Mercer County Conservatives

Roberta Biros Back in the News: What on earth did she do now?

2011-07-10T19:57:00.001-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

Hello all. It has been quite some time since I have published anything on my blog or others and I apologize for my silence. Last year’s campaign was a drain on me physically, mentally, and financially. I’ve been taking a break and working hard to get my life back to “normal” (whatever that is). I’ve been staying quiet and attempting to stay out of trouble.

I enjoyed a Pittsburgh Pirate game this afternoon and was pleased to be a part of the Pirates winning yet another game. Go Bucs! The drive home was long, and the sunburn that I acquired during the game made it relatively uncomfortable. I was happy to get home into the air conditioning for a break. I was greeted by the blinking light on the answering machine. This is the moment that the fun began.

The Call

I received a message from the Sharon Herald. It seems that they will be writing a story in tomorrow’s paper and they wanted my comments. The story is about a law suit that has been filed in Federal Court against me, my husband, and officers of the law from four local police and sheriff departments. The suit is being filed by Mr. Mel Marin of San Diego, California. Mr. Marin claims that I defamed him by writing a story about him on March 20th of 2010. The law suit supposedly goes on to explain that my story about Mr. Marin was an attempt to sway a Federal election.

My Comments

My initial comments to The Herald’s query was . . . “I’m being sued for what?”. I explained to the reporter that I have received no notification and I was completely unaware of Mr. Marin’s complaints against me. I had no comments regarding the matter as I knew nothing about it. My only statement was that I wrote about Mr. Marin last year and simply supplied links to content that was published about him on the internet. I explained that I was basically providing a service much like Google by providing links about Mr. Marin in a usable format.

More Information

After my initial comments, I asked more about this law suit. I was told by The Herald that both my husband and I were included in the law suit as well as officers from four local police and sheriff departments. It was claimed that I refused to remove information about Mr. Marin from my blog (no such request was ever made); and it was claimed that the officers prevented Mr. Marin from campaigning during the election in various ways (details unknown). Each of the 6 individuals named in the complaint are being sued for a sum of $31 MILLION DOLLARS EACH.

Rolling on the Floor Laughing

I was unable to control my laughter at the amount of the law suit. I explained to The Herald reporter that Mr. Marin would have a VERY difficult time collecting his $31 MILLION DOLLARS from BOTH my husband and I. I further explained that Mr. Marin would have great difficulty in collecting $31 MILLION DOLLARS from the entire County of Mercer. LOL!

QUESTION ONE: What do you think? Defame or not defame . . . that is the question.

The story in question was titled “Who is Mel Marin, Democrat Candidate for Congress?”. It was published on March 20, 2011. Please read the article [LINK HERE] and tell me what you think. Did I defame Mr. Marin?

QUESTION TWO: Did I sway the results of the 2010 Primary?

While I’d love to take credit for it, I think it is obvious that I did no such thing. Mr. Marin received 27% of the vote against the incumbent Democrat, Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper. Millionaire Kathy Dahlkemper (as the commercials like to call her) had a significant war chest and considerable name recognition. Mel Marin had a campaign fund of $2,000.00. Mel Marin did REMARKABLY well in his bid against Dahlkemper. People voted for him because they HATED Dahlkemper . . . not because of anything I said or didn’t say.

More importantly, I WISH my writing was that influential. I’ve written extensively about my opponents in both of my political races (in my race for County Treasurer in 2009 and my bid for State Senate in 2010). IF my blog were SO influential, I would have won my races “hands down”. In actuality, however, Mr. Marin did better in his race against Dahlkemper than I did against the honorable Senator, Bob Robbins. Hmmmm.

QUESTION THREE: Does anyone know a good attorney?

I was just wondering if anyone out there would be willing to help a “starving artist” like myself in a lawsuit in Federal Court? I figured it was worth asking!

Biros in the News

So, yes, Roberta Biros is back in the news. I’m hopeful that it won’t go far, but it made me angry enough to start blogging again. So maybe it’s a good thing!

As always . . . it’s just my opinion.

UPDATE: To read the full story in The Herald, CLICK HERE.

Impossible to tell the District Attorney from a Common Criminal

2010-12-26T20:52:00.002-05:00

Published by Roberta Biros

People from the Mercer County area often contact me with stories that they feel would be of interest to my readers. Today is an example of exactly that sort of "information sharing". Below is an email message that I received from two different sources.

The letter has been submitted to the local papers as a "Letter to the Editor". Knowing the the papers are generally in the pockets of local politicians . . . it is safe to also assume that this letter will never be printed by any paper (local or otherwise). For that reason, I feel that it is important to publish the letter HERE so that Mercer Countians can remain posted regarding REAL NEWS regardless of what the local papers have in mind.

Below is the letter in it's entirety. After reading it, I am sure you will agree that District Attorney Bob Kochems has once again confused his "hats" (see the Blog reference to this HERE). The District Attorney (and his wife . . . who is never far away) seem to have their hands in TOO MANY private little clubs in Mercer County and it makes me wonder how the DA manages to claim that he is ever unbiased at all? Between his ties to the Democrat Party (read HERE) . . . his ties to the Mercer County Republican Party (read HERE) . . . his lust for drug money (read HERE) . . . or his bullying tactics (read HERE) it is difficult to tell District Attorney Bob Kochems from a common criminal.

Please read the letter below and make your own determination . . .

Dear Editor,

I will not support the Mercer County Humane Society and neither should you, this is why. For WELL OVER A YEAR NOW, I as well as many neighbors, have been trying to

get help for some starving horses and nothing has ever been done. This past Thursday, Officer Regina Martin from the PA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, knocked on my door, trying to determine just who owned the horses next to me. She had recieved a call on their hotline about the deplorable condition they were in and had come to investigate. Officer Martin assured me they would be in a shelter by Sunday, and finally get the care they so despertely needed. All she needed to do was obtain a warrant to seize them from the DA. Friday morning I got a call from her with terrible news. Renee Drogody from the MCHS had interferred with the investigation and informed District Attorney Kochems that the horses were under vet care and not in that bad of shape. He in turn refused to sign the warrant to have the horses seized. It appears DA Kochems wife just happens to be on the board of the MCHS, which in my opinion should have been a conflict of interest. Therfore, the ethical thing he SHOULD HAVE done, was to remove himself from the decision making process. My question is, why would a so-called employee of the Humane Society,block help to these poor suffering, starving, non sheltered horses? Isn't that the job they are getting paid to do? Aren't they supposed to prevent cruelty to animals? It would appear Ms. Drogody has some sort of connection with the owners, which has prevented her from upholding the oath she took. So if anyone knows of any abused animals, please call THIS HOTLINE: 1-866-601-SPCA, you will get immediate response. Also any donations made with the prevention of cruelty to animals in mind, would be better off sent at to: PSPCA 350 E. Erie Avenue Philadelphia PA 19134, they service all of Pennsylvania much more efficienly and professionally. In conclusion, I have included some of the nauseating and I will warn you, very disheartening photos of the horses and what has been allowed to happen to them under the watchfull eye of our Dispicable so-called Humane Society of Mercer County.

Lori Liszka

Thank You!

2010-11-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

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I ran for the office of State Senate this year because I believe that normal hard-working Americans need to be involved in the “process”. We all have a responsibility to get involved in our government in order to reign in the insanity. I still believe that.

For two years I’ve heard nothing but continuous complaints that the “incumbents need to go” and “we need people to run against these lifetime politicians”. The feedback that we received this year was amazingly and overwhelmingly positive. Personal “thank you” messages from people of the area that were excited to have a choice on Election Day.

With the help of our team (more like “our new family”), we put together an amazing grassroots campaign. We had very little money to work with, but we pulled our resources and did the best with what we had. We had name recognition, we had a great message, and we worked our tails off to contact voters in the District.

What was our Election Day message? DON’T VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET.

Why? In a race against a 20-year incumbent/career politician, we had a gigantic hurdle . . . that being the fact that my opponent was running as both a Republican and a Democrat. Having managed to get his name on both ballots, he would receive ALL straight party votes. Voters would cast their ballot for him if they didn’t pay attention . . . or if they didn’t care.

What was the final result? We lost . . . overwhelmingly . . .82% to 18%.

In an analysis of the numbers (examining Mercer County numbers right now as an example because they are the only details available), you find that almost 50% of the people that voted . . . voted straight ticket! In a race for over 70,000 votes, Bob Robbins pulled out of the gate with a head start of 35,000 votes that he didn’t deserve. He started the race with a 35,000 vote advantage.

Why? . . . Because 50% of the voters don’t take their votes seriously. 50% of the people that went to the polls on Election Day let their “party” make their decision for them.

Good News? You might think that it is difficult to find a bright spot in a 82% vs. 18% race, but you’d be wrong. One amazing number was that 521 people voted straight ticket for the “Unaffiliated Independent” party. 521 people in Mercer County realize that the biggest problem that we have is “party politics”. By casting a vote for the “Unaffiliated Independent” ticket, they voted for ONLY ONE candidate . . . me. Thank you!

Second, in the total District race, 12,725 people looked at the names on the ballot and chose to vote for the Independent Candidate. They were NOT drawn to vote straight ticket. Instead, they wanted ALL OF THEIR VOTES to count. They took their duty to vote seriously. Thank you to those 12,725 individuals that understand how important Election Day is.

What was most disappointing? In the end, it is clear that the “Tea Party” has become an extension of the Republican Party. A majority of Tea Partiers went out on Election Day and decided that the best way to fix the problem was to vote straight ticket . . . the Republican ticket.

On a positive note . . . I still believe that we need to get people to run for office. If we, as concerned citizens, don’t get involved, the ship will never turn. I urge fellow concerned citizens to get involved and remain involved. Run for office at the local, county, state, and federal level. Run! It is only by continuing to push back that we will send a message to our governmental leaders that We the People call the shots.

I want to extend a personal “Thank you” to the thousands of people that we’ve met over the past two years. The thousands of supporters and serious thinkers that realize that we have a problem in this country that needs to be fixed. Thank you to my many friends who gave their time and effort to support our campaign this summer. We had a hard-working team that has become a very close family. In the end I am the winner as I forged friendships that will last a lifetime. It was a truly amazing experience that I would not change for anything. It was perfect!

Thank you and God Bless

Roberta Biros

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Bob Robbins Endorsed by the Pennsylvania Progressives

2010-10-24T13:35:00.000-04:00

This post was Written and Published by Roberta Biros, Independent Candidate for State Senate

I’ve spent the last two years explaining to concerned citizens that all is not as it appears. Just because an elected official belongs to a certain party doesn’t mean that they embrace the beliefs of that party. That is exactly why I finally decided to define myself as an Independent for Good Government . . . because any other label would tarnish what I stand for.

I have a perfect example for you today. I am running for State Senate against 20-year incumbent and self-servant Bob Robbins. If it isn’t bad enough that this so-called “lifetime Republican” is running this year as both a Democrat and a Republican, Bob and his friends have done it again. They have provided their own proof of exactly what Bob stands for. Bob may claim to be a conservative, but he is clearly embraced by progressives. Would the real Bob Robbins please stand up!

PLEASE READ THIS LINK:

http://progressivevotersguide.com/2010/pennsylvania/general/legislature/7th/

In the link above you will find the candidates that have been endorsed by the PA Progressive Voter Guide. The PROGRESSIVES of Pennsylvania have chosen their slate of candidates. The PROGRESSIVES, who represent such groups as the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, SEIU, Planned Parenthood, AFL-CIO, and Pennsylvania State Education Association PACE, has provided a list of the candidates that they support.

Who is included in the list?

For Governor . . . Democrat Dan Onorato

For U.S. Senate . . . Democrat Joe Sestak

For U.S. Congress . . . Democrats Kathy Dahlkemper and Jason Altmire

For State Senate . . . Democrat/Republican Bob Robbins

For State House . . . Democrat Mark Longietti

Hmmmmmm.

So, I respectfully ask all of you . . . does the PA Progressive Voter Guide reflect your values? Do you agree with the endorsements of the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, SEIU, Planned Parenthood, the AFL-CIO, and PSEA? If so, please note the candidates that you should be cheering for. IF NOT, I urge you all to get out and vote on November 2nd and be sure that you DON’T VOTE STRAIGHT TICKET! If you do, you will be voting for a Democrat/Republican. Instead, I urge you to vote carefully and make selections for Good Government.

On November 2nd, vote for Roberta Biros . . . INDEPENDENT for GOOD GOVERNMENT!

Thank you.

Senator Robbins' vote for HB 2497 is a vote for Big Government and Big Spending

2010-10-14T15:19:00.000-04:00

The vote on HB 2497 occurred this afternoon at roughly 2:10pm.

HB 2497 has been labeled as the "SERS & PSERS pension reform bill". Unfortunately, the bill doesn't provide real reform at all. Instead, it provides a way to finance the unsustainable pension system.

The Bill passed the State Senate 41 to 8.

Senator Bob Robbins of Pennsylvania’s 50th Senatorial District voted for the bill. Once again, Senator Robbins voted for big government and big spending.

In contrast, I feel strongly that the State Pension system is completely unsustainable. If elected, I WILL NOT become part of the problem. I have signed a promissory with EmpowerPA.org whereby if I am elected I will decline a state pension. That document is available for on-line review HERE.

If I were a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, I would have joined with Senators Folmer, Eichelberger, and others and voted AGAINST HB 2497.

The bill is essentially a 30-year mortgage on current and future generations of Pennsylvanian’s. This ‘mortgage’ will be used to bailout the Unions as a payback for past and future financial support and donations. This is highlighted by the PSEA's overwhelming support for the bill and their efforts to push for it's passage (read HERE).

The Bill FAILS to move the state pension system to a 401K-style plan, which is the ONLY way to properly reform the pension system. Instead, it was amended to include the creation of a new ‘fiscal office’, which is just another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy in an already bloated legislative staff. Our legislators need to understand that we need LESS spending, LESS bureaucracy, and LESS self-service. What we need is MORE fiscal responsibility, MORE relief for taxpayers, and MORE public service.

Today Senate leadership, including Bob Robbins, voted to bankrupt future generations of Pennsylvanians by voting for HB 2497.

If Senator Robbins’ past voting history FOR 2AM pay raises . . . FOR unconstitutional budgets . . . and FOR himself and his pension are not enough reason to vote him out on November 2nd, today’s vote FOR a 30-year mortgage to fund his pension should give voters of the area good reason to vote Bob Robbins out of office on Election Day.

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Why You Can’t Trust Bob Robbins and Good Reasons Not to Vote For Him!! (Part III)

2010-10-05T22:01:00.003-04:00

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Part III of a Series

Part I can be read HERE
Part II can be read HERE

(The following statements are my opinions, perspectives, and views after several years of volunteer work within the Mercer GOP. I served 12 years as a precinct committeewoman and 2 years on the PA GOP state committee.)

While driving around the county the other day I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are Republicans out there who refuse to support the continued reign of Senator Bob Robbins. This refusal is evident when you see a display of Republican campaign signs and either the Robbins sign is missing from the front yard OR, better yet, a BIROS sign is displayed. This could provoke Robbins and no doubt his people will be taking names and addresses. Robbins does not tolerate criticism or the audacity of non-support. Is there something seriously wrong with a local political machine, that has the operating principles of a Banana Republic? Allow me to share a few examples of how The Republic of Robbins retaliates against anyone who disagrees with the long-standing incumbent Senator.

First, there is the systematic purging of the local Republican committee to eliminate volunteers who may have a questionable loyalty to the incumbent circle of control. You may wonder what does it take to be part of the circle of control. I have an opinion about this; my view is that their judgment is based solely on self-interest, not on any higher principle (what an unfortunate, intolerable trait). I have witnessed the Senator aggressively forge ahead with a committed action to interfere in the democratic processes of the local Republican committee, not caring about the fall-out or damage to the character of hard-working committeepersons. Of course you have read in Part I and II of this series how Senator Robbins vilified, threatened, and screamed at me during an executive committee meeting (more details on this later in this article). Many other volunteers endured character assassination from his cronies, and as far as I know these people left the committee, thereby playing directly into the plans of the Republic of Robbins; viz., elimination of all contrary viewpoints. There are a couple brave souls who believe that the way to reform the Republican committee is from within, and they retain their precinct positions. These brave souls already have targets on their backs, and a recent perfect example of this, as reported to me, is that Senator and Mrs. Robbins groaned aloud during this past summer’s reorganization meeting when one of these brave souls was elected to a regional leadership position on the local Republican committee. The Senator complained audibly in a stage whisper, “There goes my support in that region of the county.” The only evidence that the Senator needed to make his judgment was the excellent reputation of this newcomer for fairness and honesty.

The second example of Senator Robbins and his Circle of Control’s vicious tactics occurred during a February 2008 executive committee meeting, when a planned attack was directed by this group on a newly appointed assistant chairman. The “straw man” that the group used to disrupt this meeting was that the assistant chairman had been appointed without the required quorum (the committee never has a quorum but business is conducted anyway as long as it does not contradict the interests of the Circle of Control). The real reason for the disruption of the meeting was simply “Pay-Back”; the new assistant chairman had once written a mildly critical letter to Senator Robbins about the sneaky, midnight pay raise vote. I have read that letter and in no way was it disrespectful; in fact, it is a letter which every voter would agree to sign. During this meeting, several of us were stunned to be subjected to the devious and harsh behavior of The Banana Republic of Robbins, including one disturbed individual repeatedly jumping from his seat, pointing his finger at the assistant chairman, and screaming at him. It was so bad that I was concerned for the safety of the assistant chairman as well as my own safety, and I contemplated calling 911. It was obvious that this attack was pre-planned with assigned disruptive “roles” to certain elected officials--three incumbents who jealously guard their dominant position within the Republican committee. If these three spent as much time on their elected offices as they do with the minutia of local politics, Mercer County citizens would be enjoying better service from their representatives. I might add that the assistant chairman endured the upheaval and conducted a stellar meeting.

Finally, during the turmoil of 2007 and 2008, there was a question raised about the failure of the local Young Republicans, to grow and assume a role in county politics. At that time, the YR‘s was led and advised by a co-sponsor whose residence was apparently out-of-state. This co-founder, clearly a member of the Robbins Banana Republic, appeared at meetings when a show of force was called for by the Senator and cronies. In an inquiry about the YR organization, a phone call was made to a staff member of the Harrisburg state YR office. What transpired thereafter is not fully known, but Senator Robbins bragged that the Harrisburg office immediately reported the inquiry to him. The Senator boasted that he “finds everything out, one half hour after it happens.” Next, the committee called a meeting of the Vice-Chairs to discuss the matter, and in response, Senator Robbins individually and privately pressured each of the Vice-Chairs to sign a document which the Senator had drafted, to prevent attendance at the meeting. This was a blatant and unnecessary action of the Senator, who escalated a helpful inquiry to a battle skirmish. This was his way of “bringing out the artillery”, a phrase which he enjoys using.

And now comes the irony: If the inquiry had been allowed to proceed, the local Republican committee would have discovered that the out-of-state resident YR co-founder was a Class III pedophile sex offender/felon in his state of residence (Class III connotes use of force). Instead, the discovery occurred accidentally when a mother of one of the felon’s victims saw the felon on a local television news report. Just imagine, if that mother had not called the television station, Senator Robbins would have succeeded in perpetuating the control of the YR organization by a convicted sex offender, and one can only wonder, was this person using his stature as a co-founder of a youth organization as a source of victims.

I offer this information to the public in order to shine a light on what is wrong with continuing another term of Senator Robbins. Fortunately, the voters have a choice this Fall election, and it is not inevitable that they must re-elect an ineffective incumbent. A grassroots, patriotic American who wants to do better things for our voting district, is the perfect alternative. She is Roberta Biros.

NOTES:

This article represents Part III of a Series

Part I can be read HERE

Part II can be read HERE

Animal Farm Redux: GOP-controlled state senate lurches left

2010-09-30T18:17:00.000-04:00

Comments by Roberta Biros:

The following article was written by Lowman S. Henry of the Lincoln Institute. It clearly explains the obvious problem with the Pennsylvania State Senate and its leadership. When you read it, please also remember (and refer to) my recent article titled "When you blame “Senate Republicans” be sure to blame Senator Bob Robbins".

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This article was written by Lowman S. Henry of the Lincoln Institute and is reprinted here with permission.
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In George Orwell's 1945 classic Animal Farm, the humans running the farm are displaced in an uprising by the animals who take charge. As time progresses, the revolutionary leaders become corrupted by power and morph into new versions of the people they displaced. That is an apt description of the Pennsylvania senate. In this case though, the animals who took charge and then lost their way are RINOs (Republicans in Name Only.)

Four years ago, on the heels of the infamous middle-of-the-night pay jacking, Republican primary voters ousted the top ranking members of the senate; President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer and Majority Leader Chip Brightbill. Never in the history of Penn's Woods had both leaders been defeated at the polls in the same election.

Republican voters did this because the senate leadership had lost its way. Like GOP leaders in Washington, Jubelirer and Brightbill became big spending, big government liberals who failed to reflect the core principles of their party. Voters reacted by tossing them from office, electing in their districts two stalwart conservatives.

On the leadership level, Senator Joseph Scarnati of Jefferson County and Senator Domenic Pileggi of Delaware County were respectively elected President Pro Tempore and Majority Leader. Unfortunately, over the course of the last four years, they have also drifted from their party's core principles and are currently advancing an agenda so liberal Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi would be proud.

Among the leftist legislation pushed by Scarnati and Pileggi:

A bill that would increase the number of "jackpot juries" in Pennsylvania by allowing trial lawyers to suggest to jurors at closing the amount of damages that should be awarded. Such a change would prejudice the jury toward a guilty verdict and fix an amount for damages in their minds. After a furious lobbying campaign by business, taxpayer and TEA party organizations the bill was pulled from the agenda.
The so-called "Sub-Contractor Extinction Act" passed with the amazing support of 14 Republican senators who voted to make it next to impossible for the 85% of Pennsylvanian workers who choose not to join a union to get work on major projects. The legislation will dramatically increase the cost of construction. It also was a sop to the labor unions, who contribute heavily to Pileggi's campaigns.
Having climbed into bed with trial lawyers and labor unions, the senate's Republican leadership also wants to have a dalliance with the radical environmental movement. Scarnati and Pileggi plan to bring to a vote a bill which would increase the percentage of solar power which must be purchased by Pennsylvania electric companies. Pennsylvania Power & Light alone estimates that will increase its generation costs by $200 million per year. Consumers will pay in the end with significantly higher electric bills.
Senate leadership has pledged to enact a severance tax on gas pumped from the Marcellus Shale reserves. The tax was agreed to in the budget deal struck with Governor Ed Rendell last summer. Proponents of the tax claim Pennsylvania is the only state without a severance levy. What they fail to say is that Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that imposes both a Corporate Net Income Tax and a Capital Stock and Franchise Tax on companies. A severance tax would have a chilling effect on one of the few industries in Pennsylvania that is actually growing.
Stuck it to citizens who want to obtain documents from state, county and local governments by watering down the Right-to-Know law. The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association opposed the legislation because it narrowed the scope of the law and will also allow governments to place onerous per page copying fees on information requested.
Scarnati and Pileggi are pushing for the creation of a legislative fiscal office. This new bureaucracy would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to provide budget information to lawmakers who already employ sizably staffs on their appropriations committees.

And, let us not forget that it was the Senate Republican caucus that has partnered with Governor Ed Rendell in passing state budgets with unaffordable levels of spending and massive debt that has created a fiscal mess of historic proportions.

Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled senate has become indistinguishable from the Democrats. In true Orwellian style the animals have morphed into the humans - and the result is a government that steals personal freedom and economic liberty from the governed.

The Declaration of Independence established that liberty as a God-given right. It also says that: " . . . whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government."

That time has come once again.

(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His email address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)

When you blame “Senate Republicans” be sure to blame Senator Bob Robbins

2010-09-22T12:20:00.000-04:00

I read a fascinating article today that was written by Lowman S. Henry, Chairman and CEO, Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research. The article was titled “Fiscal Folly: Proposed legislative budget office more useless bureaucracy” and it is available for on-line review HERE. Please read it. It is an important summary regarding Pennsylvania’s fiscal problems, and I agree with it whole-heartedly.

The article referenced above very clearly states that a large portion of the blame of our fiscal problems in Pennsylvania is “Senate Republicans”. We ALL need to understand EXACTLY who those Senate Republicans are.

Above is a photo of the 2009-2010 Pennsylvania State Republican Senate Leadership. Included are Top left to right, Majority Caucus Chairman Mike Waugh (R-28), Majority Caucus Administrator Pat Browne (R-16), Majority Policy Committee Chairman John Pippy (R-37), Majority Caucus Secretary Bob Robbins (R-50), and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman (R-34). Bottom left to right, Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9), President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-25), and Majority Whip Jane Clare Orie (R-40).

First, it should be noted that Majority Whip Jane Clare Orie (R-40) is no longer part of the Senate leadership as early this year she was forced to resign from her leadership position because she was under investigation for mis-using legislative staff (which is paid for by tax payers) for her sister's campaign in 2009 (read an update to the story HERE). This is important because it illustrates that there are already known problems with the State Senate leadership. It also reminds us that ALL legislators should be held accountable when it comes to the way that they spend OUR tax dollars (read my example of how to hold legislators accountable HERE).

Second, it should be noted that the remaining Senate leadership ALL voted for the unbalanced and unconstitutional state budget in June of 2010 (you can read an overview by Bob Guzzardi of the Conservative Reform Network HERE and you can read my comments on the same budget HERE).

Knowing all of that, look at the faces in the photo and realize that the people shown are ALL Republicans but they DO NOT represent CONSERVATIVE values . . . and their voting record proves it.

More specifically, I want my readers from the northwest corner of Pennsylvania to understand that the Senator in the upper right-hand corner of the picture (with the Cheshire cat grin) is our own Senator Bob Robbins. The same Bob Robbins who claims to be running on "his record" is part of the problem in Pennsylvania. Senator Bob Robbins is one of the "Senate Republicans" that is referred to repeatedly by conservatives when they point fingers at greedy incumbents. When you read the words "Senate Republicans", be sure to realize that YOU have allowed this man to get voted into office repeatedly.

When you actually take the time to review Bob Robbins' record, you find that he is NO CONSERVATIVE. This was demonstrated in a review of his LibertyIndex.com F- grade this year (read HERE), and it was outlined in detail in my recent blog post (read HERE). However, it is also revealed repeatedly if you take the time to look. Another example is a review of his voting record as it is recorded through "Project Vote Smart" (VoteSmart.org). His specific record on "Budget, Spending, and Taxes" can be seen HERE. That record illustrates that Bob Robbins has rarely seen a spending bill that he didn't like. If you compare his voting record against conservative Republican Representative Michele Brooks (view HERE), you will see that Bob Robbins is usually on the opposite side of the fence of his conservative colleagues.

