Paul Mullen, who is running as a Republican in the Aug. 4 special election for the vacant 161st District Pennsylvania House seat, makes more than $130,000 per year as business manager of Local 654 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Why did the Republican Party pick Mullen who has spent the last five years working hard to get liberal Democrats elected to state and federal office? Why is extreme liberal Democrat John Kane supporting him this election?
Those are certainly good questions to mull.
An even better one is will Mullen quit his easy and lucrative job as IBEW business manager if he should manage to win the race, which we grant is anything but certain.
Pennsylvania legislators are, after all, paid very nicely with the understanding that they are doing a full-time job. It seems rather hard to believe that someone can handle two such important well-paying jobs at the same time.
So will Mullen quit as IBEW business manager? Somebody should ask him but nobody seems to be able to find him.
His Republican opponent , Lisa Esler, has said she will quit her full-time job as an optician if elected. Further, she will not take the state pension. Further, she will work to cut the pay and perks of being a state legislator.
Unless you happen to be a special interest living high on the hog by milking the public cow, the smart vote in the 161st District on Aug. 4 is writing in Lisa Esler.
And on a related matter, Mullen is claiming he is no longer president of the Delaware County council of the AFL-CIO. Somebody better tell the AFL-CIO to fix their website.
I think Lisa Esler is a perfect candidate. I surely hope she wins.
This move by the Delco GOP smacks of sleaze. And in talking to voters they know it and are thoroughly disgusted. If anybody could find Mullen, perhaps he could be asked if he plans to keep his $130,000 a year job if elected. Never has there been a more hidden candidate, one more reluctant to talk to constituents (except the few chosen for photo ops), and one that the party is apparently embarrassed by–otherwise, why would they continue to keep him under wraps? Their protection of him begs many questions beginning with what is it in his past that he doesn’t want the voters to know? Or is he not intelligent enough to go before the press or the voters? Can he not hold his own with a radio talk show host? Can he not appear before a group of constituents who want to ask questions about his positions on the issues? There’s a big problem with Mullen and the Delco GOP’s endorsement has shown the Republicans in Delco that we don’t have a Republican Party.