Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and leading Democrat Senate contender John Fetterman is in a Lancaster hospital today. His wife, Gisele, explains what happened. "John had a stroke that was caused by a clot from his heart beating in an irregular rhythm for too long. Fortunately, the amazing doctors here were able to completely clear the clot and entirely reverse the stroke," Fetterman says. She says her husband is recovering and doing well. In a separate Twitter video, John and Gisele Fetterman both appeared with John Fetterman saying he hadn't felt well last Friday and at his wife's urging went to get checked out.
Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Kathy Barnette is gaining steam in the polls and facing questions over past social media posts regarding such topics as Islam. Barnette says the tweets in question were not full thoughts or full sentences. "I can't provide a lot of context because they're almost from ten years ago. That's how far they have to go back to try to find anything on me," says Barnette. Polling shows Barnette, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick the three leading Republican Senate candidates heading into tomorrow's primary election.
St. Sen. Doug Mastriano has increased his lead in the latest Pennsylvania governor's race survey. The Emerson College poll of 1000 Republican Pennsylvania primary voters was conducted from May 14-15. The poll shows Mastriano with 34 percent support, while Lou Barletta sits second, nearly 13 points behind. Bill McSwain and Dave White are running third and fourth respectively, both more than 20 points down.
The race for Pennsylvania governor is bringing a lot of campaign donations in. Last month alone, nearly $12.8 million was donated to the campaigns of those running for governor. That boosts the overall total since the start of 2021 to more than $44 million. The lone Democrat running, Josh Shapiro, raised nearly $3 million last month, leaving him with almost $16 million on hand, the most of all candidates. Doug Mastriano leads polls on the Republican side, but reported the lowest fundraising numbers among GOP frontrunners last month. Mastriano raised more than $191,000 and has nearly $793,000 on hand. Bill McSwain raised the most among Republican contenders, bringing in $6 million last month.
Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg says there's a chance of some potentially dangerous weather this afternoon. "A couple of strong to severe thunderstorms this afternoon and they could produce downpours, large hail, damaging wind and perhaps a tornado," Lundberg says. The best chance for the nasty weather is between 2pm-8pm.
A Lehigh Valley state senator says Gov. Tom Wolf's proposal to give state relief payments from federal COVID money should be discussed. The governor revealed his proposal in February to spend most of the more than $2 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds still held in the state's general fund. Allentown Sen. Pat Browne, who is Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, says there's enough financial room in budget negotiations for discussing the proposal. The regular budget discussions will be tackled over the next few months.
Family and colleagues are mourning the loss of former St. Sen. Jim Ferlo. Senate Minority Leader Jay Sosta announced his passing yesterday at the age of 70. Costa calls Ferlo an advocate for working people and the LGBTQ community after he served as the first openly gay member of the Pennsylvania Senate. Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered the commonwealth flag to fly at half-staff in honor of Ferlo. Gov. Wolf called Ferlo a "good man and a better leader, who always stood up for what is right."
Health officials are recommending masks be worn indoors in nine New Jersey counties following a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. The CDC lists Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Gloucester, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Sussex counties as high-risk for COVID transmission. Last Friday, over 5300 positive COVID-19 tests were reported across the Garden State. It was the first time that many were reported since the peak of the omicron variant in January.