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Four weeks from now, a right-wing Republican could win thegovernor's office in California. Somepollingindicates that Democrat Gavin Newsom is likely to lose his job via the recall election set for Sept. 14. When CBS News released apollon Sunday, Gov. Newsom's razor-thin edge among likely voters was within the margin of error. How this could be happening in a state where Republicans are only24 percentof registered voters is largely a tale of corporate-friendly elitism and tone-deaf egotism at the top of the California Democratic Party.

Newsom has always been enmeshed with the power of big money."Gavin Newsom wasn't born to wealth and privilege but as a youngster he was enveloped in it as the surrogate son of billionaire Gordon Getty," longtime conservative California journalist Dan Walters haspointed out. "Later, Getty's personal trust fund managed by Newsom's father provided initial financing for business ventures that made Newsom wealthy enough to segue into a political career as a protg of San Francisco's fabled political mastermind, Willie Brown."In 1996, as mayor, Brownappointed Newsomto the city's Parking and Traffic Committee. Twenty-five years later, Newsom is chief executive of a state with the world's fifth-largest economy.

Last November, Newsom dramatized his upper-crust arrogance of "Do as I say, not as I do."Photos emergedthat showed him having dinner with acorporate lobbyist friendamong people from several households, all without masks, in a mostly enclosed dining room at anextremely expensiveNapa Valley restaurant, the French Laundry at a time when Newsom was urging Californians to stay away from public gatherings and to wear masks. The governor's self-inflicted political wound forhypocrisy badly damaged his image.

After deep-pocketed funders teamed up with the state's Republican Party to circulate petitions forcing a recall election, initial liberaloptimismassumed that the GOP was overplaying its hand. But the recall effort kept gaining momentum. Now there's every indication that Republicans will vote at a significantly higher rate than Democrats,a fact that speaks not only to conservative fervor but also to the chronic detachment of the state's Democratic Party from its base.

Newsom's most fervent boosters include corporate interests, mainline labor unions and the California Democratic Party. Just about every leader of the CDP, along with the vast majority of Democrats in the state legislature, is pleased to call themselves "progressive." But the label is often a thin veneer for corporate business as usual.

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For instance, the CDP's platform has long been on record calling for a single-payer health care system in California. Such measures passed the legislature during the time when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor from 2003 to 2011, and he surprised no one byvetoing the bills. But the heavily Democratic legislature has obliged the latest two Democratic governors, Jerry Brown and Newsom, by bottling up single-payer legislation; it's been well understood that Brown and Newsom wanted to confine the state party's support for single-payer to lip service.

In the same vein, the CDP's current chair, Rusty Hicks, signed a pledge that the state party would not accept fossil-fuel money. But he went on to doexactly thatto the tune of several hundred thousand dollars.

As an elected member of the California Democratic Party's central committee during the last decade, I've often witnessed such top-down maneuvers. Frequently, the CDP's most powerful leaders are in a groove of thwarting the progressive aspirations of the party's bedrock supporters and blocking measures that would materially improve the lives of millions of Californians.

"This is what happens when the culture of high-priced consultants and cult of personality meets a corporate-controlled legislature and party," said Karen Bernal, a Sacramento-based activist who chaired the CDP'sProgressive Caucus for six years. She told me: "The campaign promises and vows of support for progressive policy are revealed to be nothing more than performative, while the hopes and dreams of the party's progressive base are sent to die in committee and behind closed doors. The end result is a noticeable lack of fight when it's most needed."

Now, with the recall election barreling down on the state, the routinely aloof orientation of the state party's structure is coming back to haunt it. Overall, the CDP's actual connections to grassroots activists and core constituencies are tenuous at best, while Newsom comes across as more Hollywood and Wall Street than neighborhood and Main Street. No wonder Democrats statewide are less energized about voting on the recall than Republicans are.

If Newsom loses the recall, his successor as governor will be determined by who gets the most votes on "part 2" of the same ballot. In that case, you might logically ask, isn't the "part 2" winner a safe bet to be a Democrat in such a heavily Democratic state? Actually, no.

On the theory that having any prominent Democrat in contention would harm his chances of surviving the yes/no recall vote on the ballot's "part 1," Newsom and party operatives conveyed to all of the state's prominent Democrats:Don't even think about it.

