Blue Pennsylvania: Prevent Future HR-1's! Let's Change HD-1!

Last week the Inquirer reported that the campaign of U.S. Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s federal PAC, which has been sending mailers that say his Democratic opponent - Bob Harvie – acts like a “king”. 

Ouch!

The Fitzpatrick campaign has also been promoting ads through a group called “Fire Bob Harvie”, which has a presence on social media.

It is unclear what the purpose of these ads is.  It appears to support some type of recall effort of Harvie from his office as a Bucks County Commissioner, while at the same time denigrating Harvie’s ability to be a formidable congressional candidate.  But if Harvie is such an insignificant competitor, why is the Fitzpatrick campaign spending so much money to disparage him this early in the race?

While “Corruption” and “Harvie” often appear in the same sentences throughout these ads, there is no evidence that Harvie has had any personal contact with law enforcement outside of testifying before a grand jury in 2022.

The ads also make a number of other unsubstantiated allegations about Harvie (i.e., that he is weak, deceptive, partisan, and inept) but here’s the thing: While all of these allegations are questionable at best, there is no doubt the Brian Fitzpatrick played a pivotal roll in getting HR-1 (aka the Big Beautiful Bill) passed in 2025 – where:

• 10,827 residents in his congressional district are expected to lose their Medicaid coverage:

• 2,027 residents in his congressional district are expected to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

The one thing that the Fire Bob Harvie ads have gotten right, however, is the massive monetary advantage that Fitzpatrick has over Harvie - $7.3 million vs. $600,000.  That means that if we want the race in HR-1 to be competitive, we need to do a lot better.  You can find out about how to help Bob Harvie - financially and otherwise - by going to his website. 

Also, ICYMI

Surveillance Pricing is the practice of using a shopper’s personal information to instantaneously change the prices of various commodities.  We have all experienced surveillance pricing when purchasing airline or Amtrak tickets.  The popularity of the item changes its price.  Lately, however, retail merchants have also begun experimenting with surveillance pricing.  Kohl’s, Kroger, Walmart, and Whole Foods have all instituted this system in various places around the country.  One major problem with surveillance pricing (aside from privacy issues) is that the price of a piece of merchandise could change between the time that the shopper placed the item in their cart and the time that they reach the cash register; but the most insidious feature in this practice is the employment of demographics such as race and gender to determine the price changes.

To address this issue, states such as Maryland, California, New Mexico, and New York have enacted laws to place limitations on the practice.  In Pennsylvania, House Bill 1942, the Surveillance Pricing Act, prohibits price setting based upon a consumer’s personal data such as race, weight, location, or browsing patterns – to inflate prices.  The bill is sponsored by Rep. Danilo Burgos and has eight Democratic co-sponsors.  You can write your house rep. to support this bill.  To find your rep’s contact information, you can click here.

What else can you do?

Below are Blue Pennsylvania’s picks for the Democratic challengers of the seats we hope to flip in November.  Although we are concentrating mainly on the senate seats, we hope to help some of these house candidates as well.  In the following tables, you will find the candidates, their districts, where those districts are, and the Republican incumbents.  You can read more about these candidates by clicking on their names.

PA Senate

Candidate (Democrat)	District	Count(y/ies)	Incumbent (Republican)
Eileen Harnett Albillar	SD-6	Bucks	Frank Farry
Mark Pinsley	SD-16	Bucks/Lehigh	Jarrett Coleman
Chris Thomas	SD-24	Berks/Montgomery	Tracy Pennycuick

PA House

Candidate (Democrat)	District	Count(y/ies)	Incumbent (Republican)
Kristin Egan	HD-142	Bucks	Joe Hogan
Jeff Warren	HD-137	Northampton	Joe Emrick
Elizabeth Moro	HD-160	Chester/Delaware	Craig Williams

Thanks,

Coleman