Bob Casey

Coal-mining millionaire Tom Smith of Western Pennsylvania, a newcomer to statewide politics who spent $4 million of his own money on TV advertising, easily won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, defeating party-backed candidate Steve Welch and three others. The Associated Press called the contest for Smith with about 70 percent of the vote counted. Smith, a high school graduate from Armstrong County, presented himself to primary voters as a folksy everyman, "just a farm boy that got misplaced in the coal mines and started my own business.

THE BIG HIT against Bob Casey Jr. is that he's running as the not-Santorum, even by his own admission. Which is not to say that it's not an excellent justification for his candidacy. The fact that he's a thoughtful, smart candidate is icing on the cake. So we happily support Casey for Senate. The former auditor general and current state treasurer has a track record of fiscal responsibility and reform. He was hand-picked for his ability to seriously take on incumbent Santorum.

CRAVE tofu? Don't visit the butcher shop. Want sound financial advice? Don't consult Sister Fatima of the Psychic News Network. And if you're looking for tips on attracting women, it's not a good idea to take Andrew Dice Clay as your role model. So when I wanted some balanced information about the Democratic Party's post-election move to the center, paging through the Nation was not the wisest choice. A "progressive" magazine that writes things like "the only time the Bush administration pays attention to the human rights of women is when it is trying to justify invading their countries" is probably not in favor of moving anywhere - except Canada.

I hae a good friend who says that, in the end, we only get one sentence to describe our lives. But it's difficult to describe Bob Casey in just one sentence. Reporters have focused on his fierce commitment to the pro-life cause. Others have talked about his heroic fight against a debilitating genetic disease. There is no question that these were part of the sum and substance of Bob Casey, but only part. Stopping there misses much of his essence. His legacy is much more than that.

With the race for governor of Pennsylvania coming up later this year, you won't need a swami or a palm reader to tell you where former Gov. Bill Scranton's interests lie this time around. This time around the former governor's interests - support, advice and counsel - won't be very far from the family hearth in the coal region. The ex-governor's son and heir, young Bill Scranton Jr., the lieutenant governor, is the chalk horse to win the GOP nomination in the spring and face off with the Democrats in the fall.

WITH THE primary campaign fast coming to a conclusion, it is important to understand the real reasons that Philadelphia's employees, all of whom are residents, taxpayers and voters in the city, are backing Bob Casey for governor. It is because we know him so well that we cannot allow Ed Rendell to go unchallenged as he promises to do to the working families of Pennsylvania what he did to the working families of Philadelphia. For our union members, it's not just about "payback," but that's a good place to start.

IN A TRANSPARENT attempt to pander to some voters in his campaign for mayor, Republican Sam Katz accuses my father of having "launched an attack on my generation" with one of his 1986 political ads ("Guru ad helped mold Katz," Oct. 1). The truth is Bob Casey did more for Sam Katz's generation than Sam Katz ever will. As a state senator, Bob Casey championed a bill that saved countless Pennsylvania children from a life of mental retardation. As auditor general, he transformed that office from what the AP called "a political backwater into a rushing current of reform.

AS FAR as the political pundits go, it's the No. 1 race in America: the mano y mano battle for the junior Senate seat for Pennsylvania between incumbent Rick Santorum and challenger Bob Casey Jr. It has it all. It's has Red State conservative values vs. Purple (as opposed to Blue) State moderate values. It has the slick vs. the sincere. It has two politicians with big, even huge, name recognition not only in the state, but the nation as well. Every poll has Casey ahead of the controversial Santorum by double digits.

There is low profile, and there is Bob Casey. Pennsylvania's new U.S. senator campaigned on a "new directions" theme and the Scranton Democrat has worked on changes in ethics rules, health-care coverage and prekindergarten education for children, and Iraq policy. But the biggest change in the five months since he took office is the lack of noise emanating from the commonwealth's junior senator. Instead of the brash and flash Rick Santorum style, Casey, 47, has quietly gone about listening and learning as if boning up for a final exam.