When you read an article, comment, or commentary criticizing "Pennsylvania Senate Republicans", realize that the reference is calling out Senator Bob Robbins of Pennsylvania's 50th District. As more and more problems are blamed on "Senate Republicans", realize that Bob Robbins IS part of the problem. Most importantly, realize that THIS YEAR we have the opportunity to remove Bob Robbins from the equation. We have the opportunity to Take Out the Trash on November 2nd of 2010. The ONLY WAY to fix the problems with the Pennsylvania State Legislature is to begin with the not-so-conservative Republican leadership in the state senate.

On November 2nd, realize that the 50th District has a choice. Please read the article titled "Truly Independent Common Sense Constitutional Conservative Roberta Biros’ Candidacy for State Senate" by Bob Guzzardi for a summary of the battle that is brewing. Then access my website at ElectBiros.com to find out exactly how my conservative "Platform for Good Government" can help to turn Pennsylvania's Republican Senate around.

Fiscal folly: Proposed legislative budget office more useless bureaucracy

2010-09-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

Written by Lowman S. Henry, Chairman and CEO, Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research

The compromise that resulted in the state budget agreement last summer included promised action on two major issues by October: enactment of a severance tax on gas in the Marcellus Shale Reserve, and creation of an independent legislative fiscal office. Amazingly, Republicans - particularly in the state senate - appear poised to both approve a job-crushing tax and to create yet another needless state bureaucracy.

The deal gives off the appearance that the GOP sold-out on the severance tax in exchange for getting a legislative fiscal office. It may or may not have been a quid pro quo, but in politics appearances are what matters. This appears to be a cave-in on piling additional taxes on the one industry in Pennsylvania that is actually growing so the legislature can expand its bureaucratic empire. Both actions are antithetical to the Republican Party's supposed free market, less government philosophy and serves to further alienate voters who are already distrustful of both political parties.

Lawmakers pushing for establishment of a legislative fiscal office claim that it is needed because the Budget Office, which is under the governor's control, has failed to accurately project state revenues over the past few years. The recession, of course, had a lot to do with the faulty revenue forecasts. But, Senate Republicans in particular were eager to accept the numbers last year in order to bring an end to the state's budget stalemate. Thus their claims of concern over inaccuracy ring hollow.

What is actually at play here is legislative ego. Since the governor has a fiscal office, so too must the General Assembly have such an office. And, to satisfy their egos, leaders of both political parties are willing to spend millions of our tax dollars. At a time when the state faces a budget deficit that could approach $5 billion, legislators are willing to spend more on indulging themselves. The proposed legislative fiscal office is projected to cost $4 million in start-up money, and then take a minimum annual appropriation of $3.6 million. You can bet the mortgage that the final costs will be significantly higher.

All of this will merely duplicate tasks that are already performed by multiple state agencies. First of all, there are already two legislative committees dealing with fiscal matters. Both the senate and the house have appropriations committees. Each committee is flush with staff, all paid for by our tax dollars. Then of course there is the state Budget Office in the executive branch. Add in the independently elected state fiscal offices: state treasurer and auditor general, and you have literally thousands of state employees paid millions to monitor the financial affairs of the commonwealth.

The real issue here is not one of getting accurate budget numbers, or even streamlining the legislative budget-making process. It is a matter of the legislature wanting to be on an "equal" footing with the governor. This is why the four legislative caucuses have escrowed hundreds of millions of dollars into operating reserve accounts rather than release the money to pay for essential state services. The legislature is empire building. And you can bet that if, and likely when, the legislative fiscal office is created it will quickly grow in size and scope.

Further, the creation of a legislative fiscal office will do nothing to address the core cause of Pennsylvania's fiscal woes. The core problem is that the legislature, prodded on by Governor Ed Rendell has spent well beyond our means. Senate Republicans caved into the spending last year, and this year leaders of all four caucuses backed a fiscally irresponsible budget. The problem is not a lack of information, the problem is a lack of political courage to stand up and make the tough decisions needed to get Pennsylvania's finances back on track.

The creation of a legislative fiscal office is a boondoggle of the highest order. It will be just another useless bureaucracy churning out more numbers for legislators to hide behind. Worse, millions that could be spent on fixing roads and bridges, funding education, or a wide range of other core government services will instead go to legislative ego feeding. And with elections looming voters should hold their legislators accountable.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His email address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.)

The 2010 General Election: Our Opportunity to Take Out the Trash

2010-09-15T15:03:00.002-04:00

The movement is growing . . . people are angry . . . but this time is different! Rather than sitting at home and throwing their shoes (and gosh knows what else) at the TV, people are getting out and trying to make a difference. Devoted Democrats and Republicans alike are annoyed at that “darn TEA Party movement”. Democrats call them “right-wing nut jobs”, and Republicans call them “spoilers”, “kooks”, and (of all things) “right-wing nut jobs”. But who are they really? These “so called TEA Partiers” (as they were referred to by Alan Colmes this morning on Fox) are normal people like you and me who are fed up with big government, big spending, and the continued loss of our freedom and liberty. We are sick and tired of the establishment (referring to BOTH parties) running the show, and we are getting involved in politics like never before. They (the TEA Partiers) are SO MUCH like you and I that they ACTUALLY ARE you and I. If you are reading this message right now, YOU are one of US.

We call ourselves TEA Partiers, but we don’t actually have a “party”. We simply describe ourselves as “conservatives”. Some of us have tried to be “conservative Republicans” . . . some of us have tried to be “conservative Democrats” . . . some of us have tried both! Some are trying to take the Republican Party back . . . while others yet are considering starting their own Conservative Party. There are some of us that have gone so far as dare to be a conservative unaffiliated independent with NO tie to ANY party. We are, however, all one and the same.

Yesterday there were some very big Primary races across the United States. The results of those races are surprising some people . . . but not us. Conservative TEA Partiers are beating Republicans on their own turf, and overwhelmingly so in some races. Today the talking heads are saying “sure, they won but they have NO CHANCE in the General Election”. To that I say . . . “really? . . . REALLY? . . . seriously?”

Most (if not all) of you know that I am involved in my own race right now. I am running against a 20-year incumbent Republican State Senator (Bob Robbins). My race exemplifies the battle of the TEA Party movement, and here are a few clear illustrations:

CONSERVATIVE vs. NOT

ME:
I am a conservative. I firmly support a platform of “good government”.

MY OPPONENT:
My opponent is a Republican . . . but he is NO conservative. When asked questions he tells people to look at his record. Well, when you do actually look at his record you find that he is not for limited government, fiscal responsibility, or liberty. This is clearly shown in his poor marks on the Liberty Index. CLICK HERE for an outline of the results of the Liberty Index.

LIMITED GOVERNMENT vs. NOT

ME:
I am FOR a platform of smaller and more limited government, term limits, fiscal responsibility, and public service. I have outlined my full platform and details regarding my political views on my website. CLICK HERE for details.

MY OPPONENT:
My opponent supports NONE of those things. He voted FOR an unconstitutional state budget. The problems with the budget and his support for it were outlined in an on-line article HERE. It was also pointed out by Bob Guzzardi of the Conservative Reform Network HERE. He spends tens of thousands of dollars to protect his LONG career. This was described in a blog post by Rich Talbert of Grove City HERE. His history of fiscal irresponsibility was documented by former Republican State Committeewoman Helen Kirk HERE.

TERM LIMITS vs. NOT

ME:
I am for term limits. If elected I will limit myself to no longer than 2 terms (8 years) as a State Senator. I have agreed and signed the EmpowerPA.org candidate survey that reflects that opinion HERE.

MY OPPONENT:
My opponent has PROVEN that he does not support term limits by his 20 year career as a State Senator.

NO STATE PENSIONS FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS vs. NOT

ME:
I feel that the State Pensions offered to elected officials are not sustainable. I have signed a promissory with EmpowerPA.org whereby if I am elected I will decline a state pension. That document is available for on-line review HERE.

MY OPPONENT:
My opponent is not only NOT against his pension, he is willing to do anything to keep it . . . including running as both a Democrat and a Republican this year. Don’t believe it? Well, don’t take my word for it . . . read the article written by Grove City’s Rich Talbert on the topic HERE.

Is Biros vs. Robbins Northwest Pennsylvania’s equivalent to O’Donnell vs. Castle in Delaware?

When you simply examine the shape and taste of a political race, it is interesting to compare my race to yesterday’s race in Delaware. While the election in Delaware was a Primary, there are a number of similarities. First, the Delaware Primary will be much like the General Election here in the 50th District because I believe it will ultimately be decided by conservatives. Pennsylvania’s 50th District is very conservative, and I don’t believe that left-leaning Democrats will be much of a force on November 2nd. The biggest difference, though, is that being a General Election my race will benefit from the votes of independent and conservative Democrat voters.

Stepping inside the voters minds for a minute

None of us know how voters will be thinking on November 2nd. No one can anticipate the attitudes of the people that get up, get dressed, and drive to the polls on Election Day. I would, however, be interested to do a poll on voters reactions to the ballot itself . . . as that will be the moment when voters make their final decision on who should get their vote.

Below is an image of the actual ballot as it will appear on the voting machines in the 50th District (a printable copy is available for download as a PDF HERE):

STRAIGHT PARTY:

Upon close review you will find something that rarely happens. Under “straight party”, you will see that voters will have the opportunity to vote for the party of “unaffiliated independent”. Get accustomed to this as I have a feeling that it is something that will begin to appear more often as the years progress.

SENATOR IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY 50TH DISTRICT:

The race between me and Bob Robbins is the perfect example of a race between “TEA Party mentality” and “the old guard”. In true Arlen Spector style, Bob Robbins’ listing on the ballot tells you everything that you need to know about him . . . DEMOCRATIC/REPUBLICAN . . . he is trying to be EVERYTHING to EVERYONE and will do ANYTHING to win. As a true TEA Partier, my listing on the ballot tells you everything that you need to know about me . . . UNAFFILIATED INDEPENDENT . . . controlled by NO party.

How will voters react on November 2nd when they look at their choices for Senator in the 50th District? I’m not sure, but I’m hoping that we all remember that on November 2nd we need to “Take Out the Trash!”

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The 2010 Fair Season Comes to an End!

2010-09-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

Whew! Allow me to open today's blog with the words of the Grateful Dead . . . "What a Long Strange Trip It's Been".

Back in May we began the long series of festivals, fairs, and parades that have stretched across the summer of 2010. This weekend marked the official end of fair season. On Saturday, September 11th, our team celebrated the end of a very successful summer of policking with the Mercer TEA Party and the Jamestown Parade and Fair.

The morning began with the Mercer TEA Party (sponsored and organized by the Mercer County Christian Coalition). We had an information booth available, and I had an opportunity to talk to concerned citizens from the area regarding issues of good government.

I was then transported by 'high-speed vehicle' to the line up for the parade in Jamestown.

We then all ended up in our information booth at the Jamestown fair. We distributed information and answered questions, but we also managed to have a pretty good time!

The 2010 Fair Season was wonderful! Most importantly, my campaign is gaining traction . . . gaining popularity . . . and growing in size! We've spent months getting our message out and our efforts have been amazingly successful. The word is getting out and it is being embraced by the voters of Mercer, Crawford, Lawrence, and Butler Counties.

I want to extend a very public thanks to my campaign team. Each and every one of them is a blessing. Our numbers are growing and our small group of friends is growing exponentially. We are more than a campaign team, we are a family! In the words of my campaign chairman "Politics is fun . . . if you are really serious about it!"

BUT . . . our work is not done! While the fair season is now officially over, it is time for us to begin the final phase of our campaign. This is where we put all of the final pieces of the puzzle together in order to WIN IN NOVEMBER! Our team is made up of hardworking and honest concerned citizens and we want YOUR help! Our teams is a perfect illustration that "many hands make light work", and we'd like for you to join with us in order to achieve success as a team in November.

Contact me at roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com if you would like to be a part of the most motivated grassroots group to ever be seen in Mercer, Crawford, Lawrence, and Butler Counties!

LibertyIndex.com Provides a Report Card for PA Legislators

2010-09-09T13:28:00.000-04:00

Have you ever asked an elected official where they stand on an issue and they simply respond with “check my record”? Well, in Mercer County that is an every day occurrence. As a candidate for public office, people ask me my opinions on issues every day. I respond as openly and as completely as possible as a matter of transparency. When I can I provide written responses and I usually attempt to post those responses to my blog or my website. Unfortunately, INCUMBENTS don’t offer the same level of transparency. Why? Because, as ‘career politicians’ they are more concerned about staying out of the spotlight and simply hanging on to what they have. They figure that if they keep their mouths shut they will squeak through another election cycle without being spotted and called out. Uninformed voters will vote for them because they don’t know any better.

When an incumbent elected official says “check my record”, have you? Most people don’t have the knowledge or resources to really dig down deep and research the voting record of an elected official . . . and that is why the response works so well. Luckily for us, there are individuals and groups out there that are willing to do the hard work for us. One example of such a resource is the LibertyIndex.

This Liberty Index is produced by RGI Inc, the Conservative Reform Network and The Conservative Reform PAC , Bob Guzzardi, President http://www.bobguzzardi.com . According to the LibertyIndex.com website, “The purpose of the Liberty Index is to allow the user to find out how his or her Senator and Representative voted and to give the user our evaluation of his or her performance. Because the Liberty Index advances an agenda of Limited Government and Economic Freedom, we have rated legislation whether or not it advances that goal.”

I’ve used the LibertyIndex.com as a tool in the past. Some of you may remember that in early 2009 I published the results from the LibertyIndex.com for each of the legislators that represent Mercer County. That blog post can be read HERE.

Mr. Guzzardi recently released new statistics for the 2009-2010 legislative voting calendar. I was, of course, eager to see how the legislators from Mercer County performed. I was not surprised by the results, but you may be. As a summary for the 2010 session, Mercer County legislators scored as follows:

Senator Bob Robbins (D/R – 50th): F-
Representative Dick Stevenson (R – 8th): C
Representative Mark Longietti (D-7th): F-
Representative Michele Brooks (R-17th): B-

Hmmmmm. On a scale of Limited Government, Economic Freedom, and Liberty ONLY TWO Mercer County legislators scored at or above average. Conservative Representatives Stevenson (C) and Brooks (B-) had voting records to be proud of. On the other hand, not-so-conservative Democrat/Republican Senator Bob Robbins (F-) and Democrat Representative Mark Longietti (F-) received frightening ratings. Interesting, don’t you think?
With the basic scores in hand, we should all be asking ourselves “are these legislators really representing us properly?”. Is this a fluke? Well, perhaps we should dig a little deeper. According to the date from the LibertyIndex.com, here are the results for those same legislators since 2003:

Upon review of the voting records of Mercer County’s legislators over a longer period of time, we find that Senator Bob Robbins and Representative Mark Longietti score at a consistent D+ to F- range. Representatives Stevenson and Brooks continue to keep their heads above water with consistent A- to C ratings.

So again I ask “are these legislators really representing us properly”. “Is this a fluke?”

When I look at the data it seems clear to me that Representatives Stevenson and Brooks are working to promote Liberty in Northwest Pennsylvania. It also seems clear that Senator Bob Robbins and Representative Mark Longietti are working hard to strip us of Liberty and they are clearly working against limited government and economic freedom.

ARE THERE OTHER INDEXES?

There are plenty of resources out on the web that provide summaries of data just like the Liberty Index. The Liberty Index, though, focuses on issues that are important to ME (and those of us that are committed to Good Government). I actually compared these same legislators from Mercer County in my own index just a few months ago.

In my blog post titled "The Mercer Conservative Index: Grading Lawmakers and Candidates on a Simple Scale of Fiscal Conservatism and Public Service" I compared Mercer County's legislators on a scale that I designed based on such issues as intellect, public service, likability, and transparency & accountability. Oddly enough, the results of that comparison were not that different than the Liberty Index. Specifically, Senator Bob Robbins rated an "F" (see the details HERE), and Representative Michele Brooks rated a "B" (see the details HERE). Could these grades be so far off if there are such close similarities between the end results?

WHAT IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTING?

When you look at the results of the Liberty Index and the Mercer Conservative Index, don't you wonder how or why these very different legislators seem to stick together and support each other so fiercely? If they don't agree philosophically or legislatively, why do they support each other politically? Does it go back to the idea that political party and ideals really don't matter? Does it go back to the fact that incumbents simply support incumbents (like in the Mercer County Incumbent Party) because they are ultimately more concerned with their 'careers' than public service?

PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT

I invite you all to check out the data on the LibertyIndex.com on your own. The on-line database is rich with valuable information. You can view the records of each and every legislator, and those records link to the voting records as well as the actual legislation in question. Take a close look at their records and decide for yourself if you agree with the work that your legislators are doing for you.

TALK TO YOUR LEGISLATORS

I have taken the time to gather the detailed results for the legislators that represent Mercer County. I’ve collected those results into one downloadable PDF document that can be accessed HERE. I urge you to download it and print it out. The next time you meet up with one of Mercer County’s legislators, ask them where they stand on the issues of Liberty, Limited Government, and Economic Freedom. When they say “check my record”, please pull the document out and tell them that you have. Then remember that moment when you go to vote on November 2nd.

Event Announcement: Mercer Tea Party September 11th!

2010-09-09T10:05:00.002-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

9-11 Memorial and TEA Party

Mark Your Calendar & Join Us:

MERCER COUNTY COURTHOUSE LAWN
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9:30 am - NOON
Rain or Shine

BE AN INFORMED VOTER

Program includes:

* Patriotic songs by Linda Weber

* Memorial tribute by Rev. Charles Swartz, Pastor of Bible Baptist Church, Mercer

* Lee Wishing Director of Grove City College, Views & Visions

* Fran Beven of Eagle Forum

* John Kennedy, Chairman of Citizens Allliance of PA

* Rev. Jim Erb serving on "AIM", a network of churches and ministries

Bring friends, a lawn chair and if the weather is questionable an umbrella.

Sponsored by the Mercer County Christian Coalition

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Why You Can’t Trust Bob Robbins and Good Reasons Not to Vote For Him!!

2010-09-03T23:01:00.000-04:00

(Part II of a series)

(The following statements are my opinions, perspectives, and views after several years of volunteer work within the Mercer GOP. I served 12 years as a precinct committeewoman and 2 years on the PA GOP state committee.)

Summary of Bob’s Slush Fund: His Campaign Money or 2nd Salary

Let’s recap a section of Part I of this series, concerning Bob’s campaign fund, somewhat hidden accounts from my perspective. We could say that Bob is the Count of Hidden Accounts! Not only does this greedy official draw an outrageous salary for part-time work, a pension, and all expenses paid, including a Virgin Islands trip (corrected after he was caught), BUT it appears that he and his wife use the campaign fund as their private open checking account. Here’s a summary: $23,000 at Sam’s Club since 2006; $29,378 in “miscellaneous” reimbursement to Bob; $78,000 to the PA Republican Senate Committee in 2006 and $27,000 in 2008. His Dem friends and those Dem write-in’s should take note of Bob’s assistance to the Republican Club to the tune of over $100,000. Another absurd expenditure was over $168,000 for his 2006 re-election campaign, and lastly his $43,000 sneaky Dem write-in campaign. It is no wonder that the Count of Hidden Accounts does not want to give up his seat. The readers are invited to “do the math” and see how much money has changed hands since 2006.

The Robbins GOP Club

The Mercer GOP IS Bob and Cindy Robbins and Ginny Richardson, and maybe a little Brian Shipley on the side and everyone else is window dressing as far as they are concerned. Bob jealously guards his position and perks within the local GOP, the Northwest GOP Caucus, and the PA GOP State Committee. He, and his wife, work diligently within these organizations for their own selfish interests. Let me ask a reasonable question: For all the decades that Bob has held the senatorial position, including the extra bonus as senate secretary, WHAT GOOD HAS COME TO MERCER COUNTY? Nada, Zip, Nothing! He has just simply held the position; he is an ineffective senator.

Our county has higher unemployment than the national average, terrible crime, and poor prospects for the citizens. What has PayRaise Bob done to help solve any of these problems? NOTHING! Not only nothing, he has been quoted as saying that “it is a waste of time” to do any outreach in the Shenango Valley area. He avoids Farrell like the plague. His resignation to the status quo is not ever going to change things for us.

Bob’s Petty Power Plays and Why I Don’t Trust Him

Bob kept a low profile during 2006, since he was scared witless that his dark-of-night payraise vote PLUS the vote for full reimbursement of unvouchered expenses, would knock him out of his catbird senate seat. After he squeaked through the election, Bob was soon again the cocky Napoleonic, self-appointed undercover head of the Mercer GOP and the NW PA GOP Caucus, along with his wife, leading the charge against any rising stars or talents. When I decided to run for a PA State Committee seat, all hell broke lose. The Robbins and Richardsons began their campaign against me. Mind you, there are three committee seats and four of us were running. The senator and his wife visited my home, while I was at work, and met with my husband to urge him to convince me not to run. This is when the senator threatened “to bring out the artillery against me.” How ridiculous, and sad for all of us to have this type of man as our legislator. There was also a visit from then-Senator Arlen Specter’s Erie staff rep to my husband, again to convince me not to run. As far as I know, no one visited or threatened George Pokrant, and no one ever spoke to me about the matter. Mrs. Robbins also did her dirty work, behind the scenes and most likely on her cell phone (paid for by campaign money no doubt), and she conjured up $3000 from Bob Asher, the PA GOP national committeeman (convicted felon of fraud vis-à-vis the Bud Dwyer kickback scheme), $3000 which was given to Mrs. Robbins and Mr. Richardson to run their state committee campaign. Again, absurd, and another example of how greedy and mercenary the Robbins are about money: spend everyone else’s!

My experience as a PA state committeeperson was educational. There is a small network of so-called leaders and legislators who make decisions behind the scenes and then force them at the committee members. Unfortunately, I found that about 2/3 of the membership goes along to get along with this strategy, and 1/3 are independent thinkers. However, it was refreshing to be part of a group outside of the Mercer GOP, and I met many dynamic people.

A highlight of my state committee experience was my part in unseating the unscrupulous chair of the NW PA Caucus, a person who collaborated with the Robbins to do what was in his and their best interests. A lowlight was a verbal assault directly at the end of one of the state committee meetings, right there in the ballroom, by Ginny Richardson (she attended with the county chair‘s proxy), a puzzling assault on me because of my involvement with opening a McCain-Palin Victory Center in the Shenango Valley. Both of the Robbins were standing behind Ginny, silently backing her up. I came to see, by the end of my first year on the state committee, that we would never be able to elevate the GOP with leaders like Bob, Cindy, Ginny, Brian etc., who operate in the dregs because that is where they do their best work.

I don’t trust Bob Robbins because he is focused entirely on the control of persons and assets that serve his interests. I will never support him or vote for him and I urge all voters to seriously review the reasons which I have offered and dare to make a change and vote Independent this Fall. It is time that these imbedded incumbents are eliminated from controlling all levels of our government. It is time that we replace Bob Robbins.

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Kelly vs. Dahlkemper in Mercer County

2010-08-31T11:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, AARP hosted a candidate forum in Hermitage, PA where Republican candidate Mike Kelly took on Democrat incumbent Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper. I attended the event along with a few hundred of my closest friends. I have been interested to see the two candidates take on the issues face to face, and today’s event achieved that perfectly.

While I don’t have the time to devote to outlining all of the details of the event, I’d like to focus on a number of highlights . . . from start to finish.

The Start

The debate began with a coin toss. Mike Kelly chose heads and won. It was his option on who would make the first opening statement. Mike said “Ladies first”. It was cute, but many of us laughed out loud. We all know that this is NOT a race that involves any type of chivalry, so the attempt was laughable.

Kathy Dahlkemper’s opening statements outlined her achievements from her first 20 months in office. She mentioned securing Medicare, improving health care for seniors, and attempting to secure Social Security. Kathy also stated that she didn’t like the “direction that our country was going” and she felt that we need to invest in our children and invest in infrastructure and move forward . . . rather than moving back to the near collapse of our economy. For a minute . . . just a minute . . . she sounded like a TEA Partier. Hmmmm.

Mike Kelly’s opening statement started with “I’m not here as a politician”. I laughed out loud. He went on to say that he would be speaking from the heart today because he, too, is concerned. He highlighted his thoughts by saying things like “things are not good” and “the future is not rosey”. He rallied the TEA Partiers in the crowd by saying that it isn’t “We the People” anymore . . . it is “We the Government”. In closing he stated “the beneficiary should be the American people . . . not a Party”. For a minute . . . just a minute . . . he sounded like an Independent. Hmmmmm.

The Middle

The questions started with predetermined questions from AARP including topics like the economy, stabilizing Social Security, Medicare, and the deficit.

The line of questioning then moved to questions that were submitted by attendees of the forum. Those questions ranged from Cap and Trade, farming, education, tort reform, and international relations.

The topics were diverse, but the answers to the questions from both candidates were extremely interesting. Not so much in what they said but how they said it . . . if you know what I mean.

My Scoring

To explain and rate the general conversation, allow me to provide a few examples and score some of the highlights of the debate accordingly:

Kathy Dahlkemper claimed that the problems that we have were there before she was elected . . . Kelly responded by saying “don’t blame Bush”. [+1 for Kelly]

SCORE: Kelly 1 point; Dahlkemper 0 points

Kathy Dahlkemper stated that Social Security is the only program that never contributed one cent to the national debt and, instead, it is a source to borrow from. She feels that it needs to be protected in a “lock box” . . . which received groans from the crowd (including myself). [-1 for Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly still 1 point; Dahlkemper -1 points

In response to a question regarding the recent cut in Medicare payments by 21%, Mike Kelly blamed health care reform legislation. Kathy Dahlkemper had to explain that Mike obviously didn’t understand the question as the change in Medicare had nothing to do with the recent health care legislation bill that was passed. [+1 Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly still 1 point; Dahlkemper 0 points

Regarding the deficit, Dahlkemper stated that she is a Blue Dog Democrat and believes in fiscal responsibility . . . and we all laughed. [-1 Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly still 1 point; Dahlkemper -1 point

In response to the same question regarding the deficit, Kelly said “We need to hold elected officials accountable to the people . . . not accountable to the Party”. To this I say “Bravo”, and once again Kelly sounds (for just one minute) like an Independent and not a Republican. [+1 Kelly]

SCORE: Kelly 2 points; Dahlkemper -1 point

In response to Cap and Trade, Kelly didn’t answer the question. [-1 Kelly]
Dahlkemper’s response is that she voted against Cap and Trade [+1 Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly still 1 point; Dahlkemper 0 points

In an interesting twist, Kelly felt it necessary to say that Dahlkemper only voted for Cap and Trade at 5 minutes before midnight after making certain that her Party had the necessary votes to pass it. For this, Mike Kelly loses points as it was an unnecessary jab and it made him look petty

SCORE: Kelly 0 points; Dahlkemper 0 points

In response to a question regarding helping farmers, Kelly pointed out that a big problem is the death tax. [+1 Kelly]
Dahlkemper, on the other hand, said that the death tax is fair is not problem with a little tax planning. Ugh. Really! Seriously? [-1 Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly 1 point; Dahlkemper -1 point

Something odd happened during the question regarding tort reform. Dahlkemper stated that tort reform is actually a state issue, but in some strange twist the conversation turned to “Cash for Clunkers”. In the end, Kelly explained that $600,000 in “cash for clunkers” money went through his dealership and was paid TO customers. He stated that he was not a beneficiary of the stimulus money. Kathy Dahlkemper, however, correctly stated that he was a beneficiary of the profits generated from the increased business that came from “cash for clunkers”. Mrs. Dahlkemper clearly won the argument and earned a point. [+1 Dahlkemper]

SCORE: Kelly still 1 point; Dahlkemper 0 points

The End

In the closing comments, Mike Kelly explained that it comes down to “faith and trust”. He stated the “we have lost faith in the people that represent us”. He explained that they don’t vote for us but vote with their party. (once again . . . for just a minute . . . Kelly sounds more like an Independent than a Republican). He explained that this leads to a lack of trust. He said that when he comes home from Washington he wants to say “I voted the way my people told me . . . not my Party”.

