We can’t find John Fetterman | Election Newsletter

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Welcome back! It’s another week in Pennsylvania politics, and we’re taking a look at John Fetterman’s game of campaign dodgeball. Also, it must be nice for Josh Shapiro to be able to pivot to the general election — in March.

Julia is excited for Survivor to come back tonight so she has something other than politics to obsess over. Jonathan doesn’t watch Survivor, but having once covered Jersey politics, he thinks he gets the idea.

There are 69 days left until the Pennsylvania primary.

— Jonathan Tamari, Julia Terruso, (@jonathanTamari, @JuliaTerruso, election@inquirer.com)

John Fetterman is the undisputed Democratic Senate front-runner.

He’s also the hardest candidate to track down.

Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, has gotten heat for staying away from some tough rooms, including a big Philly Black clergy event. He’s skipped a few other forums where he might have faced difficult questions.

And when the first Democratic Senate debate was announced this week, organizers said Fetterman’s attendance was still “under discussion.” Conor Lamb and Malcolm Kenyatta are going. Word is Fetterman’s camp hasn’t made any specific demands about format or questioning. He just hasn’t committed.

Don’t get us wrong, Fetterman does campaign. Every week his team tweets a roundup of stops he’s made. He’s got maybe the most robust digital operation. He’s the only major Democratic candidate airing TV ads now.

But catching him in a room with actual voters where he’s answering unplanned questions or facing journalists? That’s been tough, because his campaign doesn’t announce where he’ll be.

It’s common for front-runners to avoid anything that might disrupt the status quo. But even some Democrats tell us they’re worried their likely nominee is ducking questions ahead of what’s sure to be a brutal general election. Fetterman has never faced scrutiny like he would then. Part of a primary is proving you can handle it, and becoming a stronger candidate in the process. (Kenyatta’s taken to calling Fetterman “bubble-wrapped.”)

Virtually every other major candidate — in both parties and in both statewide races — has held open events that are announced in advance to the media, where we can see them think on their feet and take questions.

We’ve been asking Fetterman’s campaign to let us into an event since last summer, but we’ve yet to get an invite or even a heads up about anything. And look, it’s not about us. It’s about giving voters a full view of the candidates running to represent them.

So imagine our surprise when Inquirer photographer Tom Gralish ran into Fetterman in Rittenhouse Square last week. Fetterman was there unannounced. Tom snapped the shot above.

Campaign spokesperson Joe Calvello pointed to Fetterman’s busy schedule, including seven events last weekend and six this coming weekend (mostly petition drives to get on the ballot). He said they are “advertised on the internet” and open to reporters. By “advertised” he meant they get posted on the volunteer web site Mobilize.us — if you knew to go there and search for Fetterman events, (and which they’d never mentioned before). You couldn’t find those events on Fetterman’s campaign site, Facebook page, or Twitter feed, or in media advisories.

Fetterman’s camp also says he’ll participate in three televised debates and at least seven more candidate forums, including one today on foreign policy at the University of Pittsburgh.

The televised April 3 debate, though, would be the most high-profile event yet.

We’ll see if Fetterman shows up.

His spokesman didn’t answer when we asked.

Josh Shapiro is reading the room. And on education, it’s not looking great for Democrats.

So the state AG, the only major Democrat running for governor, has unveiled an education plan that centers on “ensuring parents are engaged in their children’s schooling.”

It’s a preview of the general election campaign he’s gearing up to run, clearly wary of how school-adjacent culture wars shaped politics last year.

Shapiro’s pitch: put two parents on the 10-person state Board of Education. It’s a nod to what many parents traumatized by pandemic shutdowns, mask debates, and more have said they want: more involvement in their kids’ schooling.

Democrats didn’t exactly handle all the school shutdown and critical race theory attacks well in 2021, and it helped cost them the governor’s race in Virginia. For all their defenses of teachers and curricula, there was also dismissiveness of parents’ concerns that came off as elitist.

Republicans in Pennsylvania are already signaling they intend to hammer the issue, and link Shapiro to outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf.

“The last two years have reminded us of the integral role parents play in our education system,” Shapiro wrote Monday in a PennLive op-ed. “It was true before the pandemic, and it remains true now: parents deserve to have a real voice in their children’s education.”

“How many of you have had Greek yogurt? Right before I started the show, 13 years ago it was 1% of yogurt consumed in America. Now it’s 50%. How many of you can spell quinoa? No one even knew what it was!”

-Mehemet Oz, campaigning for Senate in West Chester and taking credit for making Greek yogurt and quinoa popular. Not sure if those are selling points in a GOP primary, but do you, Doc.

That’s it for us. See you next week.