Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
City & State
Boy, has it been a week of confusion across the commonwealth. There are dueling Mike Doyles in Pittsburgh – one retiring from Congress, and one running for Congress. Meanwhile, state officials at the Department of Conservation & Natural Resources were forced to dispel myths that Bigfoot is roaming through Penn’s Woods, likely disappointing squatchers everywhere. Who knows? Maybe he’s still out there somewhere – just like the real Mike Doyle.
Scroll down for more of this week’s Winners & Losers!
David Ritter -
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a federal appeals court ruling that ordered Lehigh County to include undated mail ballots in its vote count for a 2021 race for the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas. Republican David Ritter, who brought the case, technically earned a judicial victory in the highest court in the country – no small feat. The bad news for Ritter? The ruling doesn’t change the results of the race, which Ritter conceded earlier this year. You win some, you lose some.
Josh Shapiro -
If Josh Shapiro is tired of counting money, he can probably start a new pastime: counting billboards. After Shapiro raised $25 million in the most recent fundraising period, he’s now receiving even more help in the state’s race for governor: from conservatives. The Republican Accountability PAC is erecting more than 30 billboards across the state to discourage voters from supporting Shapiro’s opponent, Doug Mastriano, as part of a $2 million effort to defeat the nominee. The mantra: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” holds true, yet again.
Wayne Fontana -
Props to state Sen. Wayne Fontana, who wasted little time ramping up pressure on his colleagues this week after 27 children and staff were hospitalized from carbon monoxide poisoning, suffered at an Allentown day care facility. In an email to his colleagues, Fontana called for lawmakers in the state House of Representatives to vote on his legislation, Senate Bill 129, which would require day care facilities to install battery-operated carbon monoxide detectors. That just makes sense.
Carrie Lewis DelRosso -
Republican lieutenant governor nominee Carrie Lewis DelRosso drew scorn this week when she refused to say whether or not she would accept the results of the state’s race for governor in November. “We’re not going to lose. I’m a winner,” DelRosso said, without saying she would accept the results. The quote is all the more striking considering that DelRosso’s running mate, Doug Mastriano, has developed a reputation for spreading false claims about the 2020 election.
Antonio Lamotta & Joshua Macias -
Antonio Lamotta and Joshua Macias, two Virginia men who were arrested for bringing guns near the Philadelphia Convention Center while vote counting was underway in 2020, were convicted of gun crimes this week after they brought firearms into the city without a permit. Although the two were acquitted of election interference and other charges, Lamotta may see additional consequences come his way, as he faces charges related to the Capitol riot, as well.
Katie Muth -
A new report alleges that state Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat from the southeast, referred to former Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine as a “mess in a dress,” according to unsworn testimony from a former Air Force major general. The allegation was first reported by the conservative news outlet Broad + Liberty, which noted that Muth did not confirm or deny the information in Major General Eric Weller’s testimony.