Expect this blog to restart as I document my take on the next 7 weeks. For the most part, I’m not going to talk about the actual political news, as there are far better sources for that.

But I’ll give you my experience.

Yes We Can.

Watch as conservative Casey, currently leading in the polls, tries to hone his oratory skills for his hoped-for debates next fall against incubent Neo-Con Sen. Rick Santorum. Pennacchio and Sandals, both liberals, have the debating skills but need to develop more name recognition.

Their positions on the issues are more in tune with those of most Pennsylvania voters. According to a Zogby poll late January, voters preferred Pennacchio and Sandals over either Casey or Santorum when presented with the candidates’ issue stances.

Pennacchio and Sandals face an ironic possibility: If they remain unknown to most voters, then Casey can win the primary based on name recognition alone, but if they manage to get their positions and names in front of the voters, they’ll likely split the liberal/centrist majority of Democrats, with Casey winning a plurality.

Pennacchio and Sandals have already met several times for debates. Each time, Casey declined his invitation to join them. His campaign manager cited the others’ purported lack of support in the polls and limited fundraising as proof that Casey doesn’t need to bother with debates.

It’s not law yet, however. The State Senate still has to pass the bill before Gov. Rendell, an announced supporter of the wage increase, gets to sign it. Be sure to remind your State Senator to help pass HB 257 when it comes up for a vote soon.

When enacted, the new rates would make Pennsylvania the 20th state to set its minimum wage above the federal level.

Young burger-flipper exception: The bill as passed allows employers to pay newly hired teenagers a “training wage” of $5.15/hr for two months. And to protect the integrity of this exception, it forbids employers from firing regular employees just to substitute them with low-paid trainees.

Several Republican members of the Appropriations Committe who had voted against the bill in committee, switched and voted in favor of it when it reached the Assembly floor. Shades of the Kerry campaign: They voted against the minimum wage, before they voted for it!

Companion legislation, a bill to set future automatic COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments), didn’t make it out of committee. Without COLAs, expect the struggle to re-emerge in several years as inflation nibbles away at the new wage rates.

Other legislative news: As he had publicly pledged, Gov. Rendell last month vetoed the anti-voter bill. Under that law, passed with strong Republican backing, Pennsylvania voters could be turned away at the polls if they failed to bring proper identification. It would have replaced the current system in which voters sign a registry and have their signature compared to an older version already on file.

The Bill, sponsored by a whopping 87 Assemblymen, would help pull low-wage workers above the federal poverty level, raising the hourly rate to $6.25 this year and $7.15 in 2007, with annual cost-of-living raises thereafter.

Rep. Mark Cohen, a leading advocate of the bill and House Democratic Caucus Chairman, says he expects the Dems will make motions to bring the legislation up again next week. He calls Feese’s actions –moving to reconsider the bill and then accepting his own motion, all done after the Committee had adjourned– “an unprecedented parliamentary trick.”

Take action:
• Contact Brett Feese (717-787-5270 email), urging him to report the bill to the full Assembly for a final vote.
• Contact your own State Assemblyman to enlist support.

The winner of the May 16 primary will face NeoCon Rick Santorum in the general election next November.

According to the AP report,

He believes such a mandate is unconstitutional and would disenfranchise some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. People including nursing home residents and poorer citizens might not have proper ID and thus could lose their right to vote under the legislation, Rendell said.

“At a time in our nation’s history when voter participation is dropping to alarming levels, the government should not be taking action that will turn away bona fide voters from our polls.”

This from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Seated in front of a dozen of the city’s African American leaders, Democrats all, Rendell said at a news conference that House Bill 1318 would have the effect of denying some people their right to vote.

The legislation, he said, would discourage voting at a time when “we should be doing everything we can to increase voter participation.”

Meanwhile, Lynn Swann, Rendell’s likely Republican opponent next election, seems worried that without the new law not enough Democrats will be turned away from the polls. “The idea that presenting a form of identification would somehow disenfranchise people is as ridiculous as it is untrue,” his campaign dissembled.

