00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by customers.

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00:15 - Welcome to the PCN capital preview I'm Francine Scherzer.

00:18 - Today we'll discuss

00:19 - the recent primary election and what it means looking ahead to November.

00:23 - But first we're joined by Ashley Stone Decker, education

00:26 - reporter for Lancaster Online.

00:27 - Thanks for joining us.

00:30 - You wrote that.

00:31 - Thank you for joining.

00:32 - You brought that to York County.

00:33 - Lawmakers are proposing to eliminate the property tax.

00:36 - Why is property tax such a significant issue for some constituents?

00:41 - I believe it's getting an issue,

00:43 - especially for retirees, just because, you know,

00:46 - they might have their whole house paid off.

00:48 - But as the property taxes continue to go up, it's a struggle to continue

00:52 - paying that.

00:53 - Especially, you know,

00:54 - if you're on retirement income, you have very little kind of resources.

00:57 - It's hard to make those payments and schools, as they continue

01:01 - to get strapped with their budgets, have had to rely on property taxes

01:05 - to kind of continue upping those, as they're,

01:09 - as they're trying to meet their kind of expenses as well.

01:12 - So it's kind of coming from both ways.

01:16 - What can you tell us about the legislation that's being offered by Senator

01:19 - John Keefer and represent Wendy Fink?

01:22 - Yeah.

01:22 - So the legislation is to eliminate the school property tax.

01:26 - But, it also would come with raising sales tax

01:31 - and there would be taxes on some retirement income.

01:35 - It wouldn't be for like federal workers, but it would be kind of on anything

01:39 - that has not been taxes as some income, like for a Roth IRA or our IRA.

01:44 - IRA, it would be taxed.

01:47 - It would also involve a adding clothing to the sales tax.

01:52 - So those different revenues they expect to make up for the school property tax.

01:57 - So schools can get them directly.

01:59 - They would get directly from the county sale.

02:02 - So in Lancaster County, for example,

02:05 - if we had sales happening throughout the county,

02:09 - any of those sales income tax, from the I think it would be about 2%.

02:14 - That adjusted rate would bring in revenue for the schools, instead of what they get

02:19 - from property taxes within their, school districts, municipalities.

02:24 - How would this proposal align with the 2023 Commonwealth Court

02:27 - decision that called for equitable school funding?

02:30 - Right.

02:31 - So the former legislator that was there, Frank

02:35 - Ryan, who had represented Lebanon County for a while,

02:39 - he had actually proposed that

02:41 - to help with the Commonwealth Court decision.

02:44 - He thought that, when he was in his office, I think it was

02:48 - about 2017 to 2022.

02:51 - He thought that that would be the solution.

02:54 - But then I think

02:55 - towards the end of his tenure and, you know, obviously in 2023 that,

02:59 - Commonwealth Court decision came through that they need to more fairly fund,

03:05 - schools and rather

03:07 - than pour more funding into schools, that their proposal was this

03:11 - to eliminate property tax and to fairly fund them through,

03:16 - like I said, sales tax and income taxes.

03:19 - Which school districts lose local control?

03:22 - Under this proposal, if the school if the school funding

03:25 - was funneled through the state rather than through the local property taxes.

03:30 - Yeah, that's like a good question.

03:32 - I had actually asked, when do you think that, at the, meeting afterwards.

03:37 - And she had said that they would not lose, local control.

03:40 - They would still have all the control that they've had previously.

03:43 - They would still be able to set their own policies,

03:46 - do whatever school boards have previously done,

03:48 - although they would no longer be voting for property taxes.

03:52 - And, you know, if they need to raise that to bring in more revenue.

03:56 - So that would be that would be different for them.

03:59 - What kind of response

04:00 - are these bills receiving from other colleagues in the legislature?

04:04 - I haven't heard, like I hadn't

04:06 - been able to look into too much from the legislator.

04:09 - It looks like it hasn't made out of the finance committee and their respective,

04:13 - in the, in the Senate and the House where the bills are.

04:16 - It said to be a

04:17 - bipartisan, bill on both sides.

04:21 - But it doesn't seem like it's making much headway at this point.

04:24 - I do know, at least in the town hall meeting, it wasn't met super positively.

04:30 - There were quite a few, I imagine, retirees in the audience

04:33 - that weren't super happy, about the tax on their, retirement income,

04:38 - if you had to express that too, in the question and answer segment later,

04:42 - as you'd mentioned, this,

04:43 - similar proposal had been offered by former representative Frank Frank Ryan.

04:46 - And actually prior to him, former representative

04:49 - had offered a similar proposal as well.

04:51 - What kind of issues or concerns had come up previously

04:54 - that had stalled these issues from advancing in the past?

