PA 10th CD news

Senator Rick Santorum Endorses Dan Meuser for Congress

Former United States Senator Supports Conservative Businessman

Former United States Senator Rick Santorum today endorsed Dan Meuser for Congress
in Pennsylvania’s 10th District.

In a letter to Republican activists throughout the 10th Congressional District, Rick
Santorum praised Dan Meuser’s conservative values and his leadership on conservative
issues.

“Today, our party finds itself at a crossroads. We need to elect conservative leaders who
can go to Washington D.C. and stand up for our values. We need leaders who will stand
tall in the war against radical Islamists, stand up for the rights of the unborn, fight to
make tax relief a priority for our nation, cut wasteful spending, and protect our borders,”
Senator Santorum said. “The people of the 10th District will have the opportunity to elect
such a leader, and that is why I am proud to endorse Dan Meuser for Congress. “
Senator Santorum praised Dan’s position on the War on Terror and his support for our
brave men and women in uniform.

“I know that Dan understands that America is in the midst of a great global conflict, and
that he will stand with our troops in our fight against radical Islamists,” Senator Santorum
said. “Dan will be a Congressman our country can count on to support policies that
protect America and the troops can count on [him] to support them as they advance the
cause of freedom.”

Dan Meuser noted that Senator Santorum’s endorsement was the latest in a string of
conservative endorsements for his campaign.

Meuser said, “Senator Santorum is a national leader whose conservative policies I
embrace and I am excited to have his leadership, vision, and passion on my team.”


Dan Meuser is a conservative businessman who, over the past 20 years, helped transform
a small company into the leading manufacturer in mobility products in the world. The
company now employs more than 1,000 employees in Northeastern PA. His experience
of growing a small business into an international leader coupled with his conservative
values prepares him to deal with the challenges facing our nation. Dan lives in the Back
Mountain region of Luzerne County with his wife Shelley and their three children.

Update: I forgot to mention that one time prospective candidate Joe Peters also has endorsed Meuser.

Former Prosecutor and Homeland Security expert Joe Peters today endorsed Dan Meuser for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 10th District.

“Dan Meuser is the type of leader Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania desperately needs now,” Peters said. “Dan is a conservative who shares the values of the people of the district, including protecting innocent life and the 2nd Amendment and he is the candidate that can win back the 10th Congressional seat.”

More bonds or maybe not

“I’m tired of being the scapegoat, and things are going to change around here. Everyone else is going to be accountable, too.” -DebitCardmmissioner Greg Skrepenak

County Budget Finance Chief Sam Diaz is predicting the sky will fall because Luzerne County might not be able to issue yet another bond because taxpayer Timothy Grier, of Wilkes-Barre, filed complaints with the state Department of Community and Economic Development to stop commissioners from borrowing $80.05 million to fund capital projects and the county deficit.

Tim's response:

Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, in regards to a possible county government shut-down, is quoted in one of today’s local papers as stating, “We have a very serious issue.”

All of the issues in county government are serious; Mr. Skrepenak is one of MANY at the Luzerne County Courthouse who are apparently just now figuring that out. Sadly, I believe that Commissioner Skrepenak and the rest of his cronies think that this is some type of game, as they continue to treat this issue as a matter of politics rather than policy. While American soldiers continue to die overseas for a government they believe in back home, Greg Skrepenak and political hacks like himself throughout Luzerne County continue to betray those individuals and their families.

Commissioner Skrepenak and the friends he hired ignored a policy the commissioner himself helped to create; they deceived us and bilked us out of tens of thousands of dollars so they could live like kings while the taxpayers were treated like peasants. These morally bankrupt individuals continue to remain unapologetic and refuse to acknowledge the gravity of their mistakes.

Have I made mistakes in life? Certainly. Not a one of us is perfect. The best we can do is get up every day and try to be the best we can be. Mr. Skrepenak, Mr. Hyder, Mr. Brace, and the rest of the crew at the Luzerne County Courthouse apparently get out of bed every day trying to figure out how to rip the rest of us off.

The petitions I submitted to DCED are clear. Deny the county’s requests to borrow as they stand, demand that the county follow the law and tell us what it intends to borrow the money for, and force the county to follow the guidelines for borrowing unfunded debt which are clearly established by the legislature.

Interestingly, just as Commissioner Skrepenak refuses to accept responsibility for the debit card fiasco, he is now trying to side-step my request. In another comment to Citizen’s Voice staff, Mr. Skrepenak claims, “We’re confident we can dispute any argument made.” I realize he is being told by his handlers, “stick to your guns, admit no shortcomings, give them nothing,” but Commissioner Skrepenak’s continued allegiance to those who paid for his campaign rather than to those who pay his salary may ultimately prove to be his downfall.

