Pennsylvania has been a political mess, off and on, for a very long time, going back to colonial times. It is not for nothing that it is known politically as Pennsyltucky, or as strategist James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, pointedly describes it
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.
It is not only in the Presidential election that Pennsylvania may be critical.
Apr 20, 2024 — The Republicans' House majority is so slim that Democrats need to flip just four seats to retake control.
the 1st Congressional District that [fourth-term Republican Rep. Brian] Fitzpatrick represents is one of 16 districts nationwide that Democrat Joe Biden carried in the 2020 presidential election where voters also sent Republicans to Washington.
This Year
Jan. 6
Jun 6, 2024 — Multiple Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives walked out on and booed two former U.S. Capitol police officers
The problem is that it’s in the courtroom and not the legislature.
That could make the most populous presidential swing state a hotbed of challenges and conspiracy theories if the November election is close, as expected.
Pennsylvania is seeing lots of action targeting gaps in its vote-by-mail laws.
How some Pennsylvania Republicans are using a congressional race to protest GOP extremism
The target? Six-term Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry, a faithful Trump ally who spread lies that the 2020 election was stolen.
Chaos is nothing new in Pennsylvania politics.
Republican 'Chaos' in Pennsylvania Threatens to Upend the Midterms
The New York Times
Dec 19, 2023 — Infighting and a baseless presidential impeachment inquiry took center stage over meaningfully addressing the budget, the southern border, [further content paywalled]
Jan 24, 2023 — In one deep-red pocket of rural Pennsylvania, three warring factions each claim to represent the Republican Party.
‘I felt bad for McCarthy’: Pennsylvania swing voters react to chaos on Capitol Hill
York County Republican Delegation Pennsylvania House of Representatives Media Contact: Greg Gross 717.260.6374 ggross@pahousegop.com. Share. District Office.
Oct. 05, 2023
Jan 13, 2023 — Rozzi shut down the House after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach agreement on a proposed constitutional amendment giving adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse the retroactive right to sue in civil court.
Oct 4, 2023 — “If we vacate the chair, the government will shut down. Our credit rating will go down; interest rates will go up,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican known for working with Democrats, warned hours before the vote to oust McCarthy. “Ukraine will be victimized and lose that war to Russia. That is what is at stake here. Not to mention the institutional erosion that will occur.”
Jan 18, 2023 —“The General Assembly has a unique opportunity to stand firmly on the side of survivors of child sexual abuse and to start the session off with a genuine show of bipartisanship. The time to act is now,” House Democratic spokesperson Nicole Reigelman said.
“It is disappointing that the most basic organizational issues continue to obstruct the work of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,” House Republicans volleyed back.
2022
Republican ‘Chaos’ in Pennsylvania Threatens to Upend the Midterms
May 16, 2022 — The G.O.P. thought it had 2022 all figured out. Then along came Kathy Barnette and Doug Mastriano.
Dec 26, 2022 — The state House is a mess, with each side claiming they are in the majority and Republicans potentially passing amendments after Democrats won more seats.
Oct 7, 2022 — A court decision finding no explicit right in Pennsylvania to “cure” absentee ballots rejected due to minor paperwork mistakes.
WATCH: Mastriano's [primary] victory throws Pa.'s election into chaos. @chucktodd: “Every single Republican in Pennsylvania … is going to be asked if they're okay with handing the keys to overseeing the 2024 election to a person who tried to invalidate a free and fair election in 2020.”
Apr 12, 2022 — A whiplash-inducing day in the GOP primary for governor showed that Trump continues to dictate the terms of the campaign.
Jul 19, 2022 — HARRISBURG – As Pennsylvania's elections continue to operate in disarray, Rep. Seth Grove (R-York), chairman of the House State Government ...
May 17, 2022 — In Pennsylvania: “David Bergstein, the communications director at the Democratic Senate campaign committee, said that Trump's meddling in G.O.P. primaries was having an even greater effect on the Republican Party than many Democrats had anticipated.
Oct 12, 2022 — A US Supreme Court order involving the counting of undated mail ballots in Pennsylvania risks a chaotic post-election in a state with a ...
2021
The Pennsylvania Senate's swearing-in ceremony devolved into a contentious scene when Republican state senators refused to seat a Democratic ...
CNN · Jan 5, 2021
Aug 10, 2021 — Doug Mastriano to reverse his demand that Tioga and two other counties turn over election records and equipment to the Intergovernmental ...
Jan 7, 2021 — The eight GOP members – Lloyd Smucker, Fred Keller, Glenn Thompson, Guy Reschenthaler, Scott Perry, Mike Kelly, John Joyce and Dan Meuser ...
Jan 5, 2021 — Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Senate have refused to seat a Democrat elected in November because of a lawsuit brought by his ...
The Pennsylvania Senate's swearing-in ceremony devolved into a chaotic scene when state GOP senators refused to seat a Democratic member who ...
CNN · Jan 5, 2021
Pennsylvania's Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman was temporarily forced out of presiding over the state Senate Tuesday as tempers erupted ...
Jan 6, 2021 — Supporters of President Donald Trump protest outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, a day after the ...
Jan 7, 2021 — Jeff Stroehmann, a former Lyoming County Republican Committee chair, who was among a busload of 55 people who headed to Washington to protest ...
Jan 7, 2021 — Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania also released a very strong statement calling Trump … a demagogue and said that even though he had voted for ...
Jan 5, 2021 — The Republican majority refused to seat Jim Brewster, whose challenger Nicole Ziccarelli is disputing the already certified election.
Jan 6, 2021 — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley says he is going forward with his objection to the Electoral College results in Pennsylvania despite the violent ...
2020
Aug 17, 2020 — As more states offer mail-in voting, there's an increased chance that the winner of the presidential election will not be revealed on Nov.
Oct 1, 2020 — Voters in Pennsylvania who request an absentee ballot but decide to vote in person are playing into Trump's hands, Lt. Gov.
Sep 27, 2020 — Pennsylvania is shaping up to be the epicenter for election disputes in 2020, with both parties waging aggressive legal and political fights ...
Oct 5, 2020 — It's all coming to a head with early voting already underway and Election Day about four weeks away. Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes are ...
Nov 2, 2020 — Pennsylvania's Democratic governor and Republican legislature will both deserve blame for hurtling the country toward a potential election ...
Oct 20, 2020 — As a perennial presidential battleground, its 20 electoral college votes—decided by just 44,292 votes in 2016—always attract the spotlight. But ...
Older
Jun 26, 2019 — They laid the blame at the feet of Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who they said failed to enforce parliamentary rules against members of ...
Jun 25, 2019 — The embattled leader of the Pennsylvania GOP has resigned amid a #MeToo scandal, throwing the party into further upheaval
Mar 8, 2018 — In the departure of chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, exasperated Republicans see a troublesome Trump trifecta: personnel, policy and political chaos that GOP leaders increasingly fear is turning an already difficult midterm election year disastrous.
Historical
William Penn and his Quaker colonists in Philadelphia got off to a good start with the native population, mostly, until the French and Indian War. Then they were the center of the Revolution, and the first home of the later Congress. See American Aurora for a newspaper editor locked up, with President Washington’s approval, for printing true stories about Congressional doings in Philadelphia. Then there was the Whiskey Rebellion.
... [Democratic-]Republicans voted alongside the Federalists (always keen to strengthen the Navy...
The Federalists were in a downward slide after 8 years of implacable hostility to President Thomas Jefferson. Getting on the wrong side of the War of 1812 from the public sealed their doom, and they vanished completely from politics in 1815. We today might draw some parallels there.