Pipeline activist to challenge incumbent
WEST WHITELAND >> An anti-pipeline activist has announced that she will seek the Chester County Democratic Party’s nomination for a seat in the state Legislature whose borders include Ground Zero for the controversial Mariner East pipelines, setting up a Primary Election contest with the incumbent and the possibility of a bitter, internecine battle between fellow party members.
On Wednesday, Ginny Kerslake, a small business owner from West Whiteland who has been at the forefront of the effort to derail the controversial Mariner East project, announced her candidacy for the state House of Representatives for the 167th District, a seat that is now held by Democrtic state Rep. Kristine Howard of Malvern.
The district includes West Whiteland, East Whiteland, Charlestown, Willistown, West Pikeland, and Easttown townships and Malvern borough. The Mariner pipeline runs straight through the heart of West Whiteland, a township that has seen a number of environmental issues develop from its construction.
The announcement came less than two weeks after Howard issued a statement proclaiming her intention to seek a second term in office. She defeated former state Rep. Duane Milne in 2018, when the surging county Democratic Party sent several candidates to victory in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.
Kerslake is among some party members who have complained that Howard has not been sufficiently active in opposing the Mariner East pipeline, even though she has repeatedly called for it to be safely constructed. This summer, a seemingly innocuous Facebook posting about a meeting Howard had with local municipal officials to tour the pipeline construction site set off a raucous, intramural “dust-up” between current and former Democratic Party officials over her pipeline actions.
In her press release, Kerslake addressed head-on the notion that she might be crossing a line in waging political war against a member of her own party.
“I realize I’m challenging an incumbent in my own party, and in some circles that is unorthodox,” she said, although not naming Howard directly. “However, with concerns as critical as the construction of volatile pipelines running through our community, a plan to turn Pennsylvania into the next petrochemical plastics hub, sinkholes driving our neighbors from their homes, drinking wells being destroyed, and criminal investigations and charges mounting by the day, we need a fighter and champion, someone unafraid to speak truth to power.”
Howard could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for her campaign, however, said she had no reservations about facing Kerslake in the April 2020 primary.
“Rep. Howard respects everyone’s right to run for public office,” said Marty Marks. “She looks forward to running on her record of accomplishments,” which include introducing anti-hate crime legislation and supporting gun safety regulations. “She has never missed a vote since taking office and earned the respect of her colleagues as someone who does her homework and knows her subject matter.”
“She expects to be elected, and is up to any challenge that comes her way,” Marks said.
This will be Kerslake’s second run for public office, the first being an un
successful run for the Democratic Party’s nomination for county commissioner earlier this year. In both that try and the coming one, she has put the pipeline front an center of her campaign rhetoric.
“In times like today, when personal property rights, public safety, and the environment are being adversely impacted for corporate gain by the oil and gas industry; mental health and substance abuse disorder are devastating lives and communities; household finances are stretched by rising health care and pharmaceutical costs; and young adults are saddled with student debt and unaffordable housing costs we need a leader who will stand up, speak up, and work side by side with constituents,” she said in the press release.
Kerslake, an environmental scientist with degrees from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, moved to the county with her husband and sons in 2004. She turned a passion for sewing into a small business, Side Stich by Ginny.
As part of her commitment to opposing the pipeline, she co-founded DelChesco United for Pipeline Safety and West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety to raise public awareness, and has testified before the House Majority Policy Committee and at several Public Utility Commission (PUC) hearings.
“Too often we send representatives to Harrisburg who fall prey to towing the line at the expense of what is right for their local communities,” she said in her announcement. “True leadership means listening to and understanding the concerns of local residents, bringing that information to Harrisburg, and then working on legislation to achieve those ends.
“I look forward to working for all the constituents in (the district) and meeting Kristine Howard on the debate stage so that voters can see the differences in our approaches to making our district better for all of our neighbors.”
On Nov. 21, Howard announced her intention to seek reelection in 2020, declaring the need to “elect a majority that works in Harrisburg.”
“As it stands today, we have a broken legislature that does not work, let alone work together,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We have the power to elect a new majority, a working majority of likeminded thinkers that rejects extremism and seeks a consensus that better reflects the wants and interests of the majority of Pennsylvanians.”
Howard said she feels that extremists control the majority that sets the agenda in Harrisburg and dictates the legislative committee process, often contemptuously denying very reasonable legislative initiatives to even get a committee vote and the opportunity to make it to the floor for debate and consideration.
Howard sees her reelection and the reelection of the other freshmen Democrats elected in 2018 as the first steps to winning a majority that works together and “to achieve a more progressive legislature that would better reflect our beliefs, beliefs that include decency, collaboration, standing against hate and bigotry, and giving voice to the majority of Pennsylvanians.”
Howard, a University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers Law graduate, is a former child abuse investigator for Chester County’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.