Mr. Skrepenak fails to understand the simple fact that if he follows the law, in this case the Local Government Unit Debt Act, I will withdraw my petitions. In fact, Commissioner Skrepenak, if you had done this from the beginning, it would not be such a grave issue today. I never would have had to file a complaint. This is now the quickest way to resolve this matter. There is no need to ask Commissioner Urban or anyone else to help you come up with a solution. The solution already exists; you continue to exacerbate the problem by trying to skirt the law.

I encourage everyone in Luzerne County to call on their state legislators and firmly, but politely, demand that this problem be rectified immediately and correctly – by the DCED forcing the county to follow the law. Contact information for state house and senate representatives can be found here:

http://www.house.state.pa.us/

http://www.pasen.gov/index.cfm

Luzerne County Debit Cards

It's really getting hard to keep up on this. Everyday brings another revelation, another headline and even more outrage.

There is a danger that this will overshadow all the other mismanagement such as the ballooning debt and failure to balance the county budget year after year and hiding it until after the last election. The sweetheart deal with PA Child Care for a juvenile jail in Pittston that is subject to a state audit that says the county may lose state reimbursements because of the way the lease was written. Declaring "emergencies" so they can avoid the bidding process to make improvements at the county prison and supposedly fix county owned bridges. How's the bridge repair going? A county owned bridge on Cleveland Street in Plains was damaged during the flood in November 2006 making it impassable and it's still not fixed! And on and on.

Yesterday it was revealed that Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak used his card to pay for hotel rooms for his kids that went with him to the conference of the PA County Commissioners in York. He said it was a mistake because he thought he used his own credit card to make the reservations. I used to be in the hotel business and whatever card you use to guarantee the room doesn't matter as you have to provide a form of payment when you check-in. So I'm sure when the desk clerk asked how he was paying he produced the county card and didn't offer another card for the kids rooms that had to be paid for separately. I listened to Corbett interview him on WILK and he denied that he even had a credit card. But then he told the TL he can’t say for sure how much he overbilled the county until he finishes reviewing his personal credit card receipts.

More questions have arisen about the star of this show Luzerne County Deputy Warden Sam Hyder about training in Lancaster and a couple of fact finding trips to a New York prison. Then it was revealed that he uses a county owned 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe that he takes home even when he is on vacation. Predictably, he has lawyered up.

And he should:

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett should make his determination “in the next week of so” whether to launch a criminal probe into alleged debit-card abuse by Luzerne County officials, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Someone is willing

We write our bond issues generically, so that we spell out the key specifics, but we have got some latitude as to what we can do and what capital projects can be undertaken, because as you know, the capital needs vary...There is economic development dollars included in there, so the projects can vary, and they change.”- Luzerne County Chief of Budget and Finance Sam Diaz

From what I've been reading in the papers that shouldn't really not be allowed. Any bond issue is supposed to spell out what it is paying for with specifics about the project like what is going to be built and how much it will cost with an assurance that the project will outlive the bond. These guys keep borrowing more money without telling us upfront what it is supposed to be spent on. Remember that they borrowed $9 Million to build a new Juvie detention facility then later decided to go with a lease arrangement at an outrageous price that is being investigated by the state. Then instead of holding on to the money for the long pro missed new jail or just returning it they pissed it away on other projects. I'm sure someone can make a case for the projects that were funded but that's not what the money was borrowed for.

I just became aware that a ordinary citizen can object to such nonsense and one extraordinary citizen did just that. From the CV:

Wilkes-Barre gadfly Tim Grier on Monday drove to Harrisburg to lodge an official complaint to stop Luzerne County’s plan to borrow $80 million.

The deadline to file a complaint with the state Department of Community and Economic Development about the plan is today at the end of the business day in Harrisburg.Grier says the state should reject the county borrowing scheme because it violates the state Local Government Unit Debt Act. He complains the county would balance this year’s budget with “unfunded debt.” He said the county failed to give “a clear description” of construction and property projects that would be financed. He said the county also failed to obtain “realistic cost estimates” of those projects.

Gadfly? I expect better from Michael Buffer in the CV. I'm not sure what that even means but it doesn't sound complimentary. Tim did us all a favor by voicing his objections.

A correction

On Saturday about 5PM I said "I also extended an invitation to Dan Meuser but he hasn't got back to me yet" about scheduling an interview. That wasn't a fair statement since I sent the email about 1PM that day but didn't give him time to respond before I posted. The first thing Monday morning his campaign got back to me and we are working out the details. My apologies to Dan Meuser and his campaign staff.