For this Mike earns another point in my book [+1 Kelly]

SCORE: Kelly 2 points; Dahlkemper 0 points

In Dahlkemper’s closing comments, she stated that there are two things that she looks at when she votes. (1) her conscience (2) her constituents. It all sounds nice as a sound bite, but she seemed to offend a huge number of her constituents with her health care vote and it never seemed to bother her conscience a bit. I won’t discount her points for it, but it makes me say “Hmmmmm”.

However, in a horrible display of lack of self control, Mike Kelly made a series of annoyed faces in reaction to many of Dahlkemper’s remarks and markedly so during her closing remarks. I found the move distasteful and I have to discount a point for it [-1 Kelly]

Final Score

In the end, Kelly earned 1 point, and Dahlkemper ended up with 0.

Comments and Suggestions (even though no one asked for them)

Dahlkemper looked good. She looked calm, cool, collected, and confident. She held her own and kept her composure. If she can maintain this, she will do well. When she gets shaken, she makes mistakes. Mike managed to do it to her once during the debate, and the general anger of the crowd seemed to concern her (and rightly so). This could be her weakness.

Mike looked nervous, flushed, angry (something I’ve warned him about on multiple occasions), and (at times) frustrated. He needs to calm down and keep his composure. He needs to be the “loveable teddy bear” that we all like so much, and his alter ego (the “angry football player”) needs to stay tucked away for the next few months. If he can do this he will do VERY well. If not, he will self destruct.

What did I like?

I enjoyed seeing that Dahlkemper made attempts to sound like a fiscal conservative, although actions speak louder than words. So far she has demonstrated that she is only a fiscal conservative in the press . . . but not in real life.

I enjoyed hearing Kelly make numerous statements that it is about “We the People” and NOT the Party, but again . . . actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately, Mike has demonstrated that he is all about “the Party” and he is prepared to march with the GOP (even if it is off the next cliff). Why? Because that is where the money is.

Most of all, I think it is really funny that everyone wants to paint themselves as a "fiscal conservative Independent”. Unfortunately, we all know that there is only ONE of those in this area . . . and SHE is running for State Senate!

:-D

This is NOT the Mike Kelly Website

2010-08-28T08:39:00.001-04:00

I received a comment today regarding a past blog post. The statements that were made were interesting and I thought they were worth sharing here now. The comment was submitted by “JD Gib” and it read as follows:

Roberta:

I was just reading what you posted on April 23rd, 2010 on a Mike Kelly Article:

"I’d like to make it very clear that I am doing everything that I can to make certain that Kathy Dahlkemper is defeated in November."

"I’d like to remind all of you that after May 18th it is important that you all set aside your personal differences and back the ONE candidate that ends up on top after the Primary."

I ask that you follow through on this promise and start blogging positively about Mike Kelly. My hope is that you and Dr. Martha Moore help support Mike Kelly to the best of your ability and help him defeat Kathy D.

I enjoy your blog, but it needs to be supportive of Mike Kelly and I am sure you would get more traffic :-)

-JD Gib

In response to “JD’s” comment, I’d like to first say that (although I cannot find the direct reference on this website) I am certain that I made the statements that were quoted. Before the Primary it was important to remain as neutral as possible and attempt to report the events as they transpired between the six congressional candidates. At that time, I believed what I said because (very honestly) all six candidates were starting to look very much like each other. They all seemed to stand for the same things, and they all seemed like good choices.

AFTER THE PRIMARY, however, Mike Kelly disappeared from the face of the Earth. He contacted NO ONE and made NO attempts to bridge the divide between the 6 separate candidate camps. Instead, Mike Kelly went into hiding. When he ended his hibernation, he emerged as a candidate that had nothing to say and stood for nothing in particular. He emerged a complete and utter RINO. I saw it . . . others saw it . . . and others are still seeing it.

To respond to your statements directly though, JD, it is not my responsibility to “blog positively about Mike Kelly”. This is NOT the Mike Kelly website and we are not here to service and promote Mike Kelly. Instead, it is Mike Kelly’s responsibility to give us something positive to write about! Do something . . . say something . . . stand for something!

If Mike Kelly wants (or needs) good press, there are two ways to get it. He can either do positive things to EARN it, or he can pay people like you to attempt to create it.

Thanks, JD, but I’ll suffer on my own without Mike Kelly as a draw to this blog site. If you would like to help Mike Kelly perhaps you should start your own blog or join Mike’s campaign, but please don’t waste your valuable time by telling me what my opinions should be.

.

We REALLY Need to Take Our Country Back

2010-08-22T11:53:00.006-04:00

Please watch the YouTube video below. After watching it, ask yourself "is government part of the solution or IS government the problem?"

If you feel that government is part of the solution, I invite you to re-elect every single incumbent this year.

If you feel that government IS the problem (or, at least, a part of it), I invite you to vote against the establishment this year in an effort to turn things around! VOTE THEM ALL OUT . . . whether they are Republican . . . Democrat . . . or (in some cases) BOTH! :-)

If you can't view the video above, CLICK HERE to view it at YouTube.

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On The Road to Harrisburg: Biros’ Candidacy for State Senate is Official

2010-08-11T23:18:00.005-04:00

PRESS RELEASE
MERCER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Independent State Senate candidate Roberta Biros received verification from the Pennsylvania Department of State this afternoon that the nomination papers that she filed on Thursday, July 29, have gone unchallenged. According to Pennsylvania election law, all challenges to nomination papers were to be filed with the Department of State no later than 5 pm on Monday, August 9. As a result, her name will appear as an independent candidate for State Senate in Pennsylvania’s 50th District on the November 2nd General Election ballot.

To mark the closing of the nomination process, Mrs. Biros today proudly introduced the members of her campaign committee, Citizens to Elect Roberta Biros for State Senate.

Dr. Martha Moore of Sandy Lake serves as Committee Treasurer.

"Dr. Moore is a former CPA and a well-respected medical professional," Mrs.Biros said. "As the primary administrator of the committee, Dr. Moore is the lead for all campaign and committee activities. I am thrilled to have someone of her reputation and character working with me."

Mrs. Biros selected Joe Zentis of Hermitage to be her Committee Chairman.

“Mr. Zentis brings a high level of energy and creative thinking to the team,” Mrs. Biros said. “He is a well-known writer, author, and entrepreneur, and his level of commitment to my Platform of Good Government is unmatched. Mr. Zentis will be involved in campaign strategy, planning, and team building.”

As a hands-on candidate, Roberta will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr. Moore, Mr. Zentis, and her entire team of volunteers during her campaign for State Senate in Pennsylvania’s 50th District. If you are interested in joining Roberta’s campaign team, please contact the campaign committee by email at biros4senate@gmail.com or access the campaign website at http://www.electbiros.com/ for additional information.

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Biros Files Nomination Papers

2010-07-29T20:50:00.001-04:00

Mercer County: Thursday, July 29, 2010

Roberta Biros, Independent Candidate for State Senate, officially filed her nomination papers in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth today, July 29, 2010.

Roberta personally delivered the nomination papers that qualify her as a candidate for State Senate in Pennsylvania’s 50th District this afternoon. According to the election standards of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Roberta was required to gather 827 signatures from registered voters in the 50th District (including Mercer, Crawford, and portions of Butler and Lawrence Counties) in order for her name to appear as an Unaffiliated Independent candidate in the November election.

Roberta Biros’ opponent in November is long-time Republican Senator Bob Robbins, who will be running as the nominee on both the Democrat and Republican tickets this year.

Roberta Biros is challenging Mr. Robbins on a platform of Good Government. She believes that Pennsylvania needs to decrease the size and cost of government and decrease spending. Roberta supports (and has agreed to in writing) the initiatives of EmpowerPA.org including term limits, support of a part-time legislature, and pension and tax reforms. Roberta has signed a “Declination of State Pension” pledge where she states that, if elected, she will decline enrollment in the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS). She has also accepted the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” where she officially opposes increases in State spending and taxes. In her effort towards full transparency and accountability, Roberta’s Platform for Good Government is available through here website at http://www.electbiros.com/.

Will You Join Our Campaign?

2010-07-27T14:19:00.005-04:00

Dear Friends,

As many of you probably know, I have a very diverse group of people working on my campaign. We all come from different walks of life with different backgrounds, but we all share one common interest. We all share a desire for Good Government and ethical leadership in Mercer and Crawford Counties and in Harrisburg. I’d like to share with you today an email from one of my volunteers. He tells his story of why he is involved with my campaign. His story is not much unlike many others that I have heard, but he has come to realize that it is only by joining together that we have a chance of “beating Goliath” in my race against 20-year career politician Senator Bob Robbins.

As the race heats up, ugly lies will be told about me and those that I am working with in my campaign. As some of you may have already experienced, the attacks will be harsh and they will be very pointed. Please remember that you can’t believe everything that you hear, and I ask that you investigate accusations on your own before you take anything for granted. If you have questions, please ask. After you are convinced of the real truth, I urge you to join my team as we drive forward to Election Day on November 2nd. You can be a part of a small army that is going up against insurmountable odds and dishonorable tactics. While I cannot guarantee victory (who can?), I can promise you that we will remain honorable for a worthy cause. NOW is the time for us to take our government back . . . one small step at a time. It needs to once again be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!

Thank you for your time.

Roberta Biros
_______________________________________
Independent Candidate for State Senate
Email: Roberta.in.Mercer@gmail.com
Web: http://www.electbiros.com/
_______________________________________
CLICK HERE to make a Contribution to Roberta’s Campaign!

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Zentis

Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 1:17 PM

I really need your help. To explain why, I will tell you a little story.

Once upon a time (April 15, 2009, to be exact), a quiet, passive, friendly 70-year-old conservative (that would be me) inadvertently became a radical right-wing. How can you do that inadvertently? By attending a TEA Party. Through the next year, barely anyone noticed the change, because I remained a quiet, passive, friendly 70-year-old conservative who did little more than attend a few more TEA Parties, watch Fox News, write a few letters to the editor, and complain to friends about the sad state of our nation. Actually, I did one other thing. I stopped into the Mercer County Republican headquarters at least three times and told whoever was there that I wanted to help out the Republican Party in whatever way I could. I gave them my name and phone number. Never heard a thing.

Before the primary elections in May of this year, a TEA Party activist alerted many of us to the fact that many precincts in Mercer County had no committeemen on the Mercer County Republican Committee – nor candidates to fill those offices, which are elected during the primaries every two years. He suggested that we write in our names on the ballot. I did, and got elected with a grand total of two votes. One would have been enough.

I started my grand political career a month later at the biennial organizational meeting of the committee. I quickly learned why no one from the Republican leadership had responded to my earlier attempts to get involved. The committee is tightly held by several longtime party leaders who view newcomers (especially TEA Partiers) as threats to their bastion of power. They nominated a slate of candidates for the five committee offices, and immediately moved that the nominations be closed.

As that motion was being voiced, another committee member moved to nominate someone else for committee chairman. The leadership begrudgingly allowed that nomination to be made. Big surprise: he lost. Bigger surprise: within a day, the committee leadership leaned on the upstart nominee to resign from the committee – not because of the nomination, but because he has been known to support a friend of his, Roberta Biros, an Independent running against our beloved State Senator (and current Republican senatorial candidate) Bob Robbins.

During the meeting, Senator Robbins had spoken vociferously against the very idea of any committeeman supporting anyone but Republican candidates. It was against the committee bylaws, he said. He didn’t explain why we couldn’t campaign against the Democratic state senatorial candidate, maybe because that’s also Bob Robbins. Through an active write-in campaign this spring, he got himself nominated as candidate for both parties to ensure that his 27 years in the state legislature will be extended by another four years.

All of this made me curioser and curioser. I had met Roberta Biros once or twice, but didn’t really know her. All I knew is that she was a troublemaker who had been a Republican, then a Democrat, and finally an Independent. Talk about wishy-washy switchy swatchy! I couldn’t figure out why the committee leadership in general and Bob Robbins in particular felt so threatened by her.

So I decided to learn more about her. Best way to do that is talk directly with her. She told me a story that paralleled my own. She had been very serious about getting involved in politics to change the direction of our governments. Being Republican, she tried to do that by getting helping out in the county Republican headquarters. She was pushed away. So she tried to work with the Democrats. Again, she was pushed away. She didn’t switch parties because she was wishy-washy. She switched because she was determined to find whatever way she could to fight the corruption and ineptitude of our state government.

Given no other choice, she decided to run as an Independent against Republican/Democrat Bob Robbins. Her chances at the moment are in the category of David/Goliath, snowball in hell, or you’ve-got-to-be-kidding me. Virtually unknown, with practically no campaign funds or staff, she is up against the treasury and army of Bob Robbins and the Mercer County Republican Party.

So why, again, are the Republicans so concerned with her candidacy? Because they know her well – her tenacity, her determination, and her abilities.

I’ve decided to go whole hog to support her. After all, David beat Goliath, and snowballs can survive thrive in hell if they are positioned right (at least according to Dante’s Inferno).

I invite you to join us – to work to make a difference. What will it take? A few people doing a lot of work, plus a lot of people having a few moments of fun. Roberta needs people to walk with her in festival and fair parades, a d stand beside her in campaign booths at local fairs. Spend an evening or two or three with friends who want to do more than gripe and moan about big government, excessive spending, ever-increasing taxation, and continual loss of freedoms.

If you are willing to do even a little bit to help us – or if you have questions or comments - please e-mail me or give me a call. Monetary contributions would also be nice, but mostly we need your involvement.

- Joe

Please check out these websites: http://www.electbiros.com/ and mercerconservatives.blogspot.com

Why You Can’t Trust Bob Robbins and Good Reasons Not to Vote For Him!! (Part I of a series)

2010-07-19T21:15:00.001-04:00

(The following statements are my opinion, perspective, and views after several years of volunteer work within the Mercer GOP. I served 12 years as a precinct committeewoman on the Mercer County Republican Committee and two years on the PA GOP state committee.)

Bob Robbins is Loose with Our Money: He is Fiscally Irresponsible!!

Many people have these opinions of politicians: 1) They are all crooks and 2) How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving. After my stint as a loyal member of the Mercer GOP, I tend to agree and these opinions certainly fit the less than adequate state senator Bob Robbins. “Regardless of political affiliation“, we have been stuck with him for too long.

Bob Robbins spent $43,000 on a write-in campaign to be the Dem choice in November, and his reason was because he loves everyone? OK I’ll be fair, what he really said, “he always worked hard for the people of Mercer County regardless of political affiliation.” His lips were moving when he said this. He must be counting on poor memories on the part of Dems. Robbins and his GOP allies went to great lengths to dig up dirt on Democrats over the past years, including Art Allen. I can recall Mrs. Robbins complaining, “We can‘t find out anything about this Art Allen.” In particular, Bob’s wife voted for, and contributed to the wording, on the “infamous negative Republican flyer” against the Dem commissioner candidates…you know the flyer that drove Lark over the edge and in part caused his resignation.

We all should feel sorry for Lord and Lady Robbins. Reportedly, they lamented about their sore knees from praying for an answer to the worry that Bob would have some difficulty this November. Their prayers were answered when allegedly a few sneaky Dem “officials“ appeared to the Robbins, telling them “we want you as our Dem candidate because you do so much for us”. Well, that’s Pay-Raise Bob’s story. More likely, if Dems really did approach him, they said: “We’ll help you with your Dem write-in project if you help our future Dem campaigns by throwing a GOP candidate under the bus.” This was an easy choice for Coconut Bob since he is practiced at betraying GOP candidates. The Mercer County Incumbent Party has turned backstabbing into an art form. They cannot stand the possibility that an Independent, politically and common-sensibly, could displace them, and win. It would be a win for taxpayers since we desperately, desperately need public servants. Remember, public servants SERVE taxpayers, not vice versa.

Here’s the irony: Senator Robbins portrays himself to GOP loyalists as the most ardent partisan…the top GOP dog in the area, and his wife is the top GOP state committee dog. They play and talk a good game. Yet, behind the scenes, and via their allies embedded within the Mercer GOP, they will do and say whatever it takes to win and stay in power. They casually betray GOP loyalists.

One thing for certain: Robbins will never spend his own personal money to retain his position. When many Mercer County residents are financially struggling, Bob has the luxury of tapping his campaign fund, with no questions ever asked. He smugly views the fund as his exclusive play money and it appears that no one monitors the use of it. Ethics doesn’t seem to a part of Lord Robbins vocabulary.

Let’s talk about that $43,000 that Bob spent on the write-in campaign. First, I find it despicable that he can throw around that kind of money to retain his senator role, pension, and countless perks, and what is the unemployment rate in Mercer County? Is $43,000 higher than the average salary of Mercer County?

Do you trust someone who uses his campaign fund as if it was a household checking account? I do not, and allow me to share information that I had an occasion to seek out back in 2008. When I ran for a seat on the PA GOP state committee in 2008, the Robbins threw tantrums, made threats, and generally acted undignified and downright evil. This made me more curious about their positions. Their behavior seemed illogical, such bitterness directed toward me over the #3 state committee spot?

The state elections board provides public access to candidate campaign reports, so I reviewed those of Robbins during an 18-month period, and was surprised to discover the following:

Bob Robbins reimbursed himself from his campaign fund, over an 18 month period, more than $25,000 in MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES. In essence, this is Bob’s slush fund for unvouchered expenses. (You may recall his dark-of-night vote for a pay raise AND unvouchered freebie money from taxpayers…money to be used to remodel his wife’s kitchen?) This “Miscellaneous Expenses” category from Bob’s campaign fund is Bob’s pocket money, in my view. No one but Pay-Raise Bob would have the audacity to be reimbursed for over $1,000 at a crack for “Miscellaneous”.

In addition, during this 18 month period, Bob spent over $20,000 at SAM’S CLUB!! What type of campaign expenses would require this excessive expenditure? The Robbins are known to be cheap, and ask for food donations from others for his events. Is it possible that the Robbins also use this campaign fund as a personal grocery fund? It does make one wonder. Let’s not forget that the only goal of the Duke of Arrogance, Bob Robbins, is to spend other people’s money. He could care less about helping the voters of Mercer County, “regardless of their political affiliation.”

It is my opinion, which is shared by many, and growing, that Bob Robbins displays a trend of self-serving and untrustworthy behavior term after term, and his fiscal irresponsibility is only outweighed by his egotistical, arrogant behavior. We all must remember his trip to the Virgin Islands, initially funded by taxpayers, and quickly corrected by Robbins when he was caught chiseling the taxpayers.

Mercer County voters, regardless of their political affiliation, deserve better than Bob Robbins. We deserve a senator that we can trust and we can believe when his or her lips are moving.

Topics for Future Posts (stay tuned please):

Examples of Pay-Raise Bob’s Pathological Super-Arrogance

Part II - Bob’s Outrage about the GOP State Committee, including quote from Bob toward me, “I’ll bring out the artillery against you.” I continue to view this as a disturbing threat and gives me pause as to what this less-than-mediocre state senator, and his henchmen, are capable of.

Part III - Bob’s Interference about an Inquiry Concerning the Young Republicans and its Sex Offender Co-Founder, including the smug quote from Bob, “You can’t do anything without my finding out about it a half hour later.” Lord Bob has a Napoleon complex, for sure!

Part IV - Bob’s Obsessive Control of Local Politics and Closed Shop Attitude - “No minorities or women need apply.”

The state legislature is huge and expensive...but where is Bob Robbins?

2010-07-15T14:08:00.028-04:00

Of all the reasons to vote Bob Robbins out of office this year--and there are plenty--one of the biggest is his utter failure to commit to downsizing the state legislature. There is a great deal of support for the idea; in fact, a recent grand jury investigation concluded, among other things, that Pennsylvania's state lawmakers simply aren't doing full-time jobs--even though they get paid as if they do. For instance, the grand jury report showed that lawmakers in 2010 only had 30 active session days--from January until May of this year. The grand jury also recommended term limits, elimination of "per diem" accounts for state representatives, and new ethics standards regarding legislative staff taking paid leave to work on campaigns.

If Bob Robbins were a conservative--heck, if he had any fiscal common sense at all--he would support all of these reforms, and then some.

But, of course, we know that Sen. Robbins cares nothing about reforming Harrisburg. His record shows a complete lack of dedication or support for reform measures.

When I asked him, via an email query this past June, whether his staffers had taken paid leave to work on his campaign, I received a terse reply, directing me to some obscure office in Harrisburg. Why couldn't Robbins have just answered the question himself? Or is his huge staff--his website lists 11 people working in three different offices--that hard to keep track of?

It shouldn't be. In fact, we shouldn't have career politicians like Bob Robbins at all. While Pennsylvanians remain unemployed, and at particularly high rates in Mercer County, Sen. Robbins is grabbing all he can get for himself (not to mention voting for a "budget" that pulls future revenues out of thin air).

You would think that, by now, Bob Robbins would have figured out that his constituency wants to see government reformed. We need efficiency in Harrisburg. Other states have part-time legislatures, and they not only do just fine, they actually work harder and get more done. Texas, as big as it is, has a part-time legislature, for instance.

Why hasn't Bob Robbins spoken out in support of the recent grand jury findings? Why won't he answer simple questions about how his staff gets paid? The only thing that taxpayers can conclude is that Robbins just wants to keep things as they are. The grand jury report stated that moving to a part-time legislature would save 10 million dollars in lawmakers' salaries alone.

How can any state lawmaker, in good conscience, not back these recommendations? We can only imagine that Sen. Robbins, with a disgraceful lust for money, just doesn't care if he makes more than twice the area's median salary for only doing a part-time job. But he's the one that has to look voters in the eye and tell them why he is silent on reforming Harrisburg.

That's a message that, this year of all years, proves without a doubt that Bob Robbins isn't listening to us.

Anger rising over Mercer County school boards' spending

2010-07-08T13:06:00.011-04:00

If a recent flurry of letters to The Herald is any indicator, Mercer County residents are increasingly angry at school boards. Out of touch with economic reality, school board members across the county have raised taxes for property owners and bumped already exorbitant salaries for wealthy school administrators. Even the left-leaning Herald editorial board is in on the criticism; an Op-Ed essay urged taxpayers to "rise up and say they aren't going to take it anymore."

I expect that fiscal conservatives will indeed assert themselves, starting with municipal elections next year. School board seats will be lost by incumbents who have placed administrative salary increases before the interests of Mercer County residents, many of whom are struggling to pay the bills they already have. Here in Grove City, where I live, people are already urging me to mount a school board campaign based first and foremost on cutting the school budget and freezing administrative salaries in particular.

It's a position I have long advocated: schools should not raise taxes, then turn around and hand out salary increases to principals and administrators, many of whom make as much as 3-4 times the county's median salary. For years I have equated property taxes to legalized theft. If you must pay a tax each year on a house that you "own," then you don't really own your house, do you? You are renting it from the government. Home ownership should be one of the tenets of a free society, a bedrock of liberty in our communities. There should be no recurring property tax. I also agree with the Herald's praise of West Middlesex school board member Tom Hubert, who was the lone holdout against administrative raises in that school district.

Yet there is another side to the school budget mess. The state has done next to nothing to remedy the rising property tax debacle. Instead, our "leaders" in Harrisburg have chosen to ignore the issue, forcing localities to fend for themselves in funding schools. How long has Sen. Bob Robbins been in Harrisburg? And why has he done absolutely nothing to reform the state budget and possibly shore up new sources of revenue for local school districts?

Roberta Biros, our independent candidate for the state senate, said on this very blog that school districts and local municipalities need to balance their own budgets, not expect dysfunctional Harrisburg to get its spending priorities in order. I agree with this. I also think there is an answer to the wastefulness of our entrenched state-level politicians who care more about getting elected than about making tough, smart fiscal decisions: we should vote those politicians out of office.

Irresponsible school board members will fall in next year's election, of that I am sure. For instance, I'll do my part to make sure longtime tax-and-spenders like Grove City school board members Bob Montgomery and Jim Crow are voted out, once and for all.

Yet Mercer County voters can do something this year to ensure that fiscal responsibility returns to government. Replacing Robbins with Mrs. Biros is the first step to real reform. Roberta has made top-down fiscal conservatism a top priority. So let's put Roberta Biros at the top, and be done with Bob Robbins for good.

Read The Herald's anti-taxes essay here

Read about the Roberta Biros plan for more responsible government here

PA 2010 State Budget Passes Senate and House: An Example of Spending Money that We Don’t Have

2010-07-01T11:17:00.003-04:00

For the first time in his ‘reign’ as Governor, Ed Rendell has a budget that passed through the State House and Senate before the June 30th deadline. Congratulations Governor Rendell! Congratulations, too, to the 37 Senators and 177 Representatives that signed on to that “pile of garbage” that they called a State Budget.

Why is it a pile of garbage? . . . Because it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Our legislature is REQUIRED BY LAW to pass a balanced budget. The budget that passed the House and Senate yesterday is balanced on federal funds that don’t yet exist and a tax on the extraction of Marcellus Shale natural gas that has yet to be passed. In essence, “the budget stands for nothing” . . . which is appropriate since that is also the case with many of our legislators.

Who is to blame?

The opportunity to STOP the budget was in the Republican controlled Senate. The budget bill passed the State Senate by a vote of 37 to 13. There were only 13 Senators that did the right thing by voting NO to this example of fiscal irresponsibility. What about the Senate leadership? Here are their votes . . . for the record.

