Month: November 2010

Gleason Quits Quest?

Update: We have received a report that Gleason has quit his quest to be Republican national party chairman. Confirmation awaits.

Bill Russell, the  congressional candidate who gave Democrat power-broker John Murtha a scare in 2008, is begging fellow Republicans not to name Robert Gleason as national party chairman.

Gleason, who chairs the Pennsylvania GOP, is seeking the seat citing as creds his organization’s resounding success on Nov. 2. The Republicans in Pennsylvania flipped five congressional seats, the U.S. senate seat, the governor’s office, took over the State House and held the State Senate which gives them total control over Harrisburg.

Russell, however, in a widely disseminated email accused Gleason of throwing the 12th District congressional race in 2008 and this year in order to protect government-connected  policies issued by his company, Gleason Insurance.

Gleason is from Cambria County in the 12th District and has been that county’s GOP chairman. The 12th District was represented by Murtha for almost 38 years until his death Feb. 8.

Russell says Gleason had a close personal relationship with Murtha attending family barbecues and  having a picture of Murtha and himself — since removed — on the Gleason Insurance website, along with a list of customers who had benefited from a relationship with Murtha, also since removed.

Russell said he was warned about Gleason’s relationship with Murtha when he announced as a candidate in 2007 but the reality hit home when 15 different persons declined to sign his nominating petition or contribute to his campaign expressing a fear they or a spouse might be fired. Ultimately he was unable to get the signatures and was not placed on the primary ballot. This required him to run a write-in campaign which he remarkably won becoming the first in the state to do so as a congressional primary candidate. This meant he was on the ballot for the general election.

Due to the Murtha’s Haditha Marine comments,  personalities such as Michelle Malkin turned the race into a national one and the money poured in.

Russell said this presented a problem for Gleason since he was pledging to end the regions economic dependence on earmarks which provided the funding for the Gleason-insured businesses.

Russell said among the measures Gleason took to undermine his campaign was by attempting, usually successfully, to keep him from appearing with John McCain or Sarah Palin at rallies in the district — which McCain won as the Pa12 was the only congressional district in the nation to flip to the Republicans that year — and by leaving his name off the Republican sample ballots.

Russell says he immediately began preparing for the 2010 race and fully expected to be the GOP candidate albeit it he had two primary opponents activist Dave Battaglia  and businessman Tim Burns. Murtha’s death, however, brought the need for a special election  to fill the remaining months of his seat and this election was to take place alongside the primary.

Candidate for special elections are not picked by voters in a primary but by party people. Burns got the tap at the behest of Gleason.

Burns would lose the special election to Mark Critz, who had been Murtha’s district director. The race, however, again garnered national attention and money and most of the local publicity went to Burns and that gave him the advantage he needed to win the primary election.

In the Nov. 2 rematch, Burns did not catch the GOP wave and fell to Critz despite the district going for the Republicans at the top of the ticket.

Russell says that, like himself, Burns did not get the support of the Gleason machine.

“The only answer I can come up with for these questions is that Robert Gleason fully intended to lose the 12th Congressional District Special and Primary elections in order to protect his company’s insurance contracts with the earmark companies that John Murtha brought in, and Mark Critz promised to protect,” Russell says.

‘Generational Theft’ Pension Bill Dead In Pa


Update: This bill is back from the dead.

The proposed Pennsylvania pension fix that one Republican leader called “generational theft ” is dead.

The State House  announced, Friday, that it will not return as expected nor in accordance with tradition, to address outstanding legislative matters to the ire of Gov. Rendell and Democrat interest groups such as the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

This means the bill must be started from scratch and when the House reconvenes Jan. 4 it will be in the control of Republicans and supported by a Republican governor. The senate had been and remains in Republican hands.

HB 2497 passed the House 192-6 on June 16 and was referred to the Senate which amended it and finally voted on it Oct. 16 when it passed 41-8.

The House, however, did not appreciate the changes the Senate made to the bill, especially concerning the creation of an independent fiscal office to check the governor’s revenue projections and spending reports

State Rep. Dwight Evans (D-203) of Philadelphia, who is the House Appropriations chairman, called the office costly and unconstitutional in a letter to his fellow House members.

State Rep. Sam Rohrer (R-128), who is the minority chairman of the House’s Finance Committee, said in June that the bill merely made minor improvements to the state retirement policy — none of which would apply to existing beneficiaries — but saddled future generations with 30-years of new debt.

IOW, so state leaders can still collect $313,000 pensions .

