Sam Janesch is an investigative reporter for The Caucus. He can be reached at sjanesch@caucuspa.com. You can also follow @samjanesch on Twitter.
About Sam Janesch
Lobbyists in Harrisburg and throughout Pennsylvania will soon have to disclose any financial interest they have in organizations for which they lobby, the first step in what the General Assembly’s top two Republicans describe as a comprehensive lobbying reform push.
At least three candidates with significant legal experience applied in 2019 to fill a vacancy on one of the state’s two highest appellate courts, but Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf instead tapped a well-connected lawyer for the Republican caucus in the Pennsylvania Senate.
The Pennsylvania Constitution keeps it simple: “The members of the General Assembly shall receive such salary and mileage for regular and special sessions as shall be fixed by law, and no other compensation whatever, whether for service upon committee or otherwise.”
Over the next year, The Caucus and Spotlight PA will examine and make public specific areas of spending by the legislature as part of their ongoing efforts to follow the money and track taxpayer dollars.
HARRISBURG — Millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded expenses incurred by state lawmakers each year would be required to be posted online to be easily accessed and examined by the public under a bill being prepared for introduction in the Pennsylvania Senate.
Over the next year, The Caucus and Spotlight PA will examine and make public specific areas of spending by the legislature as part of their ongoing efforts to follow the money and track taxpayer dollars.
In an important step toward opening up a government process that has traditionally been cloaked in secrecy, a panel of judges on Tuesday said applications for individuals hoping to fill judicial vacancies should not be kept secret under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law.
Thousands of Pennsylvanians might soon owe their jobs to Georgia voters.
Glossy postcards jammed into mailboxes. Television ads filling every commercial break, and more ads popping up on Facebook and Instagram. Calls at all hours of the day asking for support, time and money. Campaign advertising and outreach was omnipresent last year in Pennsylvania, and it wasn…
The money fueling the campaigns of Pennsylvania politicians — and their Washington, D.C., counterparts —includes small-dollar donations from individual voters, as well as bigger checks from dues-collecting unions and wealthy benefactors with special interests.
A rapidly expanding business-consulting and lobbying firm that counts the state Senate's newly retired leader as a partner is gearing up to become a major player in Pennsylvania political circles with ties to a $432,000 campaign slush fund.
HARRISBURG — In his first speech as top leader of the Pennsylvania Senate last week, Republican Sen. Jake Corman positioned himself as a reformer seeking to restore faith in government by greatly increasing transparency in the legislature and by elected lawmakers.
