Local Government TV

▼

Monday, April 23, 2018

MacKenzie's Debate Dodge Draws Ire of Taxpayer

Ron Beitler
Pennsylvania's 134th legislative district is split between western Lehigh County and eastern Berks County. Incumbent Ryan MacKenzie was being groomed as Charlie Dent's successor in Congress and had announced his candidacy. But he had second thoughts when it finally dawned on him that no one outside his district knows who the Hell he is. Gerrymandering, which serves as an incumbent insurance policy for both parties, would keep his state house seat safe. He likes a system in which legislators decide who vote for them, instead of the other way around. He has run from a bipartisan attempt to reform this bad government. So it's no surprise that he would duck a debate, even though it was in front of a group that should embrace his conservative ideals.

Concerned East Penn Taxpayers Association, which is hardly what I'd call a progressive or liberal group, hosted a debate that was supposed to be between Mackenzie and Republican opponent Ron Beitler, a Lower Macungie Commissioner. MacKenzie sent campaign flunkie Gary Birks to explain that MacKenzie was held up in Harrisburg. He claimed he was called into caucus that day at 4:45 pm. He read a brief statement and took off before anyone could ask a question.

Below is an email that CEPTA member Otto Slozer sent in response.

Ryan MacKenzie
As most of you know, CEPTA scheduled a debate between Ryan Mackenzie and Ron Beitler--candidates for the State House 134th District. Mr.Mackenzie told us intitally that it would be difficult for him to attend because this week was a legislative session in Harrisburg. We offered to keep the spot open for Mackenzie in case he could make it. Leading into the week before, we also offered Mackenzie the opportunity to send a proxy speaker. This he did not respond to and we did not know if the debate was going to happen or not. In fact, Mackenzie sent a man to deliver a short speech for him in which he hit us (CEPTA) for scheduling the debate on a day that Harrisburg had a legislative session.

WE (CEPTA) under stand the commitments of the legislature. However, history shows us that the "legislative session" need not be a problem. We note that when Doug Reichley was our state representative he almost always made our meetings when he was to be the speaker (including Legislative session days). Furthermore, we told Mackenzie that if he made it late we would still give him the time to speak. Mackenzie never told us his intentions leaving the organizer guessing as to what to expect.

FACTS DON'T LIE!

Check out the video of the event found on the LVC E-paper at www.lvcommentator.com Early in the event I took to the microphone to announce FACTS THAT WE JUST LEARNED THROUGH A HARRISBURG CONTACT. They were as follows; the LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDED JUST AFTER 4:30pm. The CAUCUS that Mackenzie's proxy speaker spoke of ended in 10 minutes and EVERYONE WAS GONE BY 5:00 PM. This left Mackenzie two and a half hours to make the trip to Emmaus.

Thursday, April 19th, Mackenzie was at the Berks County Patriots candidates event by 6pm. Thursday was also a "legislative session day" according to Mackenzie. Furthermore, Mackenzie spoke at the Berks event during the segment for those who have no opponent!

Mackenzie HAS AN OPPONENT NAMED RON BEITLER.

It appears that Ryan Mackenzie cannot be trusted to be an honest public servant. IT ALSO APPEARS THAT Mackenzie IS DUCKING ANY DEBATE WITH HIS ELECTION OPPONENT. Seeing Ron Beitler in action at the CEPTAevent and how competent Beitler is on many subjects it looks like Ryan Mackenzie is afraid to face his opponent.

Democrat Tom Applebach, Director of Veteran Affairs in Lehigh County, is also running for this seat.
at

11 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 7:34 AM

    Why did CEPTA schedule the debate on a session day in the first place? State reps don't work that hard and aren't in session so frequently that it couldn't have been avoided. Sounds like CEPTA is behind Beitler and was looking for any reason possible to take a shot at Mackenzie. Love the statement "facts we just learned through a Harrisburg contact". Name your source if you are calling it a fact or it is just heresay whether true or not. Funny how these organizations (CEPTA, LV Tea Party, etc.) act like their opinion moves the needle in these elections. All 20 people who attend these events have already decided who they are voting for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 7:42 AM

    ANYONE can see when a session ended on any day. It's a public record. Just call the house clerk. They obviously take minutes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ron BeitlerApril 23, 2018 at 8:06 AM

    I wasn't disappointed at all. It gave me more time to outline what I believe are the problems in Harrisburg and how we solve them with good government reforms. These include why year after year structural changes are ignored in favor of band-aids, gimmicks and half measures. Why we face the same problems in Harrisburg year after year. Why we have (measurably) one of the most expensive but worse performing state governments in the entire nation.

    Ryan is a good guy and has been a decent legislator for 6 years with some important wins under his belt. I'm not running against him so much as I'm running against the Harrisburg incumbency machine. If DC is a swamp, Harrisburg is a cesspool. If you are a part of the establishment machine on either "team" you're a part of the problem, not the solution.

    There are reasons why meaningless show votes are scheduled on important reforms around election time, why things like property tax elimination have been around for decades but never move forward or when they do - votes are carefully orchestrated to fail.

    Personally, I'll give the Ryan the benefit of doubt that he was doing something important during this time. I have no reason not to believe him. I'm not interested in running a negative campaign against an individual. I'd rather run on my ideas, platform and record.

    Lastly, CEPTA has been around since the 80's. They are a well-run organization that has been at the frontline of taxpayer issues for decades. They hold debates for nearly every local race. I thank them for the time and effort they put into helping residents become informed.

    -Ron





    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 8:31 AM

    nice teeth

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bernie O'HareApril 23, 2018 at 9:01 AM

    "Funny how these organizations (CEPTA, LV Tea Party, etc.) act like their opinion moves the needle in these elections. All 20 people who attend these events have already decided who they are voting for."

    Anybody who ignores enough of these groups is going to lose. Every single one of these people vote, and in every election.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Connolly VictimApril 23, 2018 at 9:52 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 9:54 AM

    Thanks for keeping us informed Bernie. It is clear that Mackensie could have made the debate, and that he had no interest in attending.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 1:08 PM

    MacKenzie took a big hit when he found out he wasn't going to go to congress. He was groomed since his teen years to be the heir apparent to Charlie Dent. Ryan's old man is tight with the Dent/Browne machine, and both Dent & Browne helped him get Ryan to the state house, and were supposed to get him to Washington. Now they will focus on keeping their boy in Hbg. so he can still do their bidding.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 6:57 PM

    Otto Slozer???

    Oh my God is that nut still around? He was quite the dude. He was an early member of Bill White's political Hall of Shame. That says all you need to know about that group. Tinfoil express!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousApril 23, 2018 at 9:17 PM

    Ryan is a coward.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousApril 24, 2018 at 1:05 PM

    "Funny how these organizations (CEPTA, LV Tea Party, etc.) act like their opinion moves the needle in these elections. All 20 people who attend these events have already decided who they are voting for."

    I attended a LV Tea Party meeting last month as a non-member, at least 200 very passionate people present. Whether you agree with their politics, you shouldn't take them lightly and try to minimize their impact. Also, I can tell you that there are a couple of very interesting races in which membership/attendees are split on including the Mango/Walker governor race and the Browning/Nothstein Congress race.

    ReplyDelete

You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.