What?

I just checked the list of Pennsylvania's Most Influential Political blogs on blognetnews and somehow Gort42 is ranked number 2 this week after being out of the rankings for a few weeks. I can't argue with Jane (happy blogoversary my friend) being ranked number 1 but I seriously doubt that this little blog is more influential than some of the others on the list as follows:


1 Above Average Jane
2 Gort42
3 Suburban Guerrilla
4 The Pennsylvania Progressive
5 TONY PHYRILLAS
6 POLICY BLOG
7 West Chester Unplugged
8 Young Philly Politics
9 The Carbolic Smoke Ball
10 Booman Tribune
11 Keystone Politics
12 Comments From Left Field
13 Lincoln Blog
14 Lehigh Valley Ramblings
15 Pawatercooler.com
16 Pennsyltucky Politics
17 PSoTD
18 malcolmxpark.org
19 Is this Life?
20 Attytood

Many must reads are missing from this list. I'm sure I won't be ranked next week.

Another work of fiction

With all the outrage over the Debit Card scandal the fact that the latest Luzerne County budget doesn't add up has been overlooked. This year's plan has an eerie resemblance to last year's nonsense with even more invented revenues. Last year the budget called for $4 million from land sales that never happened and this year the figure is $6.3 million. Last year the county was supposed to get $3 million from beefed-up tax collections and they inflate that to $14 million from collection of unpaid property taxes for 2008.

With $7 million of iffy revenues built in the the 2007 plan they need to borrow about $20 million to cover this year's shortfall although the official figure is $14.9 million. 2008 promises to be worse and the Bond brother will be going back to the county credit/debit card to fund the next shortage. But that won't prevent the DebitCardmissioner and his new sidekick from borrowing even more money to fund the wish list such as a new $100 million county prison.

From the TL: Jenkins Township resident Charles Hatchko said the Shiites and Sunnis get along better than Skrepenak and Urban. Hatchko generated applause when he said he is reviving the fight for a home rule form of government, in part due to the county’s undocumented debit card spending.

Another resident questioned why the $14.9 million deficit was not fully disclosed before the November election.

Home rule has to be revisited.

Queer eye for the blog guy

So many comings and goings in the local blogosphere. The going included LV Dem throwing in the towel at Politics: Lehigh Valley Style. He might be still active at Keystone Politcs but either way I will miss his insights. Froth Slosh B'Gosh hasn't updated in a while and may not be back. Dr. Tara has also disappeared. Danny Bauder is hot and cold with My Take taking yet another break. Beale's Bites went dark again but a few other media sites have popped up and I'm awaiting the return of Ignorance is Bliss.


On the plus side Dr. Rick is active again at The American Check-Up and PAWaterCooler that just celebrated it's first blogoversary. Congrats Alex. I had to fix a few links because Chis decided to screw with us and change his format. So we have a new and improved GrassrootsPa link. The True Democrats of the Lehigh Valley had a change of heart a let a Republican in and are now known as the The Lehigh Valley Political Blog . Julian is a great addition to the discussion. What has happened to the PoliticsPA press release feature?

New stuff. Regular commenter Eddy has started his own blog at The Angry Republican and some guy that has the time to listen to the radio all day gives his thoughts at the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Watcher. Update: I almost forgot that one our original NEPA bloggers has returned to the fold, Michelle is back at mhryvnak.net.


Then there is the tried and true. My old friend Above Average Jane is keeping up on the commonwealth and other things. The Lu Lac Political Letter has been asking questions about the latest Luzerne County scandal with more to come. PSOTD is always asking questions about something. Mayhem In The House Of Jacq is a life blog that we can all relate to. Randy at Penn Patriot is a sharp guy that has always been willing to help me out, thank you my friend. Kat has challenges. Slobby is hot and cold, get on the stick, will ya:) She who hunts whales has been caught up in some sort of Internet meme ting. Breaking Heynabonics News!!! comes from Jennifer .On the policy front E-Robin can run circles around me. Joe is another balance. Bernie is Bernie.

Capitol Ideas has been a good friend and so has Pennsyltucky Politics.

And just keeping up with the YouTube weekend we have multi-media Markie of Merritville with this tribute to the Washington Generals, aka, The Luzerne County Republican Party:

Swiderski for Congress

Paul Swiderski, candidate for the Republican nomination in the 10th CD of Pennsylvania has just agreed to do an interview with me. I also extended an invitation to Dan Meuser but he hasn't got back to me yet. I talked with Chris Hackett a few months back and hope to do it again. After the primary I hope to sit down with Congressman Carney if Rebecca lets me.

