Josh Shapiro

Speaker of the House Emeritus John Perzel (R-Philadelphia) wants back into leadership, and he's allegedly ready to throw a few elbows to get there, Capitolwire reports Tuesday (subscription required).

GOP opposition researcher Joe Carduff told the news service he was hired by Perzel to conduct research on fellow House Republicans, including Minority Leader Sam Smith, Policy Chairman Mike Turzai, and the six Republicans who voted for Speaker of the House Dennis O'Brien (R-Philadelphia) after the 2006 election.

A Perzel spokesman denied the allegations and said Carduff was hired to do opposition research only on Democrats.

Perzel is rumored to be interested in reclaiming the caucus leadership role, which is held now by Smith. Nearly all reports and sources contacted by PolitickerPA.com indicate Turzai is ready to take over as minority whip, especially after current Minority Whip David Argall announced his intention to run for Jim Rhoades' seat in the Senate.

Carduff said he wasn't able to find anything usable against those whom he researched, including two Democrats -- state reps. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County) and Mike Gerber (D-Montgomery County). He also told Capitolwire he was hired to do perform opposition research on Perzel to hide whom he was working for.

Perzel and Carduff disagree over an alleged $2,000 the opposition researcher was paid.

Perzel supporters say the payment was solely for opposition research on Democrats, work they said Carduff in fact didn't do in the first place.

Carduff said he researched both sides but wasn't paid after not finding anything usable.

One of Barack Obama's chief local surrogates to the Jewish community said Saturday that he was confident Republican attempts to scare Jewish voters away from Obama would not succeeed.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Abington), on a campaign conference call responding to revelations that the state Republican Party was behind a false and explosive e-mail to Jewish voters, said such tactics were an offense to the Jewish community. He and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) both called on John McCain to condemn the e-mail, which equated a vote for Obama with the "tragic mistake" of ignoring "the warning signs in the 1930's and 1940's" that preceded the Holocaust.

"The words contained in that e-mail were absolutely abominable, and deserve to be condemned, not only by the Republican Party but by John McCain," Shapiro said. "It offends every single memory of [those] who perished in the Holocaust and those that survived the Holocaust."

Mocking the party's assertion that the e-mail "went a little bit farther than the facts support," Shapiro added: "They didn't go a little bit farther, they went far over the line." He said he had yet to see the corrective e-mail the party said it would send.

Though winning over Jewish voters has been a challenge for Obama, recent polling data has shown his support in that demographic increasing considerably.

"I'm confident that in the exit polls at the end of the day," Shapiro said, "that Obama's support in the Jewish community will be at least as high as Sen. [John] Kerry's was."

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Scranton) and state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County) demanded Saturday that John McCain condemn an e-mail from several high-profile state Republicans saying Jewish citizens needed to vote against Barack Obama to help stop a second Holocaust.

The e-mail, reportedly sent this week to 75,000 voters in Pennsylvania, blasts the Democratic presidential nominee for his inexperience and associations with ACORN and Bill Ayers and asks if "America, Israel and the Jewish community can rely on someone as dangerously inexperienced as Barack Obama."

"In the 5,796 years of our people, there has never been a more important time for us to take pro-active measures in order to stop a second Holocaust," the e-mail wrote.

It later said: "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"

Shapiro, who is Jewish, called the e-mail "absolutely abominable" 

With the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur over, both presidential campaigns are unleashing surrogates today to court Jewish voters in Philadelphia.

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) was scheduled to stump for Republican John McCain at the B'rith Shalom House on Conshohocken Avenue this morning before visiting the Congregation of Shaare Shamayim this afternoon.

On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Abington), state Sen. Connie Williams (D-Montgomery), state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Abington), state Rep. Daylin Leach (D-Upper Merion) and former Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel were scheduled to stump for Barack Obama at the Klein Jewish Community Center this afternoon.

The campaign trail action underscores how neither candidate is taking local Jewish voters for granted

PHILADELPHIA-One of the first things former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift said during an appearance here Wednesday night was that she would refrain from political attacks. Swift was representing the temporarily suspended presidential campaign of John McCain at a talk on media coverage of the presidential race at the downtown library, and as she put it, "I was given a very strong directive from the campaign to conduct myself that way."

In the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Philadelphia, that proved harder than it sounded.

While she was able to "honor the mandate" given to her and refrain from rebutting arguments about tax policies by state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Abington), who was representing the campaign of Barack Obama, staying above political arguments grew harder as liberal members of the audience peppered her with questions.

"I do not apologize," Swift said bluntly, for attempts by the campaign to point out what it sees as sexist treatment of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. And when one when attendee tried to correct her after a string of tough inquiries, she snapped, "I have a college education, I think I can handle it."

But overall, on a campaign swing for McCain that took her across the state, she kept the discourse more cordial than most political surrogates do.

