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National Republicans send $3.6 million more to defend Fitzpatrick as Musk’s PAC spends elsewhere in Pa.

The Congressional Leadership Fund moved $3.6 million into Brian Fitzpatrick's race this week after walking away from at least one other Republican incumbent, according to an Inquirer review of AdImpact tracking. Elon Musk's America PAC is spending more than $460,000 in each of the other three competitive Pennsylvania districts, held by Reps. Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry. It has spent nothing for Fitzpatrick.

That closes the money gap in Bucks County. Planned spending in the race is now $9.4 million for Fitzpatrick and more than $9.5 million for Bob Harvie, the Democrat, with three weeks left.

The ratings moved too. Fox News now calls Fitzpatrick's race a toss-up, and the Cook Political Report shifted PA-01 from Likely Republican to Lean Republican. Harvie's campaign manager, Dan McCormick, says the race is a dead heat. Fitzpatrick's campaign did not answer the Inquirer's questions.

Read the story: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Photo: Daniel Torok / The White House

Fetterman showed up for 26 of 158 committee meetings this Congress

Sen. John Fetterman showed up for 26 of 158 committee and subcommittee meetings he could have attended this Congress, about 16%, according to a two-part Philadelphia Inquirer review published Sunday and Monday. That count covers every hearing, bill markup and voting meeting held by the committees he sits on. He also missed more votes, in committee and on the floor, than the typical senator.

In Pennsylvania he has made 31 public appearances or publicized meetings in nearly four years, the Inquirer found. Six were in Philadelphia, and four of those six came in his first months in office in 2023. His only Philadelphia event this year was a June youth basketball camp with Sen. Dave McCormick promoting the new Trump-branded savings accounts for kids. McCormick's office said he made 32 stops across Pennsylvania in 11 days during the August recess. That's more stops in 11 days than Fetterman has made in the state in nearly four years.

On missed votes, the paper's figure is about 9% of roughly 1,500, not counting the months he spent in treatment for depression. GovTrack puts the median for senators currently serving at 2.8%. He has introduced 64 bills and resolutions as lead sponsor since taking office, and one became law: a 2023 bill to rename a post office in Camp Hill.

Former staffers told the paper he is disengaged from the job. Tre Easton, a former legislative director who has criticized him publicly, said the last 20% of lawmaking belongs to the senator, and Fetterman does not do it. "To get any bill across the finish line, 80% is staff work but the last 20% is going to be the principal talking to folks on the floor and doing the basic glad-handing that John just does not do," Easton said. One staffer said Fetterman has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more often than with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. Another recalled him describing Center City as a f— war zone.

His votes moved too. An Inquirer analysis found he sided with Democrats on nearly 99% of party-line votes in 2023 and 2024, then under 80% once Trump took office. On 134 votes where the White House had a recorded position, he agreed with Trump about 25% of the time, more than any Senate Democrat except Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. A poll from the Inquirer, The New York Times and Siena University in August found 69% of Pennsylvania Democrats have an unfavorable opinion of him. He hasn't said whether he will run again in 2028.

Fetterman's office did not respond to the Inquirer's requests for comment. He told CNN last month the criticism amounted to "lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears, and anonymous," and has said he missed votes to spend time with his family.

Sources: uPolitics, from a two-part Philadelphia Inquirer review; GovTrack.

Philly DSA asks members to email Pennsbury schools over YDSA harassment

Philly DSA wants its members to email the Pennsbury School District over what the group calls harassment of the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at Pennsbury High School.

The email says the chapter was targeted for scheduling Palestinian solidarity political education events, and for joining other local YDSA chapters on educational social media posts. It says the harassment is coming from a fifth-grade teacher in the district. No teacher is named, and the alert does not describe the conduct.

“Our YDSA students are asking for support from DSA members to email the Pennsbury School District to let them know that their community will not allow this behavior,” it reads. The email adds that Philly DSA “stands with students organizing against the genocide in Gaza.”

This is not the first time Pennsbury students have organized something political and run into a threat. A planned walkout over federal immigration enforcement in February was moved inside to the East auditorium after threats. Superintendent Thomas A. Smith and campus principal Reggie Meadows said afterward that students had “conducted themselves with maturity and integrity.”

The district’s Title IX policy says it “will promptly report, investigate, and respond to all allegations of discrimination, including harassment and retaliation.” Policy 249 prohibits bullying by students and lists the consequences. Pennsbury has not commented publicly on the alert.

Philly DSA counts about 2,500 dues-paying members. The alert links to a form for writing to the district.

Sources: the Philly DSA action alert; Pennsbury’s Title IX page; Patch, Feb. 13, 2026.

