Dare to compare: Bucks County GOP does things differently
Maybe you should sit down for this tidbit regarding the recent state legislature pay raise, which offers a huge dollop of irony. Seven of the eight Republican state representatives from high cost-of-living Bucks County, acting in concert and heeding sagely advice from their local party chairman, voted against the move. Although they live in an area that could serve as the poster child, justification-wise, for boosting base pay from $69,647 to $81,050, they reckoned correctly that a perfect storm of Titanic proportions was brewing and it was best to steer clear of the iceberg. As a group they decided to heed the insight of 40-year GOP party chieftain Harry Fawkes, who opined that voting yes would be “a big mistake.”
Wow. If this band of Republican brothers from the other end of the state, whose turf encompasses wealthy Philadelphia suburbia, could push themselves away from the table before the fiscal feast began, we wonder why the same logic didn’t descend on our local Democrats who voted for the pay raise.
After all, state Reps. Peter J. Daley II (D-California), Lawrence Roberts (D-South Union) and H. William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg) don’t exactly live in the priciest of neighborhoods, comparatively speaking. Nor do state Rep. James Shaner (D-Dunbar), who voted no but signed up for the money as an unvouchered expense, or state Rep. Jess Stairs (R-Acme), who played ping-pong with himself by voting no, signing up to take the money as an unvouchered expense, then changing his mind and deciding not to take it.
A nice home can be had in any of their districts for a pretty reasonable sum, certainly far less than their lawmaking brethren in Bucks, where housing prices are considerably higher, perhaps double. So the emerging irony is that a bloc of representatives who probably could have used the money the most voted against it, while all of our aforementioned legislators, whose old $70,000 base salaries put them in the earnings elite, angled to cash in one way or another.
From a public relations standpoint, the Bucks contingent is now flying sky high, suffering none of the backlash voters are doling out on legislators across the state. The pay raise issue likely won’t affect their re-election bids, which cannot be said for their counterparts across the state dealing with steamed voters.
We wonder if our guys might not profit from having a Fawkes to guide them, someone able to mouth his words: “We discussed it and we did the right thing for the people.”
We’re also impressed with the type of regular, issues-driven convocations held by the Bucks Republicans to map strategy. Maybe our legislators do get together to chew the proverbial fat and swap game plans. But if they do there seems to be no big manifestation, other than the unfinished Mon-Fayette Expressway and possibly the new downtown Uniontown parking garage.
On many if not most issues there’s no whiff of a unified presentation or group strategy. Perhaps that should change.