Pennsylvania: Dwight Evans

Add a few more names to the list of candidates considering a run against U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in 2010.

State Democratic party executive director Mary Isenhour tells The Morning Call that Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, National Constitution Center CEO Joe Torsella and state Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) are all interested in the race.

Leaders of the House Democratic Caucus said late Tuesday night they will personally forgo the legislature's recent pay increase but will not suspend the automatic cost-of-living adjustment for rank-and-file members.

On Monday, the legislature received a scheduled 2.8 percent pay increase. The raise infuriated reform activists, who compared it to 2005's infamous pay grab that led to 50 lawmakers either retiring or being voted out of office.

DENVER--With longtime state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia) set to retire from Harrisburg to fight corruption charges, the Democrats need a new party chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Fumo brought billions in state funding to Philadelphia as the ranking Democrat on the committee, but chatter inside and outside the Capitol makes it seem like the position will go to someone from elsewhere in the state.

For almost two years, Gov. Ed Rendell has worked against staunch neighborhood resistance to proposed casinos in Philadelphia. Even as some residents who once revered him as the city's mayor grew to loath him for his acceptance of the slot parlors planned for the Delaware River waterfront, Rendell has always sided with the casino developers.