Category: Pileggi

Pileggi Reported Using Push Polls Against Howard

In a shocking development,  9th District residents are reportedly being subject to push polls from Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi in which the name of Rogers Howard, the hitherto unknown Tea Party challenger, is used.

Howard is challenging him for the party nomination in the April 24 primary election.
Conventional wisdom is that the opponent’s name not be mentioned until the race gets serious.
It looks like it’s serious.
Pileggi also has submitted this letter to the Delaware County Daily Times, which while not mentioning Howard by name, addresses the issues Howard is raising against him.
Also reports are coming out of Chester County of conflict between party leaders and committeepeople who want to endorse Howard.
Stay tuned.

Howard Is Breathing On Pileggi’s Neck Harder Than Expected

The Tea Party challenger to the powerful state senate majority leader has gotten twice the number of  signatures needed to get on on April 24 Republican Primary ballot.

Rogers Howard credited his success to a volunteer army of stay-at-home moms, military veterans and professionals.

The man whose job he wants, Dominic Pileggi, the one-time mayor of Chester who has represented the 9th District since 2002, was thought by the pundits to be in for cakewalks in the primary and general elections.


Pileggi To Host Forum With Chester-Upland Parents

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) announced today, Jan. 18, that he will
host an open forum for parents in the Chester Upland School District on Friday, Jan. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Chester
Upland School District’s administration building.

Pileggi said he would provide an update regarding the district’s
financial crisis and answer questions from concerned parents. 

“I have heard from many parents who have deep concerns about the situation in
Chester Upland and how it is impacting their children,” Senator Pileggi said. “I
share those concerns. This is an unprecedented situation, and I am hosting this
forum so that I can hear directly from as many people as possible.” 


More information about state issues is available at Senator Pileggi’s website,
www.SenatorPileggi.com, on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/SenatorPileggi, or on Twitter at
twitter.com/SenatorPileggi.

Rogers Howard Has Unveiling Before Delco Pats

G. Rogers Howard, the man who hopes to replace Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi as the senator for Pennsylvania’s 9th District told an enthusiastic crowd of 60 at The Delaware County Patriots, tonight, Jan. 11, that it was his grandchildren who are motivating him to run.

Howard said the state plus its municipalities are $125 billion in debt and that this debt is a form of taxation without representation on the unborn and the young which include his grandchildren all of whom are under 7 years old.

He said that the state Republican establishment is quite happy with the status quo regardless of what suffering should occur, and that this especially applies to Pileggi. He noted that the GOP took over  the executive and legislative branches of state government  last year after sweeping the 2010 elections.

“You expect to see the reform legislation that occured in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana,” he said. He said what we got though were long discussions about “red light cameras in Chester.”

Howard, who will be using Roger as his first name throughout the campaign, pointed out that Pennsylvania gets about $27 billion in revenue annually but actually spends about $65 billion. The money to cover the gap comes from bond issues, and regarding bond issues he said the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program is basically just a huge slush fund.

The program which was begun with $400 million in 1986 was given the ability to borrow up to $700 million in 1993 which was increased to $1.2 billion in 1999 and with continued periodic increases now stands at $4.05 billion.

The program is used to give Aker Philadelphia Shipyard its annual $42 million payoff to keep from closing. It’s also used to fund things like the Arlen Specter Library and the John Murtha Library which have each received grants of $10 million apiece and the Comcast Center which has gotten a grant for $35 million.  Howard explained that the actual cost of that $10 million grant is $33 million when funded with a 30-year bond.

Howard lives in Unionville, has a Ph.d in chemistry and served in the 82nd Airborne Division. He has pledged not to participate in the state pension system. He answered audience questions in which he spoke out in opposition to teachers strikes and in favor of the right to work. He said he is against gay marriage.

He says he will be getting a better website.

In other business, the Patriots passed out flyers regarding legislation passed by the State House that is being held up in the Senate run by Pileggi including HB 42, a bill that would make parts of ObamaCare impossible to enforce in the state.

