"PoliticsPA has transformed the political conversation in PA."

-State Rep. Jeff Coleman

"PoliticsPA does a fantastic job keeping the citizens of our great Commonwealth informed with factual information on all of the latest political news.  I commend PoliticsPA for their resourcefulness and ingenuity."

- Lt. Governor Catherine Baker Knoll

"PoliticsPA is a great resource and injects some much needed fun and insight into the political discussion here in Pennsylvania."

- Governor Ed Rendell

"It is clear that you are fast becoming the most widely read and trusted source of information in this town."

- House Speaker John Perzel

"I think it's (PoliticsPA) lively."

- Arlen Specter, United States Senator

"It's the most widely consulted Web site in the state for politics.''

- Dr. Terry Madonna, political analyst

"You have invited people to the party of Pennsylvania politics all year long.  Some have gotten what they wished for in your rankings.  Others just had their candles blown out.  Some have had their profile balloons rise; others just burst from too much self-inflation.  But you can be sure of one thing - there will be plenty of mischief and mayhem, misdeed and misquote, to keep you busy unwrapping the surprise packages of politics Pennsylvania-style for another twelve months."

- President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer

"Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital of antiquity had many splendors, but they didn't have PoliticsPA! Your munificent accolades of my intellect and my platoon are surpassed only by your capacity to keep us on our proverbial toes."

- House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese

"Congratulations to PoliticsPA on one year of providing us complete coverage on Pennsylvania Politics.  When the others won't or can't get the story, PoliticsPA always does. "
- Attorney General Mike Fisher

"Washington has 'The Hotline,' and Pennsylvania has PoliticsPA.  You guys are an excellent source for political analysis and late breaking news.  You provide just the right mix of insightful commentary, and of course that necessary dose of humor." 

- Congresswoman Melissa Hart

"Whenever I am in session in Washington D.C., I always keep up to date on Pennsylvania politics using your site."
-Congressman Tim Holden

"Thanks for providing a one-stop click for political junkies like me."

- TJ Rooney, Chair, Democratic State Committee

"When it comes to affairs of the state, PoliticsPA is the best place for tips and leads about everything that's happening in Pennsylvania. The Web site keeps a close tab on state politics and makes everyone an insider---and that makes those of us on the inside a bit nervous! The cloak-and-dagger approach of PoliticsPA offers a legitimate source of news and information that keeps the Capitol buzzing and keyboards clicking around the state."
- Mike Veon, House Democratic Whip

"You have brightened the Pennsylvania political scene, improved the body politic and gave us all a few more laughs. Many More."

- Senator Allen Kukovich

" ... an enormously popular and anonymous Web site devoted to state politics."

- Amy Werden, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Who would have thought it possible? A website run by a completely anonymous organization, mostly fueled by tips, hints and wispy strands of information, becomes the must read every morning for the political movers and shakers of Pennsylvania. You've gotta love this business! Keep up the good work."

- David Millner, political consultant

"PoliticsPA.com, the 'New York Times' of Pennsylvania political news coverage!"
- Ed Mitchell, political consultant

"PoliticsPA gives us a thorough coverage and great inside baseball on Pennsylvania politics..."  

- Dan Ronayne, RNC Northeast Regional Press Secretary

"PoliticsPA is like the morning cup of coffee we political junkies depend on before starting each day."

-Ken Snyder, Democratic party spokesman

Since our launch on October 22, 2001, PoliticsPA has quickly become a fixture of politics and government in Pennsylvania, attracting people who want current and reliable information about campaigns, elections and politicians in the Commonwealth. Our users include the elite of state, county and local government.  PoliticsPA regularly attracts elected officials, policy makers, opinion leaders, academics and the media. In fact, if you have a strong interest in Pennsylvania politics and government than PoliticsPA is must reading.

Unique Monthly Users, 10/01/01 through 4/01/04

PoliticsPA.com provides advertisers with an effective vehicle for reaching influential readers throughout the Pennsylvania political community.  Not only will you reach the most powerful leaders in the state, but you will also reach political enthusiasts from all over the Commonwealth. Top policy makers and opinion leaders regularly make PoliticsPA.com one of their first reads of the day. Banner advertisements are available at a reasonable rate. Put our high traffic and specially targeted audience to work for your business, association or trade group.

