Mikey Lowers The Bar

So it looks like Saint Mikey will have to content himself with competing for the PA state house, since he has declared himself as a candidate to run against Dem Rep. Chris King of PA’s 142nd District.

I don’t live in that district so I won’t be able to comment as authoritatively on it as I might about my own (PA-31; our rep is the departing Dave Steil, and I have a feeling I’ll be posting on this also with Steve Santarsiero and Mike Diamond both competing for the Democratic party nod here). Also, I have a feeling Chris is going to get tag teamed with both Mikey and Matt Wright making noise from the sidelines.

And I just love this quote from Mikey about why he chose to run (and I wonder if he could have waited much later to declare, by the way?)…

“I intend to change the way business is done in Harrisburg,” said Fitzpatrick, who lives with his family in the Snowball Gate section of Levittown in Middletown. “We need to control the growth of spending in government, expand economic opportunities and restore honesty to the process. I will bring a unique perspective along with a proven record of accomplishment for the people I serve.”

Har de har har har…

No one will ever change Harrisburg, Mikey (assuming that paragraph is anything other than RNC-approved boilerplate, which it isn’t). The best you can do is fight the trench battles and try to build on any success you can achieve, which Chris has done effectively as nearly as I can tell (a lot better than Mikey or Matt Wright could, anyway).

I did some research on Chris to find out where he stands on the issues, and I came up with this (from here - still looking for information on legislation introduced and congressional votes; I’ll link to it if I can track it down, tough because Chris apparently doesn't have a web site).

The Project Vote Smart link tells us, among other things, that Chris supports abortion only in the first trimester and in the case of rape or incest and danger to the mother’s life, which puts him probably about smack in the middle of where the majority of his constituents are on this issue (and yes, I know Roe v. Wade was decided 35 years ago today). He would slightly decrease welfare funding and greatly decrease property taxes (everybody says that, though, to be fair). He also doesn’t support the death penalty (academic really, since I can’t remember the last time we actually executed anyone in this state), he is opposed to the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, and he is opposed to school vouchers and voluntary prayer in public schools.

The only areas where I take issue with Chris are in his non-commitment to requiring background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows (I don’t even know why that’s legal to begin with, to tell you the truth, but being as this is “Pennsyltucky”…) and requiring a license for gun possession. However, Chris knows the electoral and fundraising landscape in this state at least as well as other legislators; you must pay homage to the NRA, or you will not be returned to office - it’s just a matter of how slavish you are about it.

Chris also recently came under fire for stating in 2002 that he wouldn’t use taxpayer funds to run TV ads (here), but then did so, touting an expansion of the state’s property tax and rent rebate program for low-income senior citizens.

I didn’t see the original ads by Matt Wright in 2002 that Chris opposed, and if it turns out he was wrong, then he was wrong. However, as this letter to the Courier Times notes, the ads helped notify a lot of seniors who didn’t know about the program to begin with.

Aside from personally being a good guy, I believe Chris has done an effective job for the residents of his district. And in this political climate, Carpetbagger Mikey’s whole “local boy, one of us, father of six, boy scout, pretend-moderate-but-lockstep-wingnut-in-reality” act may not go down as easily with the voters of the 142nd as he thinks.

Update 2/6/08: Seriously, I'm sorry to hear about this; I hope everything works out with Fitzpatrick and his family.