Some Quick State House Campaign Notes

No matter how prepared I think I am for an election there are always posts I wanted to write but didn't have the time. Here are a few candidates deserving of longer blog posts.

Tina Davis, a Bristol Township Council member, volunteer for many causes including serving as a Big Sister, basketball coach, room mom, Girl Scout and American Cancer Society volunteer, as well as a Democratic Committee person, is running for the 141st state house district. State Rep. Tony Melio (D) is retiring so it is an open seat.

Mary Lou Readinger is running for the 61st state house seat. She is a nurse and also currently vice chair of the Plymouth Township Council. She helped found the township's first environmental advisory council and has served on the boards of the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter and the Fellowship House community center in Conshohocken. In 2009, she was appointed to the Montgomery County Parks and Heritage Services Advisory Committee. The 61st Legislative District of Pennsylvania is located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and is composed of all or parts of Lower Gwynedd, Montgomery, Plymouth, Towamencin, Upper Gwynedd, and Whitpain townships, and North Wales Borough.

Andrea Baptiste the only Democrat on the Collegeville Borough Council and has served a prominent role on the Board of Directors of the Collegeville Economic Development Committee since 2008, for which she Chairs the Economic Restructuring Committee. She is running for the 150th State House District, currently represented by Mike Vereb. The 150th Legislative District includes Collegeville, Trappe, and parts of East and West Norriton, Lower Providence, Upper Providence and Norristown.

VoteVets Endorses Shannon Meehan

from the inbox:

VoteVets.org PAC, a national veterans organization, has endorsed Shannon Meehan in his race to become State Representative, and named him to the group’s Emerging Leaders program.

“Shannon has demonstrated his leadership abilities on and off the battlefield, and it’s that same grit and determination that will lead him to be a wonderful state representative for the people of Delaware County ,” said Peter Granato, Vice Chairman of VoteVets.org. “ Shannon simply doesn’t rest when it comes to serving his country, and I know the same can and will be said about his continuing public service.”

VoteVets.org’s Emerging Leaders program is centered around those post-9/11 veterans who are just starting out their public service back home by running for lower office.

Born and raised in Delaware County , Shannon attended Upper Darby High School , where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in wrestling. He continued his success in college by lettering in a Division 1 wrestling program and graduating as a Distinguished Military graduate and president of an honor society.

While serving in the military, Meehan led over 700 combat and civil operations while commanding an area spanning 300 square miles and containing over 100,000 people. Meehan initiated an innovative program of council meetings with local leaders that resulted in significant civil and economic growth. He also developed and secured intelligence that led to the capture of more enemy insurgents and corrupt officials than any of his peers combined. He also managed and oversaw the investment of $800,000 to improve infrastructures and was rated his battalion's Top Platoon Leader. Meehan was injured in an IED strike, resulting in his medical retirement and being awarded the Purple Heart.

After his injury, Shannon completed rehabilitation at Fort Hood and wrote the nationally-acclaimed memoir, Beyond Duty (Polity Press), which chronicles firsthand the challenges facing soldiers in today's wars. Beyond Duty has become the fastest-selling book in the press's history, is an international bestseller, and was named Military Writers Society of America's Book of the Month the month of its international release.

CeaseFirePA to Endorse State Rep Candidates Tomorrow

CeaseFirePA plans to endorse a number of state house candidates tomorrow. Here is the advance notice on some of them:

State Rep. [Thaddeus] Kirkland leading legislators in Pennsylvania, working toward a statewide lost or stolen handgun reporting requirement, and helped his own city of Chester to pass the reform locally. Walt Waite is running to replace Rep Bryan Lentz, who has lead the fight to close the deadly Florida Concealed Carry Gun Loophole, which allows criminals to carry a concealed gun in PA using an out of state permit. Shannon Meehan is challenging long time incumbent Rep. Nick Micozzie, who voted against a statewide lost or stolen handgun reporting requirement in 2008, and just this month voted against considering a bill to close the Florida Loophole, despite hearing testimony from every leading law enforcement group in the state in favor of doing so. And Margo Davidson personally felt the impact of gun violence when her own brother was murdered by a criminal using an illegal gun. All four candidates have proven their commitment to carrying this mission to Harrisburg in order to protect their communities.

and

Rep. [Mike] Gerber, Rep. [Tim] Briggs, and Rep. [Rick] Taylor are three of the strongest voices in the PA Legislature, working toward commonsense reforms to reduce gun violence. All three are strong proponents of legislation requiring that lost or stolen handguns be reported missing to the police, and all have worked to introduce legislation to close the deadly Florida Concealed Carry Loophole, which allows criminals to carry concealed guns in PA using an out of state permit. Mark Painter is running against Tom Quigley who not only voted in favor of passing the NRA’s “shoot first” castle doctrine expansion bill – but also voted to shut down all debate on the issue, stopping the democratic process and blocking consideration to of legislation to close the Florida Loophole. In April 2008, Quigley voted against a statewide lost or stolen handgun reporting requirement. Only months later, a school shooting was averted at Pottstown High School because a father reported his guns missing. Painter supports these initiatives and will help continue the effort in Harrisburg.

