{"id":15445,"date":"2016-11-02T15:55:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T19:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=15445"},"modified":"2016-11-02T15:55:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T19:55:48","slug":"endorsements-maxwell-truitt-and-rzucidlo-for-state-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=15445","title":{"rendered":"Endorsements: Maxwell, Truitt and Rzucidlo for State House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"election2016house\"<\/a>If you think everything in our commonwealth is fine \u2014 you have simple choices in Tuesday\u2019s state legislative elections. Returning your local representative will continue the policy and politics we\u2019ve seen for a number of years now.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the rest of us, who see the state lurching from financial crisis to financial crisis, see alleged \u201cfiscal conservatives\u201d run up the state\u2019s credit card like drunken college students at spring break and use deceptive cheats to \u201cbalance\u201d the budget, see a broken system for funding our public schools \u2014 one that manages to both penalize poor districts and unfairly burden property owners \u2014 and a continued inability to solve the pension crisis, keep our roads and bridges in good repair, and properly fund and staff public safety \u2014 it\u2019s a clear a change is needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might say \u201cmy State Representative is a really nice person, I couldn\u2019t vote them out.\u201d The problem, of course, is that gives them all, collectively, a blank check to continue selling out the people of the state to buy their next election.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have to, think of it as \u201ctough love.\u201d By voting them out, they and their colleagues will learn that voters have had enough of the chaos, dirty deals and refusal to solve problems. Until our elected officials become accountable to us \u2014 and not the special interests of the right and left \u2014 we cannot make the progress so badly needed in Harrisburg.<\/span><\/p>\n

While we won\u2019t be endorsing in every race in the county \u2013 in some cases, it seems pointless, as an incumbent faces an impossibly overmatched opponent; in others we don\u2019t feel there is a credible candidate on either side of the aisle \u2014 we focus on three truly competitive races: the 74th, 156th and the 158th.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 74th District, two years ago we hoped that Harry Lewis Jr.\u2019s experience as a teacher and administrator in the Coatesville Area School District would make him an advocate for a struggling school district and a city on the verge of financial collapse. Instead of a vocal advocate, we\u2019ve seen a representative more interested in going along to get along \u2014 not making waves among his Republican colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coatesville and the surrounding communities need a fighter. After two years, it is clear that Lewis is not that person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two years ago, we worried that Mayor Josh Maxwell lacked the maturity to hold this office. Instead of taking his loss personally two years ago, he refocused himself and strove to learn more, to be better and maybe most important: to listen. To be sure, Maxwell has made mistakes, but he\u2019s learned from them, learned to work with folks of all political persuasions, find common ground and seek real solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Maxwell is from Downingtown, at a distance, he is already showing himself to be a better advocate for the people and concerns of neighboring Coatesville. As he has been as Mayor, he will be a very public cheerleader for the district, and someone who will take the voice of the district to Harrisburg.<\/span><\/p>\n

We endorse Josh Maxwell for State Representative in the 74th District.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 158th District features an open seat, but an unusual situation: the Democrat, Susan Rzucidlo mostly closely tracks the positions of the retiring Republican State Representative Chris Ross better than does her GOP opponent, Eric Roe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ross, in his two decades in the state legislature, was a rarity in modern politics \u2014 a moderate, deeply versed on policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

From what we can gather \u2014 and Roe seems to keep his opinions under lock and key for the most part \u2014 the GOP nominee is much more conservative than the district he seeks to serve. <\/span><\/p>\n

His solutions \u2014 such as they are \u2014 seem like little more than platitudes, with no \u201cthere\u201d there when it comes talking about policy fixes, an indication both of his lack of experience and failure to really be deeply involved at a ground level in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an example, Roe wants to put all new public hires into a 401K retirement plan \u2014 which does nothing to solve the current problem that adds an additional 30 cents of every salary dollar paid out to school employees. Worse, since the flow of funds into the pension system would be reduced just as the Baby Boom generation retires, it could literally bankrupt the commonwealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

With time and experience, it is possible that Roe will develop into someone ready to serve in the legislature, but at this time, he doesn\u2019t appear ready.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rzucidlo \u2014 and this is where she differs from Ross \u2014 doesn\u2019t always play well with others. She speaks her mind and treats party leadership \u2014 in both parties \u2014with the utter lack of respect deserved. And she\u2019s relentless: in a decade of fighting for the rights and needs of disabled citizens, she\u2019s shown unwillingness to take \u201cno\u201d for an answer and to often try \u2014 and do \u2014 the impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without doubt, she will be a disruptive force in Harrisburg. Good. Harrisburg could use more than a little disruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

The people of the 158th District deserve someone who will fight for them \u2014 for their interests, over party, every day. Rzucidlo is that kind of person.<\/span><\/p>\n

We endorse Susan Rzucidlo for State Representative in the 158th District.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our final race is far less clear cut \u2014 and one we debated internally for many weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 156th District is lucky to have an option between two excellent, qualified candidates, incumbent State Rep. Dan Truitt, a Republican, and West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta, a Democrat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Truitt is, in many ways, the anti-politician. A professional engineer, he is typically more interested in facts and figures than the politics of an issue. He\u2019s gone against his party on any number of issues from pensions \u2014 where he\u2019s one of the very few in either party who get it \u2014 to redistricting reform to sensible gun laws.<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t agree with him on all issues \u2014 and we\u2019d like him to be more forceful and vocal at times, but on the whole he has done his job much, much better than the majority of his colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us to Comitta, who has arguably been among the best mayors of West Chester in recent history. Her political skills are strong \u2014 she\u2019s shown the ability to build consensus on issues and drive them forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her specific expertise in land use \u2014 she and her husband have run one of the top land planning firms in the state \u2014 could lead to real reform of the state\u2019s terrible land use laws that handcuff local municipalities and get in the way of redevelopment and open space preservation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In truth, both would serve the people of the 156th well \u2014 it is a shame that both are in the same legislative district, as both would be a credit to the people of Chester County in Harrisburg.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, when push comes to shove, we see the value of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater as hard as it might be to defend sending anyone back to Harrisburg \u2014 Truitt has shown independence and integrity that is rare among legislators of either party these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

We endorse Dan Truitt for State Representative in the 156th District.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you think everything in our commonwealth is fine \u2014 you have simple choices in Tuesday\u2019s state legislative elections. Returning your local representative will continue the policy and politics we\u2019ve seen for a number of years now. For the rest of us, who see the state lurching from financial crisis to financial crisis, see alleged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[807,3225,5771,212],"class_list":["post-15445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-dan-truitt","tag-josh-maxwell","tag-state-representative-election-2016","tag-susan-rzucidlo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15446,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15445\/revisions\/15446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}