West Virginia governor: Voters shouldn’t decide abortion access issue
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice scoffed Monday at a suggestion by Democratic lawmakers to let voters decide whether abortion should continue to be allowed in the state. The Republican governor said the state’s abortion law falls under the scrutiny of the Legislature and the attorney general. During...
Expanded IRS free-file system one step closer in Democrats’ bill
WASHINGTON — The flagship climate change and health care bill passed by Democrats and soon to be signed by President Joe Biden will bring U.S. taxpayers one step closer to a government-operated electronic free-file tax return system. It’s something lawmakers and advocates have been seeking for years. For many Americans,...
Fetterman keeps attacking Oz for being from New Jersey. That’s resonating in parochial Pa.
There’s something about Pennsylvania’s political DNA that’s playing out in this year’s crucial Senate race. It’s not that we have one unifying statewide identity, but we are a state with lots of intense regional identities — that can oftentimes breed distrust of out-of-towners. People don’t say they’re from Pennsylvania. They...
Sinema took Wall Street money while killing tax on investors
WASHINGTON — Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona Democrat who single-handedly thwarted her party’s longtime goal of raising taxes on wealthy investors, received nearly $1 million over the past year from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists whose taxes would have increased under the plan. For years, Democrats...
House Democrats pass sweeping health care, tax and climate bill
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Friday passed a sweeping health care, tax and climate change bill. Now they have to sell it. The vote was 220-207, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans opposing. With the midterm elections quickly approaching, congressional Democrats have had a series of legislative...
Westmoreland GOP retains top leaders
With recent successes at the ballot box and increases on the voter registration rolls, Westmoreland County Republicans voted to keep the party’s leadership team in place for another two years. GOP committee members gathered at Hempfield Park on Thursday and reelected, without opposition, the party’s executive team for a second...
Fetterman plans ‘raw’ remarks in return to Pa. Senate race
ERIE — Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman is expected to open up about his personal health challenges as he officially returns to the campaign trail Friday, more than 90 days after the Democrat suffered a stroke that threatened his life and political prospects in one of the nation’s premier Senate...
Trump won’t object to release of Mar-a-Lago search warrant
WASHINGTON — A federal judge was to decide as soon as Friday whether to grant the Department of Justice’s request to unseal the warrant that authorized the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. Attorney General Merrick Garland declared there was “substantial public interest in this matter,” and...
Garland asks court to unseal warrant for Mar-a-Lago searchVideo
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is asking a federal court to unseal the warrant the FBI used to search the Mar-a-Lago estate of former President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday, acknowledging extraordinary public interest in the case about classified records. The request is striking because such documents...
Beto O’Rourke drops profanity on gun control heckler while discussing Uvalde shooting
DALLAS — Beto O’Rourke is defending the profanity he dropped Wednesday night while confronting a heckler who he said was laughing during his remarks about the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers. The incident occurred during a rally in Mineral Wells as O’Rourke began...
Trump’s bond with GOP deepens after primary wins, FBI search
NEW YORK — Donald Trump ‘s pick for governor in the swing state of Wisconsin easily defeated a favorite of the Republican establishment. In Connecticut, the state that launched the Bush family and its brand of compassionate conservatism, a fiery Senate contender who promoted Trump’s election lies upset the state...
Mehmet Oz scored a $50,000 annual tax break on his $3.1 million Montgomery County manor
PHILADELPHIA — When Mehmet Oz bought a bucolic farmhouse in Montgomery County last year, he not only acquired property in the state where he’s running for Senate, he also scored a $50,000-a-year tax break. While the purchase seemed designed to put to rest questions about Oz’s ties to the Keystone...
Allegheny County election officials debate future of ballot drop boxes, satellite voting centers
Allegheny County took several steps to address high voter turnout anticipated in the 2020 election, launching mail-in ballot information campaigns, satellite voting offices and ballot drop boxes, but those methods haven’t been brought back. At Wednesday’s Allegheny County Election Board meeting in Downtown Pittsburgh, Department of Administrative Services Director Jessica...
Donald Trump ‘took the Fifth.’ What does it actually mean?
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump showed up Wednesday for questioning under oath in New York’s civil investigation into his business practices. But he quickly made clear he wouldn’t be answering. The ex-president issued a statement saying he had done nothing wrong but was invoking the Fifth Amendment’s protection...
Trump says he took the 5th Amendment in New York investigationVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination as he testified under oath Wednesday in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings, the former president said in a statement. About an hour after arriving at Attorney General Letitia James’ Manhattan offices, Trump...
2 super PACs are pouring tens of millions into Pennsylvania for Oz and Fetterman ads
Pennsylvania was already expected to have one of the most expensive Senate races in the country. Now two super PACs are spending big bucks booking TV time. The Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC focused on reclaiming the Senate, will pour an additional $9.5 million into promoting Mehmet Oz’s...
What the FBI’s search of Trump’s home could mean for Pa. midterm elections
Pennsylvania Republican leaders on Tuesday expressed outrage over the FBI’s search of former President Trump’s Florida home, and said they think the incident will boost GOP voter turnout in the upcoming midterm elections. Democrats downplayed the potential political fallout, arguing that Democratic voters became more highly motivated to head to...
