Health care $$$ to Altimire, others

Timothy McNulty | July 31, 2009

Nice story here from the WashPost on how the Blue Dog Democrats -- the group including Jason Altmire and Kathy Dahlkemper that has been pumping the breaks on Obama's health care package -- has been getting a lot of funding from the health care industry:

On June 19,  Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.

"The committees' draft falls short," the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose.

Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special "health-care industry reception," one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.

The roiling debate about health-care reform has been a boon to the political fortunes of Ross and 51 other members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who have become key brokers in shaping legislation in the House. Objections from the group resulted in a compromise bill announced this week that includes higher payments for rural providers and softens a public insurance option that industry groups object to. The deal also would allow states to set up nonprofit cooperatives to offer coverage, a Republican-generated idea that insurers favor as an alternative to a public insurance option.

At the same time, the group has set a record pace for fundraising this year through its political action committee, surpassing other congressional leadership PACs in collecting more than $1.1 million through June. More than half the money came from the health-care, insurance and financial services industries, marking a notable surge in donations from those sectors compared with earlier years, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity.

There is no mention of the Western Pa legislators in the story, but a look at their fundraising profiles at Open Secrets shows the health care industry gives Altmire (a former UPMC lobbyist) his second highest amount of funding (after labor groups). Labor leads for Dahlkemper as well, with health industries much farther down the list.

Poll trouble for H'burg

Timothy McNulty | July 31, 2009

Polling shows bad things for state legislators after the month-long state budget impasse, the Patriot-News says:

With approval ratings dipping to near the all-time low levels that followed the 2005 pay raise, state legislators might have to watch their backs next year. According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, the legislature's approval rating is at 27 percent -- a mere percentage point higher than it was months after the General Assembly voted themselves a pay raise at 2 a.m. on July 7, 2005.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the poll, taken from July 14-19, said they disapprove of the job the lawmakers are doing.

No doubt some of this is the economy spreading gloom over all incumbents, said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac's the polling institute. But some of this may have to do, in Pennsylvania, with this summer's long slog without a state budget.

"They... don't like the fact that the people they hired to do business can't pass a budget," said Brown.

. . . The 2005 pay hike episode was particularly bloody for lawmakers, leading to a turnover of a full one fifth of the General Assembly's 253 seats in the 2006 election cycle by retirement or defeat at the polls. While political scientists aren't predicting a similar mass exodus in November 2010, they say the 98 percent re-election rate once customary in Harrisburg is likely a thing of the past.

"A good bumper sticker would be 'remember the pay raise.' I don't see a good bumper sticker being 'remember the budget impasse.' It doesn't have the same street appeal," said Christopher Borick, a politics professor at Muhlenberg College.

Still, Borick and others think incumbent candidates will feel the heat from challengers running on the "anti-Harrisburg, the-legislature-is-out-of-touch platform."

"Legislators will run very scared next year," agreed political analyst G. Terry Madonna, of Franklin & Marshall College. "There will be deep concern by legislators in certain districts. They'll be looking over their shoulders."

The last great budget impasse in Pennsylvania in the summer of 1991 proved fairly insignificant at the polls the following year, when only seven incumbents were defeated.

Corbett still cruising

Timothy McNulty | July 30, 2009

According to internal polling from the Gerlach for Governor campaign, Tom Corbett is still far ahead of his rivals for the GOP nomination, though Gerlach (a suburban Philly congressman) has some reasons for hope.

From Pa2010:

State Attorney General Tom Corbett holds a significant lead over Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) in next year's gubernatorial primary, but Gerlach's political profile is one that voters may ultimately prefer when they go to the polls, according to an internal poll memo released Thursday by Gerlach's campaign.

Campaigns rarely release internal polling data that doesn't show them winning outright, but Gerlach is clearly looking to build the perception that his experience as a legislator is preferable to his two primary opponents. Corbett and former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan have backgrounds in law enforcement, not day-to-day governance.