For  advertising information on PoliticsPA contact:

Marketing Department

PoliticsPA, LLC
900 19th Street NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC  20006
202-327-8100

Learn more about PoliticsPA

Web site offers political grist for Pa.'s rumor mill The pseudonymous page serves news with a twist. By Lara Jakes Jordan Associated Press

WASHINGTON - T.J. Rooney, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, says he checks it five or six times a day. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) peruses it on Fridays on the train home to Philadelphia. Scores of politicians and reporters across the Keystone State and in Washington are clicking on www.PoliticsPA.com, a must-read for Pennsylvania's political junkies. Launched in October 2001, PoliticsPA is the sister site of Web pages focusing on state and local politics in New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. All five sites post daily briefings on newspaper stories and political commentary, supplemented with features more spicy than scientific, such as online polls and rankings of power people. "It's a great, quick way to see what's breaking in the news up there," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington. He checks PoliticsPA about three times a week to monitor buzz about the U.S. Senate race that will pit incumbent Specter against Reps. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joseph Hoeffel (D., Pa.). The PoliticsPA site was the first news source to report that Toomey and Hoeffel would run against Specter. "They post most everything in the political realm in Pennsylvania," Woodhouse said. "Some of the stuff you have to take with a grain of salt - almost everybody in this business claims they have a little bit of a political analyst in them - but it's fun, it's informative." The sites emulate Web pages based mostly in Washington or New York that push daily political discussion within a national "chattering class" - including National Journal's Hotline, the ABC News Note, and cybergossip Matt Drudge. The five state sites are owned and run by the Publius Group, so dubbed after the anonymous pen name used by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay when writing the Federalist Papers. Just who runs the sites has become a popular guessing game in statehouses and on Capitol Hill. Numerous attempts to unmask them, by reporters and other sleuths, have failed. Its anonymity immediately brings the Web sites' credibility into question, justifiably or not. "It's not the same kind of oversight as with regular journalists," said Paul Waldman, a media scholar at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. If the sites "are responsible and don't traffic in unverified rumors, then they are perfectly fine - particularly since they're going to have a limited audience of people who are fascinated by politics," Waldman said. "It's only when they act irresponsibly that they become damaging. "So there's potential for real value, and a potential for danger." Tipsters contact PoliticsPA by linking to the e-mail address of its editor, Sy Snyder - a pseudonym used by staff. The name alludes to Simon Snyder, a Jeffersonian Democrat who, as governor in the early 1800s, moved the Pennsylvania capital from Lancaster to Harrisburg. "The anonymity has always been part of the allure of the site," a person writing as Snyder said in an e-mail interview, adding: "Most of our audience would agree that we are as fair as possible." PoliticsPA - which says it has a handful of staff that writes, edits and manages the site - estimates it gets "tens of thousands" of Internet hits a month. Since it targets an audience of political junkies, the site has become a prime place for insider scuttlebutt that may otherwise never see the light of day. "A lot of the information that's important to people that live and breathe politics isn't going to make it on the evening news or in newspapers," said Bill Miller, vice president of Pittsburgh-based Brabender Cox, a Republican political consulting firm that buys ad space on the site. "PoliticsPA allows us to communicate directly to those people." Specter has his staff print out PoliticsPA postings and reads them weekly while he commutes from Washington. While skeptical of the site's accuracy, "I think it's lively," he said. Rooney, the Democratic Party chairman and a Pennsylvania state representative, calls PoliticsPA a reliable source. He surfs the site constantly throughout the day. "I think they go to more lengths to ensure their integrity than most would presume," said Rooney, a Democrat from the Lehigh Valley. "It isn't as helter-skelter as all that."