The intimidation was successful. Not a single Democrat with substantial name recognition is on "part 2" of the ballot, so no reasonable safety-net contender exists if the recall wins. As a result, Newsom's replacement looks as likely to be an ultra-right Republican as a Democrat. And even if the replacement is a Democrat, it would almost certainly be a highly problematic fellow financial adviser and YouTube starKevin Paffrath, whose grab bag of ideas includes a few that appeal to Democrats (marriage equality, higher teacher pay and promotion of solar and wind farms) but features a lot of pseudo-populist notions that would do tremendous damage if implemented.

Paffrath's proposals, asdescribedby the Southern California News Group, seek"to make all coronavirus safety measures optional, to ditch income tax for anyone making less than $250,000, to use the National Guard to get all unhoused Californians off the streets and to give trained gun owners more rights." As a clue to the inclusivity of the "centrist solutions" that Paffrath says heyearnsfor, he introduced himself to voters with a video that "features clips from Fox News and from conservative media host Ben Shapiro."Recent polling shows the 29-year-old Paffrath neck-and-neck with the frontrunning Republican on the ballot,bombastic Trumpist talk-show hostLarry Elder.

Whether Newsom will remain governor past mid-autumn now looks like a coin flip. And what's at stake in the recall goes far beyond California in fact, all the way to the nation's capital.

California's 88-year-old senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, is widely understood to be in poor health andsuffering from cognitive declineas she withincreasing difficultynavigates the U.S. Senate, now evenly split between the two parties. Under state law, if she dies or otherwise leaves her seat vacant, the governor gets to appoint the replacement. In a worst-case scenario, a Republican becomes governor when the recall election results are certified in October and thus, for at least the next14 months, would have the power to select Feinstein's replacement, thereby once again making Mitch McConnell the Senate majority leader.

Given the looming political dangers, Feinstein should resign so that Newsom could appoint a Democratic replacement. But such a selfless moveis highly unlikely. Despite all the talk about loyalty to their party and determination to defeat the extremism of the Republican Party, corporate Democrats like Newsom and Feinstein routinely look out for No. 1. That's how we got into this ominous recall mess in the first place.

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California recall looks like a disaster and the state's top Democrats paved the way - Salon

The drama in Texas over election reform is drawing to a close.

A week ago last Monday, the Texas Senate held hearings on S.B.1 and opened debate Wednesday. Sen. Carol Alvarado, a respected Houston Democrat, then filibustered the bill with a 15-hour speech that began early Wednesday evening and ended Thursday at about 9 a.m. As she concluded her filibuster, Ms. Alvarado was surrounded by Democratic colleagues, then congratulated by some Republican senators for her grit. The Senate still passed the election-reform bill on a party-line vote, 18-11.

Meanwhile, Democratic state representatives are drifting back from Washington, where 56 of them had fled to deny the House a quorum to conduct business. They seem to have left Texas with a superspreader among them, as five later said theyd tested positive for Covid despite being vaccinated. Apparently bored by the nations capital, two Democrats also reportedly hit the Portugal beaches in secret before being discovered.

Rumors are that 95 or so of the 100 representatives needed for a quorum are in Austin. Other Democrats are reportedly looking for face-saving ways to show up for work so the special session can finish its business and go sine die.

Yet though it didnt stop S.B.1, Ms. Alvarados filibuster helped clarify what this disturbance is about. Its not the bills increase in the number of required hours for the states already-generous early-voting period, its mandate that more medium-size counties hold weekend early voting, the simplified procedures for verifying absentee ballots, or the requirement that mail-in voters be able to cure online, by phone, or in-person any mistakes in their ballot.

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Democrats Will Soon Play Texas Fold Em - The Wall Street Journal

The Indiana Democratic Party came to Lebanon Wednesday eveningas the last stop on the American Jobs Plan tour to show residents why Indiana needs a revitalized infrastructure.

What we believe is the once-in-a-generation investment in our infrastructure, Communications Director for the Indiana Democratic Party Drew Anderson said. We couldnt be more thrilled as a state party to end this tour in Boone County because we see such opportunity to build as a Democratic Party here.

