E-minus 56 Days and Counting ...

Mark your calendar: Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Washington County later this month to raise money for Sen. Rick Santorum. Air Force Two will deliver Mr. Cheney to the home of Mark and Kimberly Miller for an afternoon reception on Sept. 22. For a mere $2,500 -- $3,500 per couple -- guests can have their pictures taken with the GOP luminaries. The hoi poloi will pay $1,000 per person for their lunch.

The Santorum 2006 committee and Victory 2006, a separate Republican fundraising vehicle for Pennsylvania, will share proceeds of the event. Polls suggest that Mr. Cheney's boss isn't as popular as he once was, but the dollars that the top administration officials can help GOP candidates raise are always popular.

... Kent Gates, the GOP strategist who quarterbacked Jim Roddey's upset over Dr. Cyril Wecht in the first Allegheny County chief executive race and Mike Fisher's loss to Ed Rendell in the last governor's election, has surfaced as an advisor to the congressional campaign of Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, the West Virginia Republican. (That bit of political auld lang syne reminds Early Returns of one of its favorite bumper stickers from years gone by. When now Sen. Jay Rockefeller was running against Rep. Capito's father, Arch Moore, for governor of West Virginia, Moore faced a considerable headwind from the massive personal fortune that Rockefeller was able to devote to the race. The bumper sticker: "Make Him Spend It All, Arch.")

Mr. Gates weighs in on Capito's behalf in this story from our colleague at the Charleston Daily Mail.

... Mayor Bob O'Connor was memorialized throughout his city last week. Today, the remembrances continued on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, whose district includes the city of Pittsburgh, was scheduled to offer House Resolution 903 on Tuesday afternoon in tribute to the late mayor.

After meeting with Rep. Doyle in his office, members of the O'Connor family were to be in the House gallery to watch the speeches on the resolution.

... Proof positive that young Luke Ravenstahl is the political establishment's "it" boy du jour, as we hypothesized yesterday: Mr. Ravenstahl, who became mayor after Mr. O'Connor's death, is slated to be on the CBS Late Show with David Letterman this week.

Red or Blue, they're all green

In one of his first commercials, Sen. Rick Santorum touted his support for clean coal research. Throughout his administration, Gov. Ed Rendell has tried to establish his credentials as a major advocate of clean technology, from ethanol to energy generation from coal waste. And now state Treasurer Bob Casey issued a statement yesterday describing his plans to invest some $90 million in treasury funds in a variety of environmentally friendly areas.

He's establishing "the Keystone Green Fund," to firms with clean technology products that benefit Pennsylvania while investing a portion of treasury assets in clean technology stock.

... Over at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which we hear throws some really wild parties, spokesman Phil Singer wants you to know that "Santorum supports the risky privatization plan that President Bush is trying to revive." Shorthand: Mr. Santorum wants to take your grandma's rent money. He hates old people. Vote for Casey!

... Meanwhile, Santorum HQ, on what was apparently a slow news day, questions the grammar comprehension of hospital worker and PTA mother who appeared in a Casey ad: "Can Casey not read, or do Casey's supporters have a problem in that department?" Shorthand: Mr. Casey is stupid. People who support him can't read. Vote for Santorum!

That Other Top-of-the-Ticket Race

John Stallworth, the yin to Lynn Swann's yang, is trying to raise money for the GOP's gubernatorial candidate, says the AP. Mr. Stallworth, in an e-mail sent to Swann supporters, said he hopes to raise at least $50,000 for Mr. Swann before the next campaign-finance reporting deadline next Monday.

... Politicians soliciting contributions from donors -- which is to say, all politicians -- first must secure mailing lists. There are lots of ways to do this -- borrow a mailing list from other politicians, buy a list from a marketing service, and so on. One woman from Baton Rouge, La., e-mailed Early Returns hoping to find out how she might have ended up on a list of potential Swann donors. She's not registered to either major political party, and she's never contributed to a political campaign of any kind. So why would a woman in Louisiana end up on Swann's shakedown list?

Her theory: Over the summer, she tried to buy single-game tickets to a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Had her mailing addresses been directly transferred from Steelers' offices to Swann HQ?

The Swann campaign says no. From campaign spokeswoman Melissa Walters: "We don't discuss fundraising specifics (i.e., specific lists we use), but her name was most likely on a sports-related list we purchased." They did not buy, or borrow, a list from the Pittsburgh Steelers, she said. Though Early Returns imagines it's possible that the woman's address somehow traveled from the Steelers' offices to Swann's via a series of intermediaries.

... The Pee-Gee and other outlets have reported on House Speaker John Perzel's plan to 10,000 additional police officers on Pennsylvania's streets by 2010. But Gov. Rendell says the plan is "just not feasible," reports Capitolwire.