????  Today’s #PoliticsPA Playbook. Shapiro Writes That Harris Team Asked if He Had Ever Been an Israeli Agent. How McCormick Navigated A Wild First Year. Trump Ran On Lowering Food Costs. A Year Later, Is PA Feeling Relief? Hey NFL: What’s A Catch?

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Top Story

1.   Shapiro Writes That Harris Team Asked If He Had Ever Been An Israeli Agent

“Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a prominent Democrat who was a top contender to serve as former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, offered his most detailed accounting to date of the vice-presidential search process in his new memoir, which was obtained by The New York Times.

In short: He suggests that it was far uglier than is commonly known.

In Mr. Shapiro’s book, “Where We Keep the Light,” the governor is measured in describing his interactions with Ms. Harris herself. But Mr. Shapiro, who is Jewish, details a contentious vetting process in which Ms. Harris’s team focused intensely on his views on Israel — so much so that at one point, he wrote, he was asked if he had ever been an agent of the Israeli government.” | New York Times

Elsewhere

Trump Told Josh Shapiro He Shouldn’t Run For President and 5 More Takeaways From Shapiro’s Upcoming Book. ““Hey Josh, it’s Donald Trump.” It’s the start of a voicemail from the president that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro received a week after a man firebombed the governor’s residence in Harrisburg in an attempt to kill Shapiro while his family slept inside on the first night of Passover.” | Philadelphia Inquirer

Asked About Anti-ICE Protests, McCormick Says ‘Dehumanizing Language’ Is Leading To Violence. ““It’s a slippery slope,” the Republican senator from Pennsylvania said on CBS in an interview with his Democratic counterpart, Sen. John Fetterman.” | Philadelphia Inquirer

Lawmakers Zero In On NCAA Over NIL, Revenue Sharing. “An effort to curb the big business of college sports is gaining steam on Capitol Hill, where a growing number of lawmakers in both parties are outraged at the NCAA and signaling intervention from Congress on athlete compensation and revenue sharing is inevitable.” | The Hill

State

2.   How Sen. Dave McCormick Navigated A Wild First Year As Pennsylvania’s Purple State Republican

“A year after he arrived on Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick leaned forward in his sunny, seventh-floor office and said he’s acutely aware that not everyone wants him here.

“Do the math,” he said, pointing out that in a state with 13.5 million people, “7.1 million voted. 3.5 million voted for me. So, there’s a lot of people who either don’t know me, who may disagree with me, and even people who voted for me who may disagree with me.”

It’s been a careful balancing act — one that’s broadly defined the former hedge fund CEO’s first year in elected office at a time of significant political upheaval, when Republicans control all levers of the federal government and face a daily barrage of questions about Trump’s shattering of historical norms.” | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Elsewhere

Garrity Attacks On Political Ambition Are Hypocritical, Dems Say. “It’s one of Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s most frequent criticisms of Gov. Josh Shapiro: If he gets a second term, he’ll spend much of it campaigning for the U.S. presidency. But that, critics observe, is what Garrity is doing now that she’s mounting a gubernatorial run in her second term.” | WESA

PA-03: Rabb Is Trying To Be The Left’s Standard-Bearer As He Runs For Congress In Pennsylvania. Will Progressives Rally Around Him? “In the most-watched race for Congress in Philadelphia in more than a decade, State Rep. Chris Rabb has cast himself as the unabashed anti-establishment leftist. He’s refusing donations from corporations, calls the war in Gaza a genocide, and wants to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” | Philadelphia Inquirer

PA-03: Street Could Become PA’s First Muslim Member Of Congress. But Don’t Make Assumptions About His Politics. “Street has relatively moderate views on the conflict in Gaza and, if elected, would likely stand out from Muslim colleagues in Congress.” | Philadelphia Inquirer

PA GOP Leader Voids Washington County Republican Party’s No-Confidence Vote Against State Sen. Bartolotta. “A feud within the Republican Party over the performance of state Sen. Camera Bartolotta has gone public, after a 21-3 vote of no confidence in the senator taken by the Washington County Republican Party executive committee was dubbed null and void by state party Chairman Greg Rothman.” | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Around The Commonwealth

3.   Trump Ran On Lowering Food Costs. A Year Later, Is PA Feeling Relief?

“Affordability was top-of-mind for voters in the 2024 presidential election, with more than 95% of respondents in one survey reporting that the rising cost of gas and food helped shape their ballot decisions. President Donald Trump hammered on grocery bills throughout his campaign against then-Vice President Kamala Harris, bemoaning the expense of everyday staples like eggs and milk.

But as Trump marks one year in office, economic indexes show the cost of groceries remains high. There has been a dip in the price of certain products, most notably eggs, as the worst ripple effects of the avian flu subside. However, beef and coffee costs have soared, and the overall food prices were 3.1% higher in December than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” | Erie Times-News

Elsewhere

State Officials Could Appoint A New Allegheny County Controller to Replace O’Connor. Will They? “Even as Corey O’Connor took office as Pittsburgh’s newest mayor, his old job as Allegheny Country Controller was undergoing a change as well, as then-deputy controller Amy Weise Clements took his place. She might want to get comfortable.” | WESA

PA Public Universities Didn’t Get A State Funding Increase This Year, And They’re Preparing For A Tough Enrollment Outlook. “The system has been in a state of readjustment as it has lost about a third of its enrollment since 2010, including merging six of its universities into two entities. The system’s universities are: Cheyney, Commonwealth, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, Penn West, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester.” | Philadelphia Inquirer

Pennsylvania Green Party Taps Lancaster Member For State Leadership. “Tony Dastra, who ran unsuccessfully for Lancaster mayor and City Council last year, was selected by Green Party delegates to serve as an at-large committee member.” | LNP

Editorial

4.  What Do You Think?

• CRNAs: The Science and Heart of Anesthesia | Jodie Szlachta 
• How the American Legal Profession Can Regain Its Dignity | Shira A. Scheindlin and John Jones III
• Yes, They Really Asked Josh Shapiro If He’s An Israeli Spy – Zvika Klein
• PA Highly Taxes Gas For Roads, Yet Many Factors Still Make Them Lousy | Bradley Vasoli
• Can Josh Shapiro Rescue The Democratic Party From Left-Wing Antisemitism? | Jonathan S. Tobin
• We’d Be So Much Better Off If Kamala Harris Had Been Elected President | Jenice Armstrong
• Donald Trump Has Been A Great President, For Some | Adriana E. Ramírez
• President Trump Will Get a Third Term Even Without Defying the Constitution | John F. Harris
• New Year, New Mayor, New Coach, New Pittsburgh? | Brandon McGinley
• Fire Stephen Miller Before His ‘Might Makes Right’ Doctrine Destroys American Credibility | Mark S. Singel
• Strong Local Journalism Remains Key To Pittsburgh’s Future | Jennifer Beahm

 1 Thing

5.   NFL Again Faces Questions About Definition Of A Catch 

“Hey, NFL: What’s a catch?

Once again, many football fans, coaches and commentators are questioning the definition of a catch after a disputed interception helped eliminate the Buffalo Bills from the playoffs in a 33-30 loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday.

By definition, it seems interception was the right call. Many folks disagree.” | AP

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