The Case for Casey State treasurer, Democrat, 46 Scranton, Pa. One of the marquee Senate races in the country features an even-tempered Democrat, Bob Casey Jr., trying to unseat powerful Republican incumbent Rick Santorum. Many voters may be more motivated by dislike of Santorum than love for the soft-spoken Casey. But the challenger has made a decent case for change. Casey's views are a good fit with most Pennsylvanians. Having served two useful terms as state auditor general and two years as state treasurer, he understands the commonwealth.

Coal-mining millionaire Tom Smith of Western Pennsylvania, a newcomer to statewide politics who spent $4 million of his own money on TV advertising, easily won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, defeating party-backed candidate Steve Welch and three others. The Associated Press called the contest for Smith with about 70 percent of the vote counted. Smith, a high school graduate from Armstrong County, presented himself to primary voters as a folksy everyman, "just a farm boy that got misplaced in the coal mines and started my own business.

COULD FORMER U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's chances to win his home state's presidential primary election be slipping away? Santorum holds a razor-thin 2-percentage-point lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania's April 24 Republican primary, according to a Daily News /Franklin & Marshall College Poll to be released Wednesday. Romney, who took 28 percent to Santorum's 30 percent, has room to grow since 24 percent of the 505 registered Republicans in the poll said that they are undecided.

A year ago, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. was looking down a potentially rocky road to reelection. His approval ratings had dropped to their lowest point. His close ties to President Obama began to look more like a liability than an asset. And in one poll, nearly 60 percent of Pennsylvania voters who responded said they either had no opinion of the first-term senator or didn't know enough about him to form one. Now, strategists from both sides of the political divide are increasingly describing Casey's job in Washington as secure.

Why did Rick Santorum lose so badly in 2006? And what does it mean now? These two inextricably linked questions - why Santorum lost his Senate seat so decisively in 2006 and what it means for his presidential campaign in 2012 - are increasingly being asked within Republican Party circles. In a party now obsessed with "electability," Santorum's own unelectability in Pennsylvania six years ago in a key Electoral College state looms as an urgent question. Indeed, it emerges as perhaps the central issue in Santorum's quest for the GOP nomination.

Saying national security was at stake, Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) called Friday for congressional hearings into the shutdowns of local oil refineries and their potential effect on energy prices and the economy. Joined by union officials, Casey also criticized ConocoPhillips and Sunoco Inc. as being less than forthcoming with their plans for the facilities in Philadelphia, Trainer, and Marcus Hook. Casey spoke at a briefing held outside the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union hall in Linwood, near the now-closed Trainer plant.

WITH ONE of the best-known names in Pennsylvania politics, Bob Casey Jr. easily won a seat in the U.S. Senate six years ago during a referendum election on an unpopular Republican president. But a poll being released today shows that more than half the state's registered voters don't know enough about Casey to offer an opinion or are undecided about the Democrat's performance as he seeks a second term. Will President Obama's re-election effort, sure to make many stops in Pennsylvania this year, help or hurt Casey's effort?

Citing reports of improved refinery margins, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.) has asked the owners of three Delaware River refineries to reveal their economic analyses that led to their decisions to sell or close the plants. "Many of my constituents question your claims about the lack of revenue ability associated with these refineries," Casey wrote Wednesday in letters to Sunoco Inc. chief executive Lynn Elsenhans and ConocoPhillips CEO James J. Mulva. Casey urged the executives to "publicly disclose all relevant information so the public can make a full accounting.

The following letter was sent by more than 100 area clergy and faith leaders in opposition to a bill that, they say, could increase violence in the city by easing and expanding gun ownership and use. DEAR SENATOR CASEY: As faith leaders in and around Pennsylvania's largest city - a city that regrettably continues to experience daily incidents of gun violence - we write to urgently express our strong opposition to H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry...