Jed Grobstein Leaves Race

Well, that was quick.  From the inbox:

Jed Grobstein stepped back in the interests of party unity today to throw his support behind long-time Tredyffrin Township resident and Phoenixville developer Marian Moskowitz in the race for the Pennsylvania State House, 157^th district. In a statement posted on his campaign facebook page and website, Jed said,

 “I regret to announce that I am withdrawing my name from contention for the State House in the PA 157^th. Over the last several weeks it has become clear that the Democratic Party has rallied around the campaign of Marian Moskowitz. With her endorsement at the County Convention she deserves all of our support. I believe that Marian’s achievements as an entrepreneur and as a prime architect in Phoenixville’s redevelopment make her exactly the sort of leader we need in Harrisburg.” 

Further, he urged his supporters to focus on November, saying, “I look forward to supporting [Marian] as we all focus on defeating Warren Kampf, Tom Corbett and their ‘governance by crisis’ in November.”

Race for New 74th State House District

The newly formed 74th state house seat (formerly in Clearfield County, now in Chester County, encompassing Downingtown and Coatesville).  There are three interested candidates for the position (see "New state representative district added," by Ginger Dunbar, Daily Local News 12/08/13).

Josh Maxwell, mayor of Downington, is one of those three, and formally announced his candidacy today.  Campaign website:  www.joshmaxwell.com.  Here is part of his official announcement:

Elected as Downingtown's Mayor in 2009 and re-elected in 2013 with 68% of the vote, Democratic Mayor Josh Maxwell today announced his attention to run for the 74th State House District.

 “I am running for State Representative because we need to grow our economy, fight for our schools, and ensure everyone gets a fair shake,” Josh Maxwell said. 

"After growing up in a twin on Jefferson Avenue with my brother and two sisters, I understand what it means to have to work hard to make ends meet. A top-tier education system and sustainable economic growth can make a difference for our families. In order to meet these challenges and secure a brighter future for our community we need strong leadership that can bring results. That leadership is lacking in Harrisburg, which is why I proudly announce that I will be running for State Representative." 

Democratic Mayor Josh Maxwell was named the Best Young Politician in the area by Philadelphia Magazine in 2011. Re-elected in 2013 by nearly 40 points, Democrat Josh Maxwell has repeatedly touted the importance of our education system in the community. "Creating more opportunities for working families and businesses starts with two things: a strong, properly funded School District and an environment conducive to strong economic growth that allows businesses to open, hire and grow." 

Mayor Maxwell restarted the Downingtown Main Street Association, which has helped grow our economy by facilitating partnerships between residents, businesses, and elected leaders. He served as President of that organization, and currently serves on the Board of the Downingtown Community Education Foundation.

Local Pension Audits Available

from the inbox:

 Auditor General Eugene DePasquale today released audits of municipal pension plans for local government employees in Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Berks, Blair, Bradford, Bucks, Cambria, Carbon, Chester, Clearfield, Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Somerset, Susquehanna, Snyder, Tioga, Venango, Warren, Westmoreland, and York counties.

State pension aid for police, firefighters and non-uniformed municipal employee pensions is provided from a two-percent tax on out-of-state casualty insurance premiums, a portion of the out-of-state fire insurance tax designated for paid firefighters, and any investment income earned on the collection of these taxes.The objectives of pension plan audits are to determine, for the selected audit period, if the municipality complied with any prior audit recommendations and if the municipal pension plan is in compliance with applicable state laws, regulations, contracts, administrative procedures, and local ordinances and policies.

Specifically, department auditors review issues including whether:

·        state aid was properly determined and deposited according to the requirements of the Municipal Pension Plan Funding Standard and Recover Act;

·        employer contributions were determined and deposited in compliance with the plan’s governing document and applicable state laws and regulations;

·        employee contributions are required, and if so, whether they were properly determined and deposited into the pension plan;

·        benefit payments were properly made only to those entitled to receive them;  

·        obligations for plan benefits were accurately determined under plan provisions and based upon complete and accurate participant data; and

·        actuarial valuation reports were sent to the Public Employee Retirement Commission in accordance with state law and selected information provided on these reports is accurate, complete and in accordance with plan provisions to ensure compliance for participation in the state aid program.

The complete list of audit reports is available online at www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/MunPen.html.

Here are the audits for SEPA counties:

Bucks
New Britain Township Nonuniformed Pension Plan
New Britain Township Police Pension Plan
Warwick Township Nonuniformed Pension Plan
Warwick Township Police Pension Plan


Chester
East Vincent Township Nonuniformed Pension Plan
East Vincent Township Police Pension Plan
Kennett Square Borough Nonuniformed Pension Plan
Kennett Square Borough Police Pension Plan
West Chester Borough Nonuniformed Pension Plan
West Chester Borough Police Pension Plan


Montgomery
North Wales Borough Nonuniformed Pension Plan
North Wales Borough Police Pension Plan 

Unofficial Chester County Voter Turnout

Right after the primary election I posted a note on unofficial voter turnout in Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.  For those wondering about Chester County, the ChescoDems have reposted a note from a local Patch site that provides the numbers for that county.  Looks like they had a 10.45% turnout.