I will be meeting with Paul to discuss boring stuff like issues. I hope to talk with all the candidates before the primary. If anyone has any questions they would like me to ask Paul please leave them in the comments or send me an email. Be nice folks and please keep it clean.

YouTube weekend

It will be another light and lazy weekend. I'll just surf YouTube and share what I find just like last weekend.

The Ukelele's have become one of my favorites thanks to Carl and Miss C, damn you both.

I hope to take my bride to the land of my ancestors and catch a show.

Only this band can take a soppy love song and make it funny





The Ukulele Orchestra of GB - You Dont bring me Flowers

Pay it back

In the latest twist in the Luzerne County debit card scandal County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak has ordered officials who made purchases using county debit cards payback all the money then submit receipts to get reimbursement. Not a bad attempt at damage control along with throwing "Sapphire" Sam Hyder (thanks Corbett) under a bus.


Some people have come to Hyder's defense saying he is being made the scapegoat because he used his card to buy some drinks at a Las Vegas establishment that specializes in young women displaying liberated sweater puppies and was part of the group that paid $896.88 to dine at a French restaurant, that's a lot of snails and crepes. But I don't buy his color of the card confusion excuse and he may become the sacrificial lamb in the attempt to get this off the front pages when there should be wholesale slaughter in this affair.

This should be taken a step further. After the county gets it's money back any county bigwig that can't fully account for the charges without a really good explanation should be fired or in the case of the DebitCardmissioner himself, resign.


Taking my advice from yesterday District Attorney David W. Lupas has requested a review by the state Office of Attorney General.

The fall guy

My personal credit card and the county’s card look exactly alike."-Luzerne County Prison Deputy Warden Sam Hyder

A pretty weak excuse for using a county debit card at a strip club in Las Vegas while on a junket. The whole problem with the latest controversy over the debit card mess is that these guys have been using the cards for almost 2 years without ever having to produce a receipt. Human nature being what it is people will try get away with living the high life if somebody else is paying for it. Steve Urban points out that this and other trips were not authorized by the Comissioners or anyone else.

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Hyder is willing to fall on his sword to protect Majority DebitCardmissioner Greg Skrepnak but a few other people have some explaining to do:

.

The total amount spent from each account, according to records, is as follows:

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Deputy Chief Clerk Bill Brace, $11,263.

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Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, $10,324.

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Deputy Warden Sam Hyder, $7,604.

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Human Resources Director Doug Richards, $4,526.

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County Clerk/Manager Sam Guesto, $3,630.

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The Bureau of Elections, $2,696.

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Former Commissioner Todd Vonderheid, $1,772.

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I wonder why they didn't give Steve Urban one?

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Now county Controller Maryanne Petrilla has started an investigation about 2 years too late. Before now she was busy doing audits of the row offices held by Republicans. She will be one of the new majority commissioners this January. Can anyone say "conflict of interest."

Some other law enforcement agency has to look at this situation. I just don't trust the Courthouse gang to investigate itself.

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The state Attorney General or the FBI should be looking into this.

Guinness is good

To some people it's downright irresistible.

DUBLIN, Ireland-Ireland's police announced a manhunt Thursday for a beer bandit who drove into the Guinness brewery and left with 450 full kegs.

The national police force, the Garda Siochana, said a lone man drove into the brewery -- a Dublin landmark and top tourist attraction -- on Wednesday and hitched his truck to a fully loaded trailer awaiting delivery to city pubs.

Diageo PLC, the drinks company that owns Guinness, said the brewery had never suffered such a large-scale theft before in its 248-year history.

I just want to point out that I wasn't in Ireland on Thursday. Tip of the pint to Wonkette that had this in the comments:

An old Irish joke:

"What's the similarity between an American beer and making love on a boat?"

They're both fucking close to water...

Thanks to Another Monkey for the pic.

Gravel gets down

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel the Democratic presidential candidate that poses the biggest threat to Dennis Kucinich has a rap video set to a techno version of Give Peace a Chance. He has been excluded from the joint press conferences that are billed as debates and he asks why?

From Raw Story:

Phony patriotism is jingoism." Gravel raps...with flashy animations interspersed with clips of Democratic candidates and President Bush playing behind him. "Why won't you let me say what I want to say? Power to the people. Give peace a chance."

Gravel... has been denied the opportunity to appear alongside Democratic candidates in any more debates this year. In earlier debate appearances, Gravel excoriated Democratic lawmakers who voted to let President Bush invade Iraq and now are criticizing the war, and he spoke out against the government's war on drugs, a topic most other candidates have avoided.