Dist. 29 State Senator JD Ford, Zionsville Mayor Emily Styron, Indiana AFL-CIO president Brett Voorhies and former U.S. Dist. 5 candidate Christina Hale spoke before a group of 30 people who came out to Memorial Park to hear the message.

We are one of the fastest-growing counties in the state (according) to the 2020 Census, Boone County Democrats Chair Ericka Pickell told the attendees who applauded the 25% growth since 2010. I think that will put everybody on notice that we are here and we mean business.

Boone County is expected to see almost $28 million in federal funds as a result of the American Rescue Plan. The American Jobs Plan tour hit 20 locations and was a sequel to the June American Rescue Plan tour.

The breakdown of funds expected is $13.6 million for Boone County, $3.35 million for Lebanon, $5.91 for Zionsville, $330,000 for Thorntown and $4.42 million split up among the local school districts.

In a stop designed to invigorate the local Democratic organization, the speakers asked for continued support and recruitment of friends and neighbors.

What is Jan. 6, 2025, going to look like? Ford said. Is it going to be an opportunity for us to watch what we watched this past year? Or are we going to continue to keep moving forward and building upon the progress our country has made?

Ford said President Joe Biden came into office and started getting things done for Americans and for Hoosiers.

Democrats are delivering, he added. Republicans have played the obstruction game.

Ford said the party did not do a very good job promoting the Affordable Care Act passed under the Obama administration.

We were too busy governing, he said. We were too busy leading.

Voorhies said the plan is the first step in ridding the country and Indiana of right-to-work laws and the Protecting the Right To Organize Act.

Two-thirds of Americans approve of labor unions, he said. You all care and thats why youre here. You care about workers. You care about what youre doing. You care about dignity. You care about your neighbors, whether theyre Democrat, Republican, Black, white, gay, straight, whatever the case may be. You care. Thats why were Democrats and thats why were here today.

Styron said Zionsville is planning on using the money to fix some long-standing infrastructure and economic development problems.

We are targeting the funds to take some of the issues that weve had in what we call the Zionsville Gateway area and retool the public infrastructure here, she said. This focus that our president has right now is 100% spot on. Its not just about the jobs (although) jobs are really important. It is about transforming our small towns, our cities, our communities into healthier, stronger, safer communities across the board.

Indiana Democratic Party Chair for candidate recruitment Christina Hale asked for help in identifying candidates and raising funds to support the candidates.

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Boone County Democrats host American Jobs Plan Tour - Evening News and Tribune

A series of for-profit colleges have shut down in recent years amid accusations of fraud, mismanagement, and misleading students into taking on student debt they can't pay off. A top Democrat wants to make these schools' executives pay.

On Monday, House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott wrote a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, urging him to hold owners, board members, and executives of now-defunct for-profit schools "individually responsible" for money the schools owe to the federal government.

"Given the substantial burden that is currently being borne by students and taxpayers when for-profit and converted for-profit institutions collapse, it is clear the Department has a responsibility to pursue any and all legal avenues available to recoup money that was allocated through financial aid programs," Scott wrote.

After major for-profit chains, notably including Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institutes, shut down, students and taxpayers had to pay the closure costs not the people who ran the school.

Scott highlighted actions the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken, like bringing ITT to court in 2015 for deceiving investors abouthigh rates of late payment and defaults on student loan, but he noted that SEC penalties have been narrow, and the Education Department can do more given its authority under the Higher Education Act including making them pay for the debt students had to take on.

Last year, Student Defense, which advocates for students' rights, released a reportdetailing how executives can be held accountable under the Higher Education Act, and Dan Zibel, author of the report and Vice President of Student Defense, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that "too many predatory colleges have profited from fleecing students & bilking taxpayers."

Since 2015, more than 200,000 defrauded students filed claims for a complete discharge of their loans in a process known as the "borrower defense to repayment." This methodology, approved by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, compared the median earnings of graduates with debt-relief claims to the median earnings of graduates in comparable programs. The bigger the difference, the more relief the applicant would receive.

But compared to a 99.2% approval rate for defrauded claims filed under President Barack Obama, DeVos had a 99.4% denial rate for borrowers and ran up a huge backlog of claims from eligible defrauded borrowers seeking student debt forgiveness, which is why Cardona reversed that policy to start giving borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools the relief they qualify for.