04:58 - I think previously it was really like the sales

05:01 - income tax and the retirement tax that he had brought up.

05:05 - People didn't want to see that change.

05:07 - I believe schools would also see much differently.

05:11 - I think the issue at least,

05:13 - I know that it stalled previously at the town hall, some of the

05:16 - problems for schools was we don't know if we're going to have these same,

05:21 - amount of funding

05:22 - coming into us anymore, like it wouldn't guarantee.

05:26 - You can kind of do an estimate based on the taxes in your area.

05:29 - If you're looking at school property taxes, but the income and the sales tax,

05:34 - so you don't really know how much people are going to spend per se.

05:37 - So I believe that's a big problem for schools, at least coming at it.

05:42 - Where are these bills from?

05:43 - The legislative process?

05:46 - Oh yeah.

05:46 - So they're both in the finance committee of their respective,

05:51 - capital building.

05:52 - So the Senate bill obviously is in the Senate Finance Committee.

05:56 - And then the House bill is in the House Finance Committee.

06:01 - So it hasn't been approved, by their respective buildings either.

06:05 - We've been speaking with Ashley Stall Necker,

06:07 - education reporter for Lancaster Online.

06:09 - Thank you for joining us today.

06:11 - Yeah. Thank you.

06:12 - More of the capital preview after this short break.

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07:17 - Welcome back.

07:18 - Our guests today are Eugene De Pasquale, chair of the Democratic State.

07:22 - Committee, and Senator Greg Rothman, chair of the Republican State Committee.

07:26 - Senator Rothman, we'll start with you.

07:27 - What have you learned from Pennsylvania's primary election

07:29 - that you will take to carry your party forward toward the general?

07:32 - Yeah, I'm concerned about turnout.

07:35 - We did a good job uniting behind Stacy Garrity and Jason Richie.

07:38 - We have our team now. Our ticket.

07:40 - But turnout, statewide, was around 20% for Republicans.

07:44 - And I think, Gene can tell you exactly, but I think Democrats who close to 30%.

07:49 - So we have to do something about that enthusiasm.

07:52 - It really doesn't matter how many voters you have.

07:54 - If they don't show up.

07:56 - And, you know, sometimes I think they don't show up because they're content

07:59 - or because they're busy with the rest of their life,

08:03 - or the fact that we didn't really have a contested gubernatorial primary. But,

08:07 - right now the Democrats are doing a better job at getting their voters out.

08:10 - And I think Eugene can tell you why, but,

08:14 - I would think it's

08:14 - because they are frustrated with the the administration or their, you know,

08:19 - that this is how they can exercise their, their, concern about President Trump.

08:23 - So Gene will turn it to you. Yeah.

08:26 - So the big message we took from the primary primaries, you know, look,

08:30 - Governor Shapiro got about 450,000 more votes than Stacy Garrity.

08:34 - And the turnout gap was was pretty consistent across the state.

08:39 - I mean, I do know we had, you know, about two more contested

08:42 - contesting congressional primaries, but it was pretty consistent across the state.

08:46 - And I think the big reason for that, you know, like Greg alluded to,

08:50 - it's frustration with President Trump and congressional Republicans who,

08:55 - you know, Democrats, you know what to and I think even a chunk of Republicans

08:59 - look to as being frustrated about higher prices, a war on short,

09:03 - a war of choice, and also some of the health care

09:06 - cuts that, you know, I'm sure we're going to talk more about in a little bit.

09:10 - But that turnout gap was, was pretty significant across the state.

09:13 - I mean, do we want even higher turnout in November?

09:16 - Yes. But what I'm hearing from Democrats all over the state is frustration about.

09:20 - President Trump and congressional Republicans

09:22 - and even Stacey Garrity, who has chosen a cheerleader.

09:24 - A lot of those, a lot of the agenda.

09:26 - President Trump and Democrats are united to try to turn that around this November,

09:31 - reelect the governor and and flip Congress and even, you know, do,

09:36 - do well in the state legislative races because of these higher prices.

09:39 - And I think you saw that reflected in the turnout.

09:42 - You know, even in areas where there were not congressional, or even contested

09:46 - primaries, Democrats had at least a ten, sometimes higher percentage turnout,

09:51 - compared to Republicans.

09:52 - So that's something we want to build upon going into November.

09:55 - I want to look briefly on This Morning.

09:57 - The PennLive Bravo Group morning scrapple poll was released today.

10:00 - It showed President Donald Trump's approval rating dropped to 34%, his lowest

10:05 - on record since the organization started releasing that poll.

10:09 - Jim, we'll come back to you.