A Quick Look at John Toth

John Toth is the Democratic candidate for the 142nd state house district. The 142nd contains parts of Middletown Township and Lower Southampton Township, and the towns of Langhorne, Langhorne Manor, Penndel, and Hulmeville in Bucks County. The district has been changing hands quite a bit lately. In 2006 Democrat Chris King won the seat from Republican Matt Wright. In 2008 King lost it to Frank Farry.

Toth is the former chairman of the Democratic Party of Middletown. He is a Navy veteran where he worked in the U.S. Naval Nuclear Power program, currently, an electrician with Boeing and also works as a real estate agent.

He says the biggest issue facing the state is jobs. He would like to see a coordinated effort between state, county and local governments to create business incentives. Other issues he would like to tackle are a bloated legislature and property tax reform (Adler, 2/19/2010) He is in favor of taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco. In regards to state pensions he is quoted:

We need to look into changing (pension) vesting requirements for non-vested employees, stop underfunding state obligation and perhaps, most importantly, we need to enact laws that prevent pension plans form investing in risky investments. (Adler, 2/28/2010)

Toth has an issues page on his campaign website outlining some of his other concerns, including Marcellus Shale, and education. Toth has written a number of letters to the editor concerning political and social matters. Some of these are on the “news” part of his site.

Voters in that district are encouraged to visit his site and learn more about his candidacy.

Sources

Adler, Danny. “Pension crisis calls for ‘comprehensive overhaul’,” Bucks County Courier Times 2/28/2010.

Adler, Danny “Toth wants to challenge Rep. Farry for seat,” Bucks County Courier Times 2/19/2010

Book Review: Beyond Duty, by Shannon P Meehan

Beyond Duty: Life on the Frontline in Iraq by Shannon P. Meehan with Roger Thompson. Malden, Maine: Polity Press, 2009.

For those who have read about post-traumatic stress disorder and wondered what that means and how it is developed, for those who like reading first person war memoirs, and for those who simply wonder what happens to the young men we send off to places like Iraq, this book is for you. Shannon P. Meehan was a star athlete in his home town of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. He went to the Virginia Military Institute, graduated with a degree in English, and studied for a time at Oxford. After graduation he married a young woman who grew up about an hour away from Upper Darby and who worked at a daycare. A little more than a year later he was sent to Iraq. He was served in Diyala and Baqubah during 2006 and 2007. If those geographic names are familiar it is because, at the time of this writing, they are still in the news.

Meehan, who is currently running for office in the 163rd state house district (Clifton Heights, Aldan, Lansdowne, and parts of Darby, Ridley and Upper Darby townships), writes well (or perhaps that is Thompson's touch, it is hard to tell). He pays homage to his roots, noting that his father is a veteran of the Vietnam War. His father, a photographer, would turn down jobs to attend young Shannon's wrestling meets (14). He also notes the pride and expectations that go along with being a successful high school athlete. In the field he reminds himself of home by putting a Philadelphia Eagles posted and a Hershey's wrapper on his wall. Hershey was the site of his state wrestling championships (41).

One theme throughout the book is Meehan's desire to earn the respect of trust of the men he commanded, of those above him in rank, and even the Iraq community leaders he encountered while at war. It comes across as genuine. His was assigned to a new unit four weeks prior to deployment and, as a recent college graduate, understood that those who served in his platoon, especially men who were older with prior combat experience, might view him with some skepticism. He worked with his platoon sergeant to set up review sessions for his soldiers. They went over protocols and also became comfortable with each other and learned from each other's experience. A good officer, especially a newly minted officer, knows to accord his platoon leadership, in particular the platoon sergeant, all due respect. Meehan writes that his men were supportive of him as well. He adopts the habit in the book of praising people by name but providing only vague details about those he criticizes. I find this admirable. He also put this respect into practice. While the platoon leader usually rode in a tank and the platoon sergeant in a humvee, Meehan reversed that as his sergeant had "significant achievements commanding a tank" (53). Only three of his platoon's humvees had the most current armor -- he rode in the other one:

Only three were equipped with the strongest armor because the battalion had yet to update its entire fleet, and I chose the one without the armor because it seemed wrong to me to ask my men to drive in a vehicle I was not myself willing to drive. An EFP would devastate any vehicle, but my humvee, with its out-of-date armor, would be incinerated instantly (61).