REPUBLICANS

YES - Joseph B. Scarnati III (President of the Senate)
YES - Dominic Pileggi (Majority Floor Leader)
YES - Michael Waugh (Majority Caucus Chair)
YES - Robert Robbins (Majority Caucus Secretary)
YES - Jake Corman (Majority Appropriations Committee Chair)
YES - Patrick M. Browne (Majority Caucus Administrator)
YES - Edwin Erickson (Majority Policy Committee Chair)

DEMOCRATS

YES - Roberta Mellow (Minority Floor Leader)
YES - Michael O’Pake (Minority Whip)
YES - Vincent Hughes (Minority Caucus Chair)
YES - Sean Logan (Minority Caucus Secretary)
YES - Jay Costa (Minority Appropriations Committee Chair)
YES - Christine Tartaglione (Minority Caucus Administrator)
YES - Richard Kasunic (Minority Policy Committee Chair)

THIS PROVES that the Senate leadership MUST change . . . one way or another!

The budget bill passed the State House by a vote of 117 to 84. This is not a shock seeing that the House is controlled by Rendell Democrats. What is shocking in this number, however, is that 16 Republicans voted WITH the Rendell Democrats in order to achieve a supermajority which was required to waive a rule requiring 24 hours’ notice before a bill is voted.

If you would like to see how your Senators and Representatives voted, please refer to the voting records below:

June 30 Budget Vote in Senate is HERE
June 30 Budget Vote in House is HERE

What about Northwest PA?

MOST of the legislators from our region in Northwest Pennsylvania agree with my views on the budget, and MOST of them voted against the budget bill yesterday. Specifically . . .

Mercer County Legislators

Representative Michele Brooks (R) - NO
Representative Dick Stevenson (R) - NO
Representative Mark Longietti (D) - YES
Senator Bob Robbins (R) – YES

Crawford County Legislators

Representative John Evans (R) – NO
Representative Brad Roae (R) – NO
Representative Michele Brooks (R) – NO
Senator Bob Robbins (R) – YES

Republican Representatives (and Conservatives) Michele Brooks, Dick Stevenson, John Evans, and Brad Roae all did the RIGHT thing and voted NO to the budget.

Rendell Democrats Bob Robbins and Representative Mark Longietti voted YES to the budget. Representative Mark Longietti did what his caucus told him to do . . . in the end he supported his Governor and his Caucus (right or wrong). Republican Senator Bob Robbins PROVED his allegiance to the Democrats that WROTE HIM IN in the Primary (all 800 of them) and he also supported his fellow Democrat Governor and his new Caucus.

As a Republican LEADER in the Senate, Bob Robbins should be ashamed of himself. Even more important, his CONSTITUENTS should be angry with him. It shows that he was more concerned with getting rid of the “budget problem” in an election year that he was with standing on principles of good government and fiscal responsibility.

In press releases that were sent out last night, Bob Robbins fellow legislators from this area made their thoughts about the budget clear . . .

Representative Michele Brooks stated:

“Although this budget was passed on time – as it should be – it falls short to earn my support. I have many serious concerns about funding allocations and the source of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.”

“Many of us have concerns regarding whether this budget is constitutionally balanced as it relies heavily on $850 million in funding from the federal government, which has not yet been approved by Congress and there are some doubts whether it will be approved. It also has a structural deficit of approximately $3 billion.”

Representative Brad Roae stated:

“State budgets are about priorities,” Roae said. “This budget sets the wrong priorities for Pennsyvlania.”

“This budget literally spends money the state doesn’t have,” Roae said. “This budget is based on the hope of a federal bailout for the state. If the federal government runs up the deficit to pay for this bailout, taxpayers will be paying for it for years to come.”

“This budget doesn’t reflect my priorities and it certainly doesn’t reflect the wishes
of the people I represent,” Roae said. “We needed to reduce spending due to the recession, but the cuts in this budget weren’t applied fairly. This budget sets up huge tax increases or painful spending cuts for next year. I simply could not support a budget that is this irresponsible.”

According to these statements, it seems to me that the conservative legislators that represent our area need help to fight for fiscal responsibility in Harrisburg . . . and they are not getting that from their own Senator. Hmmmmmm.

Where do I stand on the subject?

Anyone that voted FOR this budget made a conscious effort to pull the wool over the eyes of taxpayers. This is not a VALID budget . . . no matter how you look at it.

It is the responsibility of our legislators to make certain that the state government does not spend beyond its means. If we don’t have the money, we ought not to be spending it. Federal dollars that simply aren’t there should not be considered in the calculations, and tax revenues from Marcellus Shale should NOT be considered in the equations either. IF the tax on Marcellus Shale extraction is pushed through (in October), it will be the worst fiscal decision in Pennsylvania . . . ever!

If I were the Senator in Pennsylvania’s 50th District, I would have voted NO to yesterday’s budget. I would have continued to vote NO until the budget was actually balanced on REAL numbers. More importantly, I would have been pushing for these changes back in February and March . . . when budget negotiations SHOULD have been taking place. Waiting until the 11th hour so that they can push through the equivalent of a legislative joke is shameful.

I usually sign off by stating "as alway, just my opinion". Today it is important that I sign off by stating the following:

This is not just my opinion. It is my official statement.

Roberta Biros
Editor, Mercer County Conservatives

Kelly's New Campaign Manager a Telling Choice

2010-06-25T10:24:00.011-04:00

For nascent GOP congressional challenger Mike Kelly, the moderate connections are everywhere. Kelly appointed a new campaign manager this week. According to an article published at pa2010.com, a political blog, Kelly has chosen Josh Snyder to run Kelly's campaign for Pennsylvania's 3rd District.

It's a telling choice.

Kelly has run on a centrist platform from the beginning. According to the pa2010 article, Mr. Snyder was most recently an executive director for none other than Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania's recently deposed party-switching U.S. Senator. Snyder also worked for--no surprise here--Phil English, whom current 3rd District congressional rep Kathy Dahlkemper ousted 2 years back.

Clearly, Snyder has been brought aboard to try to shore up support for Kelly in Erie, where Dahlkemper is from. Kelly was crushed in Erie County during the May GOP primary.

Yet his continual moves to the political center--appointing Specter/English man Snyder being just the latest example--may backfire on Kelly. For instance, in the spring primary Mercer County voted overwhelmingly for Dr. Martha Moore, a candidate who was considerably to Kelly's right on nearly every major policy position. Erie is a big prize indeed, but if Kelly spends too much time trying to campaign there he could be vulnerable in the rest of the district--and the car salesman from Butler may never garner the Erie support necessary to overcome Dahly's home court advantage there.

You would think that Kelly would move right, in order to distinguish himself not just from Kathy Dahlkemper, but from Phil English. Instead, Kelly is looking more and more like English every day. It was a losing formula in 2008. With much of the electorate moving to the right (witness the solid GOP primary support for hardline social conservative Clayton Grabb, in addition to Dr. Moore's dominance in Mercer County), Kelly is making a huge gamble. If district voters feel that Kelly = English, and conservatives shun the polls in November, then Mike Kelly might be toast.

A Message from Mike Kelly: Good Luck with That!

2010-06-21T15:24:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I received an email message from the Mike Kelly campaign. It was an abrupt little message providing contact information for the “new” campaign team (the old contacts were all fired . . . dismissed . . . let go . . . kicked to the curb). The message also provided instructions for publicizing Mike’s latest “letter to the editor”. There was no courteous “hi there” from Mike or his new campaign people . . . just instructions and marching orders.

Here is Mike’s letter in its entirety:

Editor:

Now that the dust has settled, I wanted to write and acknowledge the voters, volunteers, and ther candidates who played a role in the 3rd Congressional district's Primary Election. As you ll know, it was a hotly contested battle for the Republican nomination and I am both humbled and flattered to be moving forward on the General Election ballot. My wife Vicky and I want to thank the other candidates for a spirited campaign, the voters who participated, our tremendous volunteers for all their hard work, and the media outlets for recognizing the importance of the race and giving the candidates the opportunity to share his and her views on the issues that families in western Pennsylvania care most about.

The other five candidates in the Primary deserve our respect and admiration. They are all patriots who have a deep concern for our country's future and they showed their passion by coming forward and getting their names on the ballot. They, like me, worked tirelessly for months to earn the support of voters in all of the district's seven counties. Because of them, I am a better candidate and, it is my hope, that we are a stronger party. To those of you who supported someone other than me during the Primary, I plan on making a similar effort to earn your support moving forward.
What we have learned throughout this process is that there is far more that unites us than separates us.

While I will work tirelessly to unite the Republican Party, our message is an inclusive one that I hope will appeal to people regardless of party affiliation. You don't have to be a Republican or Democrat to oppose deficit spending. You don't have to be a Republican or a Democrat to support policies and initiatives that will lower our unemployment rate in western Pennsylvania. You don't have to be a Republican or Democrat to say "no" to additional Wall Street bailouts and nationalized health care. These are quality-of-life issues that should be party-blind and I will campaign accordingly by reaching-out to like-minded Democrats and Independents throughout the district. This election isn't about party or geography. Instead, it's about the direction of our country. It's about how the policies of this administration and congress have adversely affected western Pennsylvania.

Between now and November I look forward to visiting your communities, hearing your concerns, and building relationships in all seven of the counties that make up our Congressional district. I have a lot of work to do and can assure you that I am up to the task. Together, I am confident that we can get western Pennsylvania, and our country, back on the right track.
Thank you,
Mike Kelly
Republican Candidate for Congress

Now, for my response to Mike’s letter:

First, the email that I received wasn’t even the slightest bit friendly or polite. It was strictly instructions. It was an interesting way to try to get the press onto the Kelly bandwagon . . . reverse psychology of some type I suppose. “Good luck with that”, Mike.

Second, I find it funny that Mike Kelly decided to contact and thank the other five candidates in the race through a letter to the editor. Sort of odd, don’t you think? It would seem that a personal call from Mike would be more appropriate, but I guess that isn’t Mike’s style either. It seems to imply that Mike doesn’t consider the other five (5) candidates OR their supporters to be very important. Again I say, “good luck with that”.

Third, Mike states that he is not trying to unite conservatives, but instead is attempting to unite Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. It would be a great move if I believed it, but it sounds like the words of a politician . . . not a leader or public servant.

He states “it isn’t about party or geography”, but I’d like to disagree. Mike’s priorities should VERY MUCH be about GEOGRAPHY. Since the Primary, Mike has been everywhere BUT northwestern Pennsylvania. In true RINO fashion, Mike’s attention has been spent in Washington DC . . . with no interest in healing the wounds in the 3rd Congressional District that were left after the Primary. Mike is a “DC Guy” now I suppose, but I would warn that he ought not to count those chickens too prematurely (if you know what I mean).

Mike Kelly’s new image as a Phil English Republican is not going to fair well with Republicans, Democrats, or Independents in our cozy little corner of Northwestern Pennsylvania. In case Mike was unaware, Phil English LOST because voters in the 3rd Congressional District were tired of big spending, selfish politicians. I wouldn’t be so quick to harness my horse to the “Phil English” wagon, but that is a choice that Mike needs to make. After all, this election is Mike’s to lose. The only person that might advise Mike Kelly to tie himself to Phil English would be none other than “Phil English” himself, but surely Mike Kelly is smarter than that . . . right?

In closing I say to Mike Kelly and his new team . . . “Good luck with that”.

As always, just my opinion.
~Roberta Biros, Editor of Mercer County Conservatives

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Event Announcement: Mercer Tea Party July 3rd!

2010-06-21T11:02:00.005-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Mark your calendars now for the next Mercer County Tea Party! The number of attendees has grown with each TEA Party in Mercer, and we want to break records again. So tell your friends and neighbors and y'all come down to the Mercer County Courthouse on July 3rd!

Where: Mercer County Courthouse

When: Saturday, July 3rd, Music begins at 9:30am, Program begins at 10am

What: Excellent Speakers with Timely Subjects

Who: Concerned Citizens and Patriots of every persuasion are invited to attend

BRING CHAIRS, FAMILY, FRIENDS, SIGNS, AND (MAYBE) AN UMBRELLA!

This program is FREE and open to the public!

Please Join Us to Celebrate the United States of America

To share this announcement with friends, copy the link below:

http://mercerconservatives.blogspot.com/2010/06/event-announcement-mercer-tea-party.html

OR, download the event poster (PDF format) and forward it by email or print it out and distribute.

Conservative Representation: How do we get there from here?

2010-06-14T10:32:00.002-04:00

For nearly two years I’ve been THE author for Mercer County Conservatives. For those of you that read my writings on a regular basis, you realize that I’m a frustrated conservative that is aggravated by corrupt political leaders in our northwest corner of Pennsylvania. The Mercer County GOP is lead by career politicians who are only concerned with their pensions, perks, and unlimited shopping sprees to Sam’s Club (with campaign donations none-the-less). They protect their positions of power in the way that a mama bear protects her cub . . . but they don’t care much about the big picture (i.e., good government).
If you spend a little time observing politics in our fine county, you find that the greed and corruption is not one-sided. The leaders of the Mercer County GOP and the Mercer County Democrats are so closely tied that they are indistinguishable from one another. How can such a relationship ever achieve conservative representation for our area? Good question.

This year, political pundits have been focused on our NW corner of PA. The high-profile race for a Republican nominee in the 3rd Congressional District (who will eventually run against Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper in November) has brought a much-needed spotlight to our area. We were blessed with six interesting candidates in the race, and conservatives were energized by the prospect of having a candidate that they could really get behind. Unfortunately, in the end, the campaign became more about money and mud slinging than conservative issues. The best and most qualified candidates were left in the shadows while the two candidates with the most money battled it out in nasty TV commercials and glossy mailers.

Like many of my fellow conservatives in the area, I was left disappointed on election night when none of my favorite horses in the race ended up in the winner’s circle. While I’m still determined to see Kathy Dahlkemper unseated in November, some of my conservative friends have walked away angry and kicking the dirt. As observers, we all suffer from various levels of disappointment, but what about the candidates who dedicated themselves to the fight for good government?

It is my pleasure to present to you today an article from the newest contributor to Mercer County Conservatives, Dr. Martha Moore. Dr. Moore is a conservative woman who tossed her hat into the ring for the 3rd Congressional race in early 2010. She had a slow start, but she began to pickup speed and got very comfortable in the race by mid-April. Unfortunately, she peaked too late to get sufficient support across the 3rd District. She did, however, win Mercer County handily (a small victory for conservatives in the area). She was not the overall highest vote getter in the District, but she managed to build a following of dedicated fans during her short race (yes, I became an official member of the Dr. Moore fan club by early May). Now that the Primary is behind us, Dr. Moore has agreed to share her thoughts about the race, as well her opinions regarding politics in general. Dr. Moore shares her opinions about how we might get back on the right track toward conservative representation. Enjoy!

"Hindsight is 20/20" by Dr. Martha Moore

If you are interested in becoming a contributor to Mercer County Conservatives, email me (roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com) and I'll be glad to set you up to share your thoughts in this forum.

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Conservatism Nowhere to be Found on GC School Board

2010-06-14T09:41:00.012-04:00

Grove City is, for the most part, known as a conservative town. Republicans outnumber Democrats here by about 4 to 1; in a county that has a registered majority of Democrats, Grove City has historically been a bedrock of support for conservative candidates--especially for local offices.

Except when it comes to the Grove City Area School Board, it seems.

The GC school district's newly proposed budget includes a 2.01 mill tax increase, as well as a 3.1% raise for "non-union staff," including superintendents and principals. Dr. Robert Post (pictured, right) is the district superintendent, and his salary is already at $127,000 per year. His assistant, Tom Bell, makes $107,000. The various district principals currently make twice the area's median salary, and some make much more.

The proposed tax increase alone is preposterous, of course. Mercer County's unemployment rate, according to a recent Sharon Herald article, ranks third-worst in the state. Locally, the Grove City GE plant has laid off hundreds of workers who have yet to be recalled. Foreclosures of homes are at historic highs.

Yet the nine members of the Grove City Area School Board have yet to find their inner economic conservatism. Instead, we see another tax increase, another automatic raise for already-overpaid administrators, and not even a single outspoken advocate on the school board for freezing tax rates and salaries--let alone cutting them.

My libertarian soul grows weary of local school districts in Mercer County. Great lip service is often paid to social conservatism, including prayers before board meetings, but commitment to fiscal responsibility appears non-existent. Dr. Post went so far as to tell the Allied News recently that he would advocate not filling teacher vacancies as a first measure, should money run short. Shockingly, Post said nothing about cutting his own salary, choosing to threaten the well-being of students rather than take a pay cut himself. It makes little sense that the district is both short of funds, necessitating a tax increase, but yet somehow finds more money to dole out to the district's richest employees.

Our local school districts all need to take a look at reality. The reality right now is that there are still many Mercer County residents without jobs, elderly folks struggling to keep their homes, and working people who can't pay the taxes they already have. It is far time that Mercer County school boards, including Grove City, wake up and begin to balance their budgets, just like residents have to.

Jason Reeher is the Democratic Committeeman-Elect for Grove City's Ward 2.

Hindsight is 20/20

2010-06-13T21:42:00.005-04:00

Hindsight is 20/20. Now that my mind has cleared after the primary election and have reviewed the results, I have realized that we conservative candidates shot ourselves in the foot. If you add up the votes for Steve, Clayton and me it totals over 18,000 votes and we would have a conservative candidate to go against “Nancy” Dahlkemper. Maybe if the three of us had played rock, scissors, paper and those not winning agreed to combine efforts, resources and staffs with the winner, we would have sailed easily to victory! But hindsight is . . .

Instead, we have a RINO, who has given money to democratic opponents of conservative candidates. On the night of the election I called to congratulate Mike Kelly and offered to help and later left a message again offering to help his campaign. I have heard nothing. Abraham Lincoln said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Mike should have contacted each of us and offered each one a position in his campaign. Since I heard nothing from Mike, I have now committed to another campaign for the fall. Rumor is he has gone to Phil English for help. Nothing against Phil but Phil lost to Dahlkemper and while may have been a conservative in 1994, he long ago became too political to serve the constituents of the 3rd district and now is what, a lobbyist! Don’t get me wrong, I will vote for Mike Kelly, but he is at risk of having many of the conservatives stay home and therefore risks losing to Dahlkemper. And that unfortunately, is not good for the United States.

Now, a comment on running negative campaigns. Nobody seems to like them but they, unfortunately, often work. I had many people tell me how disgusted they were with the Kelly/Huber fight. But they were the top two vote getters. Almost 30,000 voters were not disgusted enough. Obama ran a very negative campaign against Bush and McCain refused to say anything negative about Obama and in the end had no chance. I am not saying we should run negative campaigns, but as long as the voters reward those who do, we who don’t want to run negatively will not have much of a chance.

Being new in politics, I am learning something new just about every day. One thing I have learned through this primary process is that the Mercer County GOP is quite dysfunctional. It seems to me that many are more interested in what is best for them and not what is best for the county, the districts and the country. I definitely got the feeling from the entrenched, that I had not “earned the right” to run for congress. Yet with almost no help from the GOP, I was able to impressively win the county. And that was with two other candidates getting a lot of help from the Mercer GOP.

The political parties are meaning less and less these days. We, conservatives, must stay together and stand together. So after much investigation and inquiry, I have signed on with Roberta Biros to help her defeat the long entrenched Robbins duo. Bob Robbins has equalized the playing field by running his write-in campaign as a democrat. Not to mention spending/wasting a lot of money in the process. Remember, the political parties have become meaningless. We definitely must look at the person, who they are and what they stand for, in this and every race. Tough times are ahead. WAKE UP conservatives, the status quo is not sustainable. We must not go with the flow. I discussed negative campaigns in a previous paragraph and I imagine we have seen nothing yet! This will be nasty, nasty, nasty. But Roberta and her husband have proven that they can take it with a smile on their faces. Now we conservatives must stand up and support other conservatives and invite others to join us. When we stand together arm in arm the opposition will have less power. We don’t want to have to learn from hindsight again, do we? So come join the fight.

How Bob Robbins has Failed Us

2010-06-09T10:36:00.009-04:00

It is telling that State Senator Bob Robbins (50th district) is officially now both a Republican and a Democrat. The career politician has cared little about reforming Harrisburg. Instead of crafting bold policies that would save taxpayers money, Robbins is constantly in campaign mode, always on the lookout for himself and how he can stay in office. Despite his high-ranking position in the Senate, Robbins has failed to provide any meaningful policy initiatives.

But just how badly has Bob Robbins failed us? Let us count just a few of the ways:

-Robbins has done nothing to reform the massively wasteful Pennsylvania Department of Transportation; in addition, years after tolls should have ended, riders on the PA Turnpike continue to pay exorbitant fees, much of which goes toward paying above-market labor costs for toll collectors.

-Robbins refuses to introduce badly-needed legislation that would reduce the size of the legislature itself. Pennsylvania is about 1/4 the size of Texas, yet Texas passes more legislation than the Keystone State, and with a part-time legislature to boot, according to a Commonwealth Foundation study.

-Robbins continues to dole out state pork (also known as taxpayers' money) as if it were his own private piggy bank. He engineered a shameful $700,000 grant to the Borough of Grove City for downtown revitalization (also known as new bricks in the sidewalks), despite the fact that the borough never even requested the money. More recently, Robbins has bragged about securing over $100,000 in "Growing Greener" grants for such pressing issues as "the formation of the Cool Spring Creek Watershed Association."

-Robbins is nowhere to be found on job creation. Other than inflated figures for jobs he has purported help to create through state grants-- we know that income redistribution actually destroys, rather than creates jobs, of course--Robbins has not led even one single policy initiative to aid small businesses or to ease the state's regulatory burdens on business owners.

It has become more clear than ever that Robbins is simply about staying in office as long as possible, but little else. We'll never have sensible reform in Harrisburg while Bob Robbins remains our state senator.

Headlines: It will be Robbins (R/D) vs. Biros (I) and Brooks loses to Frederick in Mercer County

2010-06-02T10:25:00.001-04:00

According to the Mercer County Elections Bureau website, the final tally for write-in votes in Mercer County for the key races for 50th District Senate and 17th District Representative were as follows:

Art Allen: 532
Bob Robbins: 498

ART ALLEN beat BOB ROBBINS in Mercer County AND Allen received sufficient votes to win the nomination. However, the numbers must also include Crawford (as well as parts of Lawrence and Butler Counties). I called Crawford County this morning and their numbers were as follows:

Art Allen: 162
Bob Robbins: 242

Making the grand total for the two key counties:

Art Allen: 694
Bob Robbins: 740

These numbers do not take into account portions of Lawrence and Crawford, but IF THESE NUMBERS ARE CERTIFIED, it seems that Bob Robbins will have won the Democrat nomination for November. This will mean that Robbins name will appear as an R/D on the ballot. In a year when people are sick of politics as usual, Bob Robbins has proved that he is a “politician as usual”. His Arlen-esque move may be one of the biggest mistakes in Mercer County political history.

Let us now talk about the second write-in race that was going on . . . the race between write-in Democrat candidate Kathy Frederick and Republican/Democrat Michele Brooks. According to the Mercer County Elections Bureau website, the final tally in this race was:

Kathy Frederick: 147
Michele Brooks: 145

KATHY FREDERICK beat MICHELE BROOKS in Mercer County. Kathy Frederick had a two-day campaign and spent NO money . . . and Michele Brooks (an incumbent State Representative) who spent time and money (including robocalls) could not get enough votes to beat Ms. Frederick in her home county. Hmmmmmm.

I called Crawford County this morning and their numbers were as follows:

Kathy Frederick: 5
Michele Brooks: 96

Making the grand total for the two key Counties:

Kathy Frederick 152
Michele Brooks: 241

These numbers do not take into account a portion of Lawrence , but IF THESE NUMBERS ARE CERTIFIED, it seems that Michele Brooks DID NOT receive a sufficient number of write in votes to have her name listed as a Republican AND a Democrat in November. There will be no R/D beside Ms. Brooks name. DRAT! Wouldn’t it have been an interesting sight? That’s OK, Ms. Brooks showed a special level of desperation in even making the attempt, and it seems that she may now be damaged in having failed in her attempt. Again, I say Hmmmmmm.

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Become a Mercer Conservative Contributor: Cutting through the political red tape one blog post at a time

2010-06-01T08:45:00.004-04:00

I have been writing political commentary on this blog since our beginning in October of 2008. As of today I have published a grand total of 348 posts in a number of categories, but everyone was carefully crafted to provide important information or to stir interest in governmental issues related to the northwest corner of Pennsylvania.

Today, Mercer County Conservatives is taking a big step by expanding to a team of contributors. Over the coming weeks, our select team of authors will begin to publish original content on this blog in an attempt to broaden the reach and impact of this forum.

If you are interested in becoming a contributor, contact me by email at roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com. I will review your request and determine if you would be a positive addition to the team!

Keep an eye on Mercer County Conservatives as it branches out in new directions.

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Doing the 3rd Congressional District Math: Mike Kelly vs. Kathy Dahlkemper

2010-05-31T20:50:00.001-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

The Primary Election is now past . . . seemingly long past. The election results are technically still “unofficial”, but we all know what happened. Allow me to summarize briefly . . .

Dahlkemper vs. Marin

In the race for the highly coveted 3rd Congressional District, the top vote getter on the Democrat ticket was Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper. She won her race against a not-so-impressive opponent in Mel Marin. Mrs. Dahlkemper ended up with 73.2% of the vote. Most interesting about this race was that Mel Marin managed to have 26.8% of the voters select his name over the current incumbent, which is symbolic of the number of DEMOCRATS that don’t support “their candidate”.

That means that roughly 27% of Democrats preferred to vote for “anyone but Kathy Dahlkemper”.

Kelly vs. Huber, Grabb, Fisher, Franz, and Moore

On the Republican ticket, six candidates battled it out for the nomination. The “unofficial” winner was Mike Kelly. The stunning statistic in this case is that Kelly managed the win with only 28.2% of the vote. That means that roughly 72% of Republicans preferred to vote for “anyone but Mike Kelly”. In the end, Mike Kelly’s actual vote count was only slightly higher than that of the Democrat candidate, Mel Marin. Hmmmm. Sort of makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

What does all of this mean?

When the final votes were tallied, 27% of Democrat votes and 72% of Republican votes are up for grabs in November. That is a huge number and it makes the race a difficult one to call.

I’ll be the first one to say that Kathy Dahlkemper has an enormous uphill battle to win re-election for her second term, but it is only fair to say that Mike Kelly isn’t going to have an easy job ahead of him either. This race IS NOT a gimme!

Mike Kelly has a very difficult task ahead of him. The very heated race for the Republican nomination left “the right” fractured. There were six really great candidates, and the supporters of each of those six campaigns were extremely loyal to “their guy” (or “gal”). In the end there are six different camps that need to be united. If Mike Kelly fails to be a “uniter”, he will also fail to beat Kathy Dahlkemper in November.

