Op-Ed from Steve Cickay

from the inbox:

My name is Steve Cickay and I am running for State Senate here in District 10. My opponent, Senator Chuck McIlhinney, is a career politician who has been in Harrisburg far too long: 16 years too long of too little accomplishment. It’s time for a change. 

Change can be a challenge for some. The status quo is comfortable and known. But please realize now that not to change will be even more uncomfortable and wrong. For the Corbett/McIlhinney path we are on is clearly wrong for the people of Pennsylvania.

It is wrong for education.  It is wrong for the environment. And it is wrong for an economy that should instead be supporting well-paying jobs for middle-class workers and a secure retirement.

Chuck is a fine person and a fine family man and has tried his best to serve the public well. But after 16 years, we have seen much failure. Our property taxes keep rising each year. Our schools are underfunded. Big corporations and oil companies don’t pay their fair share of taxes at our expense. A pension crisis looms and nothing gets done to fix it. Working people’s wages are stagnant and the minimum wage leaves a million people in poverty. 500,000 of our fellow-citizens don’t have health insurance. Common sense gun safety legislation doesn’t get passed. Job discrimination laws are still on the books. Women, in 2014 in America, still often don’t get paid the same amount as men. Yet our 253 legislators in Harrisburg can’t seem to do anything about these important issues.

I feel a big part of the problem of why nothing gets done is career politicians are focused too much on campaigning and not governing, too much on getting campaign contributions from special interests and not enough on doing what the people want.

I promise to be both your servant and leader. I promise to listen to you in town halls all over the district every two weeks when I am not in Harrisburg. You won’t have to make a big campaign contribution to have me hear your voice. I will represent you if what you say makes sense for our community. I will represent the rich and the poor; the healthy and the sick, the strong and the weak; independents, Republicans and Democrats alike.

But if you stay the course with Chuck and Corbett, our public education system will continue to be underfunded. And the oil companies will continue to get tax breaks. Stay the course with Chuck and Corbett and our property taxes will continue to go up. And multinationals will continue to enjoy loopholes that allow them to pay zero taxes. Stay the course with Chuck and Corbett and soon you will see frackers drilling in our District. Think what that will do to the quality of our life here and our property values.

But elect me your senator and the change you will see will be a good one. I will work tirelessly for you, just as I have tirelessly walked and run the streets of this district for the last 8 months. I will strive to make Pennsylvania not the last among states, but among the first. Think of me then on Election Day as your first Democratic senator in 120 years. Make change happen. Yes, it’s time for a change here in District 10.  Vote for a new state senator, Steve Cickay, on November 4^th.