Political Pennsylvania:

Political Pennsylvania: The New Decade explores Pennsylvania state politics in the first decade of the 21st by Pennsylvania’s leading political analysts: G Terry Madonna and Michael L Young. Based on a selection of articles produced by Madonna and Young from 2000 to 2010, the book documents the major events, personalities and issues of these critical years in state history. The book’s nine chapters opens with an introduction that focuses on three critical themes essential to understanding state politics as the new century begins: the major characteristics of modern state politics dating from the Civil War period; the key characteristics of the state’s politics as the new century begins; and an exploration of where state politics were heading as the new century gets underway. Chapter Two adds to this framework with a look at Pennsylvania’s historical role in national politics. A solidly Republican state from the Civil War until the 1930’s, Pennsylvania evolved into a competitive two party state by the 1950’s. Despite its large population, has often played a modest role in national politics, electing just one president while its leaders often played a kingmaker role behind the scenes. Gubernatorial politics are discussed in Chapter Three showing that four essential facts are important in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial politics. Its governors are given considerable constitutionally provided powers making them the central figures in state politics. Pennsylvania governors are term-limited--they can only be elected to two consecutive terms. Open seat elections for governor tend to be highly competitive between the two major parties, and for more than sixty years a strange but reliable “eight year cycle” has existed-- in which the two major parties trade the office every eight years. Chapter Four covers U.S. Senate contests in the Keystone state, emphasizing three major constants in contemporary senate politics: those contests are usually hard fought and costly battles between the two major parties; Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senators generally have been elected and re-elected as moderates despite party affiliation; and until mid-decade (2006) Republicans had dominated the state’s U.S. Senate delegation. That domination would briefly give way late in the decade with Democrats holding both seats for only the second time since the Civil War. Chapter Five focuses on political parties emphasizing the long term competitive two party nature of state politics--while pointing out in some detail that Democrats gradually gained advantage both in statewide elections and presidential elections. Chapter Six tackles the ubiquitous topics in state politics of corruption and reform. Once the bane of Pennsylvania’s executive branch, corruption in the new century was found more and more within the legislative and judicial branches of government. Pennsylvania’s long history of political corruption has been accompanied by an equally long tradition of anti-reformism, one that showed little sign of abating in the new century. Chapter Seven follows the money literally by reviewing budgets and taxes. Unlike the federal government, Pennsylvania, as most other states, must adopt a balanced annual budget. The adoption of the budget is the single most important annual state function. That adoption process begins with a February governor's budget address in which spending and programmatic goals are spelled out. Chapter Eight looks at state policy arguing that politics almost always informs policy and frequently determines it. Nevertheless, it is a serious oversimplification to argue that policy is simply the long shadow of politics. The real relationship between politics and policy is far more complex as several articles attest. Chapter Nine surveys Pennsylvania’s key national elections. Since the 1960's Pennsylvania has played an important role in presidential elections, becoming for the first time in history a “competitive” state--a so-called “battleground state."