Senate candidates agree on marijuana, disagree on reducing Legislature
The following is the last in a four-part series on the Democratic primary race in the 32nd Senatorial District covering Fayette and Somerset counties.
Harry Fike and Deberah Kula, Democratic candidates in the May primary for the state Senate, recently tackled topics such as legislative reforms for open records/open meetings, the legalization of marijuana and a reduction in the size of the Legislature.
The questions were put on the table by the Herald-Standard editorial board.
The 32nd Senatorial District includes all of Fayette and Somerset counties and part of Westmoreland County, including Mount Pleasant, North Belle Vernon and Scottdale boroughs, East Huntingdon and Rostraver townships and the city of Monessen.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Pat Stefano of Dunbar in November. Longtime Democratic incumbent Richard A. Kasunic announced he would not seek another term.
Fike said he would like to see harsher penalties for violations of the open records/open meetings acts.
“The penalties apparently aren’t stiff enough because it’s still going on. I would be in favor of having stiffer penalties,” Fike said.
Fike said he hasn’t run into any problems with the open records/open meetings requirements in his role as chairman of the Fayette County Housing Authority.
Kula said she would vote for stiffer penalties if she thought it would reduce violations of the law and increase transparency in government.
“I think the open records law has worked very well. I think people are really and truly using it for the purpose it was set out for. If they can’t get it locally, then we have that office,” Kula said.
Kula said the House and Senate operate openly and that she always has operated her office with transparency, drawing on her past experience as a magisterial district judge.
Both candidates said they oppose the legalization of recreational use of marijuana, but do see medical benefits.
“I have sat through many hearings with parents of children with seizures, with cancer, that they are truly considering moving to Colorado in order to afford that child a seizure-free day or a pain-free day and I can tell you these are heart-wrenching stories from parents,” Kula said.
Kula said that with strict regulation, she would be supportive of medical marijuana legalization in Pennsylvania.
“We have more dangerous drugs already on the market that there are prescriptions for and the government has put rules and regulations on it and they’ve got that under control, so I’m sure they could do that for marijuana. I wouldn’t want to see anyone suffer if marijuana could see them through their bad times,” Fike said. “The only way I would vote would be strictly for medical and not recreational.”
Fike and Kula differ on whether the size of the Legislature should be reduced.
There currently are 203 members of the House of Representatives and 50 senators.
“I personally would vote to reduce it,” Fike said. “I would be in favor of reducing the Senate also.”
Fike said he would like for the House to be reduced to about 150 legislators and the Senate to be cut to 30 or 40 members.
Kula said that when the proposal came before the House, she voted against it, not to protect her job, but to protect her constituents.
“It’s hard enough with what we have right now in the House of Representatives to have our voices heard in rural counties. And I believe that if the Legislature were reduced, this area would probably be controlled by someone in Allegheny County,” Kula said.
“And you would need more staff, more employees in order to cover the large area that would entail that legislative district. It means very much to my constituents and to me that I can have a one-on-one conversation with them.”