Campaign action to watch tonight in Pennsylvania, Iowa

Special election pits D.A. against history prof for statehouse seat; 48th district opened when former senator was criminally charged and resigned

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

 Ximena Conde / WHYY

Postcard writing in groups has allegedly gained popularity since the election of President Donald Trump.

Ximena Conde / WHYY

Postcard writing in groups has allegedly gained popularity since the election of President Donald Trump. (Ximena Conde/WHYY)

• Ximena Conde looks at why “postcarding” has become a campaign trend since the last presidential election and explores its effectiveness in this story for WHYY.

• Warren and five other Democratic hopefuls will debate tonight, on the heels of N.J. Senator Cory Booker — who didn’t qualify for the event — disbanding his campaign.

• Meanwhile, in Central Pa.: Voters in the 48th state Senate district will choose between Democrat Michael Schroeder, a history professor at Lebanon Valley College, and Republican Dave Arnold, Lebanon County District Attorney. The 48th encompasses all of Lebanon and sections of Dauphin and York counties. Whoever wins the special election replaces ex-GOP Senator Mike Folmer. Folmer resigned last September after his arrest on child pornography possession and other charges. He released a conciliatory public statement at the time, but later pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled to start in late February.

Best of the rest

Tim Lambert / WITF

The state Capitol building in Harrisburg. (Tim Lambert/WITF)

• reports). But in Pennsylvania, backers’ attempts to build support by amending the measure haven’t convinced Gov. Tom Wolf. He says the bill still goes too far and that he’d veto it as written, WITF’s Katie Meyer reports.

• The Trump administration wants to scale back federal food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). That could mean a crisis for some recipients. WITF’s Rachel McDevitt talked to one Dauphin County man who’s only getting $40 per month to help feed his family of six, as it is. Read her story here.

• Second Lady Gisele Fetterman detailed her statewide tour aimed at encouraging hard-to-reach populations to participate in this year’s census count — which is a huge factor in how much federal funding flows to Pa. Fetterman was joined by other officials Monday, including Norman Bristol Colón, executive director of the governor’s Census 2020 Complete Count Commission. Colón, PennLive’s Jan Murphy writes, gave this example: “…if one classroom of 35 students in each of the 500 school districts is missed, that’s $36 million a year the state would lose out on and $360 million over the decade.” Read Jan’s full story here.

• A year in, the commonwealth’s school crisis center has fielded more than 40,000 tips from across the state via phone and mobile app. “Bullying, self-harm, suicidal intentions, depression and anxiety were the top five categories that these … tips fall into,” State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday, when his office released a report on its Safe2Say Something initiative. Brett Sholtis breaks it down in this Transforming Health story.