The poll memo from Wilson Research Strategies offered few specifics about how questions were asked, making its findings difficult to fully assess. In a survey of 600 likely GOP primary voters conducted in June, the poll memo said, Corbett "not unexpectedly" led the field with 39 percent of the vote, compared 11 percent for Gerlach and 7 percent for Meehan.

But as it has done in recent weeks, the Gerlach campaign sought to focus on Corbett's inability to break the 50 percent barrier even after winning two statewide elections. And in asking respondents questions about what kind of candidate they would prefer, the poll memo said, voters opted for a lawmaker over a prosectuor. Though the questions asked were not provided, the poll memo said that "based on their biographies alone," 53 percent of respondents chose Gerlach, 26 percent backed Corbett and 13 percent supported Meehan.

The memo also said Gerlach leads in the vote-rich Philadelphia area with 25 percent of the vote, compared to 20 percent for Corbett and 14 percent for Meehan.

Gerlach only recently made his candidacy official, and since then has been seeking to build his name recognition outside of southeast Pennsylvania.

A PDF of the poll is here.

Another Rooney into fray

Timothy McNulty | July 30, 2009

Yesterday we talked about Dan Rooney convincing the Irish to take Gitmo prisoners. Today there's more news on the Rooney political front from Politico:

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney parlayed his support for President Obama into an Ambassadorship to Ireland. His nephew, Tom Rooney, won election to the House from South Florida last year.

And now another Rooney is looking to get into politics. Roll Call's Shira Toeplitz reports that attorney Brian Rooney - Tom's brother - is exploring his own candidacy as a Republican against Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.). And he could self-finance a campaign (though Rep. Rooney spent only $70,000 of his own money on his race.)

Rooney would be facing the prospect of a tough primary if he ran. Former GOP congressman Tim Walberg, who lost to Schauer last year, has already announced his candidacy.

President Obama carried the Battle Creek-based district with 52 percent of the vote, though it has traditionally supported Republicans for federal office.

RedState questions UPMC appointee

Timothy McNulty | July 30, 2009

Leading right-wing blogger Erick Erickson at RedState -- a speaker at next month's RightOnline conference at Station Square -- files this post questioning the ties between a Homeland Security appointee from Pittsburgh and Jack Murtha. The appointee, Tara O'Toole, is up for a Senate confirmation vote today:

[Today], the United States Senate's Homeland Security Committee just might vote Tara O'Toole out of committee and send her to the floor for confirmation.

The committee may want to look again. Nominated by Janet Napolitano, there is a late breaking disparity in Ms. O'Toole's testimony - disparate enough to suggest she is hiding some very close times to John Murtha. And the tangled web of lobbyists, high dollars, and corruption just might infiltrate the Department of Homeland Security.

Ms. O'Toole is the head of the very well respected Center for Biosecurity. According to written testimony to the United States Senate on June 10, 2009, in response to a question about ties between Ms. O'Toole's Center for Biosecurity and a group called the Alliance for Biosecurity, Ms. O'Toole told the Senate

the Alliance for Biosecurity [is] a group initiated by the Center for Biosecurity in 2006. . . . The Center for Biosecurity receives no money from any member of the Alliance and funds all costs associated with running the Alliance out of our philanthropic funds. No biotech or pharmaceutical firm provides the Center with financial support of any kind.

Odd, in new written testimony to the Senate - testimony not even fully publicly available - Ms. O'Toole now claims there are no "financial connections" between the Center for Biosecurity and the Alliance for Biosecurity. In fact, Ms. O'Toole now disavows all connections between the Center and Alliance.

Why?

Well, let's follow the money.Joel McCleary is a founding partner of Four Seasons Ventures. He is also a founder and company director at PharmAthene.

James Ervin, another founder of Four Seasons Ventures, also lobbies for PharmAthene. Four Seasons Ventures is invested in PharmAthene.

Ervin is a central figure in Murtha's world. Those seeking access and money from Congressman Murtha go through Ervin.