Scott's letter is the second asking the Education Department to hold for-profit education executives accountable. In October 2020, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren led five of her Democratic colleagues in pushing for the department to use all the legal tools at its disposal to hold executives of the for-profits that "defrauded students personally, financially accountable."

The lawmakers wrote the department's failure to enforce accountability "has also encouraged future lawbreaking by executives who feel confident they can enrich themselves at the expense of students and taxpayers without consequence."

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A top Democrat wants to make them pay. All the executives behind defunct for-profit schools, that is. - Business Insider

Megan White didnt pay close attention to politics until the day in 2015 when a representative from Sunoco came to the door of her suburban Chester County home and told her the company needed to route a new pipeline through her yard.

At the time, White and her husband were busy parents of a 1-year-old and didnt give it much thought. The representative, White recalls, told them construction would last for a year or two, and we would never know they were here.

Its a promise many of Whites neighbors also remember and one they now resent. Construction on the Mariner East pipeline project started in earnest in 2017 in Whites area. Today, half of her backyard in West Whiteland Township remains hidden behind a plywood fence, swarming with heavy equipment and construction workers just beyond behind her kids swingset and trampoline.

Its 2021, and my daughters now 7, White said. Its taken up most of her childhood.

Across Pennsylvania, debates about energy policy in the past few decades have largely centered on two issues: fracking and pipelines.

It has created a conundrum for politicians particularly for Democrats, given two key tenets of their party: protecting people and the environment from the ill effects of fossil fuels and supporting organized labor, which has thousands of workers in the commonwealths energy sector.

The debates can be symbolic. Whoever wins Pennsylvanias 2022 U.S. Senate race, for instance, probably wont have much say over the Mariner East pipeline. But for the candidates already lining up for the Democratic primaries for governor and Senate, striking the right balance on these issues could be a matter of political life or death.

All about man-hours

Often, that political calculus divides candidates between the west and the east. In Western Pennsylvania, where fracking was big business during the boom of the late aughts and 2010s, Democrats have a tendency to be more supportive of the natural gas industry. Some members of the party to the east, which has primarily experienced the energy industry though disruptive pipelines, have been less inclined to get on board.

One recent Democratic effort to increase oversight of drillers saw the State House and Senate both sponsor bills with overwhelming support from eastern Pennsylvania. In the House, 23 of the legislations 28 sponsors were from the east; in the Senate, six of the seven were.

But the divisions arent just regional. Even within the Philadelphia suburbs, clear lines have been drawn between people who see the natural gas industry, and pipelines, as a necessary boon to workers and those who think theyre a symptom of unacceptable reliance on fossil fuels.

Jim Snell is a business manager with Steamfitters Local 420, which represents workers across the eastern part of Pennsylvania, including Chester County. Theyre historically aligned with Democrats, but he sees himself, and the union, as politically pragmatic and he has a very straightforward calculus for whether he supports a politician.

Listen, everybody wants clean air, clean water, he said. But in my line of work, were all about man-hours.

Katie Meyer

The workers Snell represents are pipe experts. Their man-hours are often spent installing systems in commercial and residential construction projects, but also important, Snell says, is the energy sector. Right now, he estimates 250 of his members are working on the Mariner East project, along with hundreds of other building tradesmen and women.

Environmentalists have argued in the past that this number of by nature, temporary jobs doesnt justify the environmental impact of a pipeline. But Snell notes the Mariner East delivers natural gas liquids to the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware County for distribution. He says hes expecting even more jobs in the complex once the pipeline is fully finished though he doesnt give details.

Theres bountiful work coming, he said. Im going to have hundreds of steamfitters working at this site. The Philadelphia building trades as a whole will have a few thousand working at this site.

Snell and the building trades have a lot of powerful company on this side of the energy debate. Since Pennsylvanias fracking boom began, corporations that profit from the industry have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying state politicians or contributing to their campaigns. Labor, particularly the building trades, has also allied itself with chambers of commerce and developers in the effort to promote and defend pipeline projects.

Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the pro-pipeline group Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, says the coalition agrees, as a matter of principle, that climate change is real and that the commonwealth must eventually transition away from natural gas, but he thinks fracking and pipeline opponents are being unreasonable.

