Op-Ed from Jack Hansen

from the inbox:

My name is Jack Hansen and I would like to be your State Senator.

Working with our next Governor, Tom Wolf, with his record and mine of creating jobs, we can get many unemployed and underemployed Pennsylvanians back to work in good-paying jobs where they can support their families and educate their children.

I have been serving on Lansdale Borough Council for 7 years. My opponent Bob Mensch has been in Harrisburg for 7 years. He says he wants to run on his record. I will put my record up against his any time.

Since I have been serving on Borough Council, we have brought in a number of new businesses: Tabora Farms, Montella’s, Round Guys, Shell Fish Sue, and Molly Maguire’s, to name just a few. 

We have also redone our Main Street, curbs, sidewalks, and lighting. We built a new thoroughfare to relieve traffic congestion at our busiest intersection while increasing parking downtown.

Since Mensch has been in Harrisburg, our state has gone from number 4 in the nation in job creation to number 47.

I have consistently advocated taxing the natural gas industry to fund education. Children are our future decision makers, and we have to give them a good start in life.

We have to do a better job of regulating the drilling and fracking. We can no longer allow under-reporting of the waste that is going into our landfills, and the pooling of used fracking fluid in surface ponds that can overflow in a heavy rain, and flow into our rivers or leach into our ground water. We cannot allow drilling in our state parks or the Delaware River basin. State parks belong to the people, and should not be used for private enterprise. The Delaware River is now a pristine river. 15 million people depend on the Delaware for their drinking water. We cannot put them in jeopardy.

When political winds start to blow in an election season, an opportunistic politician may change his opinion from what he has supported to what he thinks the voters want to hear, just to get re-elected. 

This is just what Mensch has done.

Mensch has voted with Corbett against an extraction tax on our natural gas industry that could help to fund education. He has voted to take funding away from education for our young people. This puts an undue burden on our local municipalities and school boards to raise your taxes. In an election year, he now says he would favor such a tax. Which Bob Mensch do we believe?

If you believe, as I do, that we need a change in our state government, then please come out and vote on November 4th for Jack Hansen for State Senate and Tom Wolf for Governor. Thank you.

Jack Hansen
Democratic Candidate for State Senate in the 24th District