Chris Brennan

I write about people, power and politics at the city, state and national level. This includes coverage of elections for president, The U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, governor, mayor, Philadelphia City Council and The District Attorney’s office. I have worked from bureaus in the state house and City Hall, covering budgets and legislation, political corruption investigations and trials. I also write Clout, a weekly column and newsletter on political news.

I covered the state take-over of local school districts, the legalization of casinos in the state, and several controversies at SEPTA, the nation’s sixth-largest transit system. I also produced a weekly political column, established a popular daily blog on government and politics, and supervised staff writers in the Philadelphia City Hall bureau.

As the local government reporter, I covered Polk County, the fourth largest of Florida’s 67 counties. On this beat, I kept track of a $550 million budget, 4,000 employees and the tense relationship of a five-member commission and five elected officials - the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, clerk of courts and supervisor of elections.

I supervised three reporters while writing daily stories, special projects and a weekly column in a growing community served by three daily newspapers.

As the police and prison reporter, I created a new beat to cover 45 municipal police departments, a county jail, two state prisons and a federal penitentiary in Schuylkill County, Pa.