A brave new world for local Congress members

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times It is a brave (cough-cough) new world for some of our elected officials — specifically the three gentlemen who hold congressional seats in Chester County and find themselves coming home to districts this week they may not recognize. Yes — we’ll grant everything is new for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, who is little more than a month in from joining the world’s most...

A shiny new year: things are about to get interesting

Congressional, legislative officials face new political minefields in 2017 By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times From Harrisburg to Washington, D.C., it is a bold, bright new year in politics. From fresh starts to fresh panics, 2017 looks to be among the most interesting ever in the history of our little republic — and possibly not in a good way, but time will tell. To kick off the year, we’ll gloss...

Endorsements: Costello, Hartman & Meehan

Arguably, this is the most acrimonious campaign season in recent history, making it complicated to sort the fact from fiction and figure out who to support in this year’s local Congressional races. We feel your pain. Our email boxes are constantly filled with breathless pronouncements with whatever counts for talking points in each of these races from both the campaigns, parties and third party groups...

Democrats play their Trump card and hard

Ads start to go negative, too, shockingly By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Last week, in this space I noted that Democratic candidates would be looking to staple their Republican opponents to GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump. Based on a flurry of TV ads and mailers I’ve seen this week, I had it mostly right, except maybe the implement: Democrats are using a nail gun, and one has to wonder...

Trump puts local candidates in a deplorable situation

No good choice for down ballot GOP candidates By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Um, now what? If you think the average American doesn’t know what to think about the tapes revealed Friday involving Donald Trump’s comments on women, imagine if you happen to a Republican appearing on the Nov. 8 ballot for Congress or the State Legislature. I’m not going to address the actual content of the comments...

Ryan visits Chesco to boost Costello

Speaker touts local Congressional candidates Scott Johnson, President of J-Tech, tells Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan (left) about how hard U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (right) has worked for local constituents, during a tour of his Chester Springs facility, Thursday. By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times CHESTER SPRINGS — Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.)...

Welcome to the center of the political universe

National media highlights major role of Chester County in presidential race By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Well, we told you so. For most of the summer in this space, we’ve told you that Chester County figures to be ground zero in the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — and now multiple stories from outside the region, in USA Today, The New York Times and The Harrisburg...

Local Democrats appear to enjoy surprising enthusiasm gap

Flap over Parrish’s finances may prove double-edge sword for GOP By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times With what seemed like a weekend of bad news, followed by the chaos at the start of the Democratic National Convention, if local Democrats seemed a bit down in the dumps, it wouldn’t be surprising. Instead though — and I witnessed this first-hand at the Kennett Area Democrats office opening last...

A tale of two candidates and Trump

Also, can the CC GOP make up for national shortcomings in organization? By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times As Charles Dickens put it, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Well, when it comes to politics and particularly those Republican candidates running down ballot of Donald J. Trump, it appears to be more of the latter. I give you a tale of two candidates, both of whom I know...

Costello focuses attention on human trafficking

Regional Law Enforcement & Homeland Security meet to combat ‘hidden’ crime By Kim Chiomento, Staff Writer, The Times Local law enforcement attendees receive intensive training on recognizing and responding to human trafficking. MALVERN – U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello (R-6) brought together key experts from US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), regional law enforcement, and social services...