This election cycle, I helped organize a group of students to volunteer for the Democratic Party in my town. I go to school at Juniata College, a small liberal arts school in Huntingdon, PA. It also happens to be one of the reddest areas of the state, yet through our campus organizing effort we were able to pull off a Democratic GOTV effort that was unprecedented for our town.  

I am so proud of my fellow Pennsylvanian's.
Our long nightnare is over.
This man cared about no one in our state but the Conservatives who shared his views.
He never talked to you, he talked down to you, just like his ex-boss.

Goodbye MR. Santorium

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/elect ion06/15537-1.html
Rubber Ducks Quack About Santorum's Environmental Record

Wednesday, Oct. 18; 4:25 pm

As if he doesn't have enough enemies, embattled Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has now earned the enmity of rubber ducks.

A handful of the yellow toys are the stars of a new anti-Santorum TV ad being aired by National Wildlife Action, the political arm of the National Wildlife Federation.

In the ad, one of the ducks swims erratically around a pond while his friends wonder what's wrong. Turns out, the duck ate a fish laden with mercury poisoning.

The ducks, who sound a little like Jackie Gleason and Ed Norton, agree that their habitat has gotten too polluted and contemplate an escape.

"Before they leave," a narrator chimes in, "call Rick Santorum and tell him to quit ducking the realities of global warming and mercury poisoning."

All public polls have shown the two-term Senator trailing state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. (D).

-- Josh Kurtz

Duck Duck Gone - watch our new ad in Pennsylvania calling on Senator Santorum to stop ducking the realities of mercury pollution and global warming. The ad is designed to encourage Pennsylvanians to call Rick Santorum about his stand on these issues. In particular, the ad speaks to the state's 2.3 million hunters and anglers who are growing more concerned about wildlife threats everyday.

Check it out at http://www.nwa.org or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=145LeBWUw 3o

National Wildlife Action, an advocacy and grassroots action organization, has produced a 30 second television ad that will be airing around the state.

Cross-posted from Pennsylvania Senate 2006
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As this piece from yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer details, this year's Pennsylvania Senate race appears to have stalled. Casey is running out the clock with a Rose Garden campaign and raising money at a furious pace so he can keep up with Santorum's media buys. Meantime, Santorum is throwing everything he can think of at his challenger - corruption, immigration, the charge that Casey is simply trying to inherit political success from his famous father - in the hopes that something sticks. So far, nothing has, and the incumbent is in the doldrums, with poll numbers that have never risen above the low 40s.

Expect fireworks this Thursday in Pittsburgh, as the candidates meet for the first of three remaining debates. Santorum should make a play to raise the temperature on the comfortable Democratic frontrunner, and we'll have a chance to see whether or not Casey can take the heat. Personally, I expect only the best from Casey - if nothing else, he's shown an amazing ability to stay on message and to respond quickly and effectively to all of Santorum's attacks. It should be good.

Oh, and don't forget -- superstar Illinois Senator Barack Obama does an event with Casey in Pittsburgh this Wednesday.

--NCProsecutor

Sometime a year or two ago, Ray Murphy and I had lunch at the Reading Terminal, one of Philly's big meeting places.  He said he wanted to get my opinion on something and voila!, he brought out a proposal that he made to start a group called Philadelphians Against Santorum.  Basically he was going to create a turnout machine, based on voter-to-voter contact, all designed to crush Santorum.

I was impressed by the idea.  But I am also impressed by someone wanting to invent a cookie tree.  Some things you just don't think are realistic.  Anyway, I gave it very little chance to actually happen.  Not because I doubted Ray, but it just seemed like a bizarrely big task, that I couldn't see someone simply deciding to do.

Well, I was wrong.

[Cross-posted at DailyKos]

I reported two weeks ago today that Rep. Melissa Hart, Rick Santorum's evil twin sister in Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, conducted a poll 3 weeks earlier (5, at this point) but had yet to release the results.

Now we know why: she is petrified of what she found.

According to a new poll conducted for Jason Altmire, Hart's Democratic challenger, by Anzalone-Liszt Research, Altmire is now at 48-44 - in favor of Hart, but within the 4.9% margin of error.

So you're Rep. Melissa Hart, an incumbent House representative who has molded herself in the image of Sen. Rick Santorum and who has even been his regular campaign compadre over the past decade and a half. You have easily won the past few races in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, albeit one that is more culturally conservative. You had weak opponents who raised no money.

But it's a little bit different here in 2006. The climate for Republicans is, shall we say, troubling. It's edging closer to the November elections. The last independent poll showed that your Democratic opponent, Jason Altmire, was actually in striking distance, at 55 to 39 percent. And he achieved that with literally no media presence and limited name recognition.

Even so, you're an incumbent who has managed to stay under the "culture of corruption" radar. CW would say, "Results should be highly in my favor. Double digits most likely." Conventional wisdom just might be wrong.