The governor’s website lists 22 organizations urging a veto of House Bill 1318. Still to come: Even though passed by the legislature last Wednesday, the bill has yet to cross the governor’s desk allowing his formal veto.

The legislation, if signed by Gov. Ed Rendell, will make for longer, slower lines at the polls. Expect angry scenes as voters, accustomed to the current convenience of the matching-signature rule, get turned away due to the new technicalities. Y’know, voting’s becoming too much of a hassle. I’m gonna just stay home. Tuesday nights … American Idol’s on at 8.

Or maybe I’ll tell the Governor that erecting barriers to voting is bad law, and he should veto H.B. 1318. These two sites have lists of ways to contact him: first and second.

State Rep. Babette Josephs of Philadelphia is a vocal critic of the bill, for both the damage it will do as well as the needed electoral reforms is fails to address. She says,

I am working on real problems that have occurred in recent elections: unworkable statutory deadlines which led to military ballots being received too late to be counted; long lines at polling places; widespread intimidation of minority voters; coordinated efforts to mislead voters as to the date of the election or the location of polling places, and phony voter registration drives where registrations of one party were discarded.

The new rate, a pitiful $7.15/hr, is a substantial hike from the current $5.15 and is in line with new rates in New York and New Jersey. Blocking the bill from consideration is a way for the Republicans to maintain the current wage rate without members actually going on record as voting against the hike.

Two House Republicans defected from their party by voting in favor of considering the bill. In a message to supporters, Democratic House leaders Mike Veon and Mark Cohen say they see this move as a small but significant change; only ten more defectors will give the Dems the majority they need to finally bring the bill to an up-or-down vote. A number of Republicans have quietly assured constituents that they support the wage hike.

What you can do to help:

• Call your Republican Assemblyperson and urge their support for the (barely) livable new wage rate.

• If you’re in a Democratic district, you can contact Republican Rep. Brett Feese, chair of the Appropriations Committee, urging a floor vote.

Not sure who your Assemblyperson is? Use the “Find Members By” search block at the Pennsylvania General Assembly home page.

Rep. Mark Cohen, sponsor of the bill, is the son of recently deceased Philadelphia City Councilman-at-Large David Cohen, a long-time supporter of workers’ issues.

• Stand Up for a Seat – Running for Office in 2006
Panel discussion with elected local officials in their 20s and 30s
Thursday, February 9, 6-7 p.m.
National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St.

• Winning a Political Office: Challenges and Strategies
Panelists include Phila. City Councilman Frank Rizzo, PA Assemblyman Thomas W. Blackwell IV, and NJ Assemblywomen Pamela Lampitt.
Thursday, March 9, 5-6:30
Behrakis Grand Hall at Drexel University, 32nd & Chestnut Sts.

The seminars are free; no advance registration is required. Direct inquiries to the Committee of Seventy’s Anne Mahlum (215-557-3600 ext. 103).

A good place to start in Philadelphia is the position of Ward Committee Member– no experience is required, and there are almost 7,000 openings!

Here’s how it works: The City has 66 Wards which are divided into a total of 1681 Divisions– what are often called Precincts in other jurisdictions. Your Division is your immediate neighborhood. Each Division has just a single polling place (sometimes shared with neighboring Divisions), and the Democrats and Republicans can each have two Committee Members serving a few hundred voters registered in the party.

Committee Members actively support party causes and candidates for higher offices. They’re the link between the neighborhood and the larger political world and have some say in selecting local party leadership. Committee Members often help neighbors interact with City bureaucracies– it’s the essence of retail politics.

All Committee Members are chosen in the May Primary. To run, you must be 18+ and registered in the party. You’ll need signatures of 10 supporters (call 215-686-3460 for forms), collected between Valentine’s Day and March 7. Now’s the time to get moving. Make a difference!

Other offices up for grabs this spring: State Committee Member (100 signatures required) and State Assembly Representative (300). Call 717-787-5280 for forms.

No vacancies? Note that none of the current State Assemblymen from Philadelphia have said that they won’t be running again.