Costello, Meehan dodge bullet on health care bill failure
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
In the end — for at least two of Chester County’s members of Congress — the decision to withdraw the American Health Care Act, the Republican’s much touted replacement for the Affordable Care Act (known more commonly as Obamacare) may have ended up as the best of a lot of bad possible outcomes.
Both Ryan Costello (R-6) and Pat Meehan (R-7) said following...
Letter: Costello must support universal healthcare
To The Editor,
On January 24th 2017, Representative John Conyers of Michigan introduced a bill for health care reform that would automatically cover all Americans with health insurance without cost. H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act would provide free primary, preventative, and emergency care, as well as prescription drug coverage for all Americans. The measure would be paid...
Congress members can’t hide from the voters
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
The phone rang the other night during dinner, it was a phone “town hall” for U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan (R-7) — I happen to live in the 7th — but the timing was lousy and as a practicing journalist, I kind of feel like it is inappropriate as a journalist to participate in such events.
And to be honest — Meehan and his colleagues need to put on their big boy...
A brave new world for local Congress members
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
It is a brave (cough-cough) new world for some of our elected officials — specifically the three gentlemen who hold congressional seats in Chester County and find themselves coming home to districts this week they may not recognize.
Yes — we’ll grant everything is new for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, who is little more than a month in from joining the world’s...
A shiny new year: things are about to get interesting
Congressional, legislative officials face new political minefields in 2017
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
From Harrisburg to Washington, D.C., it is a bold, bright new year in politics.
From fresh starts to fresh panics, 2017 looks to be among the most interesting ever in the history of our little republic — and possibly not in a good way, but time will tell.
To kick off the year, we’ll...
Letter: Costello must reveal his vote on ethics rules
To The Editor,
On Monday night, the Republican house delegation voted to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics by a secret vote. Under the Republican proposal, the office would no longer be an independent body, and would be controlled by the House Ethics Committee and the majority party’s leaders. Changes would also be made that the office could no longer make independent public statements,...
Endorsements: Costello, Hartman & Meehan
Arguably, this is the most acrimonious campaign season in recent history, making it complicated to sort the fact from fiction and figure out who to support in this year’s local Congressional races.
We feel your pain. Our email boxes are constantly filled with breathless pronouncements with whatever counts for talking points in each of these races from both the campaigns, parties and third party...
With Li out, Parrish looks to fall race in 6th
Mike Parrish
The primary race for the Democratic nomination for the 6th Congressional District ended more than three weeks early, when Lindy Li was forced to drop out of her race against Mike Parrish over questions with her nominating petitions, late Friday night.
Parrish is now slated to take on freshman incumbent Republican Ryan Costello in November.
Chesco Dems back Sestak, Parrish, Balchunis and Hartman
The county’s Democratic Party made key endorsements in the U.S. Senate race as well in three local congressional races at its annual party convention, Wednesday night, backing Joe Sestak for Senate and Michael Parrish in the 6th District, Mary Ellen Balchunis in the 7th District and Christina Hartman in the 16th District.
Additionally, the committee endorsed Josh Shapiro for Attorney General...
Kittappa becomes 5th candidate for 16th District seat
Dr. Raj Kittappa
It’s not even 2016 yet, but the race to replace U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-16) got even more crowded this week when a third candidate, Dr. Raj Kittappa announced he would seek the Democratic nomination in the the 16th District. A total of five candidates are now vying for the seat.
Kittappa joins fellow Democrats Dr. Gary Wegman, a dentist from Berks County and Christina Hartman...
