The state's Legislative Reapportionment Commission met for only a few minutes this afternoon, and reported no progress on new state House and Senate maps -- it adjourned until Tuesday.

That means it's becoming clearer than ever that the April 24 primary will go on as scheduled in two months.

That means good things (possibly) for Democrats, who are trying to press their advantage further by forcing Republican House Speaker Sam Smith to schedule special elections in six vacant House districts under the old, placekeeping 2001 lines.

Smith is supposed to respond to a special election suit before the state Supreme Court this afternoon.

UPDATE, 2:15 p.m. - Backing up the view that April 24 will go forward as planned, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi today revised his previous view that the primary date was "in jeopardy."

"I do not think at this point it is going to be practical to move legislation to extend the primary date," Mr. Pileggi told reporters, after the meeting adjourned.

His House colleagues are still singing from the old hymnal, however. House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said leaders in that caucus still see options for potentially adjusting that election date after the new maps are complete. 

As for the status of those maps, most of the departing lawmakers offered variations on vague. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai wouldn't say anything except that they'll be back next week; Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa said they're "working to move the ball forward."

"The commissioners have been intensely, some would say fiercely, but certainly intensely, trying to arrive at a plan," said Senior Judge Stephen McEwen, the commission chairman. "It has come close, but we're not there yet."

Going into tonight's key CNN debate -- the first in nearly a month, and possibly coming at a perfect time for Santorum, a skilled debater -- there are so many questions to ponder:

Will Santorum (and fellow Catholic Newt Gingrich) still have Ash Wednesday ashes on their foreheads? Could help ward off Satan and/or Matt Drudge. Here's a Satanic (comments) explainer. (And might all these questions about Satan mean Mitt Romney will face questions about his Mormon beliefs? The Santorum camp thinks so.)

Could he possibly win Georgia and/or Arizona with help from the tea party base? Hell, we don't even know if he could win here in Pa come April 24 -- a worry shared by all four GOP prez candidates -- even if his January fundraising from the state zoomed up over previous months. (See Santorum's latest FEC report here.)

Politico notes how skilled he was at bringing home the bacon for Pa while in Congress, which isn't so well thought of in these anti-earmark times. The story doesn't mention it, but should it still be a dogfight come late April, we fully expect to see ads about Santorum's support for Pittsburgh's half-billion North Shore tunnel. (Republican Tom Corbett had success with them in the gubernatorial race.)

Speaking of deep Pa-related Santorum info, the WashPost read all of the columns he used to write for the Inquirer.

The debate tonight comes as Mitt "The Underdog?" Romney has bounced back a bit in Michigan -- NBC has him up 2 pts and Time/CNN by 4. Rasmussen has Santorum up 4. Nationally, a new Quinnipiac poll has him up 9 points over Romney.

HuffPost continues their digging into Santorum's somewhat moderate past views on abortion, previewed here. From the opposite perspective, Rich Lowry at the National Review writes that the MSM "has unleashed the hounds" on the candidate for his orthodox religious/social views.

Speaking of Satan, for further fun before tonight's 8 p.m. set-to, here's a parlour game from Mother Jones -- are the following quotes from Rick Santorum . . . or speed-metal endorser Dave Mustaine of Megadeth? Sample:

"Decadence and debauchery killed your memories. You're a liar."

A. Sen. Rick Santorum yelling at hostile pro-choice activists during a stop in Lancaster, PA in 2003.

B. Dave Mustaine singing on the 1988 album "So Far, So Good...So What!"

Photo: Santorum at Primanti's. AP/Politico file photo

Republican House Speaker Sam Smith made a rare visit to the Capitol newsroom this afternoon for the latest round of deciphering the reapportionment ripple effects.

As Tim McNulty wrote over the weekend, there's increased pressure, now in the form of a lawsuit, on Smith to announce special elections for the six currently vacant House districts. Those vacancies arose at the beginning of the year, when a half-dozen lawmakers moved over to local political offices.

Smith reiterated his view this afternoon that he had two options once those seats became vacant: either announce special elections within 10 days for a new legislator to serve out those terms, or do so within 10 days of when the new maps become final. 

(Here's the legalese from Act 105 of 2001, helpfully forwarded by House Democratic staff: "Whenever a vacancy shall occur in either house of the General Assembly on the same day as the filing of a preliminary reapportionment plan by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission or during the period between such filing and the date that a final plan attains the force of law, the presiding officer of the house shall have the authority, notwithstanding any other provisions of law to the contrary, to delay the issuance of a writ of election until ten days after the date the final plan attains the force of law.")

So no change in that position from the top House Republican, who said his staff will be responding tomorrow to the lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court.

But an interesting hypothetical also arose: if the court deems approval to a new legislative map after the April 24 primary, Smith could be compelled to call special elections within 10 days -- under the new maps, unless there was further direction from the Supreme Court.

That would create a scenario in which a new primary would be required, because the new maps would be the law of the commonwealth for future elections, including the November general.

"Once it takes the force of law ... then none of us can run in the districts that everyone just filed for," Smith said. "You then have to redo everything with the House and Senate."

That's several sets of "what if?" down the road and some prognosticating on what the court may or may not detail as far as whether the new maps would go into effect immediately or for 2013 and beyond. 

The next step toward one of those final outcomes will take place tomorrow afternoon, when the Legislative Reapportionment Commission will unveil new maps for a preliminary vote.

Democrat Mark Critz's campaign is challenging primary rival Jason Altmire's nominating petitions in state Commonwealth Court, charging almost 950 of them are invalid.

Altmire, D-McCandless filed 1,651 petition signatures for the 12th District race, but the Critz camp claims 942 should be tossed out. Congressional candidates need 1,000 valid signatures to make the April 24 primary ballot.

We haven't yet seen the complaint, but the Critz campaign says 610 of the signatures were collected by a "defective circulator," someone who lives in the city of Pittsburgh outside the Pa-12 lines. (It mostly covers parts of Beaver and Allegheny counties north of the city, over Critz's base in Cambria and Somerset.)

No hearing date was yet scheduled on the Commonwealth Court site. A statement from the Johnstown Democrat is after the jump.

UPDATE 8:15 pm: Here's a link to see the full complaint from the Critz camp.

UPDATE 8:18 pm: From Altmire campaign manager Angela Ruslander:

“We will not comment on this until we have a chance to review the complaint but we feel very confident that Jason Altmire will be on the ballot and will be the Democratic nominee from Pennsylvania’s 12th district.”