November 15, 2024
This week featured the passing of the torch, as President-elect Trump sat down in the Oval Office with President Biden and exchanged pleasantries and God knows what else, maybe casserole recipes. The two got along so well you would almost think they hadn’t spent the past four years at each other’s throats every day. Ah, democracy! Ever notice how that word rhymes with “hypocrisy?” No?
Outgoing U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (yes, Virginia, he is outgoing) is content to sit and wait for the statutorily mandated recount in his race again Dave McCormick, although his chances of victory are roughly nil. His refusal to concede has lit off quite the online kerfuffle. Imagine if someone at the top of the ticket refused to concede during a close race. Hard to imagine that ever happening… twice…
In the meantime, Trump has his pedal to the floor on the task of filling out his cabinet, raising more than a few eyebrows yesterday when he tapped RFK Jr. to take over Health and Human Services. Winner = spoils, people. Say what you want about RFK, and many already are, but the most fatal thing he could do as HHS Secretary would be to attack his greatest nemesis, Diet Coke. Come for our DC’s and there very well may be another insurrection.
But the most controversial Trump pick was easily former Congressman Matt Gaetz for the attorney general slot. Having said that, we are just gonna slowly back up from the keyboard and move along…
Look, we all know that Pennsylvania politics is weird and unpredictable, but we suggest you check out West-by-God-Virginia, where they will have FOUR governors in the span of 10 days, beginning in January. Maybe they should just let Senator-elect Jim Justice’s dog, the infamous Babydog, run the state until everything is sorted out.
So, while Wild and Wonderful West Virginia has four governors, the Dakotas (North and South) have exactly ZERO! Earlier this week, Trump tapped ND Gov. Doug Bergum for a cabinet slot just a day after snatching SD Gov. Kristi Noem away. Will this finally be the moment that one unified Dakota rises up???
DOGE, not dog or Babydog, is the new acronym for the Elon Musk/Vivek Ramaswamy production, the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon and Vivek will be tasked with trimming the size of government, which sounds great until one realizes that the VAST majority of the federal budget is spent on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, debt service and the military. Good luck touching any of those.
We pause here to give a shout-out to state Treasurer Stacey Garrity, who set the all-time vote record in Pennsylvania this cycle! Knowing how much Governor Shapiro enjoys losing to anyone, we are quite certain he will have Garrity’s vote tally in his head until November 2026.
Speaking of Shapiro, tongues are already wagging about the blue-state governor who is now on everyone’s 2028 bingo card, or so says our own Mike Manzo, who was interviewed by ABC News 27 on the topic this week, while simultaneously looking like an unshaven hobo.
The General Assembly convened and adjourned, for good, this session, but not before selecting the leaders who will lead their parties into battle during the 2025-2026 legislative session. And while three of the four caucus floor leaders remain the same, there is one new boss to slot in with the old bosses. Congratulations to Bedford’s favorite son, Rep. Jesse Topper, on his elevation to House GOP leader! The General Assembly left for the year without any meaningful action on mass transit funding, which means we will have to read the phrase “SEPTA death spiral” a million more times until the governor flexes federal highway money (it has been done before; look it up) and takes the lid off the boiling pot. But back to the phrase “death spiral.” Can we maybe ditch that one for now? Sounds like something Dr. Strange used in the Multiverse of Madness.
Now that Pennsylvania has finished doling out $70 million in opioid settlement lucre, Spotlight PA has a handy-dandy guide to tracking where all of it went, should you be the type of nerd that we employ by the dozen over here at Triad.
Philadelphia City Council is three short weeks away from passing legislation that will pave the way for the 76ers new home, which is nothing short of remarkable when you take a step back. That city, despite the 38 different political factions who run it, can move with alacrity at times. Now, if Joel Embiid would like to start playing basketball on a semi-regular basis, that would be swell.
Meanwhile on the western front, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato is beating the drum for her proposed $1.2 billion budget that features a property tax increase. That particular levy is about as popular as the Baltimore Ravens in western PA, but county government leaders are warning that the no-tax alternative would be akin to the Cleveland Browns taking over Acrisure Stadium permanently.
Across the Allegheny River, city officials have given the green light to the Esplanade riverfront mixed-use development that will feature a giant Ferris wheel on the water’s edge. We cannot WAIT for this one, even though every time we hear “Esplanade” we think of the New Jersey development that Tony Soprano and John Sacrimoni fought over for years.
If you have an interest in knowing how Team Triad deploys every tool in the shed to achieve success for clients, check out this piece about how the Professional Firefighters’ top priority just became law. #TriadDoes
And in our We Can’t Make This Up segment, we take you to New Zealand, where parliament decided to try stripping away Māori rights, prompting that chamber’s indigenous lawmakers to launch into a very loud, kinda scary, but downright BADASS “haka” chant. This, cats and kittens, is what we need more of here in the Pennsylvania General Assembly!
That’s what passes for news around here, as we all exhale, and immediately start planning 2025. Because, as Cage the Elephant so adequately put it, there ain’t no rest for the wicked and money don’t grow on trees! From all of us at Team Triad, have a great weekend!