The Republican state representatives from Delaware County have come out swinging against a proposal by Democrat state representative from Delaware County Bryan Lentz (161) to prohibit elected officials from holding more than one seat at a time.
The bill is aimed at Republican state representative from Delaware County Mario Civera (164) who won election to County Council, a seat he assumes Jan. 4, and who has announced he will keep his House seat until April when it will be too late for an election for his replacement to be held congruent with the May 18 primary election, a day in which a large Democratic turnout is expected due to the that party’s hot intermural contests.
Now while I suspect Lentz would be doing the same as Civera if the shoe were on his foot, he is basically right and the Republicans ought to tone down the outrage, especially in their attempts to tie Lentz’s pursuit of a seat in Congress to actually holding — and perhaps getting paid for — two different seats at the same time.
And regardless of how this turns out, Civera really better not be collecting two paychecks (and pension contributions etc.) after Jan. 4. If the Republicans want to get some moral traction on the matter they ought to declare now that he won’t be, and perhaps counter by submitting a bill prohibiting elected officials from running for re-election for a second office but allowing for existing terms to be completed.
Lentz is the Democratic front-runner to replace Congressman Joe Sestak who stepped down to run for Senate against Arlen Specter. He will almost certainly face well-respected federal prosecutor Pat Meehan in the general election even if former Fox29 anchor Dawn Stensland should change her registration, move into the district and run against him in the GOP primary.