Obama Victory Good for Pennsylvania
Obama and Casey are very close:
The pair met in ‘05 in Philly, where Obama did a fundraiser for Casey. He did two more in ‘06, the year Casey beat Republican incumbent Rick Santorum.
Then Casey, while almost every prominent Pennsylvania Democrat backed Hillary Clinton, endorsed Obama last March and traveled with him during the primary campaign. Casey’s support undoubtedly helped keep Clinton’s margin under 10 percentage points because of Casey’s appeal to white, working-class Catholics central to Pennsylvania elections.
His help probably didn’t hurt this week, either. Obama carried the state by the largest margin of any Democrat since LBJ in ‘64 and carried Casey’s northeastern region of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties by margins greater than Al Gore in ‘00 or John Kerry in ‘04.
In Casey’s home county, Lackawanna, Obama beat John McCain, 63 percent to 37 percent. And this is not a minority-rich area. It’s just 2 percent black (the state is 11 percent)….
Casey is seen as so tight with Obama that there was talk of Casey as a VP pick.
(Coincidentally, Joe Biden, from Casey’s hometown of Scranton, is also close to Casey, which leads McNulty to note that Casey’s relationships with Obama and Biden “make him the most powerful freshman senator in the body.”)
Casey says that he does not expect to join the administration, though he wouldn’t rule it out if he were asked. But, he says, “I think the best way to help is in the Senate.”
While hardly news (as the article notes, Casey came out early for Obama) this is undoubtedly excellent, as our Mayor prepares for more budget cuts as our city faces a growing deficit (why doesn’t Philly get a bailout? we won’t spend the money on bonuses and vacations, we promise!)
Mayor Nutter will announce drastic new steps today to close a $1 billion gap in the city’s five-year budget, including the closure of 11 of 54 branch libraries and dozens of city pools, a freeze on tax reductions, reduced hours or programs at more than a dozen recreation centers, and fewer engines at some firehouses, according to sources familiar with his plans.
Until now, Nutter had estimated the budget gap at up to $850 million. “At $850 million, it continues to grow,” he said last night.
To address the even bigger figure, scheduled city-funded cuts in the business and wage taxes will be frozen until fiscal 2015, although wage-tax relief from state casino revenue will be unaffected, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nutter “embargoed” the information until today. Layoffs are anticipated.
Senator Casey is in a good position to help Pennsylvania weather this storm (Arlen Specter, last seen openly praying that Pennsylvania voters would vote for McCain out of their innate racism, not so much). Let’s make sure Pennsylvania thoroughly leverages the power of our junior senator, who may well exercise much more power than our decrepit senior senator, who’s not only allied with the decimated minority party (one that looks more like a regional party every day) but has said hateful things about the new President.
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