Winners and losers – August 2016

Winners

Katie McGinty

The real-life Chauncey Gardner of political candidates has, incredibly, overtaken Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in the polls. Turns out that Toomey’s fence-sitting on whether or not he supports the, uh, colorful candidacy of Donald Trump isn’t providing him any cover from the encroaching trumpster fire.

Bruce Castor

Less than 15 minutes after he became the default Attorney General, thanks to the merciful end of Kathleen Kane’s political career (more on that in a second), Castor had plastered his face all over the offical Facebook and Twitter accounts of the AG’s office. An official replacement was named a day later, but points for getting some exposure.

John Rafferty

What pumps up a Republican AG candidate’s electoral prospects more than a Democratic AG catching a felony charge?

Fernando Gallard

After 13 years of serving as the human punching bag for the troubled School District of Philadelphia, Gallard has called it quits to start his own consulting firm (of course), where he will likely have to deal with considerably fewer angry reporters. 

Philly Police Commissioner Richard Ross

A tense Democratic National Convention could have gone straight to the Bernie bros and been a reprise of the 2000 RNC arrest fest, were it not for the restraint of the Ross’ officers, which logged only a handful of arrests during the mostly peaceful four-day event.

Losers

Kathleen Kane

So apparently, Kathleen Kane, the top law enforcement official in Pennsylvania, forgot that she couldn’t release confidential grand jury documents, and also that she couldn’t then lie about it under oath.

Seth Williams

On to the top law enforcement official in Philadelphia, who didn’t forget as much as delay as long as possible on something: reporting $160,000 in gifts he received – some from judges and lawyers he dealt with on the job – until the FBI started sniffing around. TL; DR: It’s been one hell of a month for law enforcement in PA.

John Dougherty

Philly’s politically influential union leader had some unexpected visitors to his home and IBEW office, thanks to FBI investigators allegedly looking into the misuse of union funds. This is  officially the most Johnny Doc has ever had in common with Philly’s District Attorney.

Michael Nutter

The former Philadelphia mayor was on the road to a position in a Clinton cabinet – until he hit a speed bump in the form of a City Controller’s report that detailed wild spending sourced to a special fund his work bae ran, including paid vacations and mysterious shoe purchases. Sources say the debacle could help Nutter comfortably slide into the Clinton administration unnoticed.

State Sen. John Wozniak and State Rep. Kevin Schreiber

Even though Democrats are nearly outnumbered better than 2 to 1 in Harrisburg, the Woz walked away from his re-election bid just three months after he won the primary, claiming he was too tired to run again. At least Schreiber got a better job offer – as president and CEO of the York County Economic Alliance.