I had the pleasure of speaking with Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor Valerie McDonald Roberts here in PA last night on the phone for forty-five minutes after a long day on the campaign trail which didn't end for her until well after sunset. The race is for the #2 spot in the 6th most populated state in the country and she's a very progressive/liberal person with a progressive political agenda. This position could be called a vanity position, but not with a person like McDonald Roberts at the post. Seeing progressive candidates in statewide races gives me hope and a sense that all is not lost. We've still got some great candidates to fight for.

McDonald Robert is currently in her fifth year as the Allegheny County [Pittsburgh's county] Recorder of Deeds and prior to that she served on the Pittsburgh City Council and was a member of the Pittsburgh School Board. Her background also includes experience as a teacher, small business owner, Fortune 500 employee, mother and chemist. She'd love to serve the state as an elected official and bring her progressive agenda to the other 11+ million residents of Pennsylvania.

I recieved two letters via email today concerning what's going on in the Democratic Party here in Philadelphia. The Dem leadership of this city is worried. They are panicking. They are calling the people who want to get involved in the Democratic process "outsiders" and "Republicans" and I know I may be an outsider, but I am no Republican outsider. Following are the two letters in their entirety.

He's not well-known. His name sounds like Pinocchio. He's a teacher. He doesn't have money... All of those things have been said about my candidate for US Senate Chuck Pennacchio. Well, fuck that shit.

OpEdNews.com commissioned Zogby International [the biggest pollster there is] to poll Pennsylvanians about the issues at stake. The Senate race, Alito, paper ballots, W, the War... The results are in and the analysis has begun.

The Santorum Casey race: When people find out about candidate positions on key issues Casey plummets from a twelve point lead to a dead heat, with a non-significant two point lead.

I thought I'd take a look at the Lynn Swann campaign page to see what this guy's about and if he's gonna be in town and what his issues are. First off, I think that's a goofy banner. What's the deal with that red PA [I get the red part] graphic cutting into Swann in between the "A" and the first "N" - weird looking.

The Calendar. Ha. Nothing planned between today and April 17, 2006, the last day to register before the Republican Primary. I know that he only announced the first week of January, but come f***ing on. Have some kind of schedule laid out for people to be able to try to see what you're about. I will say that even having a 'calendar' page is better than what Bob Casey has put on his site - he doesn't have any upcoming dates that I could see.

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Well, it's been a week and Joe Hoeffel has his latest post up now. I responded to his last post [on the 2006 PA races] here. Why do I continue to go after Hoeffel? Because he really let me down. How? He slunk away from this race, seemingly told to do so by the Rendell-Schumer-Reid trio, and stepped in line behind their candidate Bob Casey Jr. when there was a more progressive candidate already out there, Chuck Pennacchio.

Way back when I interviewed Joe Hoeffel, I had a feeling he wouldn't be posting very often and it's turned out to be true. He posted today with his seventh post in nine weeks. I'd comment more over there more, but it's annoying to have comments posted on an approval-by-webmaster basis. So, I post this here.

He wrote:

Bob [Casey Jr.] spoke today at an event at my law firm...

I don't have a problem with Casey Jr. speaking at a law firm. But it seems that it's stops like this that are the only ones he's making and I think that's shitty. I haven't heard or read of a single account of him showing up at a grassroots event. A Meetup. A Drinking Liberally. A rally. There's nothing wrong with raising money. There is something wrong with not talking to the people.

While I may not agree with everything Albert says here, the picture below is funny, and, I am thrilled for YPP to continue to grow as a place for progressives of all stripes to debate and network...Click read more to see it all. -Dan