Recent Paul Drucker News

Paul Drucker is running to regain the state house seat, the 157th district, that he was elected to in 2008 but lost in 2010.    He has released a new position statement on transportation and jobs.  Transportation is one of Drucker's areas of interest.  The Paoli train station is in his district.  According to the Great American Stations website, the Paoli station is the most heavily used station in the western Philadelphia suburbs.  Drucker has continued an active role in the communities he represented.  He was appointed to the board of directors for the Greater Philadelphia Phoenixville Chamber of Commerce as well as TMACC (Transportation Management Association of Chester County.) Earlier this year SEPTA announced it was designating $7.5 million to design a new station in Paoli ("Paoli station gets design money, but no shovel for awhile," by Alan Thomas, Mainline Media News, 2/05/2012).

Drucker was the first Democrat elected in the 157thdistrict.  Prior to that he was the first Democrat elected to the Tredyffrin Township supervisor in the township's history.  His re-election campaign is considered by many to be the keystone race in the keystone state.   The 157th, is in Chester and Montgomery Counties, in the Tredyffrin Township, Phoenixville area. 

This evening three sitting state representative, Dwight Evans, Mike Gerber, and Cherelle Parker, were among those hosting a fund-raising event for Drucker in Mt. Airy.  The state house was in session until around 7:30 so the three were not able to attend.  About 25 people came out to hear Drucker talk about the worked he had done representing his district while he was in office, and since then, as well as priorities for the coming election.  Among those, besides transportation, are jobs,  education, and conservation.  

Paul Drucker Office Opening

Paul Drucker, Democratic candidate for the 157th state house district, held his campaign office opening this evening.  His remarks, as provided earlier in the day, were as follows:

Tonight we began my campaign to return fairness to Harrisburg.  A return to fairness is more than just a slogan, it is an explanation of the differences between me and my opponent.  I support increased education funding, job creation and economic growth, improving and modernizing our infrastructure, environmental protection and women's rights.  These policies are fair to the residents of the 157th and all Pennsylvanians.  

My opponent has taken the wrong position on these issues.  He is out of step with the priorities of his constituents and out of touch with what is fundamentally fair to the people he supposed to represent.

I am grateful for the strong support I received from our community this evening, and I am honored that Lou Beccaria, Pete Goodman and Robin Greene could be here to discuss the challenges we face as a Commonwealth.  We have big challenges to overcome in Pennsylvania.  I am excited to return to Harrisburg to work on overcoming those challenges.  We have a bright future in Pennsylvania, but only if we recognize the importance of investing in that future.  

Paul Drucker Op-Ed on the Environment

Paul Drucker, Democratic candidate for the 157th state house district, has released a statement on environmental matters.  Here is an excerpt:

Environmental protection is a priority for the residents of the 157th District. Protecting our environment means protecting our quality of life and protecting the legacy that we will leave for our children.  As a legislator, I developed a strong record on protecting our environment.  In our community, I have worked with the Turnpike Commission, the Great Valley Association and environmental groups such as Trout Unlimited to ensure that infrastructure and highway expansion projects dealt appropriately with environmental issues such as rainwater runoff and soundwall construction.  I have always been and will always be dedicated to environmental protection.

Environmental protection is fundamentally about fairness and responsibility.  Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region is the biggest environmental issue facing the Commonwealth, and it must be handled responsibly and fairly.  We must embrace the economic benefits of the natural gas boom while protecting our land, air and water.

Read the whole statement on his website at www.drucker2012.com

Drucker Updates

Paul Drucker, who is working to reclaim the 157th state house seat he held from 2008 to 2010, has launched his campaign website and opened his campaign office (see photo).  The website, www.drucker2012.com, has an interesting design, one I haven't seen used before.  Perhaps it's the novelty but it is really appealing.  It's still in a very basic format but has a brief bio and some issue statements.  The office, in Phoenixville, has a patriotic look, with the red door and the blue streetlight and trash can out front. 

State House III: Paul Drucker, Warren Kampf Rematch

It's a rematch in the 157th state house district.  Democrat Paul Drucker, who won the seat in 2008, but lost it to Republican Warren Kampf in 2010, is challenging Kampf again in 2012.  I can't find a campaign site for Drucker.  Kampf's legislative site is www.repkampf.com.

Local blogger Pattye Benson provides an overview of the race. 