Pennsylvania taxpayers gave  $843 million this year to the two public-sector pension systems — Public School Employees’s Retirement System (PSERS)  and State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — that serve more than 675,000 current andretired state government and public school employees.

That contribution will increase to $5.8 billion within two years, according to Commonwealth Foundation.

On a totally unrelated note five of the top 25 paid public employees in Pennsylvania — all of whom earn more than $200K not counting benefits — work for either the PSERS or SERS.

Delco Tea Partyers Take Stand Against Gen Theft Bill

The Delaware County (Pa) Patriots, the county’s tea party group, has taken a stand against HB 2497 , which state House Finance Committee Minority Chairman Sam Rohrer has called “generational theft “ .

The bill attempts to resolve the severe funding shortfalls of  Pennsylvania’s largest pension plans — Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) and State Employees Retirement System (SERS) — by deferring pension payments and increasing the unfunded liability by tens of billions of dollars.

Rohrer of the 128th District was only one of six to vote against HB 2497 when it passed the Democrat-controlled House on June 16. The bill with amendments passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Oct. 16 by a vote of 41-8.

The amendments required a new vote in the House, however, but on Nov. 5 lame duck  Speaker Keith McCall  announced that his assembly would be quitting for the year which would require the process to start from scratch in January under a Republican-controlled House.

Five days later , McCall changed his mind. The House will return on Nov. 15 when it is expected to vote on HB 2497.

The Delco Patriots note that the bill was crafted by the public employee unions who would most benefit from it and merely postpones the reckoning as to how to fund the burgeoning public pension obligations.

It is asking all taxpayers to contact their state representative and urge a no vote.

Commonwealth Foundation notes that the pension obligations are expected to be $5.8 billion on the taxpayer by 2012 — a six-fold increase from today — which  translates to a  $1,360 increase in state and local taxes for the average homeowner. The data can be found on a link to a  pdf file on this page.

A bill introduced in the senate, SB 566 , would create a defined contribution plan for new employees in which the employer would contribute 6 percent of salary into a retire-fund owned by employees with a matching amount coming from the employee.

Early A.M. Tea Party Was SRO

A standing-room-only crowd of 50 attended this morning’s post-election meeting of  Philadelphia-area tea party groups  for a panel discussion moderated by journalist Chris Freind at a conference room at The Union League of Philadelphia.

The panel was Diana Reimer of the Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots, Jennifer Turner Stefano of the Conservative Leadership Coalition, Lisa Esler of  Delaware County Patriots, Diane Canney of Valley Forge Patriots, Teri Adams of the Independence Hall Tea Party Association PAC, and Kevin Kelly of The Loyal Opposition, which hosted the event.

Before the discussion started the group was given a bit of good news from the Washington D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform which reported that it was expecting the Bush tax cuts to be extended, in their entirety, for two years.

Much of the panel discussion involved the problem of Philadelphia which gave the Democrats 280,000 more votes than the GOP on Nov. 2. It was noted that if Philadelphia margin had been the same as it was during recent presidential elections — Democrat votes in the city exceeded Republicans by 478,000 in 2008 and  412,000 in 2004 — Democrats Joe Sestak and Dan Onorato would have won the senate and governor races respectively.

The last time the Democrat margin of victory in the city was less than 300,000 during a presidential year was in 1988 which was the last time the Republicans won the state.

Kelly, who has been battling the city’s Republican establishment, again expressed his belief that Philadelphia Republicans are not interested in winning due to a corrupt and cozy patronage relationship with the Democrats in power.

Members of the audience involved in city politics expressed agreement.

The generally collegial event ended in fireworks when Dr. Robert Sklaroff blasted  Kelly and Freind for refusing to condemn military re-enactor Rich Iott who was the unsuccessful GOP candidate in the Ohio 9th District congressional race and who was photographed wearing a Nazi SS uniform for one of his re-enactments.

Mrs. Stefano pointed out to Dr. Sklaroff that military re-enactments require the enemy to be depicted as well. This, however, did not appear to appease the good doctor.

Update: There is a report that Iott socialized dressed in his SS uniform. Depending on the context of the socialization — how long it occurred after the re-enactments and such — perhaps Dr. Sklaroff might have a point.

‘Generational Theft’ Pension Bill Back From Dead

The ‘Generational Theft ‘ pension bill that is expected to allow the sextupling of the annual pension burden on the Pennsylvania taxpayer to  $5.8 billion  has crawled back from the dead like a zombie stalking a Pittsburgh shopping mall.

