GOP senator resigns after arrest on charges of child porn possession

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Lebanon County DA, via AP

Folmer's Tuesday, Sept. 17 booking photo, provided by the Office of the District Attorney of Lebanon County.

Lebanon County DA, via AP

Folmer’s Tuesday, Sept. 17 booking photo, provided by the Office of the District Attorney of Lebanon County.

Lawmaker was champion of redistricting reform

• Mike Folmer resigned from the state Senate Wednesday, one day after police say they found child pornography on his phone. Folmer, 63, was arrested Tuesday and posted bail the same evening. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for next week.

• On Tuesday evening, Senate leaders said they were removing Folmer as chairman of the state government committee. They said they spoke with Folmer early Wednesday morning to insist he resign. “We are sickened and disturbed by the charges brought against Mike Folmer,” Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, both Republicans, said in a statement.

• PennLive’s Jan Murphy looks at Folmer’s legislative record, and she describes how “the one-time tire salesman” defeated Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill in 2006. Folmer helped pass the legalization of medical marijuana, change the rules for how law enforcement officers can take property through civil asset forfeiture and added requirements for advertising by state government agencies.

• In the Capitol, Folmer was involved in a longstanding effort to change how Pennsylvania draws its legislative boundaries, WITF’s Katie Meyer reports. Back in 2012, Folmer’s district was redrawn to include a stretch of York County. I once covered a luncheon where Folmer told the York County crowd, including some of his new constituents, that his district was “gerrymandered by the best” but he had “nothing to do with that.”

• Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Democrat from the Lehigh Valley, said the drive for redistricting reform will continue. “Redistricting, and the need for it really, is much bigger than one person,” Boscola said.

• The 48th Senate district includes all of Lebanon County and parts of Dauphin and York counties. A special election to replace Folmer can’t take place until after the Nov. 5 municipal election because of timing requirements in the state constitution. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is in charge of setting a special election date.

• Folmer won re-election to a four-year term in 2018 with nearly 63 percent of the vote. With the 48th District seat vacant, Senate Republicans hold a 27 to 22 seat majority.

Best of the rest

Kimberly Paynter / WHYY

The name of convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell still adorns the door of the former clinic in West Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

• WHYY contributor Jen Kinney looks at the debate over what should happen to the abandoned abortion clinic of Kermit Gosnell, a doctor sentenced to life in prison in 2013 after being convicted of first-degree murder.

• The Guttmacher Institute provides a broad look at abortions and access to them in Pennsylvania, with some interesting data, including that, in 2017, there were 31,260 provided in the state. That’s 1 percent fewer than in 2014.

• Politico reports that a draft White House proposal to expand gun-background check requirements is similar to a proposal from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Even though the White House is circulating the proposal, Politico reports that it’s not clear if President Donald Trump supports it.

• Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party hosted U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota at their Philadelphia headquarters Wednesday. They weren’t endorsing Klobuchar’s presidential campaign; instead, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Terruso reports that party leaders were showing support for the senator’s “blue wall” tour of the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Before 2016, those three states often supported Democrats in presidential races, thus the nickname “blue wall.” Trump won all three; had Hillary Clinton won them, she’d be the 45th president.