The transition isnt going to happen by simply flipping a switch, he said. Theres a practical matter, in that most people who work in energy recognize the need for all forms of energy. But the other side, they seem to simply refuse that theres still a tremendous need for these traditional energy resources.

Many pipelines do carry natural gas used for energy. But the natural gas liquids in the Mariner East lines are shipped overseas and are used to manufacture plastics.

David Masur, who heads the environmentalist group PennEnvironment, says Knaus argument is a cop-out.

If my kid said something like that, going like, I know I shouldnt eat Ding Dongs all day, but I dont know what else to eat somebodys got to call BS, he said.

Masur believes there are things Pennsylvania can and should be doing now to begin that transition away from fossil fuels like creating clear milestones for the percentage of energy that should come from clean sources, and putting a higher tax burden on polluting industries. If Pennsylvania does those things, he thinks, jobs in cleaner industries will follow.

He doesnt like to blame labor too much for what he sees as a lack of action but he does think the building trades alliances with the gas industry have hamstrung Democrats.

Theyre probably some of the biggest reasons why we cant pass climate policy today, Masur said. Thats a reality in Harrisburg. It becomes a reality in D.C. because they can peel off a whole set of Democrats who, often, side with the bulk of the Republican caucus.

The pipeline to political awakening

In Chester County, at least some of the people who, thanks to the pipes running through their backyards, have found themselves deeply involved in Pennsylvanias energy debate have come to see the issue as revealing larger problems in government.

The entire length of the Mariner East project has seen drilling mud spills, which can damage streams and wetlands, and the sections that run through dense residential areas in the southeast have been plagued by disruptive sinkholes, thanks to the porous limestone, known as karst, on which the region sits.

Energy Transfer, which now owns Sunoco and manages the project, has racked up millions of dollars in financial penalties for Mariner-related violations alone, and the state Department of Environmental Protection shut down the project completely for permit violations in 2018. Sinkholes related to the project became so bad on one Chester County street, Lisa Drive, that several properties became unsafe, homeowners were displaced, and the company had to buy the houses.

The new lines, and the sinkholes that come with them, are also directly next to 1930s-era pipes that still carry explosive natural gas liquids. For Ginny Marcille-Kerslake, who lives in West Whiteland and has had pipeline construction on and around her property for the last several years, thats the scariest part.

Its not just a sinkhole, she said. Its a sinkhole thats happening in close proximity to these two 90-year-old pipelines that are transporting these highly explosive products.

Katie Meyer

Jessica DeLeandro, who lives down the street from the White family and has construction in her own yard, says that possibility haunts her.

I have two children, which is very nerve-wracking, DeLeandro said. Every morning when I leave for work, now that they are not in school, the anxiety is I cant even describe, God forbid there was an emergency.

Theres a basis for these fears. Explosions in natural gas pipelines can and do happen. In 2018, a different pipeline in rural Western Pennsylvania, the then-newly installed Revolution line, which was carrying a mix of hydrocarbons including methane, ethane and butane, exploded after a landslide. One family was forced to flee for their lives, and their house was left in ruins.

The Mariner East pipeline runs through much more densely populated areas in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Along with residential neighborhoods, its close to a school and a public library.

DeLeandro describes herself as politically nonpartisan Im an American, she said when asked to describe her affiliation but says her experience has spurred her to support stricter regulation of the energy industry. Her biggest political ask now is accountability.

Megan White also considers herself fairly politically neutral, if left-leaning. But like DeLeandro, her up-close view of the pipeline has given her a lasting distrust toward politicians who she sees as soft on natural gas companies like Energy Transfer.

Its just big money, she said. They buy their way through, they just keep throwing money around, and us little people just have to deal with stuff like this.

For Kerslake, its been a true political awakening.

She had worked for years as a soil analyst in her native Canada, and says when Sunoco first knocked on her door in 2015, it felt natural to throw herself into learning about natural gas liquids, pipelines, and problems that can come with them. Less expected, she said, was the political aspect.

That was the huge wake-up call, she said. Once you realize that, and you realize our government has allowed that to happen, then it just blows everything up for you.

Kerslake ran for the State House in 2020. She was up against a party-endorsed Democrat and lost in the primary, but says the experience hasnt dampened her desire to hold energy companies accountable. She founded the group West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety, and now works as an organizer for the national group Food and Water Watch. She also works closely with a fellow pipeline activist from a neighboring district who did get elected to the House Danielle Friel-Otten.