10:10 - Will public opinion of Donald Trump impact how people vote in November?

10:15 - Well,

10:16 - first of all,

10:17 - this is a is the second and final midterm for the president.

10:20 - And he is at his lowest approval rating in his entire two terms as president.

10:25 - So the short answer is it will absolutely be an incredible fact.

10:28 - But it's not just his approval rating.

10:30 - It's what comes along with that approval rating, which is higher prices.

10:34 - A war of choice.

10:35 - And, you know, in his first term, you know, he seemed to have a grasp on,

10:40 - you know, those issues that that people might be frustrated with on.

10:43 - He clearly now almost practically doesn't even care about that.

10:47 - And what he's also done is, is he's gotten congressional Republicans

10:52 - out of either because they agree with it or they're afraid of him to vote

10:55 - along with this.

10:56 - So they all own this agenda.

10:58 - Now, whether it be the tariffs that have risen our prices,

11:01 - a war of choice that have risen our prices,

11:04 - and the big beautiful bill that has led to,

11:07 - you know, over 140,000 Pennsylvanians already losing health care coverage

11:11 - and more likely, by the end of next year, going to have that number

11:14 - go over 300,000, rising health care premiums all over the state,

11:19 - and rural health care in jeopardy because a lot of hospitals are now,

11:23 - you know, struggling just to keep their lights on.

11:25 - And that's as a result of, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans,

11:30 - and Stacey Garrity, who has chosen to go along with this agenda.

11:34 - And so his approval rating is absolutely going to be a factor in the midterms.

11:38 - There's no question about it.

11:40 - Well, look, maybe

11:41 - let me be clear when I say the Democrats frustration with Donald Trump,

11:45 - I think they're frustrated because they can't stop him

11:48 - from doing the things he's doing. They're actually helping this country.

11:50 - The people that are going off our, social,

11:54 - health care, and other programs.

11:57 - A lot of it has to do with the fact

11:58 - that they should not have been on it in the first place.

12:00 - So they're not eligible, either, because they're not meeting

12:03 - the criteria of working or, they're not here legally.

12:07 - I mean, when you have that many people who came here illegally and President.

12:12 - Trump has done an incredible job at stopping, illegal immigration

12:16 - from the country,

12:16 - you're going to see people go off the voter rolls

12:19 - because they're going back to where they came from.

12:22 - The governor,

12:23 - a Democrat, championed a $125 million in rural health care for rural hospitals.

12:28 - It was in the big, beautiful bill.

12:29 - And also you can see,

12:32 - the revenue coming into the state from the tax cuts,

12:35 - which was if we hadn't passed a big, beautiful

12:37 - bill, would have been the biggest tax cut in American history,

12:41 - biggest tax increase in American history.

12:43 - So I think the frustration with the Democrats, I understand, is that,

12:48 - you know,

12:48 - they don't like some of these policies, but the policies will eventually help.

12:52 - And the prices look, the prices were through the roof.

12:54 - Under the Biden administration, gas was higher than it is now.

12:58 - Nobody talked about it.

12:59 - But when you declare war with a country like Iran, which we are in war with, and

13:05 - who's a major producer of oil, then of course

13:07 - the prices are going to go up, but ultimately they will come down.

13:10 - The price of gasoline, which affects all of us.

13:12 - And I think President Trump needs to do that, and that needs to happen.

13:16 - And hopefully it happens sooner than later.

13:17 - Will it hurt Republicans that Donald Trump is not actually on the ballot

13:20 - in November? Of course.

13:23 - We've just seen it in 16 and and 24, the numbers came out. So,

13:29 - our message to Republicans is that,

13:32 - look, my colleague Madeleine Dean has already said it once.

13:36 - If we win back the Democrats, win back Congress, they will impeach President.

13:39 - Trump.

13:40 - They haven't said what for yet, but they will impeach him.

13:43 - The agenda will stop.

13:44 - And so if you are a Trump supporter and you care about Donald Trump

13:48 - and his agenda,

13:49 - and you don't want to see gridlock and you don't want to see any other impeachment,

13:53 - then you got to show up to vote, and you got to vote for Republican

13:56 - congressmen and to protect that majority that Eugene talks about.

14:00 - Eugene, I want to come back to you now. Does it hurt?

14:02 - Is is it a problem if Democrats run simply by not being Donald Trump?

14:07 - Are there

14:07 - bigger issues that you want to push into the forefront of these campaigns?

14:10 - Yeah.

14:10 - Look, first of all, I do believe that what the president's unpopular

14:14 - and that unites a lot of Democrats.

14:16 - But I have long held

14:17 - and I advise all the candidates I'm supporting, that just being against

14:