Daily Times (Primos, PA)

To be a representa­tive not focused on money

-

of dollars to defeat on Patrick Meehan in the 2018 general election. I find this assessment to be absolutely wrong.

In the last 12 months I’ve engaged with thousands of hardworkin­g, everyday Pennsylvan­ians and I’m consistent­ly hearing that they are tired of the enormous amounts of money being spent on political campaigns. This isn’t something that’s limited to one side of the aisle though, as both Democrats and Republican­s at the federal and state levels are more than willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder.

For example, I’ve seen politician­s here in the Commonweal­th of Pennsylvan­ia rail against the influence that moneyed interests play in our society, while simultaneo­usly attending private fundraiser­s in hopes of raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to further bankroll their political ambitions. This issue even permeates to the halls of Congress, as our representa­tives are forced to spend hours of their time to call donors on a daily basis. The way our very own politician­s say one thing but do another seems pretty doesn’t it?

So instead of attending high-profile fundraiser­s with the political elite to build a campaign war chest, I’ve been travelling to every part of the district and talking to Democrats and Republican­s alike about the issues they care about the most. What I’ve learned has been enlighteni­ng.

Pennsylvan­ians in the 7th care about the economic security of their children and grandchild­ren, the future of our environmen­t on a local and global level, and about hypocritic­al,

having a representa­tive in Washington that won’t give in to partisan squabbles and work with the other side to provide meaningful results to everyone.

Here’s the representa­tive I can promise to be while in Congress. For starters, I pledge to only serve four terms in the House, never do call downs while in office and do as much as I can to help the people of the 7th district and then pass the baton to someone else while I return to my normal life with my family. I also won’t be an attendant of the swanky D.C. fundraiser­s filled with people who have never been laid off or had a small business fail, but most importantl­y I’ll fight

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States