Despite a very heated race for US Senate in 2012 in Pennsylvania, and despite what appeared to be an imminent open primary, Steve Welch (WelchForPA.com) has taken the PA State Republican Committee endorsement. In a vote that appeared to be much closer from the outside, Welch won on the first ballot cast by simple majority. No small feat when you consider that there were 5 candidates vying for the endorsement. The Welch campaign had been gaining momentum with many endorsements from countywide officials over the last few weeks/months. However, an endorsement by Gov. Tom Corbett Friday launched Welch to the top.
However, at a time when we should be united towards one agenda, defeating Bob Casey- Barack Obama lite, 4 candidates had already made clear their intentions of running despite the State Committee endorsement. This will continue to be a race to watch very closely.
For now, the Welch campaign can and should celebrate their huge victory today!
For Steve Welch’s full remarks to the State Committee after the endorsement: Click Here.
Campaign finance data for Pennsylvania has been posted online in a new,
user-friendly format, it was announced today.
The data, formerly only available on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s
website in a limited fashion, has been posted on a website with all
available information dating back to 1998.
“The search tools and information provided by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania Department of State are cumbersome at best,” said David Lynn, a
database programmer based in Northeast Philadelphia. “I wanted to make it
easier for people to review the data. I also wanted to provide more
complete information than the Commonwealth provides at their website.”
Lynn created the files from text files available on the Commonwealth’s
Department of State FTP site. He converted the data into HTML files, and
has posted them on his business website, DAL Services, Inc.
Lynn has also created a Pennsylvania Political Campaign Management Database which can also be found on the DAL Services website.
With increased amounts of public information more and more private individuals and organizations are going to find creative ways of making that data available to the general public. This is transparency in action.