Chester Co Housing Manager Wins Award

from the inbox:

On Thursday, March 1^st in Los Angeles, California, the White House will honor Larry Douglas as one of eleven housing counselors and HUD-approved organizations being recognized as Champions of Change for their hard work, perseverance and dedication to their communities. Larry Douglas has been selected for outstanding commitment and achievement representative of the collective work of thousands of housing counselors across the United States. 

 

"Housing counselors work tremendously hard, each and every day, to help families realize the American dream,” said White House Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett. “From helping homeowners avoid foreclosure to making sure tenants understand their rights to working with borrowers to restore their credit, the men and women we honor today truly are 'Champions of Change.'"

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities.

 

Housing counseling assistance was developed over 40 years ago at a time of severe disinvestment in housing, unaffordable interest rates, high unemployment and irresponsible lending practices. Today, HUD approves, monitors and supports counseling organizations and tracks their output.  Recent initiatives have extended the number and location of HUD-approved housing counseling organizations and reduced the amount of time and complexity of the process to award HUD housing counseling grants. 

 

To learn more about our Champions and watch video of the event, go to www.whitehouse.gov/champions. 

 

Larry Douglas has been the Housing Program Manager for the Chester Community Improvement Project

(CCIP) in Chester, PA for the past 13 years.  During this time, he has provided homebuyer education, pre-and post-purchase counseling, first-time homebuyer counseling, credit & budget counseling, and default and delinquency counseling to individuals and families residing in the City of Chester and Delaware County, PA.  During his time as a certified HUD counselor, he has had the pleasure of counseling and assisting over 650 families to help them fulfill their dreams of homeownership.

Post-Election Study of County Official Gender Breakdown

Before the election I looked at the gender breakdown of candidates for county office in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties.  Now that the elections are over, let’s check in and see how things stand.

In Bucks, the register of wills office had been held by a Republican woman and will now be held by a Republican man, otherwise there was no change in the gender ratios. So there will be one less woman in county office. 

In Chester County the gender ratio in elected county offices will remain the same.  One more woman will be on the Court of Common Pleas. 

In Delaware County a woman was elected to county council but the incumbent woman ran for another office so the number stays the same.  One more woman will be joining the Court of Common Pleas. 

In Montgomery, the number of women in county office stayed the same.  Leslie Richards (D) was elected to the Board of Commissioners.  However, incumbent Controller Diane Morgan (D) lost to Stewart Greenleaf, Jr. (R ), so it evens out.   Another woman, Cheryl Austin (D) was elected to the Montgomery Court of Common Pleas. 

So over the four counties, for elected office, there was one gain and one loss.  It's a wash.  On the county's Courts of Common Pleas there were three gains.  

 

Seth Williams Endorses Analisa Sondergaard

According to the Mainline Media News, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has endorsed the campaign of Analisa Sondergaard, candidate for for District Judge in Tredyffrin Township. Williams served with Sondergaard when they were both Assistant District Attorneys in Philadelphia.

After graduation from Temple University School of Law Sondergaard served as a prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office for seven years. She has been in private practice since 2002 and currently works at McDonnell & Associates in King of Prussia. The majority of her practice involves the defense of retailers against premises liability, premises security, products liability, and pharmaceutical liability claims in state and federal courts. She also represents employers in race, gender, age, disability, and pregnancy discrimination claims filed in the PHRC, EEOC, and federal court. Analisa lives with her husband and two sons in Tredyffrin Township.

Chester County Candidates by Gender

At a reader's request I'm stepping just a bit out of my usual geographic boundaries and taking a look at Chester County candidates, as I've done with Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. The information listed here is taken from the Chester County Democrats website (http://chescodems.org/) and the Chester County Republicans website (http://www.republicansccc.com). Incumbent information from the Chester County site (http://www.chesco.org/)

Chester County follows the same system that Bucks and Montco does, with three county commissioners, two from one party, and the third spot reserved for the top vote getter from the minority party. All three sitting commissioners are running for re-election (or in Costello's case election as he was recently appointed to the Board). Two Republican men, Ryan Costello and Terence Farrell, and one Democratic woman, Kathi Cozzone are the incumbents. Cozzone is joined on the ballot by Susan Bayne. If all incumbments win the gender balance stays the same. If both Democrats win it will shift to two women and one man.

The District Attorney position is open. There is no incumbent. Democrat Sam Stretton is facing Tom Hogan, both men.

Incumbent Republican prothonotary Bryan Walters is running unopposed.

Recorder of Deeds Ruth Huganir was appointed to serve out the term of Ryan Costello who was appointed to the Board of Commissioners in 2011 to fill out the term of Carol Aichele who is now the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. Is everyone following? Huganir is not running for the office. Both parties have male candidates, Republican Rich Loughery and Democrat Russ Phifer.

