☃️ Hello December. And just in time… the snow came.
🗞️ In today’s PoliticsPA Guide. Boyle takes center stage in D.C.’s fight for health care. Shapiro and Garrity set for costly governor’s race. The Democrats’ path to power is littered with primaries. PA pronunciation practice.
🎶 Your morning pick-me-up. December 1963 (Oh What a Night!). Four seasons
Weather in Pennsylvania
🌤️ Erie | Partly bright, 33
🌤️ State Higher School | Partly bright, 35
☀️ Allentown | Mostly bright, 40
Sports PA
🏀 Sixes (10-9) | Brooklyn 115-103 | Atlanta 134-142 (2OT) | Tuesday vs. Washington
🏒 Flyers (14-7-3) | New York Islanders 4-3 (YES) | New Jersey 5-3 | Mon vs. Pittsburgh
🏒 Penguins (12-7-5) | Columbus 4-3 (OT) | Toronto 2-7 | Monday in Philadelphia
🏈 Eagles (8-4) | Chicago 15-24 | Mine was on the LA Chargers
🏈 Steelers (6-6) | Buffalo 7-26 | Baltimore sun
🏈 Pitt (8-4) | Miami 7-38
🏈 Penn State (6-6) | Rutgers 40-36
🏈 Temple (5-7) | North Texas 25-52
🔉 What we hear. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick wants to file a discharge petition to force a vote on bipartisan legislation to impose punitive sanctions on countries that enable Russia to go to war with Ukraine.
📰 PoliticsPA Guide was developed by Steve Ulrich. To read in your browser click here. Has this email been sent to you? Subscribe for free.
The most crucial story
1. Boyle takes center stage in D.C.’s fight for health care
“Before the morning meeting of the Budget Committee U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle he gathered his senior advisers in a brightly lit conference room near the Capitol to lay out a elementary strategy.
Boyle, a six-term lawmaker, is the most veteran of the eight Pennsylvania Democrats in Washington. He has held the top seat on the House Budget Committee since 2023, meaning he is the top Democrat playing defense while the Republican-controlled Congress sets GOP spending priorities.
Increasingly, Boyle, known as the “Democratic budget guy,” has become the man behind the anti-message President Donald Trump the reconciliation act and the fight to close the health care system. | Questioner from Philadelphia
Elsewhere
In the line of fire. “In the Trump era, political violence has become an increasingly urgent problem. Elected officials in both parties are struggling to respond.” | New Yorker
Independent study finds artificial intelligence is key to overturning bipartisan power in Congress. “The goal is to elect a handful of independent candidates to the House of Representatives in 2026 by using artificial intelligence to identify districts where independents could succeed and discover a diamond among candidates.” | NPR
Trump is losing support among Latino voters, according to the poll. “The report found that about 70% of Latinos in the U.S. disapprove of President Donald Trump’s record, 65% disapprove of his approach to immigration and 61% say his policies have worsened the economy.” | Penn Capital Star
Fetterman’s fundraising and miniature donations decline in 2025 amid clashes with Democrats. “U.S. Sen. John Fetterman had the lowest fundraising period of his Washington political career over the summer, while Pittsburgh-area U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio saw a surge in donations as their national presence grew, a review of campaign finance data shows.” | Pittsburgh Postal Newspaper
Country
2. Shapiro and Garrity set for costly midterm governor’s race
“After Republican SGarrity tray won her first treasurer race in 2020, the incumbent Democrat highlighted Joe Torsella she far outperformed her campaign.
Mr. Torsella raised more than $2 million compared to less than $400,000 for Ms. Garrity, who then outnumbered Democrats Erin McClelland last year by almost $2 million thanks to his re-election victory.
Republicans now hope Ms. Garrity can convince donors and voters — including many who may have previously supported her Governor Josh Shapiro — to support her repeat her 2020 victory in a tough fight to unseat a popular incumbent governor who has vastly outperformed and outperformed his previous opponent, it states Senator Doug Mastrian” | Pittsburgh Postal Newspaper
Elsewhere
Trump’s push for more AI data centers is facing a backlash from his own voters. “Residents arrived in camouflage hats and red shirts, signaling unity, and more than 300 of them gathered at a Pennsylvania Rural Planning Commission meeting to protest a proposed data center that they feared would divide their farmland and upend the peaceful rhythm of their valley.” | Reuters
The fight over artificial intelligence rules at the state level is heating up in Congress. “Washington will focus intensely this month on the Senate vote to extend the expiring enhanced health insurance tax credits, but don’t forget about the mandatory defense policy bill. That’s where the White House and its allies are pushing to prevent states from setting their own AI regulations. ” | Traffic lights
White state trooper who served on Shapiro’s security team sues state police, alleging racial discrimination. “State Police Cpl. Joshua Mack is suing the Pennsylvania State Police in federal court, arguing that he lost a lucrative governor’s security position because of racial discrimination.” | Questioner from Philadelphia
Around the Republic of Poland
3. Democrats’ path to power is littered with primaries
“Democrats are charting a path back to power in the House of Representatives as Republicans struggle to approach the midterms. But first they must contend with more than a dozen primary elections across the country that are exposing deep ideological divisions within their ranks.
Democrats want to run Representative Ryan Mackenzie from Pennsylvania’s 7th District are competing against each other in a five-way primary. The Lehigh Valley seat has flipped between parties four times over the past two decades, and it was one of the closest House races in the country last year when Mackenzie won it for the GOP. | POLICY
Elsewhere
The Trump administration’s review of refugee resettlement cases could affect nearly 9,000 people in Pennsylvania. “Early last week, the Trump administration re-examined the cases of nearly 200,000 refugees, many from war-torn countries, who arrived in the United States between 2021 and 2024.” | PennLive
Pennsylvania is losing hundreds of pharmacies after a bill promising aid goes into effect. “As dispensaries continue to close across the state, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are questioning how the Shapiro administration is delivering on the promises made in the 2024 bill to support these dispensaries.” | PA reflector
The focus of environmental policy shifts to lawmakers following the PA’s exit from the Clean Energy Agreement. “What was once the centerpiece of the clean energy movement in Pennsylvania is dead. Long live clean energy?” | PennLive
Editorial
4. What do you think about it?
- Pennsylvania Needs More Energy and Sensible Regulations to Attract Data Centers | Gordon’s grave
- The filibuster must now be put down | David Catron
- It’s Trump – not service members – who could benefit from a reminder to follow the law | Questioner from Philadelphia
- The state must save Pittsburgh from the failed leadership of PPS | Brandon McGinley
- Good intentions do not justify violating electoral law | Beth Ann Rosica
- School funding and Cybersecurity Charter oversight are state-created problems | Trib LIVE
1 item
5. Pennsylvania Pronunciation Practice
“Pennsylvania is blessed with an abundance of miniature towns and historic places dating back to the colonial era and earlier. The diversity of people who settled here, from indigenous tribes to Dutch settlements, has resulted in a diverse catalog of places with distinctive names.
With the support of an archive of tribal names and experts in linguistics, here’s a guide to showing you how to pronounce words in the most regional way possible, along with phonetic spellings and how local pronunciations came about. | City and state
Thank you for starting December with us.
Get ready for some snow. See you tomorrow.