Shapiro, for his part, gave no illusions about refraining from politics-though he made no promise not to.

"I like her," he said on his way out of the library auditorium, "but she is still trying to sell a candidate that offers no new direction and no hope for fixing the ills of this country

In a brief interview with PolitickerPA.com after the event, Swift said she had been instructed by campaign to refrain from attacks on Obama, "particularly on his economic agenda."

How hard was it to refrain?

"I'm an Irish-Catholic, so I tend to want to fight back," she acknowledged with a smirk.

Asked how injecting the two presidential candidates into the heart of the economic policy debate in Washington, as McCain has proposed, could de-politicize the process, she said: "I think if they were able to come to an agreement, then both Democrats and Republicans would have political cover to go back to their districts."

HARRISBURG -- House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese's (D-Greene County) leadership position has become a campaign issue as GOP candidates criticize Democrats for allowing DeWeese to stay in leadership after "Bonusgate" alleged widespread abuses in his caucus.

Some incumbent Democrats, most notably state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County), have said publicly DeWeese's continued presence hurts the party as it tries to maintain its one-member advantage in the House.

But in an interview Tuesday with PolitickerPA.com, Todd Eachus, chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said the caucus does not instruct its candidates how they should treat the longtime party leader.

"As far as people calling for Bill's resignation, that's up to the individual member," the Luzerne County state representative said.

Sharp criticisms delivered by Republican state treasurer candidate Tom Ellis last week at the Republican National Convention drew return fire Wednesday from his opponent, who said Ellis is "intentionally misleading" voters.

Ellis said at the convention his Democratic opponent, Rob McCord, wants to invest in terrorist-supporting nations that "hate us."

"Let me be clear -- it's absolutely false," McCord told PolitickerPA.com. "I believe he's intentionally trying to mislead people."

McCord said "of course" he doesn't want to help countries that aid terrorism and supports a measure from state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County) to divest from those countries.

"I'm a little surprised by the tone because I've known Tom for years," McCord said. "If he actually thought [I would aid terrorist countries], I would hope he would pick up the phone and call me. We're all patriotic Americans."

DENVER-Two years ago, state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Abington) helped put Barbara McIlvane Smith in office by helping supervise a recount that handed her the 156th Legislative District seat by a mere 28 votes. Today, if Attorney General Tom Corbett is to be believed, McIlvane Smith is one of many Democratic candidates who benefited from the Bonusgate scheme that saw legislative staffers working on political campaigns.

But Shapiro, one of the state's rising political stars, says any political fallout from Bonusgate should not affect McIlvane Smith.

"She's not responsible for anything that transpired in the least," Shapiro told PolitickerPa.com this morning.

McIlvane Smith faces Republican Shannon Royer, the same candidate she barely edged in 2006.

"I think Barbara is going to do great," Shapiro said. "She's been working hard in her district. She's been a great state Rep."

State Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Abington) introduces U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to Jewish leaders in Philadelphia recently.: Courtesy of Friends of Josh Shapiro.ABINGTON -- Usually at this time of year, young incumbent lawmakers throughout the state are carefully preparing to defend their still-vulnerable seats. After all, the first couple re-election fights are typically the hardest, especially in the state House, and in a time of demographic shifts and calls for reform, few lawmakers can take re-election fights for granted.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, however, is a different story altogether.

The 35-year-old Abington Democrat is unopposed in Montgomery County's 153rd Legislative District this fall. It's a luxury that's allowing Shapiro, widely considered to be one of the state's most promising rising political stars, to focus on other things, from constituent service to helping expand the Democrats' slim majority in the House. More importantly though, it's given him time to become one of the most authoritative reform voices in a state yearning for some changes.

He took perhaps the biggest step in that direction so far last week, when he became the most prominent lawmaker to call for the resignation of embattled Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, who has been fighting to keep his job since members of the Democratic Caucus were indicted in the massive "Bonusgate" scandal.

"The fact is that the abuses ... occurred on Bill's watch and, as such, he will always be a symbol of a broken system," Shapiro told reporters last Monday.

It was a gutsy move by Shapiro, one praised by political analysts for its timing and its substance. DeWeese was a mentor to Shapiro, and Shapiro described his recent decision as a pained one that had him losing sleep. But should DeWeese ultimately resign or lose his re-election bid, Shapiro could very soon find himself in the position of Majority Leader, even though he insisted last week he wasn't angling for DeWeese's job.

For Shapiro, the resignation call was a fitting demonstration of the political savvy and good timing that has enabled his rise from unknown to powerbroker in just a few short years.

"Josh Shapiro is one of the brightest young minds in the legislature and has established himself as a leader in the call for reform in Harrisburg," Gov. Ed Rendell told PolitickerPA.com in an email message. "[He] is a shining example of what every legislator [ought] to be."