Green Party gathers signatures to get on Pa. ballot in November
WASHINGTON — The Green Party of Pennsylvania has launched a petition drive to get its presidential candidate, Jill Stein, on the fall ballot.
The party also plans to run candidates for U.S. Senate and attorney general in the state. Party officials said they needed 10,000 signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November ballot.
In announcing the petition drive, the party listed abortion rights, climate change, public transit, and clean water among the “vital issues” that Democrats and Republicans “will not touch.” Under President Joe Biden, Congress enacted infrastructure and climate change laws that allocated billions of federal dollars toward public transportation and clean energy, and the president’s campaign making abortion a top issue.
The rise of third-party candidates has caused agita among some Democrats, who still blame Ralph Nader for costing Al Gore the presidency in 2000 and Dr. Stein for keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House in 2016. Their concern is that voters who otherwise would back Mr. Biden begrudgingly over former President Donald Trump instead will cast ballots for a third party candidate.
In other Washington news:
Deluzio introduces ‘shrinkflation’ bill
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, DAspinwall, has joined U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in targeting companies they say deceptively shrink their products without lowering the price tag.
Mr. Deluzio recently introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act in the House along with Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash. Highlighted as “Bobby Casey’s bill” during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last month, the legislation would establish shrinkflation as an unfair or deceptive practice under Federal Trade Commission regulations.
On top of barring manufacturers from engaging in the practice, the bill would authorize the FTC and state attorneys general to sue companies that decrease product sizes without letting customers know about the changes.
“Shrinkflation is a ripoff — yet another way that big corporations are sticking it to folks,” Mr. Deluzio said. “People in Western Pennsylvania are feeling the pinch from corporations charging more for less to pad their profits at our expense. It’s time to fight back.”
The push against shrinkflation comes as Mr. Deluzio and Mr. Casey say corporate profits have risen by 74% — five times as fast as inflation. But Republicans have consistently blamed higher prices on Mr. Biden’s economic policies.
Mr. Casey, a three-term incumbent who faces a challenge from Republican businessman David McCormick, said corporate profiteering cost the average Pennsylvania family more than $3,500 in 2022 and almost $3,200 in 2021. In January, the Democratic senator asked the Government Accountability Office to examine how “greedflation” is hitting consumers’ pockets and to evaluate measures that could help raise awareness.
Mr. Deluzio, running in Western Pennsylvania’s only competitive House race, faces state Rep. Rob Mercuri, R-Pine, in November.
Justice raising money for McCormick
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a shoo-in to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and move that seat to the Republican side of the aisle, is trying to flip some other seats as well.
Mr. Justice, who himself switched sides from Democratic to Republican after his election in 2016, is raising money for Mr. McCormick in the Pennsylvania race against Mr. Casey.
In an email solicitation for Mr. McCormick and GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno in Ohio, Mr. Justice called the two men “exceptional candidates – they have long-standing records of success in business, strong moral character, and a commitment to conservative principles that will guide them both well in the U.S. Senate.“
Fetterman blasts Trump on abortion
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a co-sponsor of legislation to re-legalize abortion nationwide, wasn’t buying former President Donald Trump’s recent call to leave abortion rights to the states.
Mr. Fetterman, D-Pa., pointed out that Mr. Trump nominated three of the six U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, and said he shouldn’t be allowed to backtrack and paint himself as someone who supports a state’s ability to allow abortions within its borders.
“Donald Trump is the architect of curtailing the reproductive freedom for tens of millions of American women,” Mr. Fetterman said. “He needs to own this and be held accountable.”
Abortion has been a key issue in recent elections, including those in Pennsylvania, in which Democrats exceeded expectations as Republican calls for abortion bans hurt themat the ballot box.