Talking Pa. Politics: Taking Pulse of Electorate as Nov. 8 Midterms Near

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who also once chaired his party’s national operations, predicted Democrats will avoid a red wave in the state’s two big statewide contests this year.

Rendell, who also served as Philadelphia’s mayor, talked with NBC10 recently for the second in a series of in-depth political discussions reporter Lauren Mayk is hosting on our digital platforms, including NBC10.com and NBC10's FAST Channel on Hulu, AppleTV and Roku.

In the exclusive interview, Rendell talked about the political races in the months ahead for two of his old jobs – Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor. He also reacted to comments Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney made this past summer about looking forward to not being mayor. Rendell recalled the first time he ever looked forward to not being mayor was when he was already out of the job.

“My alarm clock rang, it was 7 o’clock and I went to the window and it was snowing,” Rendell said. “I said God damn it’s snowing, it’s going to cause all that overtime – and then I realized I wasn’t mayor anymore. It was someone else’s problem.”

In the first episode of Mayk's political discussions, she talked with Muhlenburg College pollster Chris Borick about what voters are most passionate about heading into the Nov. 8 election. Mayk also talked with some Republican voters at a Sept. 3 rally for GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, Dr. Mehmet Oz. She weaved in some of those interviews with the conversation with Borick.