A Bucks educator’s petition asks PSEA to take back its Fitzpatrick endorsement

A former Central Bucks school board member is asking the Pennsylvania State Education Association to take back its endorsement of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, and nearly 300 people have signed on in three days.

Tabitha Dell'Angelo, now dean of the School of Education at The College of New Jersey, filed the Change.org petition on Oct. 11. It passed 293 verified signatures Tuesday evening, toward a goal of 500. In an update early Tuesday, she said she had sent a letter with the petition link to PSEA's leadership. Two earlier updates tracked the count from 114 to 174 to 216 in the first two days.

PSEA, the largest union in the state, endorsed Fitzpatrick in July through PSEA-PACE and the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. President Aaron Chapin wrote that Fitzpatrick had "demonstrated a commitment to collaboration and problem solving." The union says it represents nearly 95 percent of the local school district unions in the 1st District, 11,489 public school employees, retirees and aspiring educators. Fitzpatrick was the only Republican running for federal office that the NEA recommended this year, according to the Inquirer.

His Democratic opponent, Bob Harvie, spent 20 years teaching social studies and chairing the department at Bucks County Technical High School. The American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania endorsed Harvie, as did union locals in the Philadelphia school district and Neshaminy. PSEA went the other way.

The petition points at POLITICO's Sept. 30 reporting that Fitzpatrick's ads quote Patch headlines written by Dave Sommers, a Levittown ally who attended his June wedding and has been paid by his campaign, including $500 in 2022 for "office setup services." Sommers was sentenced to six months in prison in 2019 for trafficking diamondback terrapins. Harvie sent Fitzpatrick a cease-and-desist letter in July and sued the pro-Fitzpatrick Defending America PAC in August.

The petition's own text stays general. It cites "investigative reporting by POLITICO and other credible sources" without naming the reporting or the allegations.

A petition cannot make a union take back an endorsement. What it can measure is the membership: 46 signatures in the past day, three quarters of them from Doylestown, Warrington or Perkasie. PSEA has said nothing publicly since July.

PA Black Mayors Coalition brings a countywide GOTV town hall to Doylestown

The PA Black Mayors Coalition brings its fall tour to Bucks County on Monday, Oct. 26 with a countywide mayors town hall at Doylestown Borough Hall. The theme is "From Rhetoric to Results."

The event runs 6 to 8 p.m. at 10 Doyle St. Doylestown Mayor Noni West hosts, Richlandtown Mayor Wayne Codner moderates, and the guest speaker is state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. Chester Mayor Stefan Roots is on the panel. The coalition is running the tour with RiseUp Coalitions.

It lands eight days before the Nov. 3 general election, and the coalition is billing the stop as a get-out-the-vote event, which is how it is listed on the PA Coordinated 2026 Mobilize page where RSVPs are being taken.

Kenyatta has represented North Philadelphia's 181st House District since 2019 and was elected a DNC vice chair in 2025. West has been Doylestown's mayor since 2022. Roots became Chester's 33rd mayor in January 2024.

The flyer for the town hall lists invited Bucks County mayors and elected officials from Chalfont, Dublin, Hulmeville, New Hope, Penndel, Riegelsville, Sellersville and Trumbauersville, along with candidates in state Senate districts 6, 10 and 16, state House districts 18, 29, 31, 140 through 145 and 178, and the 1st Congressional District.

RSVP for the Doylestown town hall →

Pennsylvania gas is at an October record, and diesel is up 65 percent

Pennsylvania drivers are paying $4.46 a gallon for regular gas on average, and $6.54 for diesel, according to AAA's daily survey. Both are the highest the state has seen for this time of year.

Both are up sharply from last year. Regular is about 36 percent higher than last October; diesel is up 65 percent. Diesel matters more than it looks. It sits within 7 cents of the all time Pennsylvania record of $6.61 set on September 22, and it hits harder than the gas number for anyone burning heating oil this winter.

Nationally, AAA reported on October 8 that the average slipped 5 cents in a week to $4.36 but remained the highest ever recorded for October. It is the first year the national average has come in above $4 a gallon in October, AAA said, with crude back above $90 a barrel and a hurricane in the Atlantic that could still move prices.

In southeastern Pennsylvania the Philadelphia area average is $4.44. Patch reported Bucks County at $4.41 on October 5.

Source: Patch, from AAA's daily survey.

Cook Political Report Moves PA-01 to Lean Republican

The Cook Political Report moved Pennsylvania's 1st Congressional District from Likely Republican to Lean Republican on Friday, part of a sweep of 18 House races it shifted toward Democrats in a single update.

"In the final weeks of the election, Republicans have hoped that a massive ad campaign effort could dent Democratic candidates' images and shore up Republicans struggling to free themselves of the anchor of President Donald Trump," Cook's Erin Covey wrote. "With less than four weeks to go, that heavy spending has yet to move the needle."

