A Quick Note on the PA Attorney General Race

The dean of Pennsylvania newspaper blogs, Capitol Ideas, discussed the Pennsylvania Attorney General's race today. CI notes that the campaign has been primarily waged via press releases.

Candidates, especially at the state and local level, sometimes complain that they don't get any press. As a voter I am often frustrated by the inability to find out much information about candidates. From where I sit this is not necessarily the fault of the press, but as much or more the fault of the candidates.

If you wanted information on the Attorney General candidates, if you wanted to find out more about them, what would you do? I don't see much tv so if there are ads I missed them. Searching the web is one way of researching candidates, as are searches of newspaper databases (see your public library for what is available near you).

The horse's mouth is a good place to start. Republican incumbent Tom Corbett has a website, www.tomcorbett2008.com, but it doesn't have any issue statements. His biography has some issue priorities listed. There are two press releases and some newspaper articles.

Democratic challenger John Morganelli has a website, www.johnmorganelli.com/, has a number of issue statements. His site is not as polished as Corbett's but provides more information.

Neither site provides any information on where you can find these candidates. Want to be able to see them / hear them / smell them / ask them a question? Good luck. Hire a psychic because the campaigns won't tell you. Neither has a list of events the candidate will be attending. The election is about 2 months away. Are there any debates planned? When? Where? Will they be televised? Any chance they will be on PCN? Will they tell us that? Finding debate information is "needle in a haystack" stuff.

I've seen both candidates, onstage at Stu Bykofsky's Candidate Comedy Night, but it wasn't really the kind of material you would use when deciding who to vote for. Both candidates provide ways for you to volunteer for their campaign and contribute to it, but how do you decide whether or not you want to do that?