As we kick off the final countdown to Election Day, we would give nearly anything to see The Battling Toms in a hair band video.
What we got instead is a Pittsburgh appearance by the Democratic Party's biggest rock star, a resignation from the state Supreme Court and new polling numbers.
Bill Clinton wants you to vote. While decrying the partisanship that's slowed Washington to a crawl, former President Bill Clinton told a pro-Tom Wolf crowd that Democrats were at least partly responsible for the gridlock, because they don't turn out for midterm elections – like the one next week – the way they do for presidential races. And that's given Republicans the inroads in Congress they've needed to slow the progress of a Democratic presidential administration.
"We have never been able to convince younger voters, first-time voters, lower-income working people who have to get up early every morning and take their kids to day care, be at work before 8 o'clock, the elderly ... [that it is] just as important to vote in the midterms as it is to vote in a presidential election."
GOP helps build vocabulary. Prebuttal.
Yeah, That's a new one for us, too.
That's how a news conference held yesterday and organized by the state Republican Party was billed. The prebuttal was held at South Side works just a while before Mr. Clinton appeared on behalf of Mr. Wolf at the IBEW hall a few blocks away.
The themes? War on Coal. The lack of details on Mr. Wolf's income tax plan. And a legitimately funny offer by Allegheny County GOP chairman Jim Roddey to get in touch with Mr. Corbett on Mr. Wolf's behalf for revenue figures.
The numbers don't lie – unless they do. Two new sets of polling numbers were released as the Toms and their surrogates battled it out on the South Side. Camp Wolf would probably be happy to show you the results of the newest yougov.com poll, which shows Mr. Wolf with a 13-point lead, 52-39, among likely voters. That has to be a comfortable feeling result for Mr. Wolf, who probably has noticed his lead dwindling over recent weeks.
(UPDATED: The following paragraph has been edited to reflect that the poll was limited to a single Congressional district rather than statewide figures.) Camp Wolf is probably also excited about the new figures from Mercyhurst University, which show the incumbent trailing Mr. Wolf by just 7 percentage points, 48-41, among likely voters, one of the tightest polls we've seen since the primary. Why would Mr. Wolf be excited about this? Mercyhurst polled likely voters in Pennsylvania's Third Congressional district, where the incumbent, Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler, holds a 22-point lead over his challenger, Democrat Dan LaVallee of Cranberry. That district, which stretches from Butler to Erie, has been solidly Republican for years and if Mr. Corbett is in fact solidifying his base as Election Day approaches, you'd think he'd be in better shape here.
Will this race hinge on turnout among each party's true believers? We'll find out in a week.