120th Legislative District seat

Luzerne County has another candidate running for state representative according to the TL:

Forty Fort Borough Council President Joe Chacke has announced plans to run for Phyllis MundyÂ’s 120th Legislative District seat. He is the second Republican in as many days to state his intention to oppose state Rep. Mundy, D-Kingston. Chacke, 29, works for Commonwealth Telephone Co. as a facility assigner and is a member of the Communications Workers of America Local 13571. He lists himself as a 1999 Penn State graduate with a BachelorÂ’s degree in political science.

He went through the Forty Fort (why isn't that hyphenated?) police crises and helped find a solution. His experience led him to give Mundy an earfull:

"Throughout the entire ordeal, Rep. Phyllis Mundy sat idly by without offering any support or guidance to the borough," Chacke said in a prepared statement. "We need a proactive representative in Harrisburg who is willing to work with local government officials to assist them with these issues and to prevent similar future occurrences."

I'm not sure what a state rep can do to help a town balance it's budget but it sounds good. Small towns eliminating their police forces because they can't afford them has been going on all across the the state for a few years. He makes a few other interesting points:

Chacke mentioned several issues he would address as a state lawmaker: aiding and transforming local governments, health-care reform, education reform and tax reform.
"Health-care reform is a very complex problem facing legislators today," Chacke said in his statement. "There needs to be a vast study of all aspects of the health-care industry to find a solution to this problem. I can tell you, yelling about Blue Cross/Blue ShieldÂ’s surplus won't solve it."

Mundy is a vocal critic of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies in Pennsylvania, arguing hundreds of millions of dollars the companies hold in surplus should be used to reduce rates.

The other guy in the race for the Republican nomination John C. Cordora can't be taken seriously. His issue is gay marriage, like that is at the top of peoples agenda:

" My first order of business is to ban gay marriage" the Kingston resident said Tuesday during his official announcement that he intends to run for the seat of state Rep. Phyllis Mundy.

The neat thing is that Joseph Chacke has a web site that has a link to Amnesty International and he is a union official. I did a google search on him and came up with a story from another blogger. He stuck his nose into the Wilkes-Barre redistricting controversy and took issue with councilman Jim McCarthy:

I am offended by the sentiments of Wilkes-Barre Councilman Jim McCarthy, who asserted in a recent letter that "districting" the City of Wilkes-Barre will be a detriment and a step backward...........

My advice to the council members of Wilkes-Barre is to not let the wants of their new districts cloud their judgment when the needs of the entire city are on the line.

Joe Chacke Forty Fort councilman

Markie ate this up:

Hoo! Hoo! Mr. McCarthy, I eagerly await your response. This ought to be good.

Seriously though. Don't these politicos have some sort of unwritten rule barring this sort of thing? When was the last time the embattled mayor of Muckston publicly chastised the mayor of Mucking Grove? If Forty Fort is chugging along very nicely, then why would one of it's elected few feel the need to publicly take serious issue with a council person in Wilkes-Barre? Very weird, but no biggie. We're all entitled to our opinions.