Lame duck Speaker Keith McCall announced, today, that he is calling the State House back in session on Nov. 15 when it is expected to approve the changes made by the state Senate to HB 2497, the official name for the theft bill. The House passed the bill 192-6 on June 16.

McCall had announced on Friday that the House would not be returning to the anger and fear of The Pennsylvania State Education Association and Gov. Ed Rendell both of which implored the Democrat-controlled House to change its mind.

Which the walking dead Democrats did to nobody’s surprise.

The House passes to GOP control in January.

Pennsylvanians don’t get your hopes too high.

Fed Street Sign Mandate To Affect Springfield

Springfield (Delaware County, Pa) Township Manager Michael LeFevre describes the new federal street sign mandate as “a doozy”

The Federal Highway Administration, last year, mandated that  street name signs throughout the nation be upper/lower case. The white letter on black background signs in Springfield are in all capital letters.

The township has until 2018 to replace them.

“The cost to buy a sign face is $50,” he said. “We install them with our own staff. If you look around town there are quite a few street signs.”

The feds feel that older people can read upper and lower case easier.

LeFevre says the township is still awaiting some final directions from the feds.

“We have no plans on beginning major changes at this time,” he said.

If the over-burdened Springfield taxpayer wants to try and find a bright sign to this bit of Washington whimsy he can consider that the mandate is expected to cost New York City $27 million.

Poll Shows Pa. Warming To School Choice

A poll released by Commonwealth Foundation , Nov. 9, shows that 50 percent of Pennsylvanians support using “education vouchers which help parents pay the cost of the school of their choice” with only 30 percent opposed.

If the wording is changed from “education vouchers” to “tax-credit scholarship funds”  the support drops to 46 percent with the opposing remaining the same and those saying “not sure” rising to 24 percent.

The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted Nov. 1 by Public Opinion Research.

Republicans supported the voucher question 63 to 21 percent while independents supported it 38 to 32 percent. Blacks, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, supported it 69 to 7 percent.

Democrats, in total, supported it 45 to 31 percent.

Men supported vouchers 54 to 27 percent while woman supported it 46 to 32 percent.

Those with children at home supported it 48 to 31 percent percent while those without supported it 51 to 29 percent.

Significantly different results garnered by the “tax-credit” worried included independents expressing opposing to the idea 37 to 34 percent, with support from those with children at home growing to 56 with just 27 percent in opposition.

Hat tip to GrassrootsPa.com

It’s Always Groundhog Day In Pa.

Punxsutawney Samuel H. Smith of the 66th District  was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House by his fellow Republicans this morning. He assumes the role when the new legislative session starts Jan. 4 in which the Republicans will hold a 21-seat majority in the 203-member House.

Smith’s name is the first among the submitters of the infamous 2005 pay raise.

Smith had been  House Minority Leader.

Also as expected Mike Turzai of the 28th District was voted majority leader; Stan Saylor of the 94th District was voted majority whip.

 

Expected Pa Speaker Submitted The 2005 Pay Raise

The  leadership vote scheduled for tomorrow  to pick the Republican leaders of the Pennsylvania House has resulted in expressions of anger from the increasingly powerful Tea Party groups in the state.

Expected to be elected as Speaker of the House is  Samuel H. Smith of the 66th District and a resident of Punxsutawney, who is the now the House Minority Leader.

And that’s kind of ironic with regard to Smith’s hometown since what the Tea Partyers fear is a Groundhog Day with a daily wake-up to I Got You Babe for the next two years.

Smith’s name is the first among the submitters of the infamous 2005 pay raise .

Tea Party favorite Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of the 12 District has asked the vote to be postponed until December so those members of 112-member Republican House Caucus who are new to Harrisburg could get a better feel of the personalities seeking the offices.

Last week’s election gives the GOP a 21-vote majority in the body when it convenes in January.

Metcalfe and the Tea Party groups are also asking that the vote be held in the open rather than in the closed meeting as is traditionally done by both parties for the House and Senate.

The Tea Party group Delaware County Patriots has called the early, closed vote “business as usual”.

Besides Smith, Mike Turzai of the 28th District is expected to be voted majority leader; Stan Saylor of the 94th District , party whip; and Rep. Dave Reed of the 62nd District as GOP policy chairman.

Hat tip to Bob Guzzardi of LibertyIndex.Com.

God’s Pharmacy

A sliced tomato resembles a heart. Is it good for the heart? Do kidney beans really help your kidneys? Is it true about the sweet potato?

Check out the latest Off The Internet feature: God’s Pharmacy .