PBS to broadcast Fifth District talks from Grange Fair

By Mike Joseph

- mjoseph@centredaily.com

CENTRE HALL — Just as Democrats from around the country are convening in Denver in August, and just before their Republican counterparts converge on St. Paul, Minn., two rivals for a rural Pennsylvania congressional seat will come together “outside the box” at the Grange Fair.

The 5th Congressional District candidates — Democrat Mark McCracken and Republican Glenn Thompson — plan to participate in a “town hall conversation” about rural Pennsylvania sponsored by Penn State public broadcasting and scheduled for 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The conversation — which will be joined as well by two experts on rural economics — will be held in the Progress Grange, a community building erected in 1898 on Pennsylvania Avenue just outside the campgrounds proper of the 134th annual Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair.

Although the fair has long been fertile ground for politicians, this year’s joint appearance of Thompson and McCracken would be the first of its kind in recent history at least, said LeDon Young, Grange Fair secretary.

The building can hold about 200 people, but Nathan Tobey, WPSU coordinating producer for political coverage, said organizers want to keep the audience to about 100. Tobey said WPSU will set up temporary air-conditioning in the building for the evening.

“It is really a town hall conversation,” Tobey said. “The idea is that perhaps the most important single issue that these candidates are going to have to address is how they are planning for the future of Pennsylvania communities — the economics and social fabric of rural Pennsylvania.”

Tobey said the conversation, which will likely include questions from the audience, will focus on the past, present and future of Pennsylvania towns — on what Thompson and McCracken expect the towns to look like in a decade or two. Commitments from the two rural economics experts are still tentative, he said, and he declined to identify them.

“By including them, we’re hoping to have a pretty thorough and wide-ranging discussion, more than a debate,” he said. “You have the right and left in most discussions. We’re hoping that this is not so much a right-left issue but something we can all talk about constructively.”

The political forum, moderated by WPSU-TV producer David Price, will conclude just before the start of country singer Jake Owens’ performance in the grandstand nearby. Tobey said the forum itself will be free and open to the public, though he said organizers may devise a ticketing structure to come up with an audience of 100. It will be broadcast by WPSU-TV at a later date.

The 5th Congressional District, the largest geographically of Pennsylvania’s 19 districts and one of the largest east of the Mississippi River, has 17 counties and is chock full of small towns. State College, with a population of about 39,000, including Penn State students, is the largest municipality in the district. Centre County is the largest county.

“We really wanted to do something that was highly relevant to the communities we serve,” Tobey said. “I wanted to try to do something that was a little outside the box. This was an issue that seemed like perhaps it was not getting as much attention as people want it to get.

Both McCracken and Thompson are native sons and lifelong residents of rural Pennsylvania. McCracken, 44, a Clearfield County commissioner, was born in the county and lives in Lawrence Township, outside Clearfield. Thompson, 48, a health care management professional, is a lifelong resident of Howard Township in eastern Centre County.

The Grange Fair, given its late August date and concentrated field of thousands of campers and fairgoers with leisure time, has always been a launching pad for autumn political campaigns. The local Republican and Democratic committees have prominent and popular tents there and compete to register new voters.

Political interest intensifies in presidential election years, as it will this year. Centre County residents on Nov. 4 will also help select a president, congressman, state treasurer, attorney general and auditor general, and will vote in three competitive races for state House seats. Philipsburg and Rush Township voters will choose between two state Senate candidates.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.