Mike Kelly’s campaign became a very public and personal battle with Paul Huber (the #2 vote getter). The negative attacks that transpired will be difficult for Huber supporters to shake off. They will NOT be inspired to get out to vote for Mike Kelly in the General Election without a HUGE effort on Mike Kelly’s part.

Grabb, Fisher, Franz, and Moore supporters were also left feeling empty in the end. Each of these four candidates managed to inspire their conservative supporters in their own ways, and those conservatives will find it difficult to get behind Kelly whole-heartedly. Again, without a very serious effort from Mike Kelly to court conservatives, those conservatives might decide to stick with “the enemy that they know” in Kathy Dahlkemper. This is a very dangerous possibility, and if Kelly isn’t considering it he deserves to lose in November.

Mike Kelly needs to motivate disenfranchised conservatives to support him, and he must also entice disgruntled Democrats to choose him over Kathy Dahlkemper. I realize that it is still early, but so far I’ve seen nothing of Mike Kelly . . . I mean nothing . . . like he disappeared off the face of the Earth!

Mike Kelly needs to act quickly or he risks losing the interest of concerned citizens. If things continue on their current path, Kathy Dahlkemper will be our Congresswoman again in November.

As always, just my opinion.

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Wrapping Up the Primary with a Bow (and moving towards November)

2010-05-23T17:55:00.003-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

First, I must apologize. I have been out of commission for TOOOOO long. It has taken me far too much time to sit down and write this post, but I do have a good excuse . . . I’ve been sick. As many of you know I caught a bad cold a few weeks ago and I lost my voice (my husband hasn’t complained). I then worked the polls in the rain on Election Day and I made things worse. I’ve been sick in bed and I’m only just now getting back on my feet. I’ve been struggling to catch up.

I’ve got a great deal of material to cover so I might as well get started. Without further adieu . . .

Primary Election: 3rd Congressional District Democrat Ticket

Congresswoman Dahlkemper is up for re-election, and it has been my guess that she will have a real job of it this year. Mrs. Dahlkemper was up against Mel Marin of Erie for the Democrat nomination in the Primary. Mr. Marin has a bit of a questionable background (read more HERE) and he was running with a war chest of less than $2000. Some would say that he didn’t have a chance. Surprisingly enough, however, Mr. Marin received roughly 27% of the Democrat vote in the 3rd Congressional District (30% in Erie).

Why is this information important? Well, it illustrates the number of Democrats that were unable to “hold their nose and vote for Kathy Dahlkemper”. 27% of her constituents went to the poll to vote and refused to vote for her. This could be bad news for Mrs. Dahlkemper in November, but time will tell.

Primary Election: 3rd Congressional District Republican Ticket

As many of you know, I’ve followed the 3rd Congressional Republican race in great detail over the past few months. I knew all of the candidates personally and I was anxious (and nervous) to see the final results. In the end, the grassroots candidates were unable to compete with the big money in the race. Paul Huber and Mike Kelly fought out the race with their bank accounts, and a winner was selected. The top vote getter in the race was Mike Kelly of Butler County.

It had been suggested by many that Mr. Kelly was in the pocket of Republican Party insiders, and that was illustrated on Tuesday night. Mr. Kelly was the top vote getter in the final tally of the District in the field of six great candidates. Mr. Kelly will now face a bigger challenge as he tries to find a way to compete with Congresswoman Dahlkemper in November. Once again, time will tell. We’ll be following this race closely.

Six great candidates, but only one winner.

I’ve never been quite so connected to one race with so many great candidates. I can honestly say that any one of the six Republican candidates that ran in the 3rd Congressional District would have been well deserving of the party nomination. Mr. Kelly was the final choice, but I’d like to congratulate Paul Huber, Steve Fisher, Ed Franz, Clayton Grabb, and (last but not least) Dr. Martha Moore for running amazing races. I was proud to have gotten an opportunity to get to know each and every one of them. I suspect that we will see many of these names again in the not so distant future.

Highlights?

It was a tough election, and I hated to see any of the six candidates “not win” (notice that I did not use the term ‘lose’ as there were no losers in this group). I have to admit that the personal highlight of the evening was one very important statistic. Dr. Martha Moore managed to win her home county of Mercer. Mercer Countians came out in a big way for their hometown Doc and gave her their votes by the bushel full. Dr. Moore took over 2600 votes in Mercer County with her next nearest competition over 1000 votes away. Mercer County came out to support their great Doctor and it was well deserved. After having the opportunity to get to know Dr. Moore, I became a real fan.

I have a great respect for ANYONE that is willing to run for public office, but I especially respect women that are willing to do so. Dr. Moore should serve as a role model to other conservative women out there that are saying “Enough is Enough”. She deserves a special applause all her own. Thank you Dr. Moore.

Moving on Toward the General Election

For those of you that follow Mercer County politics, you already realize that some extra excitement has been going on over the past week or so. I wrote about the extracurricular activity last week HERE and HERE. In a nutshell, here is a “blow by blow” and basic timeline of events.

I announced in April that I’d be running as an Independent for State Senate against Bob Robbins.
As a 20-year Republican incumbent, Bob Robbins decided that he may very well lose the General Election to an Independent (that’s me), so he began a VERY AGGRESSIVE campaign to get the Democratic nomination as a write in. This decision was made with County Democrats (read “Bob Lark and Associates”) and Mr. Robbins decided to spend TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars on a full-color postcard / robo-call / yard sign campaign.
When ‘real’ Democrats realized what Bob Robbins was up to they came up with their own write-in campaign in an effort to beat Bob Robbins on Election Day. Art Allen, a Mercer County Democrat, started his own write-in campaign on the Democrat ticket.
When the word got out that a Dem had bravely stepped up to run, Kathy Frederick (a Greenville Democrat) decided to start her own write-in campaign in order to get onto the Democrat ballot against Republican Representative Michele Brooks.
In a panic (and in true Robbins fashion), Michele Brooks had to open up her wallet to start her own write-in campaign against Frederick (also including robo calls) for the DEMOCRAT nomination. Ms. Brooks was also forced to get out and work the polls on Election Day (which was a refreshing sight). Michele Brooks actively running as a Democrat . . . “who would have thunk it”.

In summary, Bob Robbins and Michele Brooks decided that they both wanted to be Republicans AND Democrats this year. Demonstrating ALL THAT IS WRONG IN POLITICS, the dynamic duo has illustrated to the 17th and 50th Districts that they ARE just as bad as everyone has been saying. They have demonstrated that they are, in fact, self-serving politicians that are ONLY concerned with getting re-elected.

The votes are not yet counted and the results of the write-in wars are not yet known, but the funniest part of the story is just now beginning to hit the papers. That portion of the story is the part that includes Mercer County Democrat Chairman Bob Lark.

Last year some thought that my public “dust up” with Bob Lark was a fantasy story. It seemed like “make believe” in a fantasy world of Democrats run amuck. They couldn’t believe that the things that I had been claiming could possibly be true. No one man could be so deranged as to do the things that he does. However, this year Bob Lark has illustrated to ALL of Mercer County exactly what I’ve been claiming. He is a representative of the “Mercer County Incumbent Party” I is more concerned with elevating members of the ‘inner circle’ than the promotion of good government.

Two Democrats (Art Allen and Kathy Frederick) stepped up in an attempt to organize a last-minute write-in campaign against career politicians (Robbins of 20 years and Brooks of the first 4 of 20 years). Rather than embrace the brave souls that were willing to step up to run for office, Bob Lark . . . get this . . . I’m not kidding . . . came out and CRITICIZED THEM BOTH.

Why? What reason could he have for criticizing two willing participants in a political challenge? He was angry that they didn’t go through the standard process of getting petitions signed and running in the Primary. What? Are you kidding me? He is joking, right? For those of you that don’t realize it, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID LAST YEAR and Bob Lark didn’t like that EITHER.

So why is Mr. Lark so upset? I suggest that Mr. Lark is angry for two reasons. He admits that he was aware of Bob Robbins plan to run as a Democrat, and I think that Mr. Lark WANTED Mr. Robbins to win the nomination. He simply didn’t like that I called him out for being a willing participant (and active recruiter). The second reason that Mr. Lark is angry is that Michele Brooks WAS NOT part of that plan of his. He had made a deal with Bob Robbins (and Company) but he had made no such deal with Michele Brooks. After the write-in battle is over Mr. Lark may find himself having to support a Robbins/Brooks ticket and that simply wasn’t part of his original agreement. Unfortunately, Mr. Lark got more than he bargained for and he isn’t happy about it.

If you sit back and you look at the statements that have been made by both Robbins and Lark you have to just scratch your head. You have to stop and wonder, “what is going on here?”. Common-sense thinkers like me are stopping and saying “something doesn’t smell right”. I would suggest that your nose is not playing tricks on you. There is something seriously wrong here and we should all be wondering ‘why’.

In Closing . . .

It is important that I clear the air regarding Mr. Lark. Last year my race for County Treasurer became a game for Mr. Lark and I refuse to be caught up in it again this year. The 2010 Election for State Senate in the 50th District needs to be a focused race between me (an energetic and dedicated independent candidate with a platform for good government) and Bob Robbins (a 20-year incumbent that is running as a Republican AND Democrat who would sell his soul to the Devil if he thought that it would win him re-election).

I look forward to moving towards November with a focus on the issues and policies . . . and NOT politics.

Let the games begin!

Senator Bob Robbins and Representative Michele Brooks will BOTH Face a Write-In Battle

2010-05-16T22:02:00.010-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

Senator Bob Robbins thought he was being slick when he teamed up with Democrat Committee Chair Bob Lark to orchestrate a write-in campaign to get Bob Robbins (a REPUBLICAN Senator for 20 years) the Democrat nomination on May 18th [read the full story HERE]. Robbins made the move with the thoughts that by holding both the R and D nominations he MIGHT actually have enough votes to defeat the Independent candidate, Roberta Biros (that’s me) in November. Unfortunately, Bob Robbins failed to understand that Bob Lark does not speak for county (or district) Democrats. A good Democrat friend of mine told me once “Bob Lark controls nothing”, and it was absolutely true.

In a whirlwind of weekend activity, “actual” Democrats have managed to inspire two (2) fellow Dems to shoot for Democrat write-in nominations on Tuesday.

Art Allen vs. Robbins in the Democrat Primary?
Art Allen, who faced Robbins in 2006 and nearly won (he did win Mercer County by the way), has signed on to run his own write-in campaign for the Democrat nod. In an effort to battle Robbins for the Democrat nomination, Allen has stepped up to attempt to hinder Robbins’ attempt by pulling write-in votes for himself.

Kathy Frederick vs. Brooks in the General Election?
In a surprise twist, Greenville native Kathy Frederick has also made the decision to step up to attempt to challenge Michele Brooks in the same fashion. Representative Brooks, who is currently running unopposed in the Primary and General Elections may have an opponent in November if Frederick can get the 300 signatures that are necessary to access the Democrat ballot.

Ooooooops!

Bob Robbins showed his hand and proved that he is desperate and will do anything to protect his livelihood (and pension).

Michele Brooks’ alliance with her “friends in low places” has also managed to paint a target on her back (and, perhaps, rightly so). By so clearly aligning herself with the Robbins/Richardson regime in 2009 and 2010, Brooks has jeopardized what should have been an effortless re-election bid.

All I can say is “too sad, too bad”.

To Allen and Frederick:

I offer my best wishes and respect to both Art Allen and Kathy Frederick, and I would like to thank them for stepping up to join the fight. It is only through political challenges that we can generate interest and passion in good government.

In Closing . . .

With all respect to Art Allen, I would like to ask the Democrat readers of this blog to go ahead and write in Bob Robbins for State Senate.

Why? Have I lost my mind?

No, not in the slightest. I am thoroughly convinced that Bob Robbins has already damaged himself permanently with this Arlen-esque move* (*an old crusty lifetime politician switches parties because he’s afraid that he doesn’t have enough support in the GOP anymore). My discussions over the past several days have proven that loyal Republicans are FURIOUS regarding this move by Robbins, and Democrats are sickened by it. However, if Robbins actually achieves the “R/D” status beside his name, it will serve as a constant reminder to every voter in this district through November and on Election Day of Bob Robbins last big mistake.

In the words of Bob Lark (4/3/2009 – read HERE), perhaps Bob Robbins would like to add additional labels to his name by joining “the Green Party . . . Socialist Party . . . or Communist Party”. I’d love to see Bob Robbins name listed on the ballot with an R/D/G/S/C beside his name. It will only further prove the point that I’ve been making for well over a year . . . Bob Robbins will do anything to protect his career as a politician and in doing so manages to stand for absolutely nothing.

Democrats, please write-in Bob Robbins for State Senate . . . I welcome the addition of the R/D to his name. It will be a reminder to every voter in November of exactly WHO the incumbent is and WHO is doing the "pandering". The choice of "Roberta Biros, Independent" will be more appealing than ever.

BLOG POST UPDATE #1:

Something to think about:

CLICK HERE to view the video of Arlen Specter explaining why he switched parties. In it he states "my change in party will enable me to be re-elected". Now for 'kicks and giggles' I'd like for you to close your eyes. Close them tight and don't peek. With your eyes closed, imagine Bob Robbins face and imagine him speaking the same words. Do you see it? Is it crystal clear in your mind? Now, REMEMBER THAT and rewind it your mind. Replay it over and over again between now and November.

Other News:

The Herald has picked up the story. On the front page today, Art Allen's announcement was given top billing [read HERE]. More important, though, was the opinion piece on page A-4 by Nick Hildebrand titled "Robbins' play for Democrat votes is curious". The article (which is not available on-line) offers a side-bar head that reads "Voters fed up with business-as-usual politics are shocking establishment figures across the nation. Could they do the same in northwestern Pennsylvania?".

Hildebrand's question is a good one. In the article, Hildebrand openly questions Robbins' move by saying "Biros' chances of winning if she makes it on the ballot are slim but it's hard not to think her renegade bid to take out the veteran lawmaker may have something to do with robbin's sudden interest in the democratic nomination." Hildebrand later states "Biros may not be much of a challenge, but every vote counts."

It is refreshing to see that the media is seeing this story for exactly what it is. It is a last minute attempt for Robbins to hold onto his seat. He is scared and he is willing to do whatever is necessary (good, bad, or ugly) to win re-election.

A REMINDER FOR ELECTION DAY:

This is my blog and I suppose I should use it for some personal benefit, so HERE IT GOES.

For those of you that don't realize it, until just a few days ago I was the ONLY person in the 50th State Senate district that was interested in running against Bob Robbins. I announced my campaign plans a month ago. I'd like to remind you all that I WILL be on the ballot agaist Bob Robbins in November along with any other candidates that suddenly decide to join in on the race.

I am currently in the process of gathering the signatures required to be listed on the ballot, and those signatures will be submitted to Harrisburg at the end of July. At that time, I WILL take on Senator Robbins whether he is a "R" a "D" or a "R/D". I am an independent and I don't need to tie myself to EITHER party tag. You can learn more about me and my platform at the link below:

As I've stated in my comments, my dream ticket for November is as follows:

Robbins (R/D) vs. Biros (I)
Brooks (R) vs. Frederick (D)

To achieve that ticket, I'd like to request that you vote tomorrow as follows:

IF YOU ARE A REPUBLICAN, I would ask that you write in "Roberta Biros" for State Senate (don't vote for Bob, but give me a write-in just for fun). This will send Senator Robbins a clear sign that Republicans are NOT happy with his choice to seek the Democratic nomination. Bob will still win on the Republican ticket, but it gives Republicans a clear way to show disapproval.

IF YOU ARE A DEMOCRAT, I would ask that you write in "Bob Robbins" for State Senate. If you write-in Bob's name you'll help to guarantee my dream ticket of me taking on Senator Robbins directly (with an R/D beside his name for extra impact). If you can't stand to vote for Bob, please write-in my name just for fun (as I am not looking for the Democrat nomination). It would send a message, but it would also prevent Art Allen (the Democrat challenger) from entering the race (as it splits the vote 3 ways). It is my firm belief that Bob Robbins has permanently damaged himself with this move, and in the General Election the R/D designation beside his name will alienate concerned citizens of BOTH parties. This has only INCREASED my chances of defeating him in November.

IF YOU ARE A DEMOCRAT IN THE 17TH DISTRICT, I would ask that you write in "Kathy Frederick" for State Representative. A vote for Kathy Frederick will force Michele Brooks to work for her re-election this year. NO ONE should have an election handed to them. I think every elected official should have the opportunity to “ask for re-election” every term as a matter of principle.

"Why I want to work for you in Washington." by Steve Fisher

2010-05-14T23:25:00.007-04:00

CANDIDATE ANNOUNCEMENT

Comments by Roberta Biros:

This announcement was written by and submitted by Steve Fisher, 3rd Congressional District Republican Candidate on May 12, 2010. Representatives of his campaign asked that I publish the message in its entirety in an effort to provide full transparency to concerned citizens in the 3rd Congressional District.

Why I want to work for you in Washington.
By Steve Fisher, 3rd Congressional District Republican Candidate 05/12/10

As a husband, father and grandfather, I take very seriously the responsibility of provider and protector of my family. With your vote this Tuesday May 18, 2010, I will also make the commitment to do the same for you and your family.

I thank all veterans for protecting the freedoms that we have in the United States. One of our greatest freedoms is the freedom to serve in government and represent our fellow citizens. I am campaigning to represent you in Washington as your next U.S. Congressman. After all that we have been experiencing in Washington, I know that I will have to first earn your trust and respect before I can expect to receive your support and your vote.

I only believe in promising what I know I can deliver, therefore my promises to each of you are genuine. First, I promise that I will work harder and smarter for you and I will honestly represent all of the constituents from the seven counties in the 3rd Congressional District equally and to the best of my ability. I further promise to actually hear and listen to the concerns of all the citizens from the 3rd Congressional District. I will also promise to carefully review and understand each issue, and work hard to propose and enact common sense solutions.

I promise to understand legislation and hold it up to the criteria and values of my constituents and our Constitution before casting any votes. I also promise to serve you with honesty and integrity, and ensure greater transparency with all communications. This will include regular visits and open forums throughout the entire 3rd District.

Speaking as a common man, I promise to carry out our common cause which is to bring common sense government back to Washington. I firmly believe in our great country, and believe that we can once again be recognized as the strong nation that once commanded worldwide respect. With all that we have done throughout the world, there is no reason for us to be apologetic to any nation.

Like you, I am concerned about the lack of Fiscal Responsibility. The tax burdens placed on individuals and businesses have stifled our economy. I believe that we can do better “for our country” in creating new jobs. I believe that we can do better “for our country” to effectively manage Medicare. I believe that we can make Social Security solvent again and improve benefits for our veterans.

I believe that Homeland Security and National Defense are absolutes “for our country” and the freedoms that we cherish – including the Second Amendment; especially when we know that Americans are being recruited by terrorists to attack us from within. This will also require us to protect our borders. I believe that we can do a better job “for our country” to insure and improve educational opportunities for everyone, and that we can do a better job when reviewing any government mandates that have been established without adequate funding. We can do a better job to reduce our continued dependence on OPEC for oil and we “must” do a better job to develop alternative energy sources.

I am also concerned about health care reform and the bill that has been passed. As a health insurance agent with 26 years experience, including ten years in Managed Care Administration, I will agree that reform is needed in many areas – especially TORT reform. Unfortunately, what we have received from Washington is more of a take-over effort than it is a reform effort. If we are going to have health care reform, it must make economic sense for all Americans without sacrificing quality, restricting care, or bankrupting our country. We must also protect human life.
I am a Statesman, not a politician. Politicians are more concerned about winning elections, serving the party line, and focusing on their next campaign. We have clearly seen this with Kathy Dahlkemper. As a Statesman, I am only interested in serving the people of the 3rd Congressional District, and focusing on the future of our great country.

A true politician promises all things to everyone in order to gather votes and get elected. When a candidate pledges to already have all the answers, will they in reality be nothing more than another Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid or Barack Obama who have demonstrated their desire to have their own personal agendas completed at any and all cost? The personal agendas to pass health care reform consumed an entire legislative year while they continued to ignore America’s struggling economy and caused us to lose valuable time and many more jobs.

We are a complex society and we cannot continue with the simplistic “one size fits all” mentality of the current leadership. I also understand that a Freshman in Congress cannot just bring “all of the answers” to Washington and expect them to be immediately accepted.

While in office, I will develop relationships and work with leaders at all levels of large and small businesses including manufacturers, service companies and non-profit organizations. This interaction will allow me to listen and truly understand their needs and concerns in an effort to create quality living-wage jobs. This course of action is critical in order to avoid repeating the results of our current administration as they have preferred to act on their own agendas without the input of outside experts. By working with businesses to create jobs that pay family-sustaining wages, we will enable consumers to stimulate the economy – not the government.

This has been an interesting challenge as we are running a true grassroots campaign for the people, by the people, of the third district of Pennsylvania. It has also been very rewarding as I have met many great people throughout the seven counties, and have also developed a team of fantastic volunteers. This is a perfect time for me to give them a huge “THANK YOU!”

Please visit my website (http://www.stevefisherforcongress.com/) to learn more about me and my campaign. I ask that you vote for Steve Fisher, # 3 on the ballot for Congress, when you go to the polls on May 18th. With your support we can take back America! It will be an honor to serve you. Thank you.

Steve

Paid for by Committee to elect Steven M. Fisher for 3rd Congressional District

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Senator Bob Robbins admits that he doesn’t have enough GOP support to win re-election

2010-05-13T22:13:00.009-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

I received a gift in the mail today. As a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), I received a postcard labeled “Election Alert” (an image is included . . . click to enlarge). This urgent message from the NRA (bright orange to illustrate the “urgency”) stated that Senator Bob Robbins “needs your vote”. It goes on to state “If you are a registered Democrat, please remember to write-in BOB ROBBINS on your ballot.” It further urged again “Be sure to spread the word to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners to write-in BOB ROBBINS on Tuesday, May 18!”

What does this all mean? This means that Senator Bob Robbins, a 20-year incumbent of the Pennsylvania State Senate and a REPUBLICAN is begging Democrats to write him because he needs their nomination in November in order to beat an INDEPENDENT that is running against him. He realizes that he doesn’t have enough support from his own party to beat an unaffiliated challenger and he is begging for help.

The obvious panic that my candidacy has brought upon the Senator and his closest friends is a clear indicator that Bob Robbins knows exactly how much trouble he is in this year. He and his friends are shaken, and their very public reactions have energized my campaign and my supporters. At first my candidacy was just an interesting news story, but it is quickly becoming a very valid threat to a not-so-popular incumbent and career politician.

I’d like to thank Senator Robbins and the National Rifle Association for making my day by reminding me and my supporters that we ARE on the right track.

BLOG POST ADDENDUM

I received some interesting news from my sources, and the post card campaign that I received in the mail is NOT the ONLY effort that Senator Robbins has on the table for garnering Democrat support. Senator Robbins explained at a GOP Committee Meeting last night that he has been in touch with none other than the Mercer County Democrats, Crawford County Democrats, and Lawrence County Democrats in an effort to become one big happy family in his attempt for re-election.

Now I ask you, when do the leaders of the Democrat parties in a Republican Senator’s district go to him to strike a deal? When is another party so desperate as to go to the incumbent of the OPPOSITE party in an effort to get him to come to THEIR side? When has an incumbent of 20 years NEEDED to make deals with those same party leaders in order to hold his seat in office?

Did you all realize that the candidacy of ONE (1) unaffiliated Independent could be such a threat to one man and TWO (2) parties?

This move proves a point that I have been pressing for quite some time. Greedy incumbents, self-serving politicians, and the corrupt parties that control County politics have ONLY ONE (1) GOAL, and that is the support and protection of the “Incumbent Party”. Politics as usual is at work, and lost are the issues of good government, public service, civic duty, and the best interests of the people. These ideals have been replaced with political insiders attempting to control politics, government, and the American way.

I feel sorry for Senator Robbins, Bob Lark, the Mercer County GOP committee and leadership, the Mercer County Democrat committee and leadership, the Crawford County Democrat committee and leadership, and the Lawrence County Democrat committee and leadership for their inability to understand that people are sick and tired of politics as usual and they want a voice in their representation.

Ordinary people don’t want to be bullied by politicians . . . “We the People” don’t want to be bullied anymore!

UPDATE: Senator Bob Robbins continues to shoot himself in the foot

In Bob Robbins’ attempt to win the Democrat nomination as a write-in candidate, he has managed to further alienate voters. In another mailer that was sent out by the Robbins’ campaign, Robbins is pictured with what appears to be an emergency vehicle and an emergency worker. In doing so, Robbins implies that he has the backing and endorsement of firefighters and emergency workers in his district and across Pennsylvania. It seems that Robbins did this without an actual endorsement, however. On the same advertisement it is stated that Robbins is working against a residential property sprinkler mandate. Bob Robbins failed to realize that many emergency workers are FOR that very mandate and his advertisement is misleading (at best) and fraudulent (at worst).

This scan was sent to me by individuals that are angry with Robbins’ misuse of the image, which just goes to show that Robbins has not achieved his goals with this costly mailer.

I’d like to further point out that Robbins and his campaign had to dig deep into the archives to find a photo of him with an emergency worker. A close review of the photo shows that the inspection sticker on the supposed emergency response vehicle is dated 2007. He couldn’t find a recent “photo opportunity” to demonstrate his ties to that particular group.

It is another example of Bob Robbins attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of voters, and it is doing nothing more than demonstrating his panic and fear of losing his re-election bid. Has Bob Robbins managed to shoot himself in BOTH feet?

UPDATE #2: Hold on to your hats . . . ANOTHER write-in candidate is in the works!

I was alerted this afternoon that Bob Robbins is NOT the only individual that is seeking the write-in nomination on the Democrat ticket for Pennsylvania's 50th Senatorial District. According to the email release below, Art Allen (Robbins opponent in 2006) wants in the race too! Suddenly Democrats are interested in the 50th District? Do you think anyone smells blood?

Dear Fellow Democrat,

About a year ago, I made a very difficult decision. There appeared to be several potential candidates for the 50th State Senate seat, and we all hoped that perhaps someone would be able to build a strong coalition to challenge the long time incumbent, Bob Robbins. So it was with this in mind that I decided to step aside in the primary election.

Now, in 2010, we face an election where a career politician faces no challenger. I personally believe that to be unacceptable.
As many of you know, we were able to mount a very real challenge to this seat in 2006. When all was said and done, the final tally was 41,302 to 35,854.

If you live in the district (all of Mercer and Crawford Counties, as well as parts of Lawrence and Butler Counties) please consider writing me in on the democratic ballot for Senator in the General Assembly on May 18th. With your help, we can again mount a strong challenge to tired politics as usual here in the 50th State Senate
District. Please ask your friends to do the same.