PA-01 takes in all of Bucks County and part of Montgomery County. Five-term incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, faces Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, a former public school teacher. The move puts the race one rung from Toss Up on Cook's seven-point scale. Cook still gives Fitzpatrick the edge, and the district remains one of the few competitive House seats in Pennsylvania.

The update landed a day before House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Josh Shapiro rallied for Harvie in Lower Bucks County on Saturday.

Cook moved two other Pennsylvania races in the same update: PA-07 (Ryan Mackenzie vs. Bob Brooks) and PA-10 (Scott Perry vs. Janelle Stelson) went from Toss Up to Lean Democrat. PA-08 (Rob Bresnahan vs. Paige Cognetti) stayed a Toss Up. Nationally, Cook now puts its most likely House outcome at a Democratic gain of 9 to 19 seats.

Sources: The Cook Political Report (the memo is subscriber-only past the lede; the PA-01 rating line is carried by PoliticsPA and PennLive), and the PoliticsPA Playbook. The rally is on the C-SPAN record.

From the County: AFL-CIO should have endorsed Bob Harvie

NOTE: "From the County" is a new series I'm trying out that highlights short op-ed pieces from Bucks County residents.

By Mary Ann Adams, Newtown, PA
Mary is a retired nurse, working part time as instructor at BCCC. Resident of Bucks county her entire life, and has lived in Newtown since 2000. Bernie Sanders got her attention, but Trump has motivated her to  join the Newtown Democrats.

Once again, the AFL-CIO endorsed Brian Fitzpatrick for re-election in our PA-01 Congressional district.  What a joke!  No Republican ever should get this endorsement.  Trump has signed on to a no bid contract for his 600-million-dollar ballroom and none of the trade workers are union.  Republicans are the party of the scab worker.  This is a disgrace to the AFL-CIO. Their members need to know this as well as the people of PA-01.

Brian Fitzpatrick has never been a member of a labor union.  Bob Harvie as a school teacher was in a union.  Bob Harvie as Bucks County supervisor oversees government employees who are in a union. 75% of the county 2,600 workers belong to a union divided across 18 different collective bargaining units. 

The reason the AFL-CIO gave for endorsing Fitzpatrick was that he voted for Bill 2550 on 12/11/25 to restore collective bargaining rights to Federal employees AFTER the Trump administration took them away.  The vote was 231 to 195.  ALL Democrats voted for it, but only 20 Republicans (of which Fitzpatrick was one). Voting for this bill was no profile in courage. Workers got back what the GOP never should have taken from them.

Fitzpatrick’s campaign recently put signs all over the district touting Harvie giving a 1% pay raise to himself.  This proves Fitzpatrick is against labor.  By law, part of Bob Harvie’s job, and a legal requirement, is to set future salaries for upcoming terms prior to an election year.  1% is the most modest increase and this vote was unanimous and bipartisan, but anti-labor Fitzpatrick would like you to think otherwise.  Republicans have never been a friend to labor. Remember that when you vote in November.

Calamitous, Cleared, and Keeping Both Jobs

After months of investigation and seventeen thousand signatures asking for a resignation petition. The Bucks County DA District Attorney office, headed by DA Joe Khan cleared Police Chief Scott McElree of criminal charges while calling his response to the Quakertown student protest a "calamitous decision.". Calamitous, but not in the DA's eyes illegal. Legality in this case hinges for the most part on intent of McElree and I'm not sure the case would have won in court based on that legal standard. However, I am sure that the incompetence and poor decision making shown by Chief Scott McElree, who enter an agitated crowd of protesting teenagers while wearing plain clothes, with no visible badge, uniform, body-worn camera, or handcuffs was clear. McElree continues to keep his job as police chief and borough manager, two offices that concentrate more power in one 72-year-old than most small towns hand a mayor. I'll have more to say on this subject soon, but for now I'll say that this is not the better Bucks I hope for.

Read the full story at Central Bucks News

Official Bucks County DA post

Read the memorandum here

Falls Township Supervisors React to Data Center Anger

Falls Township supervisors voted Monday to declare parts of their zoning ordinance "substantively invalid", a legal maneuver called a curative amendment that starts a 180-day review for new rules specifically aimed at data centers. It's a direct response to the thousands of residents who signed petitions against the Amazon Web Services data center already under construction at the Keystone Trade Center, a $3 billion, 3-million-square-foot project that sailed through approval in March 2025 with barely a murmur. The solicitor called the amendment a "protective mechanism" against developers who might sue while the township rewrites its code. The vote doesn't stop the data center that's already approved, but it does signal the supervisors heard the noise.

Full story at LevittownNow →