Category: Bob Small

Pennsylvania Auditor General Primary 2024

By Bob Small

The Pennsylvania Auditor General “monitors how public dollars are spent.” This is done by “conducting financial audits” and other reviews.

The primary election Tuesday, April 23, includes two running in the Democrat primary and the Republican incumbent running unopposed.

Republican Incumbent, Tim Defoor, is the first person of color to win a statewide office in Pennsylvania, as a Republican. The first, Austin Davis (Democrat) is the current lieutenant governor.

Defoor, from Dauphin County, is a graduate of Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He has served as Dauphin County controller, a special agent for the State Attorney General, and fraud investigator for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Defoor says that a dozen school districts had raised local taxes, while holding millions of dollars in their general funds.

During his first term he created the first (DEI) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office among many other initiatives.

See also Timothy DeFoor

Malcolm Kenyatta, of Philadelphia, graduated from Drexel and Temple. He represents the 181st District in the Pennsylvania House and is the first openly Gay person of color to serve in the General Assembly. Kenyatta, says “ I’m running for Auditor General because it’s time for the underdog to be a watchdog for Pennsylvania’s working families. “

He says that  “I will stand up for our workers by creating the first ever Bureau of Labor and Worker Protections and use the power of the office to take on wage theft, employee misclassification, and union busting. “

(Ed note: Will stopping union busting apply to Delaware County’s George Hill Prison?)

He has been chosen for  the Bertelsmann Leadership Fellow in the Digital Economy, the bipartisan Hunt/Kean Leadership Fellow in Education, and American Jewish Committee (AJC) Project Interchange.

See also Philadelphia’s rising Democratic star on another school …

Mark Pinsley is a graduate of Indiana University and Northeastern University. He is a businessman and a US Army Veteran. He’s currently Lehigh County Controller.

He owns Dermamed Solutions DermaMed Solutions. His goals as Auditor General are included in the following article Jewish Democrat Mark Pinsley Running for Auditor . See also Mark Pinsley For Auditor General

Full Ticket In Pennsylvania 12

By Bob Small

Pennsylvania’s 12^th Congressional District is mostly Allegheny County with some of Westmoreland County.

The current Congressperson is Summer Lee, widely acknowledged as Pennsylvania’s most progressive congressperson. How you feel about that will probably determine your vote.

She voted for a ceasefire in Gaza and is supported by Justice Democrats Pa.

She is the first Afro-American to represent Southwestern Pennsylvania in the state legislature.

Her opponent in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary is Bhavini Patel, the daughter of a mother who emigrated from India.

After Graduating from Pitt, the site of her family’s food truck, she earned her masters in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

She was cofounder and CEO of Beamdata which helped people connect with their elected officials during Covid and has continued to use data technology to advance social justice. She is on Edgewood Borough Council. She has the support of Modsquad which is a PAC that declares itself moderate and funds candidates of both parties.

See The Moderate Democrats for the April 7 Debate between her and Summer Lee.

On the Republican side, there is James Hayes.

Hayes, an African-American, declares himself to be a supporter of Israel which contrast himself with his probable November opponent. He has degrees from Case Western (doctor in Business Administration) Georgetown (bachelors in International Economics, Princeton (masters in Economics and Policy) , and the University of Chicago. ( MBA in Finance and Accounting)

He has three children with his wife, Brenda Diaz,, whom he met while working in Mexico in the 1990s.

Finally, there is Laurie Macdonald. She was originally a Democratic candidate but was challenged off the ballot. She then announced a write-in campaign to be the Republican nominee.

She is president and CEO of Center for Victims.

“Good leadership requires the vision to see both sides, coalesce the ideas and bring people together,” she says.

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

By Bob Small

Though there are five Democratic Candidates for Pennsylvania Attorney General, only Eugene Depasquale and Jack Stollsteimer have name recognition.  The others are Philadelphians Keir Bradford-Grey, Joe Khan and Jared Solomon.  None are endorsed by the state party.  If you like what Jack or Eugene has done, you can stop right here. If not, read on.

Keir Bradford-Grey would be the first Afro-American to be elected to this post.

She was head of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and Chief Defender for Montgomery County. In Philadelphia, she led the Pre-Entry Initiative and Participatory Defense Hubs.

“I’m running to be the people’s lawyer, and that’s what the attorney general is in every other state other than Pennsylvania,” she said in a debate.

Boston-born, she went to Albany State University and Ohio Northern Pettit College of Law

Khan and Solomon are graduates of Swarthmore College, but that needn’t be held against them. Both now reside in Northeast Philly.

