Questions posed to candidates by the League of Women Voters.
1.The voter ID law for Pennsylvania has been postponed for this election. What do you as a candidate feel is valid or invalid about this law?
2. a (for state offices). Please point out your greatest point of disagreement with your political party on the state level and elaborate on why you take issue.
2. b (for federal offices). Please point out your greatest point of disagreement with your political party on the federal level and elaborate on why you take issue.
DEMOCRAT
Christopher Lee
Boalsburg
Date of birth: Nov. 18, 1948
Education: 1970, Princeton, B.A.
Current occupation: CEO, Boal Mansion Museum.
Qualifications: I know our local values as past chair of the Board of Supervisors, the regional Council of Governments, MPO and Planning Commission and as founder of the Boalsburg Village Conservancy and Boalsburg Memorial Day Committee. I have run a small business for decades, balancing expenditures and revenues.
Answer 1. Voting is a right, not a privilege. To protect the voting process, get rid of the voter ID law. It solves no problem and was designed by the corporate lobbyists in ALEC purely to rig elections. The incumbent, who has been in Harrisburg for 16 years, violated traditional Republican respect for clean elections when he voted for the voter ID law and again when he voted for what analyst Terry Madonna called “the worst gerrymander in modern Pennsylvania history.” Gerrymandered one-party districts let legislators like the incumbent ignore their voters and serve out-of-state lobbyists, such as ALEC and the Koch brothers. If you respect our traditional local values, no matter what your party affiliation, you can be proud to vote for Christopher Lee and change.
Answer 2. I am an independent thinker who uses dialogue to solve problems, not debate to score political points. Both parties propose legislation with misleading titles that sound good but with small print full of corporate giveaways, such as my opponent’s Act 13 giveaway to the gas companies or his House Bill 2626 which pads the wallets of business owners in the name of “job creation.” I will work for education, the environment and our economy transparently, so citizens can know really what is happening in their name in Harrisburg. I will offer straightforward legislation, not like the incumbent who co-sponsored the deceptively-titled “Women’s Right To Know Act” whose real intent was to force invasive ultrasound exams on women and their doctors.
REPUBLICAN
Kerry Benninghoff
Bellefonte
Date of birth: Jan. 14, 1962
Website: kerrybenninghoff.com
Eduction: 1979, SCAHS; 1980-81, PSU; PA certified county coroner
Occupation: State legislator
Qualifications: 12 years in Centre County Coroner’s Office; coroner 1991 and 1995; 16 years, state representative; chairman of the House Finance Committee; member of the Professional Licensure Committee; chairman of the newly formed Cancer Caucus; chairman, former State Government Committee in House of Representatives; awarded taxpayer Guardian Award.
Answer 1. I support the postponement of implementing this new law, as some citizens had concerns with the proposal being passed during a presidential year and therefore used the judicial process to raise objections. I support delaying the implementation so that both those who oppose as well as those who support the new law have time to vet any of those differences before the new election cycle. To me that is how democracy works.
Answer 2. Imposing a tax or fee on the Marcellus gas drilling. There was much discussion on whether to tax or not to tax drilling of natural gas. I felt it was time to make a decision to impose the tax and move on to other pressing issues in state government, while providing badly needed new revenue for both the state government and local governments. Recently it was announced that our local governments will be receiving over $200 million in new funding from the Marcellus shale law we passed. This is in addition the tens of millions of new money the gas industry will pay into multiple environmental clean up and protection funds, as well as money toward initiatives such as affordable housing in these areas. This new tax revenue has enabled the legislature to better balance the state budget and restore funding for education from K-12 and helped us as representatives to restore the governor’s significant cuts to higher education for Penn State and other universities.