Sincerely and With Deep Thanks,
Art Allen

UPDATE #3: Robbins goes as far as to order Democrat yard signs!

You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it with your own eyes, right? Well, here it is. A Mercer County Conservatives exclusive . . . a photo of the yard signs that Bob Robbins had printed in order to work his way into the heart (and ballot) of Democrats!

Loyal Republicans who have been donating their hard-earned cash to Bob Robbins and his campaign for YEARS can have comfort knowing that he is using those funds to win over Democrats. Priceless.
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Part 6 of a 6 Part Series: Martha Moore Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-13T07:56:00.001-04:00

Part six in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Wednesday, May 12th.

Segment Six focuses on candidate Martha Moore of Mercer County.

The interview includes commentary from Roberta Biros, editor of Mercer Conservatives. The statements and summaries were taken from 40 minute interview that was filmed at the station on Monday, May 3rd.

Enjoy.

We will post the other segments as they are made available by WJET.

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REMINDER-----Sam Rohrer Event: "Breakfast with Sam" May 14th

2010-05-13T04:15:00.001-04:00

IMPORTANT REMINDER!!!

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dear Mercer Countians for Sam Rohrer,

Sam Rohrer Republican Candidate for Governor to be in Mercer on May 14

EVENT: Breakfast with Sam Rohrer

WHEN: Friday, May 14th 8am-10am
(Doors will open at 7:30AM and Sam will arrive at 8AM)

WHERE: BRANDY SPRINGS PARK COMMUNITY CENTER, 390 South Shenango,
MERCER (get a map HERE)

WHAT: Hot breakfast will be served. Stop by before work and meet and hear Sam Rohrer.

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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Part 5 of a 6 Part Series: Ed Franz Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-12T19:51:00.003-04:00

Part five in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Wednesday, May 12th.

Segment Five focuses on candidate Ed Franz of Crawford County.

The interview includes commentary from Roberta Biros, editor of Mercer Conservatives. The statements and summaries were taken from 40 minute interview that was filmed at the station on Monday, May 3rd.

Enjoy.

We will post the other segments as they are made available by WJET.

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Part 4 of a 6 Part Series: Mike Kelly Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-12T00:20:00.002-04:00

Part four in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Tuesday, May 11th.

Segment Four focuses on candidate Mike Kelly of Butler County.

The interview includes commentary from Roberta Biros, editor of Mercer Conservatives. The statements and summaries were taken from 40 minute interview that was filmed at the station on Monday, May 3rd.

Enjoy.

We will post the other segments as they are made available by WJET.

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Part 3 of a 6 Part Series: Paul Huber Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-11T19:23:00.005-04:00

The third in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Tuesday, May 11th.

Segment Three focuses on candidate Paul Huber of Crawford County.

The interview includes commentary from Roberta Biros, editor of Mercer Conservatives. The statements and summaries were taken from 40 minute interview that was filmed at the station on Monday, May 3rd.

Enjoy.

We will post the other segments as they are made available by WJET.

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Senator Bob Robbins explains his path to political success: “you’d rather be lucky than good”

2010-05-11T12:20:00.001-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

The internet is a wonderful thing. It has provided us with an endless database of digital information including articles, photos, and videos that are accessible with great ease. I found a presentation on YouTube the other day and it is fascinating. The piece was produced by Titan Radio News in December of 2008 as a tool to highlight the long and wonderful career of State Senator Bob Robbins. In the interview, you get an opportunity to find out exactly how Senator Robbins found his way into the State Government. I invite you to listen to the interview (or click below) and hear (in Senator Robbin’s own voice) as he admits his “accidental fall into” government after the political re-districting of the area.

Senator Robbins says “you’d rather be lucky than good”

To quote Senator Robbins:

“By the time they got done with drawing the new districts I was setting in the middle of a brand new district that didn’t have a Representative. So, within 6 months I got to run again, basically for a house seat. As it worked out as I tell a lot of people . . . ‘sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good . . . other times is that you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time’.”

Never does Senator Robbins say that he deserved the seat in the House of Representatives because of his dedication to the needs of the people, and he never stated that he was selected because he was the best candidate for the job. Instead, Senator Robbins admits that he was “lucky” and he was “in the right place at the right time”. If it weren’t so sad, it would almost be funny.

The Back Door Politics Continue

The most bothersome part of his statement is that it defines politics of the past in our area. If the “sliding through the back door” approach to public office seems familiar, you know your stuff. In 2006 a similar back door approach allowed Representative Michele Brooks to fall into her spot in the same district (the 17th) when she was selected to replace former State Representative Rod Wilt as the Republican nominee. Again, it was another example of “it was better to be lucky than good”, and Ms. Brooks seemed to be “in the right place at the right time”. It makes you wonder if the trend is as accidental as it appears.

Knowing what we know about “business as usual in area politics” and realizing how the good ol’ boys (and girls) prefer to control “who gets lucky”, it is interesting to think through the thought process of political strategy in our area. Let us use this year as an example as we examine a possibility . . .

Is 2010 another Back Door Deal year?

If the Mercer GOP and their political friends were to use the “better to be lucky than good” strategy again, what sort of conservations would they be having in 2010.

As many of you know, at the beginning of 2010 it looked as though State Senator Robbins and State Representative Brooks would be running unopposed through the General Election in November. Unfortunately for the Senator, an Independent candidate* has stepped up to challenge Senator Robbins and the fate of Representative Brooks is still unknown. The Senator was probably hoping to rebound from his close race of 2006 (where he LOST his home county of Mercer by the way), and was planning on going out on a high note. At the point that he realized that he will now have an opponent, and that opponent will most probably expose all of the ugly truths about the Senator and his past, has the Senator started to consider ways to avoid an ugly loss? Could he be looking for ways to slide out on a “high”? Is it possible that a hand-off is in the works for 2010? Could Senator Robbins be planning to step down (before the dirt from his past begins to resurface) and allow Representative Brooks to step up and access the Senate seat through another backdoor deal?

This past weekend, Representative Brooks was spotted promoting herself at a local TEA Party [read the story HERE] including the distribution of yard signs (of all things), but Senator Robbins was no where to be seen? Who exactly is Representative Brooks running against that she feels a need to distribute yard signs? Why was it so necessary for her to bully her way onto the stage at Saturday’s event? Who is her opponent this year? Is it possible that her opponent is going to be an Independent* that is running for State Senate? Hmmmmm. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

Is it possible that Senator Robbins knows that the political climate in 2010 will make it extremely difficult (if not impossible) for him to win re-election in November. Is he fearful of going down in flames . . . and thus tarnishing his long career forever? Would he prefer to leave on a high note and pass the challenge onto his young enough and smart enough protégé? Is Representative Brooks desperate enough to take on the challenge? Is she willing to take yet another backroom deal in an effort to slide into higher office?

* - For those of you that are not aware of the details, the “Independent Candidate” is me, Roberta Biros, political analyst and editor of Mercer County Conservatives.

Brooks vs. Biros?

I’d love to be a fly on the wall for the conversations that have already transpired in the past several weeks. Time will tell, and I can’t wait to see the results. While “the Independent candidate for State Senate” (Roberta Biros) had no intention of taking on Representative Brooks head on, I know that the same “Independent candidate” has no intention of backing off from the challenge if Ms. Brooks decides to offer it.

If Representative Brooks takes “the deal”, she will again demonstrate that she is not part of the solution . . . but is very clearly part of the problem in area politics. I look forward to accepting that challenge any day of the week.

It would be the perfect opportunity to prove Robbins and Brooks wrong and to demonstrate that some of us believe that “It is better to be good than to be lucky!”.

As always, just my opinion (but if it happens, realize that you heard it here first).

~Mercer County Conservatives

CLAYTON GRABB EVENT: RUMBLE RALLY May 15

2010-05-11T08:17:00.001-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Join us on the journey to take back America...
....and energize Republican Voters for the May 18 Primary.

Saturday, May 15 - Rumble Motorcycle Rally

Join us for the full ride...or just a leg.

Scheduled Stops

Start Erie 9:30am
Meadville 11:00am
Franklin 12:30pm
Mercer 3:00pm
End Butler 4:30pm
$10 Donation per rider
Lunch in Franklin
Picnic follows final stop in Butler at Odd Fellows Gazebo-Alameda Park until 8:30pm for Riders and Campaign Volunteers

Any questions can be directed to Cindy @ cindy@grabbforcongress.com

BLOG POST UPDATE:

Be sure to catch the other upcoming Grabb events as follows:

Coffee w/the Candidate – Clayton Grabb for US Congress PA’s 3rd District
Monday, May 10 – 7-9 pm – Kings Family Restaurant – 16 Hilltop Plaza, Kittanning, PA

Meet and Greet the Candidate – Clayton Grabb for US Congress PA’s 3rd District
Tuesday, May 11 – 7-9 pm – Grove City Borough Building, 123 W. Main Street, Grove City, PA

Meet and Greet the Candidate – Clayton Grabb for US Congress PA’s 3rd District
Wednesday, May 12 – 7-9 pm – Slippery Rock Municipal Building, 203 Branchton Road, Slippery Rock, PA

Corry Tea Party Meet and Greet the Candidate Clayton Grabb for US Congress PA-3rd District
Thursday 5/13 – 7-9 pm - Recreational Realm, 1140 East Main Street, Corry, PA

Friday – 5/14 - 4:30pm - 6:00pm - Meet and Greet the Candidate Clayton Grabb for US Congress 3rd District of Pennsylvania Location: The Brewerie at Union Station 123 W 14th St, Erie PA, 16501

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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Part 2 of a 6 Part Series: Steve Fisher Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-11T07:23:00.003-04:00

The second in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Monday, May 10th.

Segment Two focuses on candidate Steve Fisher of Crawford County.

Part 1 of a 6 Part Series: Clayton Grabb Profile on WJET TV

2010-05-10T20:45:00.006-04:00

The first in a six-part series by Jeremy Beecher of WJET-TV regarding the 3rd Congerssional Candidates including commentary from "yours truly". This segment part aired on Erie WJET TV 24 on Monday, May 10th.

Segment One focuses on candidate Clayton Grabb of Butler County.

Neither wind nor rain nor chilling temperatures will stop a TEA Party

2010-05-08T17:50:00.003-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

There was a TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party in Meadville Pennsylvania today. It was cold . . . it was really cold. It was windy . . . oh heck, it was really windy. The TEA Party DID go on, but it wasn’t an overwhelming crowd or an overwhelming success.

The event was scheduled to begin at 11am. We arrived at 10am, but attendees didn’t really start to show up until 10:55am. The crowd was small at the start, and although it did grow slightly, I’d estimate that the totals never reached 150.

The speakers were many . . . perhaps too many. Some of the speakers overstayed their welcome and it impacted the crowd. It was unfortunate.

There were a number of elected officials and candidates that were patiently waiting for their opportunity to speak, but for most that opportunity never surfaced. There was ONE elected official that took the opportunity to step ahead of everyone else, and it was disturbing.

State Representative Michele Brooks made it clear that her busy schedule required her to be “at a thing”, so she jumped ahead of everyone else. She got up to the podium and promoted herself for a few minutes and then was on her way out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for the other elected officials and candidates who didn’t use their prestige and clout to bully ahead of the crowd, they were left to wait for an opportunity to speak . . . and wait they did.

The event was scheduled to run from 11am until 2pm. At 2pm, one very long-winded speaker finally wound up his presentation and the crowd began to leave out of disgust. It was at that point that the candidates who had spent their day at the event realized that their opportunity to address a crowd was disappearing.

I left shortly after 2pm after discussing the matter with a number of candidates. It was a shame that candidates that are pressed for time before a very important Primary were not treated with any compassion for their situation. They were all playing fair and they all respected that they were invited guests, but they were tossed aside unfairly by speakers who were unwilling to yield the podium and organizers who failed to control time limits.

There were no formal introductions of those present, but I spotted a number of familiar faces on my own. In the crowd were Daryl Metcalfe (candidate for Lt. Governor), Jean Craig Pepper (candidate for Lt. Governor), and Dr. Martha Moore, Ed Franz, Mike Kelly, Clayton Grabb, and Paul Huber (all candidates for the 3rd Congressional District). I managed to speak with all of them (even if briefly). [Steve Fisher, the last remaining candidate in the 3rd Congressional District, did not attend.]

Congressman Thompson (5th Congressional District) was given the opportunity to address the crowd, and State Representative Brad Roae was left sitting on the sidelines waiting his turn (which I never witnessed).

It was a nice event with well-meant intentions.

Congratulations to the Tea Party organizers for putting their best foot forward . . .

Congratulations to Michele Brooks for once again putting her needs ahead of those of others . . .

and my sincerest sympathies to those candidates and elected officials that spent the day in the cold and wet waiting for an opportunity to connect with voters . . . an opportunity that seemed unattainable today.

As always, just my opinion.
~Mercer Conservatives

BLOG POST UPDATE:

View the summary from WJET-TV in Erie below:

http://yourerie.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=113655

Really? Really! Are you kidding me? WJET-TV in Erie covered the Meadville TEA Party event and they ONLY ONE that gets an interview is MICHELE BROOKS. Seriously? Are you kidding me?

This just goes to show that I did not embellish my summary of the event . . . Representative Michele Brooks was the ONLY ONE that got to speak . . . on camera and off!

(although they seemed to embellish a bit with their estimate of "hundreds" of attendees)

Sam Rohrer Event: "Breakfast with Sam" May 14th

2010-05-08T16:11:00.002-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dear Mercer Countians for Sam Rohrer,

Sam Rohrer Republican Candidate for Governor to be in Mercer on May 14

EVENT: Breakfast with Sam Rohrer

WHEN: Friday, May 14th 8am-10am
(Doors will open at 7:30AM and Sam will arrive at 8AM)

WHERE: BRANDY SPRINGS PARK COMMUNITY CENTER, 390 South Shenango,
MERCER (get a map HERE)

WHAT: Hot breakfast will be served. Stop by before work and meet and hear Sam Rohrer.

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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CLAYTON GRABB EVENT: May 12

2010-05-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

An open forum for citizens to voice their thoughts, ideas and concerns for our region with someone who will finally listen…...someone who will bring the voice of Main Street to Washington DC.

Wednesday May 12- Time: 7 pm

Slippery Rock
Municipal Building
203 Branchton Road
Slippery Rock, PA 16057

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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Meadville Tea Party: Saturday May 8th

2010-05-07T15:04:00.003-04:00

IMPORTANT REMINDER!!!

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Meadville TEA Party

Where: Crawford County Fair Grounds (Gate 3)
Date: Saturday, May 8, 3010
Time: 11 AM - 2PM

Bring your Tee Shirts, signs, attitudes.

Listen, Learn, Participate.

Disc Jockey, Speakers, Presentations, Candidates.

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Twenty Years and Counting

2010-05-05T00:01:00.006-04:00

Twenty years ago today [on May 5th 1990] two young and stupid kids were united in marriage at St. Edward Parish in Blawnox, Pennsylvania. The couple was surrounded by family and friends when they took their vows.

After the ceremony, a caravan of vehicles took part in the nearly one-hour trip to the Norwin Elks Lodge in Manor, Pennsylvania where the same family and friends shared dinner, dancing, and laughs at a fun-filled reception. The song for our first dance was “I can’t help falling in love with you” by Elvis Presley. We danced the night away to favorite tunes like “Old-Time Rock-n-Roll” by Bob Seger, “Pump up the Jam” by Technotronic, “Shout” by the Isley Brothers, and “I hate myself for loving you” by Joan Jett. We polka’d, we did the Bird Dance, and we gathered for sing-a-longs.

It was a time BEFORE the huge popularity of the “Electric Slide”, and the song “1999” by Prince was still about the future. It was back in the days when we still wore our hair “big” and the guys wore their ties “narrow”. We had entered a new decade (the 90s), but some of us were still a little stuck in the decade before. Chuck Noll was still the head coach of the Steelers, and we cheered on Bubby Brister as quarterback.

Oh my . . . the memories.

Twenty years later we’ve grown older and greyer. We’ve lost some of our loved ones over the years . . . Grandma and Grandpa McKenna, Pap Heider, and Adorable Deborah have all gone on to a better place and they are still missed. We’ve changed . . . hopefully for the better, but deep inside we ARE still the same "two stupid kids" that tied the knot twenty years ago.

Thanks for sharing in our memories on our 20th wedding anniversary.

BLOG POST UPDATE:

Below is another photo that was contributed by my "much older brother". I thought I'd share.

Butler Tea Party a Success . . . Sour Grapes for Some (and---News Flash--Paul Huber spotted wearing cowboy boots)

2010-05-04T10:59:00.001-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

What a weekend! It was an example of political wrangling at its best (and worst). In the end there were winners and there were losers, and I’m here to report what I saw first hand.

NOTE: I recently had a friend say that they appreciate my style of writing because I manage to cut through all the garbage and get to the basics. That is what I’ve attempted to do in this case. There will be those that think I’ve cut away too much, but I’ve only cut out those things that muddied the waters. If you don’t like what is left, I apologize . . . but . . . as always, it’s just my opinion.

Background Information

A Tea Party was organized in Butler PA. The first sign of the event to “regular people” like you and I were signs that popped up in the Butler area advertising the date, time, and location. It was pointed out to me early on, however, that the simple street address that was included on those signs was actually the address for Kelly Chevrolet and Cadillac on Pittsburgh Road in Butler. It seemed fishy . . . it appeared to be a set up . . . it came across as an event ORGANIZED AND FUNDED by Mike Kelly in an effort to hijack the Tea Party movement.

On Friday evening (late) an email message was sent out by the people at the Clayton Grabb campaign. The message stated that “we the undersigned” have decided to boycott the event and hold our own event on the same day and at the same time as a form of protest against the original event (I paraphrased there, but the actual release can be read HERE).

On Saturday, a message was sent out in response by candidate Steve Fisher. Mr. Fisher made it very clear that he never approved the first letter and he did not approve of the boycott. He had every intention of attending both events, but his first priority was to the Tea Party as he had already given his word and commitment to them (again, I paraphrase, but you can read his release HERE).

I published everything. I then promised that I would attend both events in an effort to see for myself EXACTLY what was going on. I did what I said I would do, and now I’m here to summarize everything for all of you.

My Plan

My husband and I made the hour long trip to Butler on Sunday morning. We arrived at the primary event location (Mike Kelly’s car dealership) at about 11am. We made a brief visit across the street for coffee, donuts, news papers, and a rest room brake before making our way to the Mike Kelly parking lot. I approached a group of event participants (who were all wearing “Freedom Patriots” t-shirts). I openly explained who I was and asked if they would be willing to talk to me about the event and the problems that had surfaced during the past few days. They were happy to do so, and I’ll report my findings below.

At about 1PM, my husband and I took a drive to the secondary event at Alameda Park. There were signs leading into the pavilion area. At that time only Clayton Grabb was on hand. I left my husband with a pad, pencil, and camera so that he could cover the start of the second event. I returned to the primary event location (the Kelly lot) with a camera-equipped Blackberry, a pen, and paper. The goal was to cover both events simultaneously, but I would leave the Tea Party (primary event) AS SOON as the presentations were completed. I would then head over to the second location to take part in that event also.

A plan was in place for full coverage of both events. My husband and I went in our separate directions with clear instructions.

An Overview of the Butler Tea Party event at Mike Kelly’s car dealership (and some background information)

This event was a real Tea Party. The organizers planned a great mix of speakers, presenters, and political analysts and politicians. They had booths representing various groups and charitable organizations, and they were focused on offering an informative program. The organizers admitted that this was their FIRST Tea Party, but they were excited to get involved in the process.

When the organizers first made their decision to have a Tea Party, they attempted to rent a park location. At first they were told that the fee would be $250 for the park rental. They explained that after the park found out that the event would be a Tea Party, the price changed to $1000 per hour for a total of $3000 plus insurance. They couldn’t afford a price anywhere close to $3000, and felt that they could not get a large enough venue to handle a crowd that could reach 2000. Mike Kelly stepped in and offered the use of his lot at no charge. The Freedom Patriots group jumped at the offer. Kelly provided a free (and very spacious) venue and he offered the use of his electrical service. The Freedom Patriots were left to organize the event, invite speakers and vendors, and they were also left with other responsibilities like acquiring portable rest rooms. A deal had been struck.

I estimate that between 250 and 400 people were in attendance, which was pretty good considering the day long threat of rain. It was absolutely a REAL TEA PARTY that was attended by REAL TEA PARTIERS. It was not an advertisement for Mike Kelly and it was NOT focused on the race for the 3rd Congressional District. It was a gathering of concerned citizens discussing issues of history and politics. It was proud patriots taking advantage of their freedom to assemble. It was supported by a handful of candidates that showed integrity by supporting the Tea Party movement. In exchanged they were each given five minutes to speak at the end of the event . . . in the wind and rain.

ABOVE: A photo of the crowd at the Tea Party from the far front corner.

BELOW: A tent was provided for the speakers while they waited for an opportunity
to address the crowd. The three congressional candidates that attended
(Steve Fisher, Mike Kelly, and Martha Moore) sat together.

Congratulations to the Freedom Patriots for their success in their very first Tea Party! It was a difficult task, but you did a great job in pulling it all together. I give them credit for providing the hard work, time, and effort, and I congratulate them for keeping their heads held high even after attacks from naysayers and attempts to derail their event.

An Overview of the candidates that spoke at the Tea Party

The list of speakers (in presentation order) was as follows:

Darryl Metcalfe, candidate for Lt. Governor
Steve Fisher, candidate for 3rd Congressional District
Martha Moore, candidate for 3rd Congressional District
Mary Shaff, representative for the campaign for Jean Craig Pepper for Lt. Governor
Mike Kelly, candidate for 3rd Congressional District

Highlights from the speakers?

Daryl Metcalfe wants to create a “new type of Lt. Governor’s office” in that he wants it to become the “Accountability Office”. A great concept that I really liked.

In a particularly classy move, Steve Fisher thanked Mike Kelly for his involvement in the event and thanked him for the use of the Kelly property for the Tea Party. He then explained that the “Tea Party is not about us (the candidates) . . . it is about YOU (the concerned citizens that attend).” It was a comment that struck a chord with attendees, and it was something that sorely needed to be said.

Martha Moore made a point of explaining to the ladies in the crowd that the day “was a bad hair day” and apologized for her appearance which was a result of rain and wind. It made me laugh as I was experiencing the same “bad hair day” as Dr. Moore (but that is clearly why God invented hats). Dr. Moore continues to make me smile.

Jean Craig Pepper’s representative spoke briefly about Craig Pepper’s campaign and attempted to provide the same humorous flair as Craig Pepper herself. It was a brief but interesting presentation.

Mike Kelly closed the event by reminding everyone that attended that the event was supposed to be about the Tea Party. He stressed . . . “let the record show that on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010, a Tea Party was held in Butler Pennsylvania”. It was a brief speech, and he did not “show boat”. He kept his comments short and sweet because WE ALL were suffering from the wind and rain . . . his brevity was appreciated. It was yet another classy move that I witnessed on this day.

An Overview of the Candidate Forum at Alameda Park (and some background information)

At the conclusion of the closing statements by Mike Kelly (about 4pm), I headed for my car. Due to some limitations in parking spaces, I was blocked in. It took me about 5 twists and turns of my vehicle in an effort to “skootch” out of the parking spot, but I managed to exit the parking lot without doing any damage (whew). I quickly made the ~5 mile trip to the secondary location.

The Candidate Forum (the secondary event) was held in Odd Fellows Gazeob in Alameda Park. I tried to be careful not to “squeal tires” while serpentining the parking lot as the event was already well underway. Upon arrival I quickly parked and headed up into the pavilion. I took a seat beside my husband. I quietly asked him how things were going, and he responded “it’s been very heated”.

ABOVE: A photo of the beginning of the event during the mix and mingle session.

BELOW: Another photo of the mix and mingle session from inside the shelter.

According to my husband, the event began with a mix and mingle session. The presentation portion of the event began at about 3pm. I arrived at about 4:15pm and the “forum” portion of the event was still underway. There appeared to be less than 50 people in the pavilion, although it was apparent there were more attendees earlier (as demonstrated by gaps in the parking spaces in the lot). The format was very casual. The three candidates in attendance (Clayton Grabb, Ed Franz, and Paul Huber) stood at one end of the shelter and answered questions in rotation from attendees that were seated at picnic tables in the center of the shelter. There was no specific format for questions or answers. It was very relaxed and unrestricted. Unfortunately, the lack of structure also lead to lack of self-control from some attendees.

Of the <50 people in attendance, it is our estimation that 90+% were friends, family, and firm supporters of either Grabb, Franz, or Huber. The shelter was not filled with “undecided voters that were trying to learn about the candidates”. Instead it was our impression that the crowd was an assembly of very firm supporters of one of the candidates in attendance. The event, therefore, became a catalyst for unfriendly and (at times) unruly banter between attendees and candidates. It amounted to candidates and their respective camps arguing with one another.

That was the case until shortly after my arrival. A few minutes after I got to the event, Dr. Martha Moore’s car entered the parking lot. Dr. Moore, who also attended the primary event, made the trip to the secondary event. As she pulled into the parking lot the criticisms had already begun. As she approached the pavilion, candidate Ed Franz chose to throw some fuel on the fire by “joking” that they should now conclude the event (before Dr. Moore reached the shelter). Upon entry, Dr. Moore was offered the opportunity to speak and her arrival was met with booos and yelling.

I yelled from the back of the pavilion “come on now . . . give her a chance to speak”, but my words were ignored (as I was sort of considered the enemy at this point too). None of the original three candidates (Grabb, Franz, or Huber) stepped forward to stop the nonsense. They let it go.

The line of questioning to Dr. Moore was regarding her decision to attend the first event. They questioned her about the “fake Tea Party” and the “fake Tea Partiers”. At one point (out of frustration), Dr. Moore said “why don’t you ask Roberta . . . she was there”. I felt so bad for the beating that she was taking. It was unfair, but it was not MY place to step in to help her. The individuals who should have helped her stood silent.

At about 4:45, it was announced that time was almost up. It was suggested that the forum again break down into a mix and mingle session so that those in attendance could have the opportunity to talk with Dr. Moore. Again the crowd erupted and an attendee stood up and yelled “if she wanted to talk to us she could have been here before . . .but instead she went to the other event”. More yelling ensued.

I’ve been to a number of political events in the past two years. I can only compare the behavior in this event to ONE. It was a DEMOCRAT event in March of 2009 where a crowd of angry Democrats attempted to shout down a conservative candidate (who also happened to be a Democrat). I wrote briefly about that experience HERE. However, that event didn’t come any where near the hostility that could be felt in the Odd Fellows Gazebo on Sunday afternoon.

