I yield the floor to the gentleman from... where are you from again?

This editorial is a week old, but I never got around to posting about it the first time. The issue is that Rick Santorum, incumbent senator from Pennsylvania and arguably the most threatened incumbent in the nation, doesn't appear to have a working address in the state he purportedly represents:

Before every election, the Post-Gazette routinely sends letters to the candidates seeking material for the Voters Guide. Back in March, as part of that process for the primary, the newspaper sent a letter to Rick Santorum at his home address, at least the one that he claims. Back from Penn Hills came the letter with a sticker from the U.S. Postal Service checked as "Not Deliverable As Addressed -- Unable To Forward."

That is all you need to know about the nasty dispute between the Republican Sen. Santorum and his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., in the November election. The whole thing is rooted in one inconvenient fact for Sen. Santorum: He doesn't live here anymore.

This is not to say that he doesn't visit Penn Hills from time to time. But while he may meet the legal requirements for residency, his home is in Virginia with his wife and children. This is well-known and it has been for quite a while. Indeed, it was at the heart of the objection by some Penn Hills residents to the local school district paying for the senator's children to be enrolled in a cyber charter school. The theory was that -- let us emphasize it again because it is central to the current problem -- he doesn't live here anymore.

The rest of the op-ed talks about how visual evidence obtained by a news station in Pittsburgh shows no furniture in the Santorum house, overgrown weeds in the lawn, and generally a home that looked vacant for quite some time. Santorum responded with radio ads claiming that people were "trespassing" at his house. The question is whether or not he would have known that if they didn't broadcast video of it.

And this is having an effect in the Senate race, it seems, where Bob Casey Jr., the Democratic challenger, leads by 23 points according to the latest poll. That's a ridiculous state of affairs for a sitting Senator, particularly one who's a leader in his party. There's no way Santorum can distance himself as a moderate, the Democrats have a strong and viable candidate, and the side issues are piling up.

With all of this going on at the top of the ticket, Chris Bowers notes that my home state is trending more Democratic with each passing day:

The situation for Pennsylvania Republicans is rapidly collapsing statewide. The residency issue has clearly become a major problem for Santorum. Two weeks ago, in a major conservative stronghold, Democrats won a special election for the Pennsylvania state Senate by 13%. Also on the May 16th primary, Democratic turnout was over 30% higher than Republican turnout.. Rendell has moved form being the primary Republican target among Governors in 2006 to becoming a pretty safe incumbent. Lois Murphy in PA-06, Joe Sestak in PA-07, and Patrick Murphy in PA-08 have all become serious challengers to Republican held congressional seats in districts that Kerry won in 2004. Bush's approval rating in Pennsylvania has sunk to an astounding 28-70.

Pennsylvania is considered a "blue state" in popular electoral parlance, but in truth it has been red for some time. Republicans control both branches of the state legislature, have a 12-7 edge in congressional seats, and have won every full-term US Senate election since 1964. These advantages in ostensibly "blue" Pennsylvania have been absolutely crucial to Republicans maintaining their national governing coalition. However, even as a Republican activist purchases our local papers in Philadelphia, Republican dominance of Pennsylvania politics, fueled in part by longstanding Pennsylvania Democratic incompetence, seems poised to end. If the NRCC has been forced to spend nearly $4M to defend the CA-50, what can they possibly muster to the face of the coming Pennsylvania onslaught?

Patrick Murphy is running in the district in which I grew up. Lois Murphy is the one next door. These are the bellweather districts for the state. They've gone Democratic in Presidential elections but have typically kept their Republican representatives. If that changes, there will be a sweeping landslide in the state. And considering the state GOP is running the second-best wide receiver from the 70s-era Steelers as their gubenatorial candidate, I see nothing but landslide to come.

Bowers highlights the fact that the progressive community online in Pennsylvania has made a real difference in the political shift in the state.

For those of you who still believe that fighting internal Democratic battles is somehow a waste of progressive resources, you need to look no further than to Pennsylvania for counter-evidence. While the newly revitalized progressive movement in Pennsylvania has locked horns with the party establishment, the result has not been drained resources and two separate, warring factions. Instead, the result has been a tremendous upswing in pro-Democratic Party activity in Pennsylvania that has benefited both the new progressive movement and the party establishment. Our new progressive movement is working--the old ways of either simply falling in line behind the party leaders or bolting the party / sitting on your hands were not working. The progressive, internal reform movement has identified hundreds of new activists, resulted in a tremendous fundraising upswing, created new progressive media outlets, started new grassroots organizations, and forged new progressive social networking spaces. This is how you do it. This is how a progressive movement can win back Pennsylvania, and indeed the entire nation.

Good for my peeps in Philly and my Keystone State. Now that they're getting it together it's time to export that to the rest of the country.