McCleary is an advisor to a proposed manufacturing facility the Department of Defense and HHS plan to build in Murtha's district and also to the Center for Biosecurity, which is connected to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

Here is where O'Toole comes back in.

UPMC is a primary funder of the Center for Bioscience, in addition to being its founder.

O'Toole runs the place, McCleary sits on the board, and Ervin gets money flowing to PharmAthene and various other projects.

In turn, O'Toole tells the Senate that PharmAthene is on the board of the Alliance for Bioscience and, in fact, chairs the Alliance from what I've been told. But O'Toole, remember, having first testified to direct financial ties between the Alliance and the Center, now says there are none.

More troubling, O'Toole says she is in no way connected to $30,000.00 in contributions flowing to Murtha from UPMC academics all in one day, but O'Toole just so happened to also give a large sum to Murtha on the exact same day. O'Toole says she was not aware that colleagues of hers at UPMC were all pooling money to give to Murtha on the exact same day she too gave the largest contribution she'd ever given to him.

More troubling, it appears that PharmAthene, UPMC, the Center, and the Alliance all have common ties to Murtha through a lobbying group - an issue as yet unexplored by the Senate.

There are way too many coincidences and way too many inescapable conclusions to think anything other than O'Toole is scrambling to hide some very troubling ties to John Murtha.

The Senate should dig further before voting on Ms. O'Toole.

Here's the PG's story on her appointment from May.

Here's a profile from WhoRunsGov.

(H/T to GrassrootsPa)

Rooney, Dan Rooney

Timothy McNulty | July 29, 2009

Dan Rooney has always been a problem-solver extraordinaire -- brokering deals with unions and getting new commissioners hired, not to mention steering the sale of his family's team through a recession -- but this is ridiculous.

Now he's convincing the Irish to take some Gitmo prisoners off of US hands. From the NYT:

PARIS - As the Obama administration struggles to fulfill a pledge to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba, the Irish justice minister, Dermot Ahern, said Wednesday that his country would accept two prisoners from the facility for resettlement, one of the few European nations to do so.

In a statement in Dublin, Mr. Ahern said the decision followed a visit to the camp by Irish officials last week. The agreement was confirmed Wednesday when Mr. Ahern met the newly arrived American ambassador, Dan Rooney, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

. . . While the Irish authorities did not identify the detainees, The Associated Press quoted two government officials with knowledge of the case as saying both men are Uzbek nationals. One, Oybek Jabbarov, 31, has been the focus of several months' campaigning by Irish human rights groups seeking to bring him to Ireland, The A.P. reported, saying that the officials who provided the information spoke on condition of anonymity because they were breaching the government's official position.

Work ahead

Timothy McNulty| July 29, 2009

Progress Pittsburgh gathers up some new takes on this fall's mayor's race:

We have been trying to keep tabs on the Race for PGH 2009 here and noticed that there are some interesting posts from not the usual political bloggers about the upcoming mayoral race.  Here are a few of the new blogs who are stepping into the Pittsburgh political blogosphere...

• Politics and Place - A Rare Foray into the Political: If He Loses, This is How He'd Lose
  • Let me be perfectly honest. I don't think Luke will lose. But, I think he couldlose. And if he does, this is how he would lose:
• What Would Vannevar Blog - G-20 in Pittsburgh: Luke's Real-World Moment
  • If I may, the conditions described set the stage but don't ring the bell; they'renecessary but insufficient. For Luke to not be elected, there needs to be an event, either (1) a significant, understandable scandal (a bag of cash rather than complex financial derivatives), or (2) an obvious failure of leadership attributed to the Mayor's office.Holy Cow, Batman! What's that? The G-20 in Pittsburgh on September 24 and 25th? Zowie!
• Pittsburgh Polemics - The Mayor's Race: Strange Football Connections
  • Luke Ravenstahl, the incumbent mayor, rode along with the Pittsburgh Steelers during their Super Bowl Victory parade last February. Camcorder in hand, looking somewhat dwarfed beneath the Steeler's Quarterback, "Big Ben" Roethlisberger.

