Well, what goes around comes around, I guess. Two years ago, the young and fresh Tarah Toohil defeated incumbent Speaker of the House Todd Eachus to claim the 116th district seat. Toohil is a lawyer from the Hazleton area who has the backing of the Tea Party. Eachus was an establisment career politician who, while doing a bit of good in response to the kids-for-cash scandal, funneled millions in federal pork to his hometown area of Scranton. I was very glad to see Toohil triumph.
This year, it's Toohil as the incumbent, facing tough opposition from Democratic candidate Ransom Young. And by tough, I mean muddy. Now, I do have to give Young credit. Back in April, he and Toohil made an agreement that they would keep their competing campaigns clean, and Young almost made it to the end. A couple weeks ago, photos came out depicting Toohil in potentially embarrassing positions (possibly smoking pot but definitely riding a camel). At first, Young and Pennsylvania Democrats denounced the obvious attacks as "dirty, nasty politics at its worst." But in their debate this past Wednesday, Young capitalized on the controversy, calling Toohil's integrity into question even though she was totally up front and honest about everything.
I'll be completely honest -- Ransom Young pisses me off. He's yet another career politician who's big on image and rather short on the issues. His only legitimate claim to fitness for government is his blue-collar cred, being a farm owner and former small-business owner. He has quite a few good ideas -- closing the Delaware loophole for corporations, promoting tech jobs in the Hazleton area, and increasing severance taxes for natural gas drillers. However, like most good ideas, these all have their caveats. For one, closing tax loopholes will do more to discourage corporations from doing business in Pennsylvania, rather than increasing tax revenues.
For another, raising the bar on skill levels for area employment will have a detrimental effect on Hazleton. This city was built on coal and coal mining, and our blue collars are pretty much dyed in the wool. If CAN DO and other development companies try to attract more technology and other white-collar jobs to the area, the net result will be yuppies driving in from New York and the Poconos to take those jobs -- and space which could have been used for semi-skilled and skilled labor, such as manufacturing and warehousing, which suits the skill-set of the average resident perfectly, will be taken. As a data-analyst-turned-forklift-driver, I have very strong feelings about this. Let's be honest -- Hazleton is poor, economically speaking. Most folks here can't afford to send their kids through six years of college to get jobs they'll hate anyway. If you're going to hate your job, at least let it be one where you're making fifteen dollars an hour WITHOUT being tens of thousands in debt on student loans. (From one who knows.) The best strategy here is to offer incentives to companies who have manufacturing and logistics divisions and promote training programs for workers to make them more attractive for such positions. The job skills I've learned since moving to Hazleton will probably carry me through for the rest of my life.
Now, what about Toohil? The only thing she's done to piss me off was voting in favor of a law allowing the Commonwealth to override local zoning rulings unfavorable to natural gas drilling. Bad idea. Fortunately, the law was overturned. But on the other hand, she's done wonders on the MinSec issue. I've blogged before about this, so I'll not repeat myself. Toohil's ideas on employment fall more-or-less in line with what I detailed above. She helped to eliminate an unaccountable cash-assistance program (detailed elsewhere) which was costing Pennsylvanians millions every year. She has also embarked on a number of personal missions to educate Commonwealth residents on various legal issues.
One more thing I like about Toohil is something which has caused far more and more vociferous controversy, not only for her but for many, many people over several centuries: she is a lawyer. Many scholars have noted the deleterious effect lawyers have had both on legislation and on judiciary procedure, producing "legalese," statutory construction, and rigid behavioral forms nearly incomprehensible to the average person. However, lawyers have the unenviable task of interpreting the law and explaining it to others, just as historians analyze the past and teach the various levels of significance to people. Having a lawyer representing me in the assembly is of immense comfort, having spent man-months of my time examining and interpreting law for my own purposes. It is dull and tedious work, just like data analysis or warehousing, but necessary. Make of that what you will, but I prefer to have specialists handling specialized tasks.
So, my closing statements to the candidates: Young, reclaim your integrity and keep your 2014 campaign clean to the end. Toohil, good on ya, but respect individual and municipal rights in your next term.
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