One survives, one gets castigated and one remains mired in stalemate. Check out this week’s list!

Kathleen Kane. The Attorney General fended off the first major attempt to throw her out of office on Wednesday. The State Senate sought to formally remove Kane but fell short of the two-thirds threshold when the Democrats rallied around her. The AG was so happy she agreed to her first interview in months and kept the door open to a re-election campaign. Of course, the State House is still moving towards impeachment and her legal problems aren’t going away. Nevertheless, this was a rare good week for Kane.

Tom Wolf. This week Governor Wolf gave his second budget address despite the fact that a first budget was never fully completed. As a result, Wolf’s address was accusatory and alarmist with subtitles like “Commonwealth in Crisis” and “We Had a Deal”. We’ve previously discussed the possibility that the notion of annual budgets may be becoming a quaint relic. If the Governor keeps raising the stakes, however, he only stands to lose more when a deal doesn’t get done. It’s difficult to see how Wolf extricates himself from this mess and unclear if he can do in time to save his teetering popularity.

Pat Toomey. Pennsylvania’s junior Senator continues to benefit from the crowded Democratic primary. He is far and away the biggest fundraiser in the race and holds about $9.58 million in his warchest. As for his potential opponent it seems, given the number of attacks already launched against her, that Toomey and the NRSC fear McGinty the most. Yet while the Governor’s former Chief of Staff has been raking in cash at a good pace, she is also rapidly spending it in order to hold off two viable challengers, Joe Sestak and John Fetterman. So the Democrats remain divided while the GOP is solidly united behind the incumbent.  

Lindy Li. The wunderkind candidate started off the week rather terribly thanks to the Rothenberg & Gonzalez Political Report. Gonzalez ripped Li, saying his interview with her left him “speechless and confused”. She recovered somewhat when she secured the endorsement of Congressman Cartwright among others. On Thursday, however, the DCCC revealed their first “Red to Blue” list and for the first time in memory PA-6 was nowhere to be found. Politics is a merciless sport and Li got knocked down this week, now it’s up to her to get back up.

Mary Ellen Balchunis. Mary Ellen Balchunis is one of the more intriguing politicians to pop up on our radar in recent years. The 2014 nominee got crushed by Congressman Meehan but that doesn’t seem to have diminished the fervor of her supporters. She wins local endorsements, and carried our reader poll, despite the opposition of party leaders. Now the DCCC is publicly backing her primary opponent Bill Golderer. In most cases this would earn a down arrow, but since Balchunis doesn’t seem to want their support anyway, a split is the best way to categorize her week.

The tweet of the week goes to the Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari for pointing out the parallels between Marco Rubio and the Carolina Panthers.