Progress Pittsburgh

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-10

links — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:06:00 +0000

RT @PittsburghPost: Hafer drops out of race to replace Murtha: State Treasurer Barbara Hafer announced this morning that she is withd…… #
RT @REIHQ: Pittsburgh unveils plans for Allegheny Riverfront: Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and the Urban Redevelopment Authority pre…… #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-03

links — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:06:00 +0000

anyone going to Chelsa Wagner's snow removal town hall this eve? #
RT @Bram_R: My question is: were the bad checks related to the Shop N' Save or to some other property? #Dzamkogate #
does anyone know who is behind this new blog about @dan_onorato "Dan's Land Of Make Believe" http://ow.ly/1dr43 #

The Pittsburgh Hoagie: All Meat, No Filler – Is Now All Gone

committeegrrl — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:53:07 +0000

Photo from The Pittsburgh Hoagie Sidebar

We were hoping that some of the usual Pittsburgh political bloggers would be following the Jeff Dzamko story. Dzamko is a good friend of Luke Ravenstahl who was just arrested on Friday for an outstanding bench warrant from 2008 on some bad checks.

Former Spring Garden Activist Arrested – Post-Gazette, February 27, 2010

Since the Pittsburgh Comet’s retirement last month – we are running out of political blogs to follow. We stopped by the Pittsburgh Hoagie to see if Matt H had anything to say about the situation. Matt is passionate about helping his neighborhood – we would like to some of his past posts – but his entire blog has been taken down. We thought he might have some interesting commentary about Jeff Dzamko and Spring Garden.

But word on the street is that Matt H is now working for councilman Bruce Kraus and apparently no longer blogging. We kind of miss his blog posts.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-24

links — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:06:00 +0000

Increased filing fees surprise some Dems http://ow.ly/18N3m #
be a fan of Progress Pittsburgh on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Progress-Pittsburgh/315734366106 #
Making Great Government Web sites – Nextgov http://ow.ly/19D4F #

Tweeting for Your Vote – Following Candidates for PA Governor on Twitter

engagedcitizen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:44:42 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

Yesterday the Triadvocate (the blog from the folks at Triad Strategies) had a post about which of the candidates in PA is leading in tweets and followers. They have a detailed list of candidates in PA for many offices with how many followers and tweets have been posted. Also, Huffington Post links to a LA Times article about congressional representatives who use twitter.

So we thought it might be helfpul to create a Twitter list and ticker for the candidates for PA governor.
You can see all of the candidates Twitter accounts that are included below here: http://twitter.com/progresspgh/pa-gov-2010-candidates

Be a Fan and Follow Progress Pittsburgh

p2wp — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:38:35 +0000

We are moving up in the social media world – you can now be our fan on Facebook and follow Progress Pittsburgh on Twitter @ProgressPGH.

Progress Pittsburgh on Facebook

The Debate Over Filing Fees

engagedcitizen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:20:03 +0000

The Allegheny County Democratic Committee is raising the fee for candidates for State Legislature to file for the ACDC endorsement (PG article). Apparently, the fees were too low, allowing for widespread competition (i.e. democracy). Perhaps this is a delayed reaction to the Clean Sweep movement of 2006 or perhaps its just good, old-fashioned old boys’ network scheming.

As citizens consider whether to be offended or indifferent to this development, they might consider the following information in their cost-benefit analysis.

Here are some ideas or what $3,000 could buy you in a State House race instead of filing for the endorsement:

* all the yard signs, buttons, ans t-shirts you would need for the entire campaign
* 3 part-time field staff for the final month
* phones and paid poll workers for election day
* printing and postage for a nice direct mail piece to supervoters
* rent for campaign office for at least 3 months
* production and decent run on a radio ad
* color walk lit for most of campaign
* paid voter identification calls to your district

So, even if you were to WIN the ACDC endorsement, does your $3,000 get you close to the value of any of those things?

