Election 2018: Casey's Cancer Flub, Wagner's Vietnam Puzzler

Unlike the previous week, President Trump didn’t make a personal appearance on behalf of any candidates and no candidate threatened his opponent with physical violence. But that doesn’t mean last week was an uneventful one in Pennsylvania politics.

With two weeks to go before the Nov. 6 election, here’s what’s been happening in the key Pennsylvania races for the U.S. Senate, governor and the 17th Congressional District:

• Senate: Democratic incumbent Bob Casey vs. Republican Lou Barletta.

Sparks finally flew in a race that has been largely uncompetitive and deadly dull in Casey’s favor.

The incumbent stumbled with a new commercial criticizing Barletta for his congressional vote last year in the unsuccessful Republican effort to jettison the Affordable Care Act. Narrated by a constituent with two daughters with cancer, the woman says, “Thank God we had health insurance. But if Lou Barletta has his way, kids like mine could be denied care they need.”

Barletta then disclosed on Twitter that his 18-month-old twin grandson currently receives chemotherapy. “(Casey) should take the commercial down and he should be ashamed of himself,” he said.

Casey issued a statement saying the parallels weren’t intentional and his campaign pulled the commercial from Barletta’s home TV market of Scranton. But the spot continued to run in other markets across the state.

Meanwhile, the Casey and Barletta campaigns released statements indicating both men raised $2.2 million between July 1 and Sept. 30. Casey, however, had $6.7 million in his campaign coffers compared to just $1.3 million for Barletta.

• Gubernatorial Race: Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf vs. Republican Scott Wagner.

Nothing happened in this race that remotely approached Wagner’s theatrics of the previous week in which he threatened to stomp on Wolf’s face with golf spikes, a position for which he later admitted might have been a bit overboard. But things still got weird in the race..

Wagner debuted a commercial featuring a group of veteran criticizing Wolf for not having served in the military during the Vietnam War. The spot was a head-scratcher to some as Wagner never was in the military either.

But Wagner’s spokesman told PennLive that Wolf attempted to evade the draft - an assertion Wolf’s campaign vociferously disputed - while Wagner never was called. The difference is a subtle one indeed, and it's unclear whether many voters will embrace Wagner's attempt to make Wolf's draft status a half-century ago a campaign issue.

• 17th Congressional District: Republican incumbent Keith Rothfus vs. Democratic incumbent Conor Lamb.

In their second and likely final debate before the election, Rothfus and Lamb disagreed on issues such as gun control and the minimum wage and climate change.

Both men are wary of strengthening gun control measures, but while Lamb said he would back universal background checks for firearm purchases, Rothfus would not. Regarding the minimum wage, Lamb favors a gradual increase to $15 an hour, with future hikes being indexed to inflation levels. Rothfus disagreed, saying the booming economy has helped raise wages.

Campaign finance reports filed last week showed Lamb with a continued fundraising edge over Rothfus. He raised about $1.1 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 and had about $880,000 on had to spend during the campaign’s waning weeks. Rothfus raised about $750,000 in that period and had about $480,000 to spend.

Photo via Getty Images.

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