Let’s talk about those ‘common sense’ GOP values

To the Times: I look forward to articles that quote Delaware County GOP chairman Andrew Reilly for the sheer entertainment value of seeing him describe years of cronyism as “common sense” Republican values. That is exactly what he did in a recent article that described the historic gains in Democratic voter registration and grassroots political mobilization that make this county election the most competitive one in recent memory. Reilly and other leaders of our county GOP continue to dismiss these gains by arguing that Delco voters will not vote along party lines, but for well-known politicians based on their records.

So let’s talk about that record. Under GOP leadership – and let’s be clear, under the GOP’s complete control of county government for decades – Delaware County has seen one scandal after another of taxes misused, funds misappropriated, and lives ruined. If Reilly’s message to voters in advance of the Nov. 7 election is “vote on the record,” then that is a message Democrats are happy to advertise – because the record should concern residents who care about how the county spends their taxes and cares for their families.

The county runs one senior living and nursing care center, Fair Acres Geriatric Center. According to public inspection reports, over the last four years it has been plagued by accidental deaths (one resident burned to death while smoking unsupervised; another choked when an employee gave him pieces of a peanut butter sandwich rather than the pureed food his medical records stated he required), and lapses in care. One resident ended up in the hospital after being given a morphine dose intended for another resident. Is this the record Reilly wants voters to remember when they vote?

Or take the George Hill Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania’s only privately run prison – whose superintendent, John A. Reilly Jr., just happens to be Andrew Reilly’s brother. It is a for-profit institution that receives money from the state for every day that an individual remains incarcerated within its walls.

Private prisons and jails like George Hill turn the criminal justice system into a profit stream for the corporations that own them, rewarding executives and shareholders if they house more people, crowd in more beds per room, and prevent early release. As a purely capitalist venture, a privately run prison or jail has no incentive to release individuals; the more people they house, they more money they get. Overcrowding and burdensome delays generate more cash. Is this a “common sense” use of our tax dollars?

And before you respond that, “criminals deserve to be locked up!” consider the reasons why people find themselves behind bars at George Hill. Too often these institutions become warehouses for the poor, for individuals unable to pay child support, for drug addicts who should instead be in treatment programs, and for the mentally ill.

It is also representative of the cronyism that infiltrates every corner of Delaware County. Andy Reilly’s law firm, Swartz Campbell, has become a launching pad for Republican candidates. Swartz Campbell attorney Beth Naughton Beck is the GOP’s replacement candidate for register of wills after Jennifer Holsten Maddaloni dropped out in late September, and she is also the Aston Township solicitor. John P. McBlain, a current member of County Council, is also a lawyer with the firm.

No wonder Reilly was such an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump, twice inviting him to Delaware County during the campaign, and later serving as an elector who cast his vote for Trump. Shortly before the election, President Barack Obama and Sally Yates, who was Deputy Attorney General, had issued guidelines to close federal privately held prisons like George Hill. Once in office, Trump reversed those rules, fired Yates, and helped boost the stock price of companies like GEO, the private company that runs the Delco prison.

I almost forgot to mention that since 2010 George Hill has erroneously released nine inmates—including one man accused of murder— due to “clerical error,” or the deaths—and ensuing lawsuits—that have made headlines in this paper over the years. Yet the all-Republican Delaware County Council had decided that GEO should manage its prison. Is this the record Andy Reilly wants voters to remember when they go to the polls on Tuesday?

Or maybe he just means the complete lack of oversight the County Council exercised when Sunoco proposed a natural gas liquids pipeline that would run across the county creating blast zones within mere feet of elementary schools and homes – a pipeline that is being used, not for Delaware County resident utility, but to be shipped to Europe to make plastics. The pipeline has spilled materials into county waterways five times since construction began earlier this year.

These taxpayer-funded public health and safety disasters occur in a county whose Republican leadership continues to insist that it has no need for a department of health, relying instead on an Intercommunity Health Coordinator and a part-time Senior Medical Adviser.

This is not a record of common sense values. It’s a record of callousness and ineptitude, and of disregard for the hard-working residents of Delaware County who deserve government that keeps them safe and uses their tax dollars effectively. And here I agree with Reilly, because I, too, hope that voters in Tuesday’s election remember this record when they decide whether this long-standing Republican regime should continue to profit at our expense.

“This is not a record of common sense values. It’s a record of callousness and ineptitude, and of disregard for the hard-working residents of Delaware County who deserve government that keeps them safe and uses their tax dollars effectively. ” — Rebecca L. Davis