34th District Is Safe For Dems

34th District Is Safe For Dems

By Bob Small

When Democrat Abigail Salisbury won the special election for the 34th Pennsylvania State House District, previously held by Summer Lee (who is now in the U.S. Congress), she became the second openly bisexual candidate to be elected in Harrisburg. There are now six openly LGBTQ state representatives in Harrisburg, and they belong to the LGBTQ Equality Caucus.

Abigail Salisbury won 10,068 votes (87.7 % of the vote) to Robert Pagane’s 1,404 votes (12.3% of the total). This result had been expected. 

Born in Ohio, Abigail Salisbury attended Case Western Reserve University for her undergraduate degree and received her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She was endorsed by Clean Water Action, Planned Parenthood, and various labor unions.

Among other things, Salisbury initiated her own low-cost law practice for nonprofits and small businesses in Swissvale. One of her major priorities has been to reduce the time it takes for a new business to acquire its business license. (She says it takes 2.5 months.)

Robert Pagane graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy in 1989. He has been affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Police Work Dog Association.

Now retired, Pagane spent 30 years as a police officer, five of them in the city of Pittsburgh and 13 as a K-9 handler.

Three key messages of his campaign were to make the streets safe, to lessen the tax burden on the elderly, and to fight on behalf of his constituents to raise his district “from the ashes”. He believes that businesses will return when the streets are safe.

PA House District 34 is in Allegheny County and includes Braddock, 12 other towns, and sections of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania House of Representative

The two Democrats who served as state representatives prior to Summer Lee (Paul Costa and Ronald R. Cowell) served a total of almost 45 years, from 1975 to 2019.

34th District Is Safe For Dems
34th District Is Safe For Dems

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.