Regina Scheerer announced that 12 members of the Pats including herself were running for committee seats — most against party wishes — and that help and funding were needed. She also issued a plea for help and funding for Howard.

 

Pileggi To Have Tea Party Challenger

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi will face a Tea Party challenger for his 9th District seat this April 24 in the Republican Primary.

The challenger, Rogers Howard,  is a Unionville resident with a PhD. in Chemistry.
 
“I met Rogers Howard yesterday for two hours,” said Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi.  “He may the smartest candidate I have met – so smart that he can admit he doesn’t know something.”

Howard served in the 82d Airborne Division.

See here for an update.

 

PSEA Republicans

PSEA Republicans — Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi has compiled a list of Republican legislators that have accepted contributions from the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA).

The PSEA is the union that represents most public school teachers in the state and, ironically, is very likely the most anti-child, anti-education and anti-senior citizen organization in the state.

Here is Bob’s list — with his comments — of those who accepted contributions in 2010, which was the last legislative election year:

Senator Dominic Pileggi Senate Majority Leader what does that tell you?

HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE  $5,0000    MAY 6, 2010

Sam Smith Republican Speaker of the House

Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai.

Bill Adolph Chair of House Appropriations Delco  elected in 1989

Matt Baker northeast Penna

Karen Boback – she is major recipient of PSEA money and a former school teacher.

Mike Vereb  Montgomery County – He is in House leadership.

Chris Ross – from southern Chester County, very, very liberal

Marguerite Quinn  Bucks County, part of BucksCo Establishment as you know

Nick Micozzie   Uber Hack Delaware County, entrenched and entwined with Establishment. Has been in office since 1979.

Rick Geist  Transportation Committee Chair  Blair County has been in office since 1979 also

Bernie O’Neill from Bucks, like Marguerite Quinn

Gene DiGirolamo of Bucks County  integral to unions and O’Neill/Quinn BucksCo RINO Republican

Glenn Grell   Cumberland County

Jim Marshall   defeated Mike Veon

John Taylor Philadelphia, need I say more

Denny O’Brien  another Philadelphia phony R

Ron Miller  this is a shock. He is supposed to introduce Right to Work Republican York County

Senator Jake Corman, chair of Senate Appropriations Committee and interested in running for US Senate against Bob Casey.

Senator John Rafferty Chester DelCo closely allied with Sen. Pileggi

Senator Pat Browne Lehigh County

Senator Stewart Greenleaf Montgomery County very nice man, very well intentioned man AND very, very liberal man

Senator Ted Erickson DelCo and very close ally of Senator Pileggi

Note the number in leadership positions.

And some wonder why even with Republicans in charge we can’t end fire bad teachers or end teacher strikes.

Thank you, Bob. Click here for a link to Bob’s file where he includes his sourcing.

Or you can do your own search at http://www.campaignfinance.state.pa.us/pages/CFReportSearch.aspx

Remember to set search type to “Contribution” and to manually set the date range.

PSEA Republicans

PSEA Republicans

Pileggi Drops Out

Pennsylvania  Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) announced yesterday that he will not seek the Republican nomination to face incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. in next fall’s U.S. Senate race.

This leaves in the race Republicans:

Tim Burns, the Washington County businessman — he was the founder of the pharmaceutical company TechRX — who ignominiously lost to Democrat underdog Mark Critz in a 2010 special election to fill the 12th District Congressional seat held by the late John Murtha. Burns is close to state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason.

Sam Rohrer,  the proven budget hawk and Berks County resident who long represented the 128th District until he stepped down to scare the Republican establishment in the 2010 gubernatorial primary campaign.

Laureen Cummings, a nurse and the founder of the Scranton Tea Party.

John Kensinger,  pharmacist
from Bedford County.

Marc Scaringi, attorney from Camp Hill who was a staffer for Sen. Rick Santorum.

