Who's behind whom?

• Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge plans a 5-city tour with Lynn Swann. The hope is that Ridge will bring his pull to help raise funds and unify Republicans behind their new gubernatorial hopeful.
  
  
• Speaking of Swann, Republicans in the southeastern part of the state are telling him to focus on Philadelphia if he wants to have any hope of edging out Rendell overall. (There's also a small note here about how Swann loyalties may have helped decide the race for the next state GOP chair.)
  
  
• Meanwhile, onetime Georgia Senator Max Clelland stopped by to give a plug to fellow veteran Brian Lenz in Deleware County (running for the state house). He also showed up for Chris Carney, shooting for US House from the 10th.
  
  
• Philadelphia City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell used to be an ally of Mayor John Street, but now she's standing in the way of several projects that he backs, including the relocation of the Youth Study Center (whose current location is slated for the new Barnes museum). Nobody's sure why she's holding things up, especially on district projects she once supported. (It may be that community opposition to some other proposals recently has her spooked.) This little history tracks the background for Blackwell's relations to Street.
  
  
• Tom Ferrick wonders whether Governor Rendell should be rooting for or against John Perzel for state House majority leader after the fall elections -- will he be harder to work with after a rightward shift in his party? would the next guy be worse? do the Democrats have any chance of shifting the balance in Harrisburg? All unanswerable but thought-provoking...