Tuesday, July 15, 2003 9:39:06 AM
PoliticsPA a powerful if mysterious player By Helen Colwell Adams Jul 6, 2003, 00:01 EST Lancaster Sunday News
You can find out who's up and who's down. You can find a list of the most powerful politicians in the state. You can find out who Pennsylvania's worst mayors and county commissioners are. About the only thing you can't find on PoliticsPA.com is the true identity of its pseudonymous editor, Sy Snyder. 'Figuring out who Sy is it's an exciting parlor game in Harrisburg,'' said pundit Dr. G. Terry Madonna. Snyder himself (or herself, or themselves), interviewed by e-mail, wouldn't be drawn into the feeding frenzy. 'Sorry, we cannot confirm or deny anything,'' he wrote in reply to a couple of queries about the Sy rumor du jour. From its quiet launch Oct. 22, 2001, the free Web site has become one of the most influential forces in state political circles. While cybergossip Matt Drudge hit the public eye with revelations about Monica Lewinsky and then-President Clinton, PoliticsPA has built its audience more gradually, with a string of breaking stories, a stable of hot columnists and fun features like 'Power 50'' and 'Virtual Campaign Manager.'' Many of the state's political heavyweights and junkies start their day by clicking on PoliticsPA (www.politicspa.com). The site claims 2.5 million hits each month, and as its readership has grown, so has its advertising. 'It's the most widely consulted Web site in the state for politics,'' said Madonna, the Millersville University analyst whose column appears on PoliticsPA. In addition to original material, the site also links to online stories about politics across Pennsylvania, making it and its archives a potent resource for journalists (and, of course, politicians). PoliticsPA also runs original documents in their entirety for instance, radio ads, campaign fliers and controversial letters. It's owned by New Jersey-based Publius Group, which also runs sites in New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont. 'With all due respect to print and electronic journalists,'' the Publius Web site says, 'there is some interesting inside political news that does not make it in print or on the air. Our editors have chosen to remain anonymous, much like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay when they wrote the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym Publius.'' From 11,000 hits per month in October 2001, PoliticsPA reached 1 million monthly a year later. Snyder said June's figures will show more than 2.5 million hits. The eyes translate into ads; PoliticsPA has 'a who's-who list of advertisers,'' Madonna pointed out, mostly political consultants and lobbyists. 'The cloak-and-dagger approach of PoliticsPA offers a legitimate source of news and information that keeps the Capitol buzzing and keyboards clicking around the state,'' House Democratic Whip Mike Veon wrote in one of the accolades posted on the site. Not everyone is enamored. Chad Weaver, the chief of staff for Lancaster County's Sen. Noah Wenger, said he looks at the site, but not religiously. 'I don't believe everything I read in the paper,'' Weaver said, 'and I sure don't believe everything I read on a Web site.'' But when software mogul and aspiring candidate Charlie Crystle of Lancaster wanted to raise his name recognition, the first thing he did was contact PoliticsPA. The site ran a long Q&A with Crystle, and the Democrat was suddenly a player in the race to take out U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. Snyder pointed out that of the five 'worst mayors and commissioners'' on the list (none from Lancaster County, we're pleased to report), four lost re-election races in November and the fifth retired. Other politically oriented Web sites abound; Capitolwire, for instance, offers exhaustive state government coverage but it's a subscriber service, while PoliticsPA is free. Capitolwire was snapped up recently by the old-media Associated Press. Will PoliticsPA follow the same course? 'We really don't know what will happen to the Publius Group in the future, and are really focused on being the source for Pa. political news. But AP is a great organization!'' Snyder wrote, with an emoticon smile. The 24//7 cycle of the Internet, plus a growing group of tipsters, allows PoliticsPA to scoop other news outlets on stories like Congressmen Joe Hoeffel (a Democrat) and Pat Toomey (a Republican) deciding to run for Republican Specter's seat. And the features, like the weekly 'Up & Down'' scorecard and Snyder's favorite, 'Harrisburg Meets Hollywood'' (casting movie stars to play Pa. pols), get readers talking. What's next? 'Keep an eye on whether Lisa Boscola decides to run for Congress in the 15th,'' Snyder advised. 'And watch the Allegheny County executive race; that's about to get a lot more interesting! Finally, the AG (attorney general) race is going to heat up soon, but most of the action has been and will be under most people's radar screen.'' Speculation about Sy remains one of PoliticsPA's fascinations. The pen name was taken from Simon Snyder. 'We chose it to honor one of our favorite governors,'' Snyder wrote (parsing the plural pronoun, does that indicate a collaborative editorship?). Given the level of expertise on the site, Madonna said, odds are that Sy is a reporter, a politician or a consultant. Snyder won't bite when some of the most popular rumors are floated past him//her//them for example, that Snyder is a combination of Harrisburg Patriot-News reporters Pete DeCoursey and Charles Thompson, or, in the latest gossip, that Sy is former legislator-turned-consultant Tom Druce. And wouldn't finding out be like learning Superman is really Clark Kent? 'We plan to continue growing and offering additional resources to a bigger audience,'' Snyder said. 'And maybe we'll find some time to sleep ... but probably not.'' Two arrows up When PoliticsPA posted its 'Up & Down'' list last week, it featured this item: 'The winner of the week may be Franklin & Marshall College, as they acquire political and public affairs analysts G. Terry Madonna and Berwood Yost.'' Yes, in one of the biggest coups in local politics (at least since John Barley was deposed), F&M has raided two of the highest-profile faculty members at cross-county Millersville University. Helen Colwell Adams is an editor of the Sunday News Perspective section. E-mail her at hcolwell@alnpnews.com, or call 291-4962.