Otten, a Democrat, is now about two years into her tenure representing Chester Countys 155th Legislative District.

She has tangled with energy companies, and with labor, many times during her time in office. But now, shes quick to note that her gripe is not with workers. My dad was a teamster, my brothers are union guys, she said. My one brother is a steamfitter.

The problem, as she sees it, is just the enormous power oil and gas companies have in Pennsylvania. She doesnt think that will go away quickly, but she is encouraged by new action on the federal level, like components of thenewly passed infrastructure package aimed at modernizing the electrical grid to use cleaner energy sources, and cleaning up Superfund sites.

I have a lot of hope at the federal level, she said. In the state you look up at the ceiling [in the Capitol] and its paintings of coal and oil wells. I know that its a hard fight.

The happiest medium

This is the terrain Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania political office now have to navigate.

In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, all the major contenders for the Democratic nomination have begun staking out positions on fracking, pipelines, and how the country should respond to climate change. And despite some differences in tone and specifics, all have attempted to split the difference between supporting union energy jobs and getting rid of fossil fuels.

One of the most outspoken candidates on energy has been John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor and former mayor of Braddock, in Allegheny County.

Its a total false choice that we have to choose between jobs and a clean environment, a spokesman for Fetterman said in an email. Thats just not true. We can have both, thats why John is always going to fight for creating thousands upon thousands of green, good-paying union jobs as we transition.

He added that Fetterman has never taken a dime from the fossil fuel industry, and he never will, and believes climate change is an existential threat, but believes we also have to preserve the union way of life for the thousands of workers currently employed by the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania and the communities where they live. We cant just abandon these people, and tell them to go learn how to code.

Fetterman is progressive along with preserving union jobs while transitioning to clean energy, he has centered marijuana legalization and criminal justice reform in his campaign. But on energy, his tone skews toward that of U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a more moderate Senate candidate who also is from Allegheny County.

Lamb, a second-term congressman elected in an area that former President Donald Trump dominated, has been heavily involved in the Biden administrations efforts to bridge party divides on energy. He helped author Democrats unity energy platform last year, which sought to align the disparate interests of labor, environmentalists, and the energy industry, and told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette during the rollout of that plan that natural gas is here, its not going anywhere.

He has rejected progressive environmental efforts like the Green New Deal, which aims to phase out fossil fuels on a much faster timeline.

We understand, for many industrial processes, fossil fuels are going to be a critical component for years to come, Lamb told the Post-Gazette. Theres no escaping that.

Candidates from the eastern part of the state have, in general, been less friendly to the gas industry. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a contender from Philadelphia, is the only major Senate candidate to have said he will support a moratorium on fracking.

A spokesperson says Kenyatta backs a complete end to tax breaks for oil and gas giants but that, like Fetterman and Lamb, he thinks an equal priority has to be having dignified jobs that can support workers and their families in clean energy ready to replace jobs in the fossil fuel industry.

Val Arkoosh, a physician and Montgomery County Commissioner who, like Kenyatta, has a base of support thats geographically far from fracking, also opted for a middle road.

A spokesperson says she wants to protect air and water, and supports investments in renewable energy sources to create sustainable, good-paying, union jobs, while ensuring workers can train for the jobs of the future and feed their families.

In the gubernatorial race, Attorney General Josh Shapiro appears to be the only major contender for the Democratic nomination.

He hasnt officially announced his candidacy yet or released policy positions, but over the course of his AG tenure Shapiro has periodically taken the natural gas industry to task most significantly, in a sweeping grand jury report last year that accused the Department of Environmental Protection of failing to properly regulate fracking, and said the lucrative but often destructive enterprise had negative effects on Pennsylvanians health.

There are still many months until the election. Megan White, the West Whiteland homeowner with construction workers in her backyard, says she still doesnt know who shell end up supporting for governor or U.S. Senate.

But she does know what she wants to hear from a candidate: That theyre here for the people. That theyll do whats right. That theyll protect us.

Right now, she said, I dont feel protected. I dont feel that anyone cares.

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Jobs Or The Environment? Ahead Of 2022, Pennsylvania Democrats Thread Needle On 'False Choice' - 90.5 WESA