I’m sure there will be people that attended the event at Alameda Park that will complain about these comments and they’ll try to say how wonderful the event was. I suppose that if you are on the side that is “throwing stones”, you have a different perspective. I, on the other hand, have NEVER supported beating up on the little guy. It sickens me to see an innocent individual and candidate (like Dr. Martha Moore) verbally attacked while a group of three men (who are also candidates) stood by with their hands in their pockets and watched.

I challenge ANYONE to refute the fact that one of those men/candidates shouldn’t have stepped forward to say “please treat Dr. Moore with respect as she has taken the time to join us today, and we thank her for being here”. They did not, and I lost respect for each and every one of them at that moment. The truth is, they were all still “angry” with Dr. Moore and saw her as the enemy. Why? . . . Because she dared to attend a TEA PARTY.

The Butler Fiasco was caused by one problem compounding another

There were lots of fingers to be pointed if you want to “blame” someone for the problems that occurred on Sunday. The Freedom Patriots did not fully understand the political toes that were being stepped on, and Mike Kelly didn’t make a point of explaining that the choice to use his car lot might appear biased. Mike Kelly took advantage of the situation, and it was a brilliant move on his part. He was able to show that he was charitable and he managed to get his name tied to a potentially high-profile event. If Clayton Grabb, Paul Huber, or Ed Franz could have held an event for 400+ people in their back yards, they would have also jumped at the opportunity (and don’t EVEN try to tell me otherwise).

It was the responsibility of the Tea Party organizers to refuse Kelly’s offer, but they were not politically savvy enough to realize the mistake that they had made. They didn’t see the event as a “forum for the 3rd Congressional Candidates”. They were concerned with holding a Tea Party and they didn’t understand the complicated political undertones that were involved.

Unfortunately, the other candidates (Huber, Moore, and Franz led by Grabb) began a campaign against the TEA PARTY organizers. Rather than doing their homework and taking the time to discuss the problem with the Freedom Patriots, they took it upon themselves to be the judge and jury. They made a VERY BOLD MOVE and took a stand to boycott the Tea Party. Their biggest mistake, however, was in hastily drafting an “official notice” without first crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s. They authored a “we the undersigned” letter without realizing that that type of document is intended to be drafted as a group. Instead, the letter was drafted by a few without getting the sign off of the other candidates for which they were speaking. That is a HUGE error. PERIOD. They “signed” the names of candidates, but did so without their full and explicit written authorization. It was a bold move, but it was a mistake.

Lastly, intelligent people learn from history. So, I’d like to offer a reference to the Nixon years and Watergate . . . “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up”.

If you make a mistake, just stand up and say “crap, I made a huge mistake”. Don’t compound the original mistake by explaining . . . blaming other people . . . pointing fingers . . . and throwing more people under the bus. Just say “I made a mistake and I apologize for it”.

Winners and Losers?

In the end, there were winners. The biggest winners were the Freedom Patriots who pulled off an excellent Tea Party and I congratulate them. The other winners were Mike Kelly, Steve Fisher, and Dr. Martha Moore, who managed to demonstrate that the people are more important than the candidates. The Tea Party event was not about any of them, and they were happy to take a back seat to the “real” event.

The losers? You know what I’m going to say, and I won’t apologize for it.

The losers were Clayton Grabb, Ed Franz, and Paul Huber. They made the Tea Party event about politics rather than about people gathering to celebrate freedom. They tried to put their own candidacies above the ideals of the Tea Party movement. Most importantly, they made this about anger and fighting. When given the opportunity to stand up and try to calm the waters (by defending Dr. Moore, for instance) they chose to take a back seat and watch.

This was just one event, and it was simply one more opportunity for concerned citizens to compare the candidates that are competing for the Republican nomination for the 3rd Congressional Seat. There is still time for these individuals to stand up to right the wrongs, and there is still time for others to crash and burn. This one day (Sunday, May 2nd) will not decide the election, but it is just another opportunity to see how these candidates work under stress.

The Highlight? Paul Huber's Boots!

Lastly, I’d like to make reference to my subtitle of this blog post. The header photo is a picture of Paul Huber’s cowboy boots. I’ve always seen Paul dressed like a business man, and I LOVED seeing him dress down a bit for an event. I laughed when I saw it because it was so darn “cool”, and I told him that it would be the headline. There were many witnesses to my promise, and I always keep my promises.

As always, just my opinion.
~Mercer County Conservatives

STEVE FISHER EVENT:

2010-05-04T06:24:00.001-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Coffee with Steve Fisher at Beans on Broad
Day: Friday, May 7, 2010
Time: 6:30pm
Where: Beans on Broad
What: coffee

BLOG POST UPDATE:

As per a reader comment, here are specifics regarding the location of the event . . .

Beans on Broad‎
141 South Broad Street, Grove City, PA 16127-1522
(724) 458-0670‎

Google Map Link

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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BUTLER EVENT---NOT SO FAST!: Steve Fisher Responds

2010-05-01T17:26:00.002-04:00

Below is a direct communication from candidate Steve Fisher regarding the Butler Tea Party event and the recent email announcement that includes his name as a signer:

This is to advise that I did not have any knowledge of the attached letter regarding rescinding my participation in the Butler Tea Party on May 2nd at Mike Kelly Chevrolet. I also did not authorize the use of my name on such letter.

I was made aware of the concerns on the evening of April 29th after the Mercer County event. At that time I said I was not worried about the location as I felt Mike would be fair and that we all had the chance to speak. When a second event was mentioned, I said to keep me informed.

Yesterday I received a few calls from Ed Franz telling me that a second location had been secured and plans were developing. Last evening I received a call from Clayton asking me if I was onboard. I simply said that I would do my best to attend as I first had to attend church. He said that was not a problem and that I could speak whenever I got there. Never did I say to anyone that I would not be attending the original event.

Please refrain from using my name in any future correspondence without first receiving my approval. I am also requesting that you send a message to all who received the previous message that I had nothing to do with the planning of the event and was only asked if I would be attending to speak. A copy should first be provided to me for my review and approval.

Sincerely,
Steven M. Fisher
Republican Candidate
PA 3rd Congressional District

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Sam Rohrer Event: Mercer County Volunteer Meeting on Tuesday, May 4

2010-05-01T15:48:00.002-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dear Mercer Countians for Sam Rohrer,

Our next meeting will be in Mercer on Tues May 4th at 7pm at the Bible Baptist Church (on Rt 58 just outside of Mercer heading towards Grove City just past Benjamins). It is essential that everyone attend this meeting as we will be laying out the plan for the final campaign push in Mercer County. Everyone is needed at this time!

Our meeting will focus on the following:

Materials to pass out: We will have more fliers and signs

Walking/talking lists: Will assign new volunteers and old to specific townships in the county and will organize a plan to cover remaining areas before May 18th.

Door-to-door and Phone calls: This is essential for Sam’s success. Handing out fliers or calling and asking for their vote for Sam will make the difference. Sam’s opponent is not doing this. They stick fliers in doors, hang plastic bags on door knobs so 99.9% get pitched and ignored, and make robot calls. If we make the effort we can win at this!

Sign distribution: We will distribute signs at strategic locations but will give preference to someone’s yard as that is noticed by neighbors.

Poll workers for Election Day: The last effort to spread the word. Hand fliers to folks entering the polling place.

Planning Election Day party?

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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HEADLINE: No one was arrested at the Mercer PA GOP Meet and Greet

2010-05-01T07:24:00.019-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

All was calm and friendly at Hempfield Station One on Thursday night for the Meet and Greet of Republican Candidates that was sponsored by the Mercer County GOP. Fair warning from this “blogmaster” prevented confrontation and kept “greedy incumbents’ out of the limelight. These were all good things. I attended the affair with “backup” and bailout cash, but it was unnecessary as everyone was on their best behavior. No arrests!

Some ‘not-so-local’ attendees may have thought that the crowd was small, but as a Mercer Countian I was impressed with the turn out. Those that attended were genuinely interested in hearing the candidates (and their representatives speak), and they listened intently to the presentations from nine speakers. I’ve written exhaustively about each of the candidates in the past, so I’ll focus my comments today on some summary thoughts from the evening, a few ‘highlights’, a couple of ‘head scratch moments’, and a photo montage with comments.

Summary

Representing the candidates for Governor, we had Mercer County Commissioner John Lechner speaking on behalf of the Corbett campaign and Ed Henderson was on hand to speak on behalf of the campaign for Sam Rohrer. Once again, Ed Henderson did a stand up job in representing Rohrer’s campaign. He accidentally coined a phrase last night when he stated “Sam’s the Man”. It was an inadvertent slogan, but (in my opinion) it should be adopted campaign wide. In John Lechner’s presentation for Corbett’s campaign he took time to touch on the BonusGate scandal (a topic that is close to my heart). He pointed out that the investigations were not politically driven . . . which I accept, but I would have liked the opportunity to ask one question. “If the investigations weren’t politically driven, why hasn’t the Attorney Generals office gotten actively involved in the Jane Orie investigation with the same intensity?” This was just a question that I had at the top of my head, but, unfortunately, NO QUESTIONS were accepted from the audience. Bummer.

Who was on hand to represent the candidates for Lt. Governor? No one. Not a single individual showed up to discuss the candidacies of nine different Republicans that are competing for the nomination in the Primary. Hmmm. Was it disinterest on the part of the campaigns or was it lack of effort on the part of the event planners to notify the candidates of the opportunity? The Mercer GOP has a history of only inviting the candidates that they actually want to attend the event, so this may not have been a simple clerical error. Either way, it was a missed opportunity for the candidates and it was a missed opportunity for concerned citizens to be educated about their choices.

Were Senatorial candidates represented? I suppose you could say “sort of”. Committee Chairman Dave King told everyone that they should vote for Pat Toomey, but he failed to mention that Toomey has a Republican opponent in the race in Peg Luksik. Rather than providing an informative presentation of ALL of the names on the ballot, Dr. King choose to focus his attention on the GOP’s personal horse in the race. Again, this is the norm for the Mercer GOP, but as a matter of fairness I found the move despicable. The obvious attempt to insult Ms. Luksik was mentioned to me MORE THAN ONCE by concerned attendees. Shame on Dr. King and the Mercer County GOP for lacking open-door and even-handed political policies . . . but are we really surprised?

The big race in the area is for the 3rd Congressional District and all six candidates were personally on hand for this gathering. Dr. Martha Moore, Mike Kelly, Ed Franz, Paul Huber, Steve Fisher, and Clayton Grabb were all provided an opportunity to speak. Having listened to these candidates present their platforms more times than I can count, I’ll admit that there was very little ‘new material’ for me to report from last night, but I’ll try.

Dr. Martha Moore has managed to re-invented herself. She has embraced herself for exactly what she is and she makes no attempt to morph into something that she is not. She is a straight-shootin’, no-bologna-talkin’, firecracker of a concerned citizen. She spoke from the heart with levity and quirkiness that has gained her a bit of a “Betty White following”. She has become the highlight of events and I have become a real fan. God Bless Dr. Martha Moore.

Mike Kelly drew the short straw when he was selected to speak AFTER Dr. Moore. She is tough act to follow. His points were basically the same. He made one comment that I thought was worth repeating. When describing his role as a business owner he said “You can get through the good times with a smile on your face, and you get the through not-so-good times with a bigger smile on your face”. I found the comment humorous as one of the main complaints that I’ve had with Mr. Kelly is his inability to ‘put a smile’ on his face in an effort to hide his anger. I thought the irony was funny.

Ed Franz’ message was pretty much the same as usual. I would like to point out to Mr. Franz that he really shouldn’t continue to repeat (time and time again) about how he supported “conservative candidates like Phil English”. As a conservative, Mr. Franz, your choice of friends doesn’t impress me, and your desire to repeat it to the crowd at each and event makes me laugh. I’d admit that Ed did switch it up just a bit last night when he mentioned that (aside from supporting Phil English) he has also worked for the campaigns of Michele Brooks and Bob Robbins. Hmmmm. Good to know, and thanks for the info. As a “conservative”, it is good to see his choice of friends. In a musical reference that is loosely tied to the great “Meatloaf” I say “One Out of Three Ain’t Bad”.

Paul Huber was himself. He has a polished delivery and a packaged message that hasn’t changed much. His jokes and delivery are good, but they don’t change from one presentation to the next. There was nothing about last night that stood out to me, although he did get into some deep discussions with attendees when the meeting broke out into individual conversations. He worked the crowd well.

The most memorable part of Steve Fisher’s evening was Chairman King’s introduction of Mr. Fisher as “Mike Fisher” rather than “Steve Fisher”. Steve politely and light-heartedly corrected Dr. King’s error (which made Steve look great), but in the end Dr. King made himself look like a dufus (which was not a long trip). As with my earlier note that the Mercer GOP failed to fairly represent ALL of the Republican candidates, Dr. King highlights how out-of-touch the County Committee is by failing to know the candidates names. I know each and every one of the 3rd Congressional Candidates on sight (and, in return, they all know me . . . it is referred to as mutual respect). Dr. King should have done his homework. It was, perhaps, a Freudian slip, but I don’t forgive him for it either way. It was unprofessional to say the least. Steve Fisher wasn’t phased and he managed to present himself with the same positive and upbeat message that he offers at each event. It is worth noting that Steve Fisher and his campaign showed their commitment to the people of Mercer County with a forma information booth at the event (the only candidate that took time and effort to do so), and he seemed to have a large team on hand to handle questions and engage the attendees. Steve Fisher showed a commitment and seriousness that was not matched at this particular gathering.

Clayton Grabb did not disappoint. Surprisingly Dr. King “allowed” Mr. Grabb to speak, which was a relief (knowing that Dr. King has not been shy about his dislike for “Tea Party Candidates” like Clayton). Mr. Grabb did not hold back and again used his quote “My Republican Party has left us down before”, which was met with nods across the crowd (and an unapproving look from Dr. King). Mr. Grabb’s big quote of the night also made it in The Herald when he stated “I’m not going to work with Obama, I will be going there to cut him off at the knees, to make sure he doesn’t do anymore damage to this country of ours”. Clayton’s message doesn’t change from one venue to the next, but it is always spot-on and connects with those in attendance.

In Closing . . .

It was the Mercer County GOP’s night to shine . . . and they did not. The Committee leadership did what they always do . . . they attempted to hijack an event with the eventual goal of hijacking an election.

If you’d like another angle on the night’s events, I suggest that you read a post by my fellow Mercer County blogger, Rich Talbert HERE.

In the words of Rich Talbert, “(Chairman) King MUST Resign”.

Photo Montage with Comments:

The Steve Fisher campaign was well represented with a full promotional booth and numerous representatives (below).

Ed Henderson of Stoneboro (below) was on hand to represent Sam Rohrer, candidate for Governor.

Before the formal presentations began, I was able to catch some shots of candidates mixing with the attendees. Here is Paul Huber (below) discussing issues with constituents.

Mike Kelly (below) is having a serious discussion with attendees.

Clayton Grabb (below) is sharing his thoughts with some interested locals.

Ed Franz (below) chatting it up with friends and concerned citizens.

Dr. King (below) presented the opening announcements and closing statements. He managed to promote the candidates that he supports and attempted to stumble over those he does not. His preferences were clear. [As a side note, the duct tape on the decorative photo of Lincoln was a nice touch. The tape has a strikingly familiar look which is similar to a Mercer GOP yard sign mis-hap from last year. Perhaps Dr. King and his crew need to realize that transparent tape was invented YEARS ago. I'll be glad o provide them with an 89 cent roll next time I see them.]

Dr. Martha Moore (below) was the first to speak. She admitted later that she was unprepared, but that is generally when she is at her best.

Steve Fisher (below) addressed the crowd. He and his staff were on hand to answer questions and to discuss issues.

As always, just my opinion.

~Mercer County Conservatives

3rd Congressional District: BUTLER EVENT URGENT NOTICE

2010-04-30T23:09:00.003-04:00

PA-3rd Congressional District Republican Candidate Forum
Proposed for Sunday - May 2, 2010
Location: Odd Fellows Gazebo-Alameda Park Butler, PA
Time: 2 PM to 5 PM

4/30/2010

We the undersigned candidates for the May 18 Republican Primary for US Congress PA-3rd District have elected to rescind our invitations to the Tea Party proposed by Freedom Patriots to be held at 252 Pittsburgh Road Butler, PA on Sunday, May 2nd.

After much deliberation and mutual agreement, we feel that the location of the venue offered as courtesy by Candidate Mike Kelly to the Tea Party organizers presents a non-neutral setting for the other candidates to present themselves and their positions in an open forum.

The property for the venue is part of Mr. Kelly’s business we have come to understand, and in light of this fact we have mutually proposed an alternate setting for an open candidate forum.

The event will be held from 2 PM to 5 PM on the same day at a location convenient to attendees from the original event and others to come hear the candidates speak. The location also provides under cover shelter should the forecast for rain that day hold. This will be a no frills event strictly to inform voters, and Mr. Kelly is more than welcome to join this event and speak with his fellow candidates at a neutral setting.

We extend our sincerest apologies to Freedom Patriots for any inconvenience, and hope that they recognize the need for fair and open debate in all aspects of this very critical election cycle for voters.

The location of the PA-3rd Congressional District Republican Candidate Forum will be at:

Odd Fellows Gazebo
Alameda Park
Butler County Parks and Recreation
184 Alameda Road
Butler, PA 16001

With Kind Regards,
(in alphabetical order)

Steven Fisher
Ed Franz
Clayton Grabb
Paul Huber
Martha Moore

ANNOUNCEMENT UPDATE--PLEASE READ:

After this announcement was received and published, we were notified by the Steve Fisher campaign that this announcement was sent out without his prior approval. Steve Fisher's response to this announcement is published HERE.

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I-80 Tolling: Continuing to Beat the Dead Horse

2010-04-29T15:33:00.007-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

Please pinch me. Grab a little chunk of flesh on my forearm and pinch it REALLY HARD. Do what ever you can to wake me from this horrible nightmare? Tell me that it is all a dream and that "no one actually shot JR".

What am I referring to? Well, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, some brilliant bureaucrat in Pittsburgh (Joseph Kirk, executive director of the Mon Valley Progress Council) wants to submit the I-80 tolling plan to the Federal Highway Administration ONE MORE TIME . . . for good measure . . . read the full story HERE.

Stupid politicians in Harrisburg are still struggling with the hole that was left in the budget when the I-80 tolling project was turned down last month [READ HERE], and they are considering EVERYTHING that could possibly raise money. According to the article, "Legislators are suggesting other solutions: tolling Interstate 79 or Interstate 95, legalizing video gambling machines, enabling private companies to lease highways and charge tolls, contracting out highway maintenance, or raising the wholesale gas tax."

I'm sorry, but has anyone considered the possibility of CUTTING SPENDING as a way to make ends meet? NOOOOOOOOOOO. Instead, let's just keep putting through a proposal to toll I-80 and THEN continue to write the money into the budget (as though it is already approved). All this so that we can move along in an effort to quickly pass a useless, garbage budget before things ramp up for the November election.

In the words of Mike Kelly (candidate for Congress), "I'm sorry if I come off as ANGRY, but I am ANGRY". State legislators need to sit their rear ends down in Harrisburg and start cutting meat out of this budget and it better start soon. I'm not talking any whimpy thin sliced pork chops kind of meat . . . I'm talkin' big old thick porterhouse steaks kinds of meat . . . if you know what I mean.

Give it up already. I-80 is NOT an option. Find some other dead horse to beat for a while.

As always, just my opinion.

~Mercer County Conservatives

NOT AS SHEEP by Dr. Steven Porter

2010-04-29T09:23:00.003-04:00

Summary provided by Roberta Biros

Please read these comments from Dr. Steven Porter. Dr. Porter and I have discussed the topic of independent candidates personally, and I valued his input and comments. He is "spot on" with his post on the topic [READ HERE]!

Dr. Porter is very closely tied to our area. He ran for Congress in 2004 and 2006. Most recently he ran for Congress in the 3rd District as an unaffiliated independent in 2008 against Republican Phil English and Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper. After gathering FAR MORE signatures that were necessary on his nomination papers, Dr. Porter's petitions were challenged by political insiders in an effort to keep him OUT of the election. The political insiders won their legal challenge. They may have prevented Dr. Porter's name from being included on the ballot, but they did not "defeat him".

Dr. Porter remains a political activist and he is confident that good government directed by "the People" is still within our reach. Read his comments HERE, and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

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PA-3: Is Kelly Using Blog Stalkers From Washington DC?

2010-04-29T08:18:00.002-04:00

This is an interesting post by fellow Mercer County blogger, Rich Talbert. It is an interesting read as it illustrates activity that political bloggers are experiencing right now . . . Blog Stalkers (as Rich calls them). Read the story HERE.

Mercer County GOP Meet and Greet: Supporting Conservative Candidates or Selfish Self Promotion of Incumbents and Endorsed Candidates?

2010-04-28T10:53:00.003-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

It is with mixed emotions that I post this event announcement today. The event is sponsored by the Mercer County GOP and the details are provided below:

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Meet and Greet of Republican Candidates
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Hempfield Station One
6th Avenue
Greenville, PA
7PM – 9PM

First, the event is a wonderful opportunity for the candidates that are facing challengers in the Primary (only three weeks away) to meet, mix, and mingle with the people of Mercer County. I am completely supportive of that concept, and I have attended more than my share of similar events in the past six weeks. I will be attending this event (as I have all of the others in the area) to document who is there and what they have to say. I do this to provide information to the voters of the area so that they are well informed when they go to the polls on May 18th. I also spend the time and effort in covering these events because NO ONE ELSE IN THE PRESS WILL. I write about all of the political activities in the area because we need to STIMILATE INTEREST in this election in order to generate REAL CHANGE in November.

Unfortunately, there are some that believe that this particular Meet and Greet may be hijacked by incumbent politicians in an effort to promote themselves (rather than the candidates that are struggling to win their respective Primaries). The two-hour event should be focused candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Congress (3rd and 4th Districts). IT SHOULD NOT be spent on incumbents that have no opponents in the Primary or (in some cases) no opponents in the General Election.

If Senator Bob Robbins, Representative Michele Brooks, and Representative Dick Stevenson show up with the intention of upstaging the Primary candidates, they should be booted off the stage. (even better, they should be booted OUT OF OFFICE, but I digress)

I urge all of you to attend the event tomorrow night in order to educate yourself about the candidates that are competing in the Primary. I also urge you to watch carefully at “who” is politicking and “who” is there to simply support the conservative candidates that are seeking a place on the ballot in the fall.

I am committed to informing the people of Mercer County, the voters of northwest Pennsyvania, and the taxpayers of Pennsylvania of ALL political activities . . . good and bad. I present information in this forum in an effort to educate and stimulate. You are free to form your own opinion, but I think it is important that you have access to ALL of the details.

A Side Note:

I have a funny feeling that some attempt will be made to prevent me from attending this event. I intend on walking in and documenting the activities just as I have done since mid-March. I “dare them” to attempt to stop me.

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3rd Congressional Candidates Debate the Issues Again: Who will be the one to send Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper packing?

2010-04-27T14:03:00.005-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

Last night I attended another formal debate of the 3rd Congressional District Republican Candidates. The event was sponsored by Allegheny College and was held at Quigley Hall on the Allegheny College Campus. It was another standing-room-only event as it was a rare opportunity for the people of the 3rd Congressional District to determine which candidate can best represent them when we send Kathy Dahlkemper home in November.

All six candidates were in attendance. In order on the stage from left to right were Steve Fisher, Ed Franz, Clayton Grabb, Paul Huber, Mike Kelly, and Martha Moore.

The last formal debate was held a month ago on March 25th in Grove City (read about it HERE). It may have only been 4 weeks ago, but it seems like a lifetime. The last four weeks have been packed with events, get-togethers, meet-n-greets, fundraisers, and tea parties for all six of the Republican candidates . . . and the bloggers that follow them. The grueling schedule is beginning to take its toll on everyone involved, but it hasn’t dampened our determination to push through to November.

At the debate that was held a month ago, we met six candidates that were fresh, unpolished, and unique. Four weeks later, the six candidates are beginning to meld into one and other. The have all had an opportunity to tweak their presentations, and some are actually stealing each others quotes (i.e, I believe it was Ed Franz that stole Martha Moore’s “enough is enough” quote last night and it made me laugh).

I documented the entire evening, but you all know that I’m not one to simply provide a laundry list of the evening’s events. No, I’d prefer to paint you an abstract portrait of the highlights and lowlights of the night.

Highlights?

Anyone that attended last night’s event would agree hands down that the “star” of the evening was Dr. Martha Moore. At the debate in Grove City, Dr. Moore was noticeably nervous and she struggled at times to find the words to properly describe her stand on issues. That was simply not the case last night as Dr. Moore has found a comfortable place in just shooting straight from the hip. “Like what?”, you ask. Allow me to provide a few sound bites:

When discussing why she was running for office, Dr. Moore stated “Because I don’t want to be nauseated every time that I hear the President of the United States speak.”

She made a reference to a patient that recently visited her office who has over $90K in outstanding medical bills. She stated “Call Kathy Dahlkemper (and ask her to pay your bill)”.

When referring to the recent health care reform bill she stated “that stupid bill they passed . . . just stupid”.

The most precious references that Dr. Moore made were during her closing statements where she literally brought down the house. For instance . . . “When I go to Washington, I’m going to say NO a lot. They are going to say that I’m from the party of no’, but I’m the party of ‘STOP THIS’”.

I applaud Martha Moore for offering us “Martha Moore Unplugged” last night. She brought a level of straight talk and humor to an otherwise serious and sometimes lifeless event. I’ve said it before and I’ll take this opportunity to say it again. I really respect Dr. Moore for standing up as a concerned citizen and becoming involved in this race. I still don’t believe that she is necessarily the best choice to become our next Congresswoman, but I appreciate the perspective that she brings to the table. She says the things that many of us are thinking . . . but we’ve never actually said out loud, and because she is a candidate she is able to inject those thoughts directly into the formal debate conversation.

Her participation in last night’s event was “priceless”.

Interesting Notes on Each Candidate

I’d like to point out some interesting statements from each of the candidates presented in the order of the seating arrangement on the stage from left to right.

Steve Fisher

Steve Fisher continues to illustrate that he is the perfect mix of grassroots candidate and qualified representative. He presents himself as a “Statesman” and not a politician. He is polished in all the right places, but he remains human (and appropriately ‘unpolished’) in the way that he connects with the people of this area. He is sincere, honest, and approachable but also projects an unmatched level of confidence and professionalism.

On issues of the budget, Mr. Fisher pointed out that we need to make decisions that are “good for us”. He pointed out that too much attention goes to how our budgetary decisions will affect China and Japan and that we need to concentrate on how those decisions will affect us first.” He suggested that we reestablish an impartial review of the federal government and possible inefficiencies through an investigation similar to the Grace Commission (that was established during the Reagan administration).

