State Reps Emrick and Hahn Need More Transparency

Pennsylvania's Election Code (25 P.S. Section 3251) requires candidates for statewide office to file their campaign finance reports both with the State Bureau of Elections and in the elections office in the county where they reside. Thus, it was no surprise yesterday to see pre-primary reports filed by State Reps. Steve Samuelson ($0 in contributions), Bob Freeman ($0 in contributions) and Julie Harhart.($0 in contributions). Cindy Miller, who is running in the 183rd legislative district  to succeed Harhart, did file a copy of her campaign finance report in Northampton County, too. Though these are often called "courtesy" copies, they must be filed in the County where candidates live.

Zach Mako, who is running against Miler in the 183rd, failed to file a courtesy copy in Northampton County, where he happens to live.

Since he's a newbie and he did file electronically with the state, his rookie error is understandable. The public is still able to follow the money.

That's not the case with State Reps. Marcia Hahn and Joe Emrick, both of whom live in this County. Neither bothered filing electronic reports because they don't want you to know what they're doing .... like backing Mako. They were banking on you finding out after the election.

But guess what? They also failed to file copies of the report in the County office, completely thumbing their noses at the transparency required by The Elections Code.

The only way you could see their reports is by travelling to Harrisburg.

I realize these back benchers are in Harrisburg primarily to build their pensions at collect their per diems, but they should follow the law.

The elections office has been notified of this attempt to keep the public in the dark, and has notified the offending state representatives to start following the laws they impose on everyone else.

NorCo Dem Boss Walt Garvin Makes Republicans Emrick, Hahn, Look Good

Incumbents Marcia Hahn and Joe Emrick

The undercard for the big Presidential debate last night was a state house debate for the 137th and 138th legislative district seats currently held by Republicans Joe Emrick and Marcia Hahn, hosted by the Northampton - Monroe County Farm Bureau. I thought Emrick and Hahn were running against Joe Capozzolo and Leslie Altieri. Somebody should tell Northampton County Boss Man Walt Garvin. He was among the 25 or so people there, and posed a rambling and argumentative question, supposedly about partisanship, that made Emrick and Hahn look pretty good, while Garvin looked petty. In the process of doing so, he hurt the real challengers, who were doing just fine without his "help."

You can see the video here.

I gotta' tell you that I was about 15 minutes late. I always get lost on the roads around St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Plainfield Township. But I arrived just in time for the Walt Gravin show. His ranted about partisanship, fracking, voter ID and education cuts for over two minutes, refusing to allow any of the actual candidates to respond to his tirade.

"Is this the Walt Garvin show or is this a state house candidate debate?" I finally asked. The moderator then shut Garvin down. But the damage had been done. Garvin had just opened up a door that both Emrick and Hahn could drive through with a Mack truck.

Hahn was able to defend her own record.

"I was called to task with one of the newspapers even though I voted against the Congressional redistricting plan and went with the Democrats. I was still chided for it because they said, 'Oh, well, they gave me a bye.' Well, if you were there, and you would know how it worked, we didn't get a bye.

Emrick got in the best shots.

Challengers Leslie Altieri & Joe Capozzolo

"Thank you for demonstrating partisanship," he told Garvin. He could have ended it right there. But he instead corrected the party boss on his education claims.

"The reason that Republicans swept the state, to a large degree, is because they got sick and tired of the people in office, especially Ed Rendell, who increased spending 40% over 8 years, $8 billion, didn't out a dime in the transportation funding, we still face a $3.5 billion transportation shortfall. Mr. Rendell also took $4 billion in federal stimulus money, which is where that budget gap came from that we had to close. While he was taking a two year revenue stream of federal stimulus money that was supposed to be for shovel ready job creation, he was gutting the state's contribution to K-12 basic education, backfilling it with federal stiulus money that they knew was going to disappear in two years, the day he left office. So we come into office with a billion dollar gap in basic K-12 education finding.

"We had to back fill as much of that money as we could, knowing that we're in the heart of a brutal recession. ...

"How irresponsible was that? How do you spend $8 billion and not address the transportation needs of the state? So you want to know why the Democrats were swept out of office?"

Garvin: "No. That was not my question. That was not my question."

