Nancy Scola is another blogger that AFL-CIO has on the ground through election day, Jerome

Pennsylvania Democrats are in a strong position to claim not only a new Senate seat but also five additional congressional seats on Tuesday -- a full third of what's needed to win a majority in the House. In addition to Bob Casey running for the Senate seat, there's Jason Altmire in the 4th District on the Ohio border, Philadelphia-area candidates Joe Sestak (7th), Patrick Murphy (8th), and Lois Murphy (6th), and Chris Carney in the 10 District in the state's northeast corner -- all real pickup possibilities five days out from the election.

I'm touring Pennsylvania now through election day, as part of the AFL-CIO's Labor 2006 Program. The AFL-CIO is active in these races, no doubt. They report that union members under their direction have made 550,000 phone calls and knocked on 185,000 doors already this election cycle, particulary targeting the state's 1.4 million union members (out of a total population of about 12 million). My Pennsylvania tour started at 8:30 yesterday morning in the Lehigh Valley, with a Bob Casey "Meet the Candidate" coffee hour before a crowd of about 60 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) members at the Local 375 hall in Allentown.

At the event, Casey was introduced by Bill George, the charismatic president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. George knows how to rally this crowd. "Your neighbors have the same problems you have, whether they're union or not -- they're your neighbors!" More of what I've taken to calling George-isms:

"They don't have just their hand in the cookie jar. They've got their whole arm in the cookie jar."
- On the current crop of Republicans in Washington and their corporate allies

"Do we have to wait until 700,000 Iraqis have died?"
- On when Americans can question U.S. leaders on the war in Iraq (and after discussing U.S. troops)

"Because unions negotiated it."
- On why members of the House and Senate have good health care coverage

George talks about how when the Bush Administration fumbled the football, the American labor movement was there to pick it up. And Bob Casey, George says, is part of that movement, coming from the part of Pennsylvania that understands the importance of "Molly McGuire and the Lattimer Massacre."

I jumped at the chance to travel to PA as part of the AFL-CIO's Labor 2006 program precisely because I have no idea what George is talking about here. (For the record, Ms. McGuire was a perhaps fictional Irish woman who agitated for tenant's rights in the 1840s; the Lattimer Massacre was an 1897 incident in eastern PA where 19 miners were killed by police during a demonstration.) I'm well versed in the civil rights struggle but my knowledge of the American labor movement is limited to A. Philip Randolph's organization of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Progressives need to be educated in both histories. With that in mind, can anyone recommend any good books to get up to speed on the labor movement? (Post-election reading, of course.)

Back to the campaign trail.

You sometimes hear that candidate X lacks charisma or is no good on the stump, and you hear it enough that it becomes conventional wisdom. But judging on his performance before the IBEW crowd, don't believe that about about Bob Casey. He knew how to connect with this audience. He gets to the policy prescriptions on health care and the deficit and the jobs economy, but starts with a joke. About Santorum's attacks on him: "If you read the paper today, I'm a threat to national security -- and it's only Wednesday." He moves on to taxes and how the estate tax is is really a matter of asking Paris Hilton to pitch in and be a patriot. He gets in a few backhanded compliments directed towards Senator Santorum: "My opponent is a good speechmaker. He can talk and talk until the cows come home."Casey cites the newest Quinnipiac poll that gives him a 10 point margin ahead of Santorum but warned that while, yes, the numbers are delicious, "let's not underestimate what we're up against" with Santorum's network of outside groups, the support of the Senator's corporate allies, and the importance of the race for conservatives from New Jersey to California.Casey is a skillful candidate. He tells a story about how a student from his teaching days in Philadelphia came back to see him some 20 years later. Casey asked her how she can stand the daily stresses of her chosen career, working with abused children. Her response? "Sometimes our burdens become our blessings." Later he waxes on how so many Pennsylvanians live "quietly triumphant lives." Typical political pabulum in less adroit hands, perhaps, but Bob Casey can work it.After the event, reporters surround Casey on the steps outside the IBEW hall. A BBC reporter asks "are you concerned about appearing with Senator Kerry after..." Casey does not hesitate a second before responding with "no, not at all" and then ably placing Kerry's comments in context:John Kerry is not only a great leader for the Democratic party and a great U.S. senator, but he's a patriot...He said he botched a joke and I think that is the beginning and the end of it. He was talking about the president and I think he has every right to criticize this president.(I put a call into Casey HQ later that day and find that Kerry has "postponed" all of his Pennsylvania events, including his joint appearance with Casey that evening.) After the IBEW event, I'm crouched on my haunches in the middle of Liberty Street to take a picture of the AFL-CIO bus when a man approaches. No worries, he's friendly. Jim Deegan is driving the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO bus from event-to-event in support of endorsed candidates and graciously agrees to a photo.I head out to Pottstown, about 40 miles northwest of Philly, where Lois Murphy is in a close rematch race with Jim Gerlach. Volunteers were scheduled to hand out leaflets to people walking in and out of the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center there, but when I arrive, the AFL-CIO bus is parked in an upper parking lot adjacent to the center. Several purple-shirted members of the local SEIU are milling about. In the lower lot and in front of the center's main entrance are gathered five or so police cars, several officers, and the center's security staff.I find Bethany Bobb, an AFL-CIO PA representative, and ask for a rundown on the situation. She says that while the employees of the center are union members, the center itself privatized about a year ago. When the SEIU volunteers started passing out lit, the security staff called the police.Lois hadn't arrived at the center before the police showdown began and Bill George invites me on the AFL-CIO bus to ride a few blocks up the road to meet up with the candidate. On the way George begins to tell me that he was a big fan of Mark Warner, but I cut him off with "please, I don't want to talk about it." We find Lois waiting for us. She chats and shakes hands with the SEIU members and when she spots a few employees of a local business standing outside having a cigarette, she marches up and pumps their hands too. She's in a good mood, particularly happy about a new Reuters/Zogby poll that finds her ahead of Gerlach by four and a half points.I'll wrap up with an action you can take. There has been talk recently in these parts and elsewhere that national Republicans had given up on Curt Weldon in the 7th. But his opponent Joe Sestak has emailed his list to say that it's just not true -- the NRRC began running a new negative ad just yesterday. Contribute to Sestak here to help him get one more ad on in the particularly expensive Philadelphia media market.So that's all for Day One of Nancy's Election 2006 Pennsylvania Tour. Later today, I'll be checking out the "Barney Truck," a high-tech automated call center parked somewhere in Philadelphia. Why it's called the Barney Truck, I do not know. Then tonight, I'm heading to a rally at Patrick Murphy's headquarters right next to the Dairy Delite on Bristol Pike in Levittown. If you're in PA and have election-related events that I can attend or even just want share some Yuenglings, just let me know.Nancy's "Election 2006 Pennsylvania Tour" is brought to you by the AFL-CIO's Labor 2006 Program.