Steve Welch, a resident of Malvern, Chester County who founded the Phoenixville pharmaceutical firm Mitos and the “business accelerator model”  Dreamit Ventures. Welch sought the GOP nomination for the 6th District congressional race in 2010 but was talked out of a primary fight when incumbent Jim Gerlach changed his mind about seeking re-election.

Colonel John Vernon, of Jackson Township who  recently retired after a distinguished career with the Army.

David Christian of Bucks County, a successful businessman and highly decorated Vietnam veteran. He is a noted veterans advocate.

Tom Smith of Armstrong County, a coal executive and advocate for a commonsense energy policy.

Tea Party Problems For Pileggi

State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi’s (R-9)  bid to replace incumbent Democrat Bob Casey in the U.S. Senate is not warming the cockles of the hearts of some Tea Partyers this Christmas season.

Montco activist Bob Guzzardi has sent an email blast saying that Pileggi is “The Establishment’s Guy” and noting that he has a perfect rating with the National Federation of Independent Business  (a small business advocacy group) and a 75 percent rating with the AFL-CIO.

Frankly, that’s a rather impressive trick.

Lisa Esler of the Delaware County Patriots has published a list of problems with Pileggi which note, among other things, that he has neither adequately addressed the crushing burdens of teacher strikes in  Pennsylvania nor the ever-increasing burden of public pensions.

In fact, some suspect he has been keeping these issues from being addressed.

While I do think Pileggi has his good points, one does kind of wonder why the fair and commonsense reforms that would make life a lot easier for the average Pennsylvanian never seem to happen in this state.

Pa. Senate OKs Searchable Budget Database

The Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passed a bill creating a searchable internet-accessible database of all state and local government funding and spending, along with that of  independent state-affiliated agencies such as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Commonwealth Financing Authority, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, the State Public School Building Authority, the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority and the State System of Higher Education.

The news was tweeted by Sen Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) at 4:10 this afternoon, June 28.

The bill, HB 15, returns to the State House for concurrence.

The bill directs the website, to be called PennWATCH, to be available by Dec. 31, 2012.

The site will include:

 

  • The name and address of the Commonwealth agency or other entity receiving funding and the applicable identifier and classification under the vendor identification system
  • The amount of the funding action or expenditure.
  • The agency initiating the funding action or expenditure.
  •  The applicable appropriation and the appropriation fiscal year from which the funding action or expenditure is made.
  • A counter to show the number of times the website is accessed.
  • The funding source.


The site will also show the total number of individuals employed by each Commonwealth agency as of the 15th day of the previous month, and list by the name, position title and current annual salary for each individual employed by each Commonwealth agency.

Pileggi also tweeted that the Senate passed SB 326, which provides for certification of birth for stillbirths and is now before the Governor for his signature.

Pileggi also tweeted that the Senate unanimously passed SB 995, which provides that all operators of oil and gas wells in the state provide GPS coordinates to the state Department of Environmental Protection and 911 centers.

He noted the Senate is now taking up HB 1485 which is the bill setting the state budget for next year.

 

Pa. Senate OKs Searchable Budget Database

Bill Would Ban Bonuses To Pa Workers


A bill that would ban bonuses to state workers is winding its way through the Pennsylvania Senate.

Senate Bill 103 — a.k.a. The Commonwealth Agency Bonus Ban Act — was introduced by Sen. John H. Eichelberger
 (R-30) on Jan. 12 and would ban bonuses to all state employees. This pointedly includes the legislative branch.

Reimbursements for travel expenses, uniforms, cost-of-living adjustments and such would be exempted.

Another bill not getting much ink is SB 271 which would change the rules regarding nominating petitions. According to Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) who introduced it Jan. 26, the the rule changes would make campaign contribution reports available online more quickly.

And in the not-so-clean-and-open category, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati , R-25, announced that he “always intended” to repay gas driller Consol Energy for Super Bowl tickets, airfare and hotel that the Canonsburg-based firm provided him earlier this  month.

People are watching Republicans. The Pennsylvania Senate should start looking for a new President Pro Tempore.