Babette Josephs

Republican candidates in Philadelphia, especially in liberal Center City, are often called sacrificial lambs, doomed to failure by a Democratic electorate that outnumbers them 6-1.

Wally Zimolong is as much a long shot as any, but he's not giving up. The Republican nominee for the 182nd Legislative District has been heavily circulating campaign literature, making the rounds on news shows, and now, he's up with his first TV ad of the election cycle.

In the ad, Zimolong, who is trying to unseat state Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia), says he's running because "Philadelphia is worth fighting for and our elected officials need to stand for something."

Zimolong says the ad (embedded below), will start airing next week on ESPN, Comcast Sportsnet, CNN and Fox News.

HARRISBURG -- Gene Stilp wanted everyone to know what he thought of Tuesday morning's meeting of the House State Government Committee meeting. So the longtime reform activist made an announcement to the handful of legislators and staffers moments before they began debating a bill that would reduce the General Assembly's size.

The whole hearing was a sham, he said, designed for political posturing rather than reform.

"Absolutely nothing will happen" for reform today, he said while standing next to fellow reformer Don Baylor.

Each held a picture of the committee's chairwoman, Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia), with her head superimposed on a beauty pageant contestant's body, a picture meant to deride her efforts at reforming state government. Josephs has become the favorite target of many state reformers because they accuse her of stalling reform legislation in her committee.

Lawmakers dismissed Stilp's antics as showmanship from someone dedicated more to himself than his cause. But they also just as easily dismissed, if much more politely, the bill from state Rep. Mark Mustio (R-Allegheny County) that would reduce the number of state lawmakers to 201, 20 percent fewer than the 253 who serve today.

What was supposed to be a non-controversial resolution on the House floor Wednesday has become the genesis of a budding controversy.

And conservative lightning rod state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County) is in the middle of it.

The lawmaker challenged a resolution that would have sponsored a Muslim group's convention in Philadelphia this weekend in Harrisburg.

"The Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, and I will be voting negative," he said on the House floor. The resolution was passed over after state Rep. Gordon Denlinger (R-Lancaster County) suggested it be sent to committee, saying the resolution was controversial in light of the attacks of Sept. 11.

Harrisburg continues to be embroiled in a dispute over redistricting reform after Gov. Ed Rendell recently urged lawmakers to reconsider recently tabled legislation that would fix how Pennsylvania's congressional districts are drawn.

Adding to the long-running drama, Rendell, a Democrat, wrote to the chairs of the House and Senate's State Government committees last week, imploring them to address the chronic problem of gerrymandering -- carving up districts to the advantage of incumbents and majority parties -- before the 2010 census. Pennsylvania is the second-most gerrymandered state in the country, according to the League of Women Voters.

"The Commonwealth's existing redistricting process undermines democracy by institutionalizing a powerful system of incumbent protection," Rendell wrote in a letter to state Sens. Anthony H. Williams (D-Philadelphia) and Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin), and Reps. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) and Mathew E. Baker (R-Bradford). "For every vote to truly count, we must have competitive elections where voters have the opportunity to choose between viable candidates. I am convinced that the only way to ensure meaningful elections is to take politics out of the process of drawing legislative boundaries.

"This issue is neither arcane nor academic; how we draw legislative boundaries impacts the daily lives of Pennsylvanians because competitive elections in rationally drawn districts are the only way that voters can make their voices heard on the issues that matter to them," he added.