Specter: I'm "consistent" on card check

Timothy McNulty  | July 29, 2009

Arlen Specter writes a brief letter to the Inquirer today, saying it's "incorrect" to say his stance on card-check has shifted:

Kevin Ferris' column analyzes my work on labor-law reform legislation ("Card check: Watch the good senator tiptoe," Sunday).

I have no hesitancy in stating my own views. I have voted to have the Senate consider the modification of labor law to reform the way unions are certified and to provide procedures for negotiating first contracts.

Earlier this year, I made a floor statement opposing giving up the secret ballot and suggesting the last-best-offer procedure on arbitration. My views on this subject have been consistent, and suggestions to the contrary by those intending to run against me are incorrect.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.)

Here's Dan Hirshhorn's take at Pa2010:

Only Specter knows what his true views are, and while they may be consistent, his actions on the legislation have been anything but. An original co-sponsor of the bill, he said he wouldn't support it earlier this spring as he faced a challenging GOP primary. After switching parties, he gradually softened his stance, and with Senate leaders working to strip the controversial "card-check" provision from the legislation, he has increasingly told labor leaders he will back an ammended version.

Here's Webster's definition of "consistent":

a: marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity : free from variation or contradiction <a consistent style in painting> b: marked by agreement : compatible -usually used with with<statements not consistent with the truth> c: showing steady conformity to character, profession, belief, or custom <a consistent patriot>

Never mind

Timothy McNulty | July 28, 2009

News Alert!!!!

A Philadelphia TV station led off its noon news today by saying Arlen Specter is going through chemotherapy again . . . except he's not.

Specter acutally said -- at the Sotomayor committee vote today -- that his eyes were watery due to previous chemo. (This has happened to him before -- he mentioned the same thing at a Pittsburgh news conference I covered earlier this month, and sure enough, he had to dab away tears two or three times while speaking.)

Here's a blog post from the Inquirer:

A mention by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter about undergoing chemotherapy treatment today inadvertantly created the impression he was receiving treatment again, leading the noon newscast of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia..

At a Judiciary Committee hearing at which it approved Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, Specter said he had watery eyes due to chemotherapy.

He went on to say that he was "not infirm in any way" and was going ahead with plans to seek re-election.

His office said the chemotherapy in question was last year. WPVI corrected its newscast.

Specter: "wise Latina" commendable

Timothy McNulty | July 28, 2009

Politico's Glenn Thrush wraps up Arlen Specter's comments on Sonia Sotomayor, Robert Bok and "wise Latina" today:

Arlen Specter, the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, saved his most interesting Sonia Sotomayor comments for last -- applauding her "wise Latina" comment but criticizing the "caution" that has defined Supreme Court confirmations since Robert Bork back in '87.

He also said he was "pretty sure" Sotomayor would vote to preserve abortion rights, based on her respect for Roe v. Wade as precedent.

Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat, was relegated to the end of the podium this morning, but offered a cogent, concise post-game wrap-up moments before the committee approved her nomination 13-6.

"I didn't find fault with the 'wise Latina' comment, I find it commendable," said Specter, the first Senator to flat-out endorse her controversial comment, adding: "There's nothing wrong with a little ethnic pride."

That said, he added: "The one regret I have about Judge Sotomayor's testimony was her extreme caution" and said it was spurred by the mis perception that Bork was ambushed 22 years ago by liberal activists.

"The myth was that he was 'Borked' -- I don't know if that's a verb or a participle -- except I know it's no true," said Specter, whose "no" vote as a Republican helped doomed Bork.

"Judge Bork answered a great many questions because of his writings and his background. He believed in 'original intent' and he didn't believe the protection clause extended behind race and ethnicity -- [that it] did not apply to women... He did not believe in due process of law."

Video here.