Khan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. Speaking of his upbringing;  “when my parents got together in the 70s, he was Muslim and my mom was Catholic, so they settled on a Jewish neighborhood as a place to raise their kids. “

He has been an assistant district attorney in Philly and assistant US Attorney for the Pa. Eastern District. He also spent three years as Bucks County Solicitor. He mentioned starting a “Housing Justice Unit”, among other plans.

According to Meet Joe Khan he plans to “enact a 67 County Strategy for Public Safety”

Jared Solomon, State Representative for the 202^nd District, has worked in both private law and as a Jag Officer in the Army Reserves.

He also mentions the Colorado Method among other innovations.

He also believes that police officers should engage with the community, as they used to.

Below is the link for the latest debate between the five candidates FULL DEBATE: Democratic candidates for Pa. attorney general

My favorite fictional cowboy lawyer was The Big Valley ‘s Jarrod Barkley.

5 Dems Seek To Be Pennsylvania AG

7th District Wild Congressional Race

By Bob Small

The 7^th Congressional District was the bailiwick of such icons as Pat Meehan, Joe Sestak, and Curt Weldon and even a Mary Gay Scanlon before it became the District of Allentown’s Susan Wild. The shape of the District was described as “Goofy kicking Donald Duck”

Susan Wild became infamous recently for saying, with a later apology, that she was “dismayed” to have Trump-leaning Carbon County added to her District, which also includes Lehigh, Northampton, and a small parcel of Monroe counties.

Though she doesn’t have a Democratic opponent, there are three Republicans vying to take her on in November.

The primary election is April 23.

Maria Montero is bilingual and a first-generation American on her father’s side while her great-grandfather was a Carbon County coal miner.

She grew up in Carbon County.

She is a graduate of St. Joe’s and Widener Law. She has led the Pennsylvania Commission for Women and The Pennsylvania Latino Commission.

Kevin Dellicker with his wife, Susan, wrote Twenty-Percent Soldiers, Our Life in the National Guard

They are the co-founders of Dellicker Strategies Dellicker Strategies – Technology, Solutions, Services a technologies solution company.

He was an economic policy advisor to Tom Ridge and has degrees from Air University, Liberty, Penn State and Syracuse. His family, including three sons, live in Lehigh County. There are 22 issues on his platform.

Ryan Mackenzie is the State Representative for the 187^th District.

He is a descendant of a Northampton County Militia soldier in the Revolutionary War.

He is a graduate of NYU and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He wants to prohibit congresspeople from trading stocks based on insider information. He also wants term limits.

As a state rep, has voted to eliminate state cars for legislators and for curriculum transparency in K-12 schools.

He lives with his wife, Chloe, and their rescue hound dog, Ruckus, in Lower Macungie Township.

Pennsylvania GOP AG Race 2024

By Bob Small

The first fact to know is that there has not been a GOP in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s chair since 2008.

Since incumbent Democrat Michelle Henry is not running, we will not have an incumbency effect.

Two are on the ballot for the April 23 primary to be the Republican nominee.

Party endorsed is Dave W. Sunday, Jr.

Maybe his slogan can be Vote Sunday on Tuesday.

His opponent is Craig Williams.

Sunday of York is a US Navy Veteran and a graduate of Penn State and Widener University Law School. He is the York County district attorney and among his accomplishments are  Operation Sunrise, a large-scale multi-jurisdictional that led to the arrest and prosecution of over 100 members and affiliates of the Latin Kings which was a violent criminal gang operating in York County. His office also co-chairs   HOME | YCRC, the York County Reentry Coalition, seeking to help returning people who have been incarcerated.

Sunday has worked with the York County coroner to begin what became the York County Opioid Collaborative, which works to increase access to treatment.

Through this, he equipped all police with the overdose reversal medicine naloxone.

He also countermanded Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders to cite businesses staying open during Covid.

Sunday issued a similar mandate not to prosecute citations related to Wolf’s 2021 order requiring masking in schools. “

He lives with his wife and son in Spring Garden in York County.

Alabama-born Craig Williams graduated from Duke University, The Levin College of Law (University of Florida) and Columbia Law School. He is a USMC veteran of 28 years who reached the rank of colonel. Williams flew 56 combat missions during the Gulf War and served as chief prosecutor at Camp Pendleton, He was elected in 2020 to the PA House, representing District 160 which consists of parts of Chester and Delaware counties.

Williams, 58, helped lead the charge to impeach Philly DA Larry Krasner

He’s also remembered as losing by 20 points to Joe Sestak in a 2008 US Congress race.

He lives with his wife and four children.

To see the PA GOP Attorney General debate go to YouTube PA Attorney General Republican Debate – YouTube

The Democrats have five candidates int the AG primary. This requires a separate post.

Stay tuned.

Maybe.

Pennsylvania GOP AG Race 2024