Emrick: "You don't have a question."

Joe Cap tried to deflect the damage Garvin had done.

"I don't really know what your question was, Walt," he said, as everyone started laughing. Cap pointed out that he has a history of bipartisanship. "I don't think either party is always right or the other arty is always wrong, he said, noting that his own family is split between the two major parties.

But after the debate, Cap was a little worried that Democratic photographer Michael Laws would snap a picture of him talking to me.

Leslie Altieri pledged she would be bipartisan, but unlike Cap, has no record of it one way or the other. She did agree that her opponent, Marcia Hahn, voted about redistricting,. But Leslie also pointed out that Hahn agreed to send the measure to the House floor.

Garvin? He took off. After his failed attempt to monopolize the dialogue, he lacked the courtesy to stick around and actually listen to what was being said.

Maybe he was giving Obama advice.

Then Joe Cap and Joe Emrick demonstrated their bipartisanship with this little exchange about Voter ID ... in Klingon.

Alrighty then.

Then they all agreed they love farmland preservation and oppose Sunday hunting.

Emrick and Hahan both support reforming prevailing wage laws, with Emricjk adding it would result in lower bids. Altieri is opposed to this, while Cap said he needs to study the issue.

Updated Wednesday, Midnight: Removed the videos and replaced them with links because they awere causing problems for some readers.

Leslie Altieri Attacks Marcia Hahn Over Sandusky Investigation

Marcia Hahn

The Sandusy investigation?

That's right. In a news release, State House candidate Leslie Altieri has essentially called her opponent, incumbent State Rep Marcia Hahn, a pedophile enabler. Them's fightin' words. Here's her news release.

On Wednesday, October 3, 2012, Marcia Hahn and fellow House Republicans walked out while the house was still in session when House Resolution 520, which requests the US Attorney General to investigate whether or not there were Federal Violations associated with the Jerry Sandusky case
.
This week, representatives twice tried to bring the Resolution for a roll call vote, and twice Marcia Hahn wouldn’t stand up and let a full investigation be held. Then, in a bold move, Marcia Hahn voted to cut this legislative session short by 2 days in a procedural loophole that prohibits the discharge of resolutions within 6 days of the end of a legislative session, ending the possibility of a federal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky case.

Marcia Hahn this year has cut funding to Veteran’s services, cut $900 Million from education in 2011 then made further cuts in 2012 which has continually raised our property taxes and eliminated programs like cash assistance for our most vulnerable citizens and HEMAP for people to stay in their homes. These are programs that assist families in our community that need the most help. Hahn also voted for salary increases both years she was in session. Now, Marcia Hahn is cutting justice for the victims of the Sandusky case.

Leslie Altieri, a resident of Bethlehem Township, is challenging Hahn for the 138th House District because the education of our children and their safety must be our number one priority. When representing our district, Hahn’s partisan politics and corporate interests are ultimately hurting our veterans, fixed income seniors and working families. Property taxes have increased, our children’s education is suffering due to gutting of our public schools, and now one of the highest-profile child abuse cases won’t get an independent federal investigation.

“I was willing to give Marcia Hahn the benefit of the doubt because people believe she is a nice person - however how nice is it to the constituents of our district when she votes against our best interests “.

Apparently, House Republicans did scatter when State Rep. Anthony DeLuca called for a vote on the appointment of a lawyer to determine whether the Sandusky saga might have included violations of federal law.

That could be because we already have federal lawyers to do that sort of thing. They're called United States Attorneys. They need no House Resolution to investigate possible federal violations.

Right before an election, this seems politically contrived.

But instead of running, Republicans should explain why they did what they did. I have forwarded this news release to Rep. Hahn, and will publish any reply I receive.

State GOP to Hold Local Hearing on Job Creation

On Tuesday, July 31, the House Republican Policy Committee will hold a public hearing on “Job Creation in the Lehigh Valley." The hearing will be held in Rooms 6 and 7 of the Kasych Pavilion in the Lehigh Valley Hospital Educational Conference Center, 1200 S. Cedar Crest Blvd., Allentown.

You can watch the hearing on State Rep. Marcia Hahn's webpage, beginning at 10 a.m.