Meehan looks after the men under his command. After one devastating mission where some men are killed and others are wounded, the bodies (not always whole) are put in one vehicle, and the wounded in another. He stands so that his body blocks the view and the wounded cannot see the dead. He writes:

I did not want the injured man to see what had happened to the other men. I did not want him to deal with that reality while he coped with his own injuries. So, I moved parallel to them, a few paces away, shielding them from the sight of their own dead men, then I stood next to the Bradley, making sure that I remained between them and what was inside the vehicle next to me (123).

One of the aspects of the book that I found most interesting was his description of working with Iraqi locals. On arrival in Iraq he notes the hardened attitude of the company he and his men are replacing (44). Though Meehan describes his own journey towards a similar mindset, he starts out by wanting to form better connections with the Iraqi people. He writes:

Trust would create dialogue. Trust would reduce violence. In order for me to try to earn that trust, however, I would first have to demonstrate to my chain of command that I was a good leader and a good soldier. I challenged my men to work with me on this, explaining to them that I thought the best way for us to make a difference was to work with the local leaders who could be trusted instead of against them by simply imposing our will. My platoon stood with me, and we very quickly established ourselves as a strong, reliable platoon within the battalion. We conducted our daily patrols professionally and efficiently, and we focused on the idea that our primary mission was to provide security to the people of Diyala and Baqubah. (45).

He attended funerals of civilians killed in the area, which lead to a meeting of local sheiks. One of the first things he asked of them, a request that was granted, was that the interpreters working with his men would not be threatened (66). After one ambush by three Iraqi men who set off an explosive device Meehan's men discover that one of the insurgents is still alive. Meehan insists the man be taken for treatment:

I simply repeated what I wanted to do. I didn't want to engage in a power struggle, and I didn't want to acknowledge that he had offered me a way out. I wanted to evacuate the guy. I didn't want him to die, bleeding to death on a muddy street as helicopters buzzed above him and our tanks turned and rumbled away. I didn't want his final vision to be of U.S. soldiers standing above him and determining his fate. It wasn't our job to do so. It wasn't our right.(104)

As time passes and he sees more death and destruction his optimism fades. He loses hope in negotiation when finds that some sheikhs are hoarding donated supplies or selling them on the black market (146). He is further disillusioned when a town mayor that had cooperated with him is killed and the town's police station taken over by al-Qaida. An experience that struck him particularly hard, and one that haunts him throughout the books, is outlined in the first chapter and again in chapter 20. As commander of a patrol in Baqubah he is called upon to make a decision on whether or not to fire on a house that appears to have an IED (bomb) attached. He orders the attack and later finds that 8 people, including children, were in the house at the time and were killed.

Meehan continues to work with civilians in the field but after seeing people who cooperated murdered he is more circumspect. He would often provide food, water or other gifts, to locals who provided them with information but put on a show of yelling at the head of the household as they left.

In the fall of 2007, his tour of duty having been extended, Meehan is injured while on patrol. He survived but had "a severe concussion, a ruptured ear drum, a wounded arm, a knee injury, and severe compression the discs in my back" (247). After receiving medical treatment he went back to his platoon. His deployment ended in November. Several months after his return he is diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (266) and receives treatment and therapy for it.

I've left out quite a bit because there are parts of his story that I do not feel adequate to convey. His personal reaction to some of the experiences he had and his feelings about the war are best read in his own words. Of the Iraq War memoirs I have read this one I think is essential for those who have had loved ones in combat. Not everyone will share Meehan's view but it is a view that everyone should be aware of. The book is not maudlin or depressing or political or militant. It is simply one man's experience of the war.

The Magnetism of Todd Stephens

Todd Stephens, Republican candidate for the 151st state house district, is hoping to unseat Rick Taylor. One tactic he is using is the time honored door to door lit drop. Someone gave me one of the items he is leaving with residents -- a refrigerator magnet. You can see a poorly scanned representation alongside this post. It shows his photo with the text "Todd Stephens for State Representative," along with the web address and a note that it was paid for by Friends of Todd Stephens, his campaign committee. Not for him the list of emergency numbers or district info that many campaign magnets have.

Note is it in full color and is shaped like the state of Pennsylvania. It isn't just a blue outline on a white magnet -- it is actually shaped like Pennsylvania, with the Erie bump in the northwest and the squiggly outline on the border with New Jersey. This seemed a little extravagant for a campaign that, on its more recent finance report, listed just over $26,000 cash on hand.

I did some quick checking on the price of magnets. Stephens's measures just under 3.5" tall and about 5.25" wide. I found two sites that listed 4" x 6" inch 4 color magnets for just over $1,000 for 2500. The campaign would probably buy more than that if they are distributing them door to door, but that gives some idea of price, although a higher volume might lower the cost.. That looks like it is for a 4" x 6" rectangle, not a custom shape. I found one place that listed state shaped magnets but that was an outline on a plain background, not something cut in the exact shape.