"Why are they afraid of the truth?" Gravel asks.




power to the people vs give peace a chance

The Republican YouTube debate

Just a few thoughts about the CNN gathering tonight. I think Mike Huckabee and John McCain did well and Romney was talking out both sides of his mouth along with Guilliani.

Barletta vs Kanjorski?

There is yet another will he or won't he run for Congress or Governor or President or Mexican, er, Dog Catcher story about Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta in today's CV that doesn't answer the question. The Pennsylvania Republican Chairman Bob Gleason thinks “He’ll have one of the best-funded races in the country” if he runs. He would probably need at least $2 million and he would be on his own to raise it because the NRCC is broke and the national committees will spend whatever money they have defending the Republican incumbents that don't retire (23 so far). And remember the national money pulled out during his last bid when the polling showed him falling way behind in 2002 and that was a good Republican year unlike this one.

Kanjo's response to this perceived threat is to say "me too" on immigration and just being the Congressman Kanjorski that brings home the bacon. $50 million for a flood control project in Wilkes-Barre and money for another in Scanton with West Hazleton getting a new fire truck paid for with federal funds. Then he steps into it about tolling I-80.

Hackett on the air in PA-10

It gets earlier every year, I don't ever remember a candidate in the spring primary doing a media buy before the calendar flipped.


Not a bad idea because just about nobody in the district know the names of the Republican challengers to Congressman Chris Carney. He should take it further if the cash flow allows and go on TV for a week before Christmas with some positive bio ads to build name recognition. Other than a few hundred of us political junkies who read blogs like this one most people in the Pennsylvania 10th Congressional district have no idea who Chris Hackett or any of the other GOP candidates are. There is probably a good chunk of people in the 10th who don't even know the name of their Congressman.

Here are the 2 radio spots from Chris Hackett via GrassrootsPA. I'm still fumbling with posting audio:

Hackett Respect (mp3)

Hackett Spending (mp3)

McCain pisses people off

For all his pandering to the Jerry Falwells of the world and getting his head stuck up Bush's ass this ad reminds me of why I like the guy. I still think if he would have been the Republican nominee in 2000 the election wouldn't have even been close, not that I would have voted for him. The tag line is "I love America enough to make some people angry."




Thanks to Sully for pointing this out and he says...Imagine an Obama-McCain race: adult, graceful, necessary, and good for us.

John McCain's website

A blast from the past

I've talked to past office holders that bragged that he/she did it better than the present bunch but that was always for private consumption. This is something I don't ever remember seeing before, a past county commissioner wrote a letter to the editor critical of a sitting one. And they're both Democrats.

Our own walking encyclopedia of local politics, the Yonk, detailed one of the most significant local elections in 1979 and Ed Brominski's role in it. This description of Brominski is classic...Brominski was an ex football star turned coach, an educator, who drove a gold Corvette and had as his namesake and political Godfather, the President of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, Bernard Brominski...

In a LTE a few days ago in the Times-Leader Brominski tore into the present Majority DebitCardmissioner Greg Skepnak without naming him:

Brominski: Past commissioners made good use of tools

After reading the recent headlines in your paper, I am pleasantly and sadly reminded of my own election in 1979. At that time, Frank Crossin Sr. and I were elected as the majority commissioners of Luzerne County.

We began our first year in office with a shortfall of payments that began in September 1979 and was preceded each year by annual shortfalls in county bill obligations.

Our first action was to eliminate useless jobs and our second task was to raise taxes. We did both, saving the county $125,000 per year in salaries and raising millage 7 mills to an unheard of amount of 22 mills.

The following years, with a good plan developed by Frank Sr. and followed by me and his son Frank Jr., we more than met our obligations and in fact finished 1983 with a $6 million surplus.
The present administration in Luzerne County is like a kitchen with pots hanging in a row. When a good chef uses them, they are a work of wonder. However, if they are using them only for self service and to help friends, all those pots do is bump each other and make noise.

We have a good kitchen, but it is run by lousy chefs.

Shame on them and us for re-electing them.

Edward A. Brominski Swoyersville

Happy hunting

I don't hunt but I always look forward to the thinning of the deer herd because I've hit enough of them with my car. I don't have any philosophical objection to hunting but more practical considerations. I don't enjoy wandering around in the woods freezing my tail off and after the 2nd day stories of some kid getting a first Buck that is always followed by tales of hunters having heart attacks and shooting their hunting partner.

Does anyone want to go hunting with this guy?