Sheryl Delozier

Legislative candidates in Pennsylvania often spend more time explaining how they would reform Harrisburg than how they'd reduce health care costs or cultivate alternative energy.

Sure enough, Sheryl Delozier, a Republican state House candidate in Cumberland County, sent seven reform proposals to PolitickerPA.com this week. Delozier said her experience in state government helped craft the proposals, which she thinks are more specific, concrete and realistic than those typically offered by Pennsylvania candidates.

"I think that's one of the attributes I bring that other candidates don't," Delozier told PolitickerPA.com Thursday. "I know how the legislature operates."

Delozier's seven reform proposals range from eliminating bonuses, requiring lawmakers to submit receipts for reimbursements, and creating term-limits for committee chairwomen and men. Their roots are planted in her experience at the Public Utility Commission and as director for a commission, called "IMPACCT," under former Gov. Tom Ridge (R) that sought to increase efficiency in state government.

Former Cumberland County state House candidate Lowell Gates served notice Wednesday that he will file a lawsuit against Speaker of the House Emeritus John Perzel, alleging he backed a series "slanderous" robo-calls made against him illegally while running for office.

Gates, a Lemoyne tax attorney, told PolitickerPA.com he is certain Perzel and Michael Karp, a Perzel supporter, were behind the calls. They alleged Gates was in the pocket of Gov. Ed Rendell and state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia) among other falsehoods, he said.

"All roads lead back to Rome," Gates said. "Basically everything points to Perzel."

The suit, filed in Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas, also alleges Perzel, Karp and Karp's former company, ATX Communications, did not attach their names to the calls and pirated a phone number to cover their tracks, which Gates said is illegal.

CARLISLE -- The McCain campaign spent more time Tuesday rallying the Republican base in the Pennsylvania "T," this time dispatching one of its top economic advisers to warn entrepreneurs that a Barack Obama presidency would be disastrous for business.

"Bottom line, if you are concerned about our economy, there's only one choice: John McCain," said Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and now the RNC's 2008 victory chairman, to a group of small business owners in a roundtable discussion.

Her visit to the small midstate town of Carlisle was part of a two-day, five-stop bus tour across Pennsylvania on board The Straight Talk Express. Although Carlisle has a population of only 18,000, it lies in the heart of a region where John McCain must do well in to overcome his disadvantage in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

"I think McCain has to handily win the 'T,'" said Luke Bernstein, executive director of the state GOP, referring to the base of GOP support in the northern tier and central sections of the state. He said the campaign seems to understand the necessity to rally the state's GOP base, pointing out that McCain campaigned in York last week.

Margie Stuski: Campaign photoLEMOYNE -- Margie Stuski knows she still must overcome long-shot odds to become Cumberland County's only Democratic lawmaker.

But long odds are better than no odds. Two years ago, Stuski couldn't even schedule a debate when she ran against Jerry Nailor, longtime 88th Legislative District representative. The veteran of Philadelphia politics was little more than token opposition.

Nailor's retirement, however, and Pennsylvania's continued leftward swing, felt even in central Pennsylvania, has at least given Stuski a chance to fissure the GOP-dominated county when she runs against Republican Sheryl Delozier this fall.