Dear PA Voters:
Do you support marriage equality? Do you oppose voter suppression? Do you value women's health? If your answer is "yes" to those three questions, you should care about who wins the PA State House seat in District 12 in Butler County even if you don't live there. And here's why:
Marriage Equality and LGBT Rights
The current incumbent, Representative Daryl Metcalfe vehemently opposes marriage equality----so much that he found it necessary to waste tax dollars on a kangaroo court hearing this past Tuesday about his laughable assertion that Attorney General, Kathleen Kane is guilty of an impeachable offense because she refused to defend Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage in Court. AG Kane feels that the ban is unconstitutional, and there is a growing avalanche of legal precedents nationwide that continue to build which support her view. When DOMA was struck down last summer, he behaved like an angry child on the House floor, preventing openly gay Representative Brian Sims (D-182) from discussing the landmark decision at all by saying that what Sims was going to say would be in violation of "God's Law." HB/SB300, A key civil rights bill, which would expand the existing non-discrimination law in PA to include protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity, has been languishing in the State Government Committee because Metcalfe, the Committee Chair has kept it from being voted on. Through out his career as a "legislator", Metcalfe has expended far too many tax dollars trying to further his extreme homophobic agenda even going as far as suing a gay couple in 2004 for merely trying to apply for a marriage license. See Egolf v. Seneca, No. 2004-03160-28-5 (Bucks Cty. C.P. Oct. 19, 2004)
Voter ID Law
To date, there has been no documented incident in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania of in-person voter fraud and yet, in 2012, Republicans managed to pass the PA Voter ID law which if enforced would have disenfranchised over 500,000 Pennsylvanians. Rep. Metcalfe was and is a huge supporter of this law and was very displeased when Judge Bernard McGinley struck it down in January 2014. While the lawsuit Applewhite et al v. Commonwealth was still in Court, Metcalfe told the press that he didn't think the state should be responsible for people who are "too lazy"to obtain acceptable photo ID.
Women's Health
In May 2012, Metcalfe introduced a bill designed to defund Planned Parenthood because he believed that any tax dollars given to that organization was the equivalent of the State Government bankrolling abortions. Metcalfe clearly is clueless about the various health services that are unrelated to abortions that Planned Parenthood has to offer, and is laser-focused on abortions, which are only 5% of PP's services in Pennsylvania.
Democratic Opponent
In 2012, Metcalfe ran unopposed for the District 12 seat. Thankfully, this year Democrat, Lisa Inez Zucco of Cranberry Twp., has been bold enough to throw her hat into the ring. While the information about Zucco on the internet is sparse, here is what I've been able to find:
- She was an avid canvasser for President Obama's 2012 campaign
- She has a Bachelor's Degree from Saint Vincent's College
- She is a technical writer for Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP
- She feels that the roads and bridges in PA have been neglected and recognizes the value and importance of maintaining our infrastructure
- She wants to restore education funding
- She's married and has 2 children, which one would hope means that she would have unique insight into challenges that working mothers in PA face
It would be interesting to learn more about her views on various issues that impact Pennsylvanians, but just the fact that she's a Democrat and doesn't appear to be on an extremist, discrimination-fueled pseudo-religious crusade to deprive people of their voting rights, eliminate women's health services and restrict the definition of marriage are very big pluses in her favor.
While he is elected by and represents the voters of District 12, as the Chair of the State Government Committee, Rep. Metcalfe's actions impact Pennsylvanians far beyond the municipalities of Adams, Clinton, Cranberry, Forward, Middlesex and Penn townships, and the Boroughs of Callery, Mars, Seven Fields and Valencia. If Metcalfe loses his House seat, the potential for progressive reform to be achieved in Harrisburg will significantly increase, the embarrassing theatrics will decrease and the General Assembly will be able to direct the focus back on more pressing issues like the economy and transportation.