State House Elections - 28th District

Could be big changes in the 28th State house District. Now that State Rep. Mike Turzai is planning on running for Congress in the newly designed (designed by Turzai himself) 12th District there could be a new State Representative from the 28th District. The district is extremely Republican so the battle will be in the Primary.

A question I have posed was if Turzai will run for both Congress and State House at the same time. I don't know how confident he is that he will win the Congressional Primary against Keith Rothfus.

I also think it will be more difficult than Turzai thinks to win the 12th District in the General if he is facing Altmire. I think Turzai could easily beat Critz mostly because Critz lives in Johnstown and 3/4 of the population of the 12th don't know much about Johnstown outside of the movie Slap Shot. Other than that, with Critz taking the hard line Democrat stance to win the Primary he is creating headlines for the Republicans in the General Election. The type of people that read this blog should know that the debt limit increase vote was a political stunt. However, that political stunt works for the Republicans because a majority of the voters don't understand how the government does business.

There was mention that one Republican was planning on running against Mike Turzai regardless of his intentions for the Congressional race. Karen Shaheen, who is the treasurer of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County, mentioned that she was going to circulate a petition against Mike Turzai. She said that Turzai has become a career politician that used to be a Democrat. She also said the attempt to pass liquor privatization and school vouchers were false marketing. Karen ran for school board in 2007 and 2009 and lost. She appears to be very conservative.

Can a good moderate Democrat make a run at this seat if she is the front runner?

Incumbent: Mike Turzai (Republican, Majority Leader of the State House, candidate for Congress)

Possible challengers: Karen Shaheen (Republican)
Sharon Brown (Democrat ran in 2010)

Here is the new map of the 28th State House Distinct. The green parts are the
old district and the aqua blue line is the outline of the new district.

State House Elections - 28th District

Here is the new map of the 28th State House Distinct. The green parts are the old district and the aqua blue line is the outline of the new district.

Very little changes to the district. This is one of the few districts in Allegheny County that gained population so they had to eliminate some population from the old district. Richland Township has been moved out of the 28th and all of Franklin Park has been added to the 28th. This keeps the political make up of the district extremely similar if not a little better for a Republican candidate.

Incumbent: Mike Turzai (Republican, Majority Leader of the State House, possible candidate for Congress)
Possible challengers: Sharon Brown (Democrat ran in 2010)

I don't believe there is anyone that could beat Mike Turzai this year, no matter how much money or time they spent on this race.

North Hills Magistrate District on the Chopping Block

There have been a few articles about the plan to eliminate the magisterial district judge position in Hampton Township. Thought I would share them with you:

Some oppose closing of district judges' offices

District Offices Could Be Cut

Four county magisterial districts on the chopping block

Pine-Richland School Board is out of control

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that the Pine-Richland School Board voted for a $41.7 million cap on expansion project. Does Pine-Richland really need this project?

The Pine-Richland School Board’s spending is already out of control.
The school board claimed it had no intention of raising taxes, but they voted for a proposed budget with a tax increase. Now they have voted for a cap that they have no intention of using. Why do they need to fudge numbers if they have no intention of using reaching the cap ?

"There is no one up here who has any intention of spending that amount of money," Director Kevin Nigh said.

I applaud School Board Vice President Richard Herko for his comments:

Vice President Richard Herko cast the lone dissenting vote. He said he realized the number was "imaginary," in that the board has no intention of spending that amount for construction, "but it feels like a real one."

Pine-Richland School Board wants to build more?

I was shocked when I saw a few weeks ago an article about the Pine-Richland School District looking to raise taxes. I was mostly shocked because the make up of the Board is 100% Republican. As I read through the article I knew there has to be a catch as to why Republicans might have to raise taxes. It is the Democrats fault!!

"This is the cause of mismanagement by the state government," Rich Herko, board vice president, said. "And this is not a surprise to the legislatures, even when they reduced our contribution to the PSERS, they soft-pedaled it and kicked it down the lane.

"State legislatures and our governor (Ed Rendell) have done nothing about it and don't intend to do anything about it either. They don't view it as their problem -- they see it as the school districts' problem."

I love that it couldn't possibly by the fault of the school board. It is all the fault of a lame duck governor and a Democratic State House majority of the last 3 years. I'm sure the Republican controlled Senate has nothing to do with it when blaming the State Government.

I can understand that government and schools are expensive and costs will go up as time goes on, but I couldn't help but wonder why the state's amount of support became such a small percentage of the budget. So I wanted to look at how much the local school board has raised the budget in the last 5 years. In 2004-2005 the budget was $44.9 million. This year they are proposing a budget of $66.6 million. In times when government are doing everything to cut back this fiscally conservative school board has raised their budget by 48% in just a few years.

I have no problem with cost of government going up to some degree. It is bound to happen. I do have major issues when local elected officials rail against the federal government and state government for partisan issues while at same time they can't keep their own pocketbooks in order. At a time when governments are trying to cut back, Pine-Richland school district builds a fancy upper elementary building to make parents in Suburbia feel safer because their kids will just be around kids their own age. Did anyone look at what the transportation costs are to have 3 school buildings that service the entire geographic school district before they built an "upper elementary school"?

To top off these Republican comments about property tax raises, (that aren't their fault) the school board is looking to add a $30 million dollar addition to a school. So next time one of these school board members tells you something about how much Democrats are all about taxing and spending, ask them why they feel the need to tax and spend on a special interest that they care about so deeply.