2014 Primary Election Day in Pennsylvania

As in several other States across the American Union, Tuesday May 20 is Primary Election Day in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

There are party nominations for important state and federal offices, such as Governor, Lieutenant Governor, United States Representative and state legislators (Representatives and Senators).  Additionally, there are referenda in some municipalities, as well as county and state party offices, on the ballot across Pennsylvania.  There are conservative candidates seeking election to these public and party offices and the ballot questions are matters of good government.  In some cases, candidates’ names do not appear on the ballot, but they are campaigning to have voters cast ballots for them by writing in their names. 

Pennsylvania has a closed primary system, meaning only electors registered for a particular party may cast ballots in that party’s primary to nominate its candidates.  However, any registered voter may vote for or against a ballot referendum.

Governor Tom Corbett and Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley, Republicans, particularly merit the votes of the electors of Pennsylvania.  With the help of the Republican-majority General Assembly, Governor Corbett kept his campaign promise to eliminate Pennsylvania’s $4 billion budget shortfall left by the previous liberal Democratic Administration without raising tax rates and by reducing wasteful spending.  Despite the claims of his liberal opponents, he did not cut education, but restored education funding and raised it to a record-high level after the expiration of temporary federal stimulus funding.  Corbett signed a responsible natural gas impact fee into law that, together with other reasonable regulation, protects Pennsylvania’s environment and aids local municipalities affected by the industry, without surrendering the Keystone State’s competitive advantage in order to keep the industry in the Commonwealth, where it has provided a significant economic boost and increase in state revenue.  Corbett also cut business taxes, eliminated estate taxes for all family businesses, reformed unemployment compensation, reformed tort law, increased school choice, as well as openness, transparency and accountability in public education, signed a major transportation bill into law, and reformed the State's welfare system by reducing waste, fraud and abuse, among many positive initiatives that I have posted about over the last four years.  Corbett’s policies have helped reduce Pennsylvania's unemployment rate below 6%, which represents an increase in over 150,000 net jobs.

It is critical to vote for conservative candidates for all public and party offices, even if a candidate has no opposition named on the ballot, and for better government through referenda.  Conservatives who are registered Republican should vote to re-nominate Tom Corbett and Jim Cawley as Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively, while those conservatives who are registered Democrat should write in their names for their party’s nomination.