From today’s Harrisburg Online…

politicalspy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:04:12 +0000

Governor Ed Rendell has set a Special Election for the May 18th Primary Election Day to fill the unexpired term of the late Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Johnstown…Republicans and Democratic Party officials each will nominate a candidate for the May ballot to fill out the term…in addition to the election for the rest of Murtha’s term, voters will be asked to select Democratic and Republican candidates for the November election to a full term for the Congressional seat…if the Party leaders are good at their jobs, they will figure out a way to pick a candidate to fill the seat ’til January – a man or woman who stands a good chance of winning the Party Primaries on the same day…this is going to be very interesting…

Mary Beth Buchanan – former U. S. Attorney for Pennsylvania’s Western District – has filed papers to run as a Republican against incumbent Democratic CongressmanJason Altmire…she has yet to make a formal announcement…three others – Bob Klein, Keith Rothfus and John Vinsick – already have announced intentions to seek the Republican nomination…

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty holds a news conference this morning to announcehe is dropping out of the Democratic Primary for Governor and instead seek the Party nomination to succeed the retiring State Senate Floor Leader Bob Mellow…the Democratic contest for the gubernatorial nomination continues forward without formal Party endorsement…State Auditor General Jack Wagner won a majority of the endorsement votes but fell short of the required two-thirds of the votes for endorsement…more and more the race is looking like a struggle between Wagner and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato…

Harrisburg Online is a publication of Greenlee Partners, LLC. (It tends to be conservative-leaning but provides good information.)

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-17

links — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:06:00 +0000

RT @bobmayo: Snow comment? *No* citizens turned up for City Council's public comment time. (They don't normally meet on Thursdays; that… #
RT @woycheck: Ravenstahl and Zober = Thelma and Louise? #
just posted about #whereisluke http://progresspittsburgh.net/2010/02/16/is-luke-lost-again/ w/ tweets from @bram_r @janepitt @andybotpgh #
Endorsements for Governor: Pennsylvania Restaurant Association – Jack Wagner; United Steelworkers – Dan Onorato (from Harrisburg Online) #
Democratic Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty drops gubernatorial bid – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://ow.ly/18qWI #

2010 Election Dates

engagedcitizen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:36:41 +0000

Yesterday marks the first day of petition circulation for the 2010 primary elections. Thought it might be helpful to post the inportant election dates for 2010.

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
BUREAU OF COMMISSIONS, ELECTIONS AND LEGISLATION
2010 PENNSYLVANIA ELECTIONS
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

First day to circulate and file nomination petitions ……………………… February 16
Last day to circulate and file nomination petitions ……………………… March 9
First day to circulate and file nomination papers ………………………… March 10
Last day for withdrawal by candidates who filed nomination petitions ….. March 24
Last day to REGISTER before the primary ……………………………… April 19
Last day to apply for a civilian absentee ballot …………………………. May 11
Last day for County Board of Elections to receive voted civilian………. May 14
absentee ballots
PRIMARY ………………………………………………………………. May 18
First day to REGISTER after primary …………………………………… May 19
Last day for County Board of Elections to receive voted military and…… May 25
overseas absentee ballots (must be postmarked no later than May 17)
Last day to circulate and file nomination papers ………………………… August 2
Last day for withdrawal by candidates nominated by nomination papers August 9
Last day for withdrawal by candidates nominated at the primary ……… August 9
Last day to REGISTER before the NOVEMBER election ……………… October 4
Last day to apply for a civilian absentee ballot ………………………… October 26
Last day for County Boards of Elections to receive voted civilian……… October 29
absentee ballots
GENERAL ELECTION ….………………………………………….. November 2
First day to REGISTER after November election ……………………….. November 3
Last day for County Board of Elections to receive voted military and…… November 9
overseas absentee ballots (must be postmarked no later than November 1)

Note: All dates in this calendar are subject to change without notice.

The link to the PDF with this information is – http://www.dos.state.pa.us/elections/lib/elections/030_important_dates/2010.pdf