Bob Gleason

UPDATE: 5:45 p.m.: Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes has issued a response to the GOP's press conference, calling the allegations that county election boards can't handle the influx of voters "disappointing."

"The majority of the counties in Pennsylvania are controlled by Republican commissioners," Cortes said. "While the Republican Party might not have confidence in the counties' ability to administer a fair election, we do."

The secretary has previously blasted the state GOP's complaints as undermining "the very foundation of our democracy -- solely for political gain."

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HARRISBURG -- For the third time in two and a half weeks, the state Republican Party on Wednesday held a press conference to question the fairness of the upcoming election and unveil a new telephone hotline and website where voters can report registration fraud.

The GOP's complaints mirror a nationwide effort by Republicans to criticize the community organizing group ACORN for what they say are its efforts to steal the election for Barack Obama. Democrats have argued the GOP's complaints are sour grapes from a party about to be swept out of office.

In Pennsylvania the criticism of ACORN has become a verbal shoving match between the state GOP, led by Chairman Rob Gleason, and the Pennsylvania Department of State, which is led by two Democrats, Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes and Gov. Ed Rendell.

HARRISBURG -- The state Republican Party filed an injunction Friday against Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro Cortes and ACORN, alleging a fair vote on Nov. 4 is impossible because of rampant voter fraud.

The injunction signals a step up in action against ACORN, which for weeks has been the recipient of attacks from the state GOP and John McCain's presidential campaign.

At a press conference in the Capitol, state GOP Chairman Bob Gleason Jr. said the sheer number of registrations submitted by ACORN has overwhelmed many county election offices and the state department has not provided the local bureaus with enough support.

"I am not confident we can trust the results of this election," Gleason said.

State GOP chair Bob Gleason says the increasingly aggressive tactics of John McCain's campaign aren't working in Pennsylvania, specifically with southeastern voters.

"They’re not as susceptible to attack ads,” Gleason told The New York Times. “I worry about the southeast. [Barack] Obama is making inroads.”

It's an interesting critique coming from Gleason, who has himself been mimicking the McCain campaign's increasingly negative tone. It was less than a week ago that Gleason, picking up on McCain's attacks on Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers, released a statement calling Obama "a terrorist's best friend"--a charge that thoroughly distorts the truth by any measure.

HARRISBURG -- Officials from the state Republican Party Thursday morning criticized a decision from the Pennsylvania Department of State allowing voters to wear candidate T-shirts and buttons when they enter polling stations, saying the paraphernalia could sway voters and force polling officials to act as "fashion police."

"Pennsylvania voters should be allowed to cast their ballots without undue influence," said state GOP Chairman Bob Gleason during a press conference in the Capitol rotunda. He was joined by Sandra Newman, former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice and current chairwoman of the state GOP Fair Election's Task Force.

Gleason called on the state Democratic Party to join his request in what he said should be a bipartisan effort to keep polling stations "sterile."

The party's anger stems from a Sept. 18 memo distributed to county election boards from Chet Harhut, commissioner of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Commissions, Elections, and Legislation. The letter advised counties to allow "passive electioneering" within polling stations, which it said includes "wearing tee shirts [sic], clothing or buttons with the candidate's or party's name, picture or emblem."

Republicans nationally and in Pennsylvania tout the energy vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has injected in the GOP base.

On Tuesday, it caused state party Chairman Bob Gleason to make a bold prediction: Republicans will win back "four or five" congressional seats in the Keystone State.

Generic ballots between Republicans and Democrats show a dead heat, Gleason said, "and that's caused Democrats to be very nervous about their congressional seats."

The chairman, joined by congressional candidate Craig Williams for the state's 7th Congressional District, spoke to reporters on a conference call hours before Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden campaigned in the Philadelphia suburbs.

The Straight Talk Express has taken a detour to Pennsylvania until Nov. 4.

The state Republican Party has unveiled the Pennsylvania Straight Talk Express, a bus meant to emulate John McCain's famed mode of transportation but with a distinctive Keystone State twist. Instead of carrying the Republican presidential nominee, the bus will carry his surrogates and other in-state officials and candidates to various events across the commonwealth. 

It also carries the logos of the three statewide GOP candidates: auditor general Chet Beiler, state treasurer Tom Ellis and Attorney General Tom Corbett, the only incumbent of the three. 

"I am confident the Pennsylvania Straight Talk Express will prove to be a successful tool in educating Pennsylvanians about the McCain, Palin ticket as well as our statewide, congressional and local candidates," state party Chairman Bob Gleason said.

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett, at once battling for re-election and a rumored gubernatorial candidate in 2010, mostly stayed away from campaigning for himself Wednesday morning when he addressed the Pennsylvania delegation over breakfast.

Instead, Pennsylvania's head prosecutor urged those in the crowd to help create a grassroots organization he said will be necessary for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other local Republicans to win in November.

"We need your help to get out there and talk to everybody in the community," Corbett said, "and not just Republicans."

Former Gov. Tom Ridge (R), originally scheduled to speak Wednesday at the RNC, is no longer on the night's schedule and might not get to speak tomorrow, either.

"We're not sure when Tom Ridge is going to be on the program, or if he's going to be on the program," state GOP Chairman Bob Gleason said.

Ridge is scheduled to address the Pennsylvania delegation Thursday morning, along with U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Philadelphia) and auditor general candidate Chet Beiler. 

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Philadelphia) said Saturday that the matchup between Barack Obama and John McCain presents a "sharp contrast" in experience.

It would have been different if Joe Biden had won the Democratic primary, he said.

"I think the race between Senator McCain and Senator Biden would be a very different race," Specter said in a conference call with reporters.