Looking at the expenditures for his campaign from I found one campaign expenditure for campaign supplies at $4,400 on March 18th, and some expenditures for a little over $1,000 but they were often for postcards or website expenses. A political organization provided in-kind donations for postcards. Nothing listed magnets, which leads me to the theory that the $,4,400 is for the magnets (note: one of the sites that lists prices online charges $4,400 for 10,000 4" x 6" full color magnets).

I'm not sure that a candidate with just $26,000 in the bank after the primary should have spent so much for large, colorful magnets, but, hey, I'm no campaign consultant. As someone whose refrigerator is covered with assorted papers, held on by magnets, I can say that the size of it would make it problematic; smaller magnets are more useful.

In any event, I found it interesting.

DFA Grassroots AllStars Contest for PA

Okay, PA politicso, DFA is having a contest for the PA Grassroots AllStar. The Pennsylvania page lists eight state senate or state house candidates. You can vote for your favorite (keep in mind voting puts you on their mailing list). The ones I will vouch for personally are italicized but I'm sure all are worthy of your vote:

Walt Waite State Representative, 161st district
Gerald Policoff State Representative, 41st district
Patrick O'Keeffe State Representative, 97th district
Fern Kaufman State Representative, 26th district
Mark Painter State Representative,146th district
Susan Rzucidlo State Representative, 158th district
Bryan Allen State Senate, 6th district
Angela West State Representative, 87th district

Read up on them (on their sites on here), choose your favorite and vote here.

A Look at Todd Stephens Campaign Finance Reports

A few weeks ago I ran a blog post on one state rep’s campaign finance reports. It was intended as the first in a series. Today we continue, this time looking at the reports of Republican Todd Stephens. He ran against Rick Taylor in the 151st state house district and is running again this year. There are five reports for 2008 and three for 2009.

In 2008, Stephens raised a total of $227,433.69. His campaign had expenditures of $221,701.18, which is a fairly equal number, leaving him with $5732.51 to start with the next year for the 2010 campaign. However, he also received $184,361.97 in in-kind donations. Breaking down the 2008 donations, $106,192.14, not quite half of his total, came from political committees or political action committees. Looking at donations in depth, his PAC donations came in from other campaigns, such as that of Stewart Greenleaf, Bruce Castor, Jim Matthews the Friends of [Jim] Cawley. The Friends of John Perzel donated the most -- $7,000. State and county Republican organizations also donated. The House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) donated a cash total of $24,500; the county party $31,000, and the state party $2,000. Other interests donating PAC money include housing and construction, and insurance. His individual donors show similar interests with some notable Republican names, such as former Congressman Jon Fox, Mario Mele, and those involved in property development, construction, and engineering, along with the usual mix of lawyers and executives.

The 2008 disbursements show a pattern I have noticed in other reports, with payments to party organizations, including $40,000 to the HRCC. The campaign paid for postage, google ad words, printing, and about $45000 for media buys.

The in-kind donations are significant, and are a little more than three fourths the amount he received in cash donations. This includes office space from a building firm, and $99,556 from the state Republican party for campaign literature and postage. The HRCC paid $42,000 for an employee’s salary. The Friends of John Perzel also made in-kind donations totaling $27,269.38, most of which was also for salaries.

In 2009, which appeared to be a slow year, between election years, Mr. Stephens brought in a total of $2414.09. He spent $5793.93, which left him $2166.56 to start gearing up for the 2010 election. There were no in-kind donations. He paid website fees and an inexpensive robocall in late 2009.

Mark Painter vs Tom Quigley in the 146th

Incumbent Republican Tom Quigley of the 146h state house district is being called out by Democratic challenger Mark Painter (no campaign website yet). The 146th Legislative District in Montgomery County includes Limerick, Lower Pottsgrove, Pottstown, Royersford, Upper Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, and a portion of New Hanover.

A note received from Painter:

STATE HOUSE CANDIDATE MARK PAINTER FAULTS TOM QUIGLEY’S SUPPORT OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED LAWSUIT

LIMERICK, PA – State House candidate Mark Painter criticized Republican incumbent Tom Quigley’s for signing a letter in support of Attorney General Tom Corbett’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which became law just days earlier. The ACA would finally provide health insurance to hundreds of thousands of working Pennsylvanians and their children and families, who currently have no way of getting coverage.

“With all the economic problems Pennsylvania faces, our elected officials have more important things to do than grandstanding on the taxpayer’s nickel,” Painter said. “If Corbett and Quigley don’t like the ACA, they have every right to say so. But leave my tax money out of it.

“A solid majority of Pennsylvanians voted for Barack Obama because they wanted health care reform. Now that we finally won it, the Attorney General wants to spend our money to take away from us in court what we won at the ballot box.

“And here I thought Republicans didn’t like frivolous lawsuits.”