W-B Mayor Seeks State Office

Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton announced his candidacy for the state Senate in the 14th District, setting up a primary battle with fellow Democrat state Rep. John Yudichak.

Leighton, 49, attracted a generous crowd on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. while making his announcement at Rodano’s on Public Square.

“It’s an opportunity now for me to take the experience I have as a legislator… and be able to help other communities throughout the district,” said Leighton

Leighton has been a member of city Council for more than 12 years and has held the position of Mayor for the last six years.

“This has been a very quick decision,” said Leighton, “Three weeks ago I had no intentions of running for Senate until Senator Musto announced his retirement, and here we are today.”

Leighton will run for the seat that long time Democrat Raphael Musto has held for 28 years. Musto, 80, of Pittston Township, recently announced that he will leave office on November 30, passing up an opportunity for re-election.

“I’m going to work very hard,” said Leighton. “The first thing I’d like to do is work on property tax reform because we cannot continue to tax people out of their homes.”

Leighton will be squaring off against fellow Democrat state Rep. John Yudichak who currently represents the 119th district in the May 18 primary.

Reported by Gino Troiani

A look back: PA’s Senate Race

Pennsylvania’s upcoming midterm election will be one of the most interesting in the country.

Facing a tough primary, moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter announced in April that he would be switching to the Democratic Party.

“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” said Specter.

Specter has since seen his poll numbers fluctuate and drop.

Yesterday, a new Rasmussen Reports poll showed Specter’s lead widening in the upcoming Democratic Senate primary against Rep. Joe Sestak, who represents PA’s 7th Congressional District.

Specter now leads Sestak 53% to 32%, which is an 8 point increase to Specter’s December lead of 48% to 35%.

Specter’s big challenge, assuming he wins the Democratic primary, will be Republican Pat Toomey, who represented PA’s 15th Congressional District from 1999 to 2005.

Toomey was squashing Specter in the polls before Specter switched his political affiliation.

An October Quinnipiac University poll showed that Specter closed in on Toomey’s lead, 43% to 42%.

However, a new Rasmussen Reports poll out today shows those numbers have shifted. Toomey now leads Specter by 9 points, 49% to 40%.

Sestak is actually polling better than Specter against Toomey. Sestak trails Toomey by 8 points, 43% to 35%.

There are enough undecided voters to make each Democratic candidate’s matchup against Toomey a tossup. However, the recent Republican win in Massachusetts’ special Senate election would lead many to think that the Democratic primary winner has an uphill battle to fight.

Check back for a summary of the races to represent the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts.

A look back: PA’s Gubernatorial Race

Before we move forward, let’s look back.

We want to be sure that we do not miss a beat when it comes to political news in Northeast Pennsylvania, but how do we cover the ground we’ve already missed? Well, we are going to be taking a look back at the past and see the state of the different races impacting NEPA though polls, announcements, tweets, and everything else we can get our hands on.

Let’s get started with PA’s gubernatorial race.

As of December 14, State Attorney General Tom Corbett was winning all matchups against his four possible Democratic challengers.

A Rasmussen Reports Poll found Corbett’s biggest challenge in State Auditor General Jack Wagner, who lost to Corbett in a matchup 43% to 30%. The same poll found Corbett’s next best challenger to be Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, who lost 44% to 28%. Former Congressman Joe Hoeffel gains 26% of a hypothetical vote to Corberr’s 48%. Our very own NEPA Mayor Chris Doherty, of Scranton, had the worst performance against Corbett. Doherty took 23% of a hypothetical vote to Corbett’s 46%.

With the race still months away and such a wide field of candidates, the race is still up in the air.

However, Corbett’s chances of being the Republican nominee increased when Rep. Jim Gerlach, who serves PA’s 6th Congressional District, dropped out of the Republican primary earlier this month and chose to run for reelection.

“Less than 24 hours ago, I announced that I was ending my campaign to become Pennsylvania’s next governor and would continue working hard each day serving the public,” Gerlach said on his website. “Almost immediately, hundreds of concerned constituents and long-time supporters made phone calls and sent e-mails urging me to consider running for Congress again and offering to help in any way they could to keep me in this seat.”

Pennsylvania is arguably one of the most interesting races heading into the 2010 election. Most political analysts are saying PA can go to either party.

Much of the uncertainty stems from the lengthy fight over the proposed health care legislation and the current political climate in the U.S.

Check back Wednesday for a recap of PA’s 2010 Senate race.

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Welcome to the PA Political Memo

Welcome to the PA Political Memo, The Beacon’s political blog!

This blog will be home to the latest news about politics in NEPA.

We will cover the local congressional races, the PA gubernatorial race, local politics, and everything in between.

Make sure you check back for updates and posts!