In response to issues of our military and his willingness to respond to a strike against the United States, Mr. Fisher first stated that he is concerned “about how thin our military is stretched” and whether they are receiving the support that they need. He also pointed out that we need to “forget political correctness”.

In his closing comments, Mr. Fisher made a great statement worth noting. He said “I am not a politician. I plan on serving a maximum of three terms and coming back to the area to work in the insurance industry . . . if there is an insurance industry to come back to”.

Ed Franz

Ed Franz positions himself as the man who can “represent the average taxpayer in Washington DC”. He pointed out that “inside the beltway politicians have concentrated on healthcare legislation and not the health of this nation”.

Mr. Franz made reference to the “800 lb gorilla in the back of the room”. Some may have thought he was referring to one blogger that was seated in the last row of the auditorium, but he was referring to “the national debt”. Mr. Franz wants to be the voice in the debate that represents the average taxpayer.

Regarding budget deficits, Mr. Franz made his stand clear when he stated “We need to get out of deficit spending. We need to get out of financing bills and legislation that we cannot afford.” It was a short statement, but it hit at the heart of the problem.

In a humorus moment of the evening, Mr. Franz was discussing his thoughts on the strength of the military and his stand on responding to a strike on the US. To quote “If we are attacked we should hunt them down.” He then went on to discuss a reference to a movie . . . “Patton”, and he stated “Wasn’t that the way a war should be fought.” The reference sent chuckles across the crowd.

Clayton Grabb

Clayton Grabb continues to prove that he is the anti-politician. His concerns are not for “the Party” but for “the People”. He started by explaining why he decided to run for office. He stated “I believe our constitution is under attack”. He then went on to explain “I got tired of holding my nose to go and vote in the past. My Republican Party has left us down before. We need someone that will go to DC and stand up for the people and tell it like it is.” It is statements like these that explain why Mr. Grabb is not embraced by the Republican Party, but is, instead, embraced by people who have experienced the same frustrations . . . which are many.

He continued to separate him self from politicians by saying “(we need to elect people to) do the people’s work and then go home . . . we need a citizen legislator that does not want to be there.” (emphasizing that once they get there they get too comfortable)

When it comes to budgetary issues, Mr. Grabb offers common sense solutions to that too. He stated “How about we cut all government hiring. The government is the only sector of our economy that is growing right now. . . . we cannot continue to grow our government . . . the more (people) that depend on government the harder it will be for people like us to get in there and stop it.”

Regarding issues of the military, Mr. Grabb stated “We need to pull the politicians out (of the decision making process) and let the military do what it needs to do. We need to do what is necessary to be the biggest baddest dog on the block.”

Paul Huber

Paul Huber remains firm on his position as the businessman with the experience needed to represent us in Washington DC. In his opening statement his first words were “I’m a life long social and fiscal conservative”. I mention this because it raised a few eyebrows in the crowd as some people have questioned the fact that Mr. Huber only became a Republican last year.

Mr. Huber did, however, manage to present a very conservative stand on fiscal issues including his statement on budgetary issues as “I’m proposing that we go to 2009 levels of spending and that includes legislative salaries as well. It is a step in the right direction that sends the right message to the financial markets and the American people that we are serious about this.” Mr. Huber’s ideas for tackling economic problems are aggressive and bold and I like that.

Regarding job creation in our area, Mr. Huber offered a great explanation of the problem as “government doesn’t create jobs . . . they create an environment where jobs are destroyed or they can create an environment where free enterprise can create jobs”. Mr. Huber continues to offer the prospective of a business person, and he is quite clear on his vision of how that prospective is desperately needed in Washington DC.

Mike Kelly

Mike Kelly also offers the business owner angle, and he is quite direct in his approach. Unlike Huber (who is polished and refined), Mike Kelly offers similar ideas but with an extra “edge”. When explaining “why” he was running he simply stated “because none of us ran before.” He further explained that “We were all responsible people sitting back and didn’t have time to get involved . . . We forfeited our future . . . it is time to get people like ‘us’ into office.”

Regarding the issue of term limits, Mr. Kelly made his stand clear when he stated “people are sitting too long in the same spot and they aren’t held accountable.”

In response to a question regarding budget deficits and the President’s plan to freeze discretionary spending, Mr. Kelly boldly stated “I have a problem listening to anything that Obama says and taking it seriously.” Again in referencing the President he said “We’ve got a 3 yr old running the highest powered locomotive on earth.”

Mr. Kelly’s most important point of the evening was his repeated reference to “it’s the spending, stupid”. He continues to press the common-sense idea that spending needs to be addressed before this nation can move forward on anything. I agree.

Mr. Kelly did attempt to address recent comments that he “comes across as angry”. He explained that people might get that impression because “he is angry”. He explained that he is angry about the problems that we are facing in this country and he is serious about fixing them.

As a side note . . . After the debate I did ask Mr. Kelly that the next time he wants to quote me directly I only ask that he give me a public shout out. This is, of course, a reference to the fact that my written statements regarding Mr. Kelly were the catalyst to the conversations about his “anger”. Mike and I laughed about it and I reassured him that “I think he is just a big teddy bear”.

Martha Moore

Aside from the comments that I’ve already made regarding Dr. Moore, there were other points that did not go unnoticed. Regarding finding solutions to fiscal issues, she stated “don’t look to the Government to fix problems that the Government created”. It isn’t just a great quote . . . it is the truth.

Regarding budgetary issues and a proposed freeze on discretionary spending, Dr. Moore stated “a miniscule part of the budget is what he is freezing . . . then he passes a bill that will cost 2.4 trillion dollars . . . they said 1.4 trillion but they lied.” She then went on to explain “We are going to have to tackle the big items.” As a possible solution, she suggested that “we need to audit the federal government”, and I completely agree.

One key difference between the candidates?

After almost two months of following these candidates from event to event I was surprised last night when an issue surfaced which drew a very definitive line of distinction between them. That issue was regarding campaign financing and specifically the Supreme Court ruling on “Citizens United v. FEC”.

The issue has multiple facets that generated great conversation. The first is an issue regarding the First Amendment and free speech, and the second issue is that of campaign financing and the idea of “deep pockets buying elections”.

All of the candidates were in agreement on the issue of free speech (no shock there), but there were additional comments made by some that highlighted a serious problem regarding political campaigns in general.

Mike Kelly felt that the ruling helped to “even the playing field”. He explained that “corporations shouldn’t be pouring this much money into elections, but when you look at how the Democrats raise money you need to level the playing field.”

In drastic contrast, Steve Fisher was clearly against the concept of corporations funding elections. He stated “We spend far too much on elections already. I don’t think that corporations should be allowed to spend money to buy votes and buy elections.” He further explained “there is big difference between dollars between many candidates, but to take corporate money and throw it in there is unfair”. As a grassroots candidate, Fisher has experienced first had how deep pockets and large bank accounts can make the election process a particularly uneven playing field.

Ed Franz agreed with the Supreme Court ruling but emphasized that “we need to watch what special interests are financing which candidates . . . the voters need to keep an eye (on the process)”.

Clayton Grabb also agreed with the Supreme Court ruling and supported his comments by saying that “corporations ARE you and I”. However, as another grassroots candidate, he was quick to point out that “Campaigns should not cost what they cost!” [I say “Amen” to that.] He further went on to explain exactly how “big money comes in and they buy the Primary”. In closing he reminded everyone that the “grassroots people are the ones that need to be represented”.

Paul Huber agreed with the Supreme Court ruling, and he seemed to have no problem with the concept of corporations funding elections.

This specific debate drew very clear lines for me. 2010 is an election year that offers very stark contrasts. It is a year that pits “deep pockets” against “grassroots Average Joe’s” (as in the race for the 3rd Congressional District). It is a year that battles “endorsed candidates” against “unendorsed candidates” (read an example HERE). It is a year that will put unaffiliated Independents up against 20-year entrenched incumbents (read an example HERE).

In summary, 2010 is the year of David vs. Goliath.

In the race for the 3rd Congressional District, David is represented by Steve Fisher, Ed Franz, Clayton Grabb, and Martha Moore. Goliath is represented by Paul Huber and Mike Kelly. The Primary on May 18th will settle the debate and the battle once and for all.

As always, just my opinion.
~Mercer County Conservatives

Sam Rohrer, Candidate for Governor, visited Mercer County

2010-04-27T10:11:00.006-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

Saturday, April 24 was a busy day for concerned citizens in Mercer County. The day kicked off with the Mercer County TEA Party at the courthouse at 10am (read more about the Mercer County TEA Party HERE) and it ended up with a personal visit from Sam Rohrer, candidate for Governor at 4pm. Sam Rohrer is, himself, a fellow Tea Partier, so the tie in between the two events was a brilliant idea and a great way to carry over the energy from one event to the next. Bravo!

The day may have been busy for us but it was especially action packed for candidate Rohrer. He was scheduled to arrive at Brandy Springs Park outside of downtown Mercer shortly after 4pm, but his arrival was delayed due to his extremely cramped schedule. The event organizers had planned for a festive welcome for Mr. Rohrer and event attendees as is illustrated by the ‘welcoming committee” at Brandy Springs Park (see photo below).

Even though our time with Sam was limited, he made the most of it. After a brief introduction, Sam devoted only a short time to his opening remarks. Instead, he preferred to spend his time answering direct questions from attendees. I appreciated the change of focus as it allowed us to discuss the issues that were important to those of us attending rather than hearing a pre-packaged campaign speech. The focus became the constituents and not the candidate. It was very ‘un-politician’ like.

There was time for about five questions to which Mr. Rohrer provided detailed answers. Question topics were nullification, elimination of property taxes, gun rights and the fire arms database, jobs, and sin taxes. I know that Sam Rohrer is a fiscal conservative legislator and I had heard that he was a strict Constitutionalist, but there is no substitute for ‘hearing it from the horses mouth’ and I was not disappointed.

Sam Rohrer provided answers that were absolutely spot-on. His vision for Pennsylvania was clear and unwavering. He made decisive statements like “I will not sign a tax increase bill in order to balance the budget . . . and I will not borrow”. He believes that “the tax dollars that come to Harrisburg are private property”, which supports the idea that taxpayers should control the government and not politicians and special interests.

This was a rare opportunity for Mercer Countians to have direct interaction with a Gubernatorial candidate. Attendance was less than 100, but those that were chose to attend were genuinely interested and concerned about Pennsylvania’s future. There were a few exceptions of course. Mercer County GOP Committee Chairman, Dave King, was on hand to welcome Mr. Rohrer to Mercer County. Dr. King’s attendance was surprising knowing what the GOP establishment thinks of ‘non-endorsed’ candidates. It should be noted that no other Republican state legislators chose to welcome Mr. Rohrer to Mercer County. Senator Robbins, Representative Brooks and Representative Stevenson did not feel that the event was worth their time. Shame on them . . . but do they ever show up to an event where they would be overshadowed?

I had an interesting conversation with Dr. King while we were waiting for the event to begin, and it is worth mentioning. I made a simple statement to Dr. King that “Sam Rohrer is a good guy”. Dr. King felt it necessary to correct me by stating “he is a good REPUBLICAN”. I responded with “no, he is a good CONSERVATIVE . . . not all Republicans are good Conservatives . . . and not all good Conservatives are Republicans”. We then went on to discuss very briefly the problem that not all “conservatives” are embraced by the Republican Party and Dr. King stressed that the problem seemed like an isolated incident involving only ONE individual . . . me. Well, Dr. King, I seem to meet more and more people like me every day. Perhaps Dr. King should have attended the Tea Party earlier in the day where he could have talked to hundreds of people just like me . . . but he did not.

Unfortunately for you, Dr. King, 2010 is the year that conservatives are going to stand up to the GOP establishment and make a statement. Endorsed candidates are no longer a ‘shoe in’, and many of us are seeing endorsements as the ‘kiss of death’ for a candidate as it ties them to the ‘elephant in the room’ . . . the self-serving GOP establishment. It is time that Dr. King wake up and realize that Tea Partiers, Independents, and disgruntled Republicans have become a force to recon with, and if the GOP doesn’t soon recognize that it will eventually go the way of the Dodo bird . . . perhaps sooner than later.

In closing, I’d like to thank Sam Rohrer for taking the time to stop in and visit good ol’ Mercer County. I’d also like to thank the event organizers for taking the time and effort to make certain the Mercer County is not a forgotten county in this election. Sam Rohrer’s interest in our area helps to put us on the map.

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SEIU Rallies for Higher Taxes

2010-04-26T13:07:00.003-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

I received the following YouTube video link from a friend and I felt it was worth sharing with all of you.

Are these people really this stupid?

I need to go buy some serious stock in Kool-Aid, because it seems that thousands of stupid people are drinking it by the gallons.

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Candidate Event: Thursday, April 29, 2010

2010-04-26T08:12:00.002-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Day: Thursday, April 29, 2010
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Where: Station One, Sixth Avenue, Greenville, PA
What: Meet and Greet the Candidates

Details: Sponsored and organized by the Mercer County Republican Party

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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CLAYTON GRABB Coffee with the Candidate Events

2010-04-25T22:13:00.000-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

An open forum for citizens to voice their thoughts, ideas and concerns for our region with someone who will finally listen…...someone who will bring the voice of Main Street to Washington DC.

Tuesday April 27 - Time: 7 - 8:30 pm - Perkins Restaurant, Meadville, Pa

Monday May 3rd - Time: 7 - 8:30 pm- Kings Family Restaurant, Franklin, PA

Thursday, May 6 - Time: 7 - 8:30 pm - Panera, Butler Commons, Butler, PA

Monday, May 10 - Time: 7 - 8:30 pm - Kings Family Restaurant, Kittanning, PA

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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Candidate Debate at Allegheny College--April 26, 2010

2010-04-25T18:39:00.001-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

The six declared candidates in the Republican primary election for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District will debate at Allegheny College on Monday, April 26. Sponsored by Allegheny’s Center for Political Participation, the debate is open to the public and will be held in Quigley Hall auditorium at 7 p.m.

The six declared candidates are: Steven Fisher, 52, Cochranton, a health insurance salesman; Ed Franz, 48, Conneautville, an hourly worker at General Electric Corp.; Clayton Grabb, 47, Butler, a pharmaceutical salesman; Paul Huber, 65, Meadville, a businessman; Mike Kelly, 61, Butler, a car dealership owner; and Dr. Martha Moore, 52, Sandy Lake, a family practitioner.

“This will be an important primary election, and we’re quite pleased to be hosting a candidate forum,” said Daniel M. Shea, director of the Center for Political Participation and moderator of the debate. “Events of this sort really help the voters become more familiar with the candidates and the issues.”

Candidates are expected to field questions from the audience. For more information, contact the Center for Political Participation at (814) 332-6202.

Mercer County PA TEA Party was a huge success

2010-04-24T18:16:00.004-04:00

Written by Roberta Biros

The Mercer County TEA Party last year (July 4th) was amazing. The weather was perfect and the crowd was large. Today's TEA Party on the court house lawn had additional hurdles of threats of rain and chilly temperatures, but attendance was even higher than last year!

Estimates for attendance ranged around 750 (last year's estimates were about 500). The crowd was polite and orderly yet invigorated and motivated.

There were some folks that obviously didn't belong, but they were tolerated. I managed to snap a photo of one 'fake tea partier' at the event. The event planners had decided that we would highlight fake tea partiers with small signs and we'd attempt to document the intruders with cell phone cameras. The example below was actually a two-for-one special. It exposed the obvious fake tea partier in the center of the photo, but it also exposed the yard sign for another fake tea partier (that was also in attendance) in the bottom left hand corner of the photo. In a single word, "Priceless".

I'd like to caption the above photo as "where is The Herald when you need them?"

Mark your calendars now, as the next TEA Party in Mercer County is scheduled for July 3rd . . . rain or shine!

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Transparency vs. Corruption: An Investigation in Search of a Rat

2010-04-22T20:09:00.008-04:00

Senator Bob Robbins, Representative Michele Brooks, Representative Mark Longietti, and Representative Dick Stevenson hide and duck from important questions

Written by Roberta Biros

In a recent radio interview it was noted that I have a “big thing” with transparency, and that was no exaggeration. Those that know me also know that I am obsessed with the issue of transparency in government and public service . . . so much so that I am now running my second campaign on that very issue [read HERE].

Yes, this post is long (I know that fellow blogger Fred Mullner groaned when he saw it), but it includes details from research that has been going on for well over a month.

Notes from the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference

Last weekend I attended the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg. The meeting brings together deep thinking conservatives to discuss topics of concern. Each year there are top issues of conversation like the budget and fiscal responsibility and there is always a great deal of conversation about politics and upcoming elections. This year there was one panel discussion that was worth the entire cost of admission . . . Beyond Corruption: Transparency, Accountability & Reform.

The panel was moderated by Chris Freind, Columnist. I scheduled my day around this particular presentation and Mr. Freind's opening comments did not disappoint. First, Mr. Freind referred to some politicians as the “business as usual crowd” and he made reference to their desire to “hide and duck” tough and probing questions. However, I was most intrigued when Mr. Freind referenced the recent BonusGate scandals involving Vion (and now Orie) [read more HERE]. Mr. Freind pointed out that some political insiders have stated that some of the investigations are “politically motivated”. Mr. Freind stated “The question is not whether it is politically driven . . . the question is ‘is it true’”. The most amazing part about Mr. Friend's comment is that I spoke the words aloud with him. These are the exact same things that I’ve been saying for quite some time and it was refreshing to hear a panel discussion begin on that note.

The presentation continued on for about an hour and included presentations by Joe Sterns (Citizens Alliance of PA), Curt Schroder (State Representative), Lyndsay O’Herrick (Citizen Activist), and Doug Reichley (State Representative). The details and discussions were too numerous to mention, but the entire conversation was invigorating. I left prepared to push harder for transparency because I knew that I was not alone in my quest.

I left with another specific quote that is worth repeating. This one was from Lyndsay O’Herrick who stated “Corruption is the conscious act of sustaining the status quo at the expense of future generations.” Gosh . . . that’s all really good stuff!

Corruption vs. Transparency in Mercer County: My Investigation

As most of you know, I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past year and a half asking questions of our legislators. Sometimes they answer, and sometimes they don’t. My recent line of questioning of our state lawmakers has left my phone and email empty, but I refuse to let this sleeping dog lie . . . it just isn’t my style. So, allow me to explain what I’ve been up to for the past several weeks as follows:

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, I sent an email message to the taxpayer funded email accounts of our four state legislators (Robbins, Brooks, Longietti, and Stevenson). The email message was titled “"harder" questions regarding the use of your staff”. The email message was a follow up to the earlier message regarding my concerns (and the concerns of others) regarding inappropriate use of legislative staff and resources for campaign activities. In the message I reiterated a number of questions that had been published in The Herald. The questions were very specific and I requested answers in writing by March 31st as a matter of transparency. ALL FOUR FAILED TO RESPOND.

On Monday, April 5, 2010, I sent a letter to the editor of The Herald regarding their lack of response. That letter was published on April 9th.

On Tuesday, April 6, 2010, I contacted all four legislators by fax. This time it was in response to the announced that State Senator Jane Orie was too be indicted on misuse of legislative staff for her sister’s campaign in 2009. As the third ranking Republican in the State Senate (just two notches above Senator Robbins), the news of her indictment hit unpleasantly close to the questions that I had asked each of the legislators. So, I asked the questions again. I stressed that the lack of transparency regarding this issue created a perception of corruption even if no actual corruption exists. I further noted that continued failure to avoid these very direct and specific questions makes many of us wonder what it is that they are trying to hide? ALL FOUR FAILED TO RESPOND.

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, I contacted all four legislators again by fax. I repeated the same list of questions and noted the following:

“The questions that I’ve posed are not out of line. The questions raise valid concerns regarding the way that taxpayer dollars are used by you and your staff. As a taxpayer, I ask these questions as a matter of transparency, and it is your duty to answer the questions as a matter of accountability and public service. Perhaps transparency, accountability, and public service are a forgotten duty in government, but I feel it is my responsibility to encourage these characteristics from each and every one of our elected officials.”

ALL FOUR FAILED TO RESPOND.

On Friday, April 16, 2010, I began calling the offices of our legislators. First on my list was Senator Bob Robbins. I called Senator Robbin’s office and explained that I had sent numerous email messages and faxes to the Senator and had received no response. I was told that I would need to schedule an appointment with the Senator and that process could take 2 to 3 weeks. It was explained to me that Senator Robbins spends 3 days each and every week in Harrisburg and he finds it difficult to find time in his schedule to meet with constituents. I wanted to say “don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining”, but I contained myself and asked that someone call me back to schedule an appointment.

The next call went to the office of Representative Mark Longietti. I explained who I was and why I was calling. After a few minutes on hold I was transferred to Representative Longietti. Representative Longietti stated that he was aware of my attempted communications and that he considers me to be a “media outlet” and he chooses not to correspond with my particular “media outlet”. He stated that he did not wish to contribute to my blog. I asked if my being a taxpayer provided me the right to answers, and Representative Longietti simply repeated his earlier statements. I thanked him for his time. All I can say is “at least he took my call”.

The third call went to the office of Representative Michele Brooks. I received an answering machine and left a detailed message as instructed. I then called again about an hour and a half later. I explained who I was and why I was calling. I was put on hold for several minutes. When the phone was picked up I was told that Representative Brooks was no longer available for the day and that they would giver her my message on Monday. Hmmmm. Interesting.

I did not bother to call Representative Dick Stevenson as I could see that this exercise was becoming a waste of time.

As of today, April 22, 2010, ALL FOUR FAILED TO RESPOND.

The Probing Questions?

Based on the lack of responses, you would think that the questions that I was asking were “way outside the box”. Well, allow me to review them with you here. They came from a list that was presented in an AP article [read HERE]. The questions that I forwarded were regarding campaign policies and the tracking of work by their staff; use of their legislative staff including caucus staff, bonuses, and over-time work; taxpayer paid mailings; and per-diems (and possible double-dipping related to those per-diems).

The questions were not beyond the scope of what should be open topics of conversation . . . unless there is something to hide.

Why are you pressing this issue so hard?

It is apparent that if we leave the “hen house unguarded”, the fox and the rooster will worry about no one but themselves. That is the case with many of those in our current state legislature . . . and we have four examples of that in Mercer County. If WE the taxpayers don’t hold our elected officials accountable, they won’t do it on their own. It is our responsibility to “keep them honest” (which assumes that they were honest in the first place, but I digress).

I had a discussion with a colleague over the weekend and he pointed out how blurry the lines between legislative staff and campaign staff have become. He noted a recent experience where he was approached for campaign purposes by a member of a local legislative staff. His radar went up and he noted “how can you tell if they are on taxpayer time or free time?”. Even if it is after hours, how do our legislators track the time. When we are having a conversation with a legislative employee, how do we know if WE are paying for the conversation or not?

Allow me to explain the problem that exists with a photo. The picture is posted in a public on-line forum at the website of the Mercer County GOP. They display the photo proudly and think nothing of the problems that it might illustrate. First, here is a screen shot of the website (before the details mysteriously disappear):

Here is a close up of the photo in question along with the published caption.

While this photo may not mean much to anyone outside of Mercer County, I’d like to describe why it is so disturbing. The photo is of State Senator Bob Robbins having a conversation with Diane Helbig. It is clear that Diane Helbig is campaigning for Representative Michele Brooks (the blue and fluorescent logo is hard to miss). However, for those of you that aren’t aware of the details, Ms. Helbig is also Representative Michele Brooks “Legislative Assistant” (I hope I got the exact title right . . . it is usually displayed on an ID tag that she wears at official events).

So when you look at the picture, do you wonder . . .

“Is Ms. Helbig discussing State business or campaign business?”

“Is she campaigning or is she filling some official capacity?”

“Is she on unpaid/donated time or is she somehow being compensated by the taxpayers (either directly or through bonuses or extra compensation)?”

“Is Ms. Helbig doing this voluntarily or is she pressured to do this type of work by her employer, Representative Brooks?”

My point in all of this is, why do we even need to ask the questions? Do our legislators not have enough friends and supporters that they must use legislative staff to fill their campaign needs? Can our elected officials not find enough loyal volunteers that they need to take taxpayer-paid employees to parades and fairs? If they are so comfortable with situations like the ones pictured above, what else do they do that might cross the line?

I don’t propose that we babysit our legislators and their staff. Instead, I demand that they change the laws so that these sort of questions are unnecessary. I made a proposal in a previous post and I’d like to repeat it here . . .

The solution is simple. The staff of elected officials should NOT be involved in partisan political activity of any kind. PERIOD. The Hatch Act of 1939 prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. This same concept should be implemented at every level of government. Legislative staff (as well as County and Local) should not be permitted to be involved in any political activity (on taxpayer time or on their own time). For more information about his concept, please read the on-line article titled “Politically Uncorrected : IF MEN WERE ANGELS" which is available for on-line review HERE.

In Closing . . .

It is obvious that our legislators don't want to have this conversation with us (the taxpayers), but is it really their choice?

As always, just my opinion.

~Mercer County Conservatives

REMINDER: Mercer County PA TEA Party: Saturday, April 24, 2010

2010-04-21T11:20:00.001-04:00

IMPORTANT REMINDER!!!

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Mercer County TEA Party

Where: Mercer County Courthouse Lawn
Date: Saturday, April 24
Time: 10 AM - Noon

Speakers:
- Dr. Mark Hendrickson, Economist
- Mr. Ed Roberson, Constitution Party
- Rev. William Schafer, Veteran

All who want to renew our nation's Constitutional, Free Market, and Moral Foundations come join us!

IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING THE RAIN LOCATION!

The event will be held at the court house REGARDLESS of weather. It was originally reported that the backup location would be Mercer High School, but this plan has been amended. Come prepared for any sort of weather . . . we won't let the rain stop us!

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Sam Rohrer Candidate for Governor to be in Mercer on April 24th

2010-04-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Come Hear SAM ROHRER and ask questions. A Grass Roots, Tea Party Conservative, And a True Constitutional Republican.

WHEN
APRIL 24TH 4:00 – 5:00 P.M.
(After the Tea Party in Mercer)

WHERE
BRANDY SPRINGS PARK (get a map HERE)
COMMUNITY CENTER, MERCER

the SAM ROHRER
FREEDOM AGENDA
Private Property Rights – Repeal the school property tax
2nd Amendment – Constitutionally protected gun rights
4th Amendment – Personal privacy rights
10th Amendment – Protection against the Federal Govt

the SAM ROHRER
FAMILY AGENDA
Pro Life & Pro Family
1st Amendment protection of religious expression
Parental rights and educational choices

MercerCountyForSam@yahoo.com

NOTICE:
This event announcement was submitted by the Candidate or by a Candidate representative. The event announcement is being published here as a community service in an effort to give concerned citizens an opportunity to meet the candidates. Candidates and committees are invited to submit announcements to this blog by email to roberta.in.mercer@gmail.com.

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