It wasn't very long ago when it was hard for any legislative campaign to have a website. Unless you were willing to pay a consulting firm an absurd amount of money or knew a very talented kid, your options were pretty limited. Now, that's all changing (in part because of resources like DLCCWeb), and it's a good thing.

In this cycle, we're starting to see some really creative uses of the web. I've already talked about some of the things that activists are doing in Texas. But the folks in the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee have some pretty good ideas for using the Internet as well.

This is one of them. Todd Stephens is a Republican candidate for state representative in District 151. He's also an assistant district attorney who is making a slew of questionable decisions:

[R]ather than uphold a strict code of ethics and put our community first, Todd is busy lining his campaign coffers with cash. Todd’s accepted over $5,000 in political contributions from defense attorneys and law firms. And Todd has taken cash from attorneys defending at least five clients—four DUI offenders and one accused sexual predator—with cases pending before his office.

That’s a minimum of five documented conflicts of interests.

Yes, you still try to get folks in the traditional media to write stories about this kind of thing. Yes, you still put facts like these in traditional advertising and mail. But a creative website that allows you to present all the information you have about a candidate costs very little and allows you to attract a lot of new eyeballs. That's exactly what PAHDC has done here.

And it's effective.

Pennsylvania is home to the largest full-time legislature in the country, and that's supposed to be an important responsibility. An assumption that the job will require some sacrifices is part of the reason why citizens of the state provide legislators with a salary of $73,000 a year. But that's apparently not enough money for Republican State Representative Kate Harper:

[In addition to the legislature] the Montgomery County attorney also serves, in a paid capacity, as Upper Moreland Solicitor, Hatfield Borough Council Solicitor and the Milford Township Zoning Board Solicitor.

As you'd expect, the result of all this "service" is that Rep. Harper ends up cutting corners. For instance:

Harper chose to attend various local municipal meetings in her role as Solicitor and skipped her duties in the State House of Representatives on February 11, April 7, May 21, and July 2 just this year.

As the Pennsylvania Progressive tracks down, Rep. Harper didn't bother voting on legislation for mortgage reform or prison reform. She skipped important votes for expanding health care. As the solicitor for a local zoning board, you'd expect her to take an interest in zoning regulations, but she even skipped a vote on that.

It seems pretty clear that Rep. Harper would rather be spending time in her district. Perhaps her Democratic opponent -- Frank Custer -- will give her just that opportunity in November.

In Pennsylvania, longtime Republican strongholds in counties throughout the state are slowly shifting away from the GOP.

On Thursday, in Dauphin County -- which includes the state capitol of Harrisburg -- the numbers of registered voters looked like this: 81,489 Democrats and 81,340 Republicans.

In Philadelphia suburbs like Bucks and Montgomery counties, the trend is the same.

Waves of new Democratic voter were registered during the heated primary contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That month of intensive campaigning certainly helped to put some areas over the top.

But this change is part of a longer-term demographic trend, and the end of the primary hasn't stopped the movement:

Statewide, Democrats have added voters since the April 22 primary, picking up 37,529 registrations while Republicans have lost 1,504, according to figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State [...]

From November 2007 to April's primary, the Republican Party lost 58,119 registered voters.

We still have a lot of work to do between now and November to maintain our control of the Penn. House, but information like this is heartening.

Over the weekend, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community -- an organization with tens of millions in 189 countries worldwide -- held its 60th annual U.S. convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Last Wednesday, lawmakers in the state decided to sponsor a ceremonial resolution honoring the group. Resolutions like this are routine and most are approved quickly and unanimously. That's why it was so surprising to see this bill cause a controversy.

But cause controversy it did.

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican from near Pittsburgh, prevented the House from even considering the legislation, arguing:

The Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, and I will be voting negative.

That statement not only offended members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (the group's president called the remarks, "a form of extremism"), it disturbed many of his fellow lawmakers.

Democratic Rep. Babette Josephs of Philadelphia, a Jewish lawmaker, responded by asking:

I wonder what I would not also qualify for -- being on the floor myself? Having the right to vote? Having the right to practice my religion?

The Pennsylvania press is also taking Metcalfe to task, and this editorial from the Sunday Pittsburgh Post-Gazette hits all the right notes:

The Founding Fathers knew about the dangers of sectarianism from the bitter history of the Old World, which is why the Constitution forbade a religious test for office. In America, you can believe in any faith or none -- and Americans have come to expect that religious tests by their representatives won't be applied in any sphere.

Unfortunately, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican from Cranberry, was oblivious to this truth last week. Not for the first time in his career, he rushed in where angels fear to tread [...]

Mr. Metcalfe may have meant his remark innocently, but if you make a career of saying ill-considered things, then as ye sow so shall ye reap -- this time a controversy needlessly incited and hurtful to all sorts of people.

The legislature has the opportunity to reconsider the resolution this week, but with the Harrisburg convention ended, it seems that the moment has passed.

I just can't get past what a shame that is.

I started working at the DLCC three weeks ago, and part of my job is to track the accomplishments of our elected leaders. Last week, I took a look at the Pennsylvania legislature’s website and was immediately touched by the first story listed on the “Week in Review” page.

Gov. Ed Rendell just signed a Senate Bill into law establishing what’s known as the Cancer Drug Repository Program. This bill, identical to Rep. Tim Solobay’s H.B. 186, allows cancer patients to donate their unused prescription medications so that lower-income patients or those without insurance can buy them at a reduced price.

All-too-often cancer patients are prescribed medication in three-month dosages, and before that time is up, there is a change in the doctor’s treatment plan and the old medicine becomes useless. Under the new program those drugs would no longer be discarded, they would be used to benefit less fortunate patients, which to me, makes it not only economical but also potentially life-saving.

Rep. Solobay is becoming a pioneer in prescription thriftiness, drafting another bill that would incorporate prescription drugs of all varieties into this program. While prescription drugs are becoming more expensive and out of reach for those in need, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, literally! Rep. Solobay is on point with these ideas, and I am eager to see what he’ll accomplish next.

Megan Hannigan is a Klindt/Dye Intern for the 2008 Summer Semester