Incumbent Republican sheriff Carolyn "Bunny" Welsh is running against Democratic challenger Alex Caton. According to the bio on the county's website Welsh "is the first woman to ever be elected Sheriff of Chester County. She is the only female sheriff in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and one of only 22 female sheriffs in the nation."

The current Register of Wills, Paula Gowen, does not appear to be running again. Republican Terri Clark is facing Democrat Dan Tyman.

To recap the row offices, the District Attorney, Prothonotary, and Recorder of Deeds are guaranteed to be male. Sheriff and Register of Wills could go either way, though "Bunny" has the edge as an incumbent.

There are currently fourteen judges on the Court of Common Pleas, three have traditionally female names. There aren't any photos with their bios so names are all we have to go on. This year both parties are running two candidates, one male the other female. So that could result in any combination of new judges.

A Note on Jonathan Jenkins

The campaign of Jonathan Jenkins brought itself to my attention this weekend; any candidate I have followed closely will tell you that my attention is a mixed blessing. However, it's not that often that a Republican candidate will jump in front of my digital window and yell "yoo hoo, over here!" Of course there's always the chance that they were confusing me with someone else. In any case, I took at look at their campaign website and have these comments based on the information there, without doing any further research.

Mr. Jenkins is running for the 26th state house district, which "consists of Chester County’s only city, Coatesville, as well as the municipalities of East Coventry, East Nantmeal, East Vincent, Elverson, Honey Brook Borough, Honey Brook Township, North Coventry, Spring City, Valley, Wallace, Warwick, West Caln, and West Nantmeal."

I had no idea that a town called West Nantmeal existed in Pennsylvania, but it somehow seems fitting that it should be close to Honey Brook.

Currently the 26th district is represented by Tim Hennessey, a Republican. Yes, that is correct, Mr. Jenkins is challenging an incumbent from his own party. Depending on your perspective that's either very gutsy or very dumb.

Mr. Jenkins is a veteran. He served as an air traffic controller in the Marine Corps. and went into the Reserves after leaving active duty. He was recalled after Sept. 11th 2001 and eventually promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. For those not familiar with the Marines, "gunnies" are generally people you don't want to mess with. Jenkins was sent to Iraq in 2008 and is now, again, back in Pennsylvania in the Reserves. He has been active in Republican politics in a variety of roles.

Looking at some of his policy statements, here are a few thoughts.

Under "Right to Work" we read:

Coming from a union family, I obviously respect and recognize a place in industry for them. With my father being a lifetime member of a union, my sisters and I certainly benefited from all they offered.

But he doesn't like "forced unionism," requiring those in union shops to pay a portion of union dues whether they belong to the union or not. Here I will confess a prejudice -- I'm currently an officer in my local union. People who work at a union shop benefit from the contracts. If everyone earns the union salary and gets the union benefits I think they should pay part of the dues. And Mr. Jenkins is correct, he benefited from growing up in a union family. Trying to close off that opportunity to young families now bothers me.

Mr. Jenkins has several statements on health care. This is one of them:

Healthcare mandates have their place and can be beneficial to some groups of people but the majority are not measured and managed. It is unfair for the forgotten taxpayer to pay for mandates that show no value or no data to allow us to know the success or failure of programs. We need to remove the emotion from healthcare legislation and replace it with tangible measurable and sunset dates.

However, he has this to say about veterans benefits:

Military members disabled in the course of duty deserve benefits to appropriately meet their needs.

Disabled Veterans Real Estate Tax Exemption Program
I will advocate for the lowering of the required disability percentage from 100% to 75%. This is a more appropriate way to treat our wounded warriors.

Special Housing Adaptation
The Veterans Administration has a terrific program to help offset cost for adapting the house of a military member to meet any special needs deriving from a service related disability.

Since there is an eligibility criteria based on type and severity of a disability I will advocate from the study on the number of military members denied access to this program and appropriate specifics to determine if follow-on legislation must be sponsored to support our defenders of freedom.

Free Fishing Licenses for Disabled Veterans
It is my opinion that we should encourage disabled veterans to enjoy Pennsylvanias parks and waterways. One way to accomplish this is to lower the disability percentage from the 100% requirement in existence currently to 25%

I see some conflict here but the voters in the 26th might not. Certainly, as someone who is from a military family and who benefited from the medical coverage provided to military dependents (at least for the years I was a military dependent), I support veterans benefits. But I'm not sure you can support this and downplay health care mandates generally. And the fishing license thing seems a little strange but maybe it's an issue in the 26th.

Mr. Jenkins' website has a number of policy statements on it. The site is well-designed and informative. I thank Mr. Jenkins for his service to our country and for his willingness to run for office. Not knowing him, let's take the high road and assume he will run an honest and efficient campaign -- that takes a lot of energy and diligence.

Let the best Republican win.