Vote For "Cleanup Chris"

This Guest Opinion appeared this morning in the Bucks County Courier Times (having nothing to do with the editorial board, so you can be sure of its integrity).

It was written by Chris Serpcio who, as noted, is the Democratic nominee for the 10th State Senatorial District. He is a former chief deputy district attorney for Bucks County. He and his wife, Maureen, have three children (and I defy you to find another candidate for Pa. state government who is putting out as many good ideas as Chris does here).

Even before I considered running for state Senate it was abundantly clear to me that the political culture in Harrisburg was more concerned with its own privileges, pensions, and perks than with moving Pennsylvania forward. Incumbent legislators have forgotten that government is supposed to serve the people, not their own special interests.

Meanwhile, the Legislature has failed to adequately address issues that are critical to Pennsylvania like property tax relief, access to health-care insurance, and overdevelopment and sprawl.

Although I initially felt the same degree of frustration as many others who believed that nothing would ever change, I began to develop a peculiar sense of optimism premised on the notion that in time of need, change can emerge out of crisis.

The most important principle I intend to carry forth is the notion of a “citizen legislature.” I don’t believe the Pennsylvania General Assembly was ever intended to be a life-long vocation for career politicians. We need to elect people who will bring their varied life experience with them into the legislature for a defined period of time and then leave. We should adopt reasonable term limits of 12 years; no more than three terms for state senators and six terms for state representatives. Our elected officials should provide a few years of public service and return to the private sector. They should not become permanent members of a governing class.

I will bring to the Senate a variety of life experiences that I’ve accumulated over the past 23 years as a former prosecutor, lawyer, college professor, mentor, community activist, husband, and father.

I’ve determined that the re-election rate for an incumbent in Pennsylvania’s legislature is about 98 percent. My opponent is an incumbent Republican legislator with all the advantages of incumbency. In order to maintain the advantages of their incumbency, many rank-and-file members have ceded power to leaders in exchange for things such as access to incumbency protection tools, extra staff, community grants, aka WAM (walking around money), and support for their pet legislation. This leads to a legislature where leadership feels free to move bills that may be unpopular with the voting public – such as the pay raise – in an unconstitutional manner.

In order to break the stranglehold the leadership holds on the rank and file, we should limit the terms of leaders and committee chairs; end the unlimited control of committee agendas by chairs; and either end the distribution of WAM funds, or if continued, make sure that a list of WAMs is published in a searchable data base by legislator and district.

We must act quickly to address the gaping hole in the state’s Open Records Law that currently exempts the state legislature. We should assign a legislative task force to hold Pennsylvania’s legislature to the highest standards of integrity and openness in America for public access to government documents.

At long last we must adopt a tough lobbyist registration law that is uniform for both the Senate and the House with online quarterly disclosure by legislator of all lobbyist contacts. All gifts and entertainment to legislators should be banned.

Finally, we must enact laws to bar a legislator and his or her family and business partners from doing business with any state or local agency and with any state-regulated business.

When my opponent, an incumbent Republican legislator, says, “Serpico doesn’t understand; that’s not the way things work in Harrisburg…,” I take that as a compliment. I don’t understand the way it works in Harrisburg. I hope I never do. Because from what I’ve seen, we need a complete break from what hasn’t been working and we need to start over again with a new approach.

It’s time to elect as state senator a citizen-legislator with real world experience who seeks public office not for personal gain, but rather to reform our state government so that it does the people’s business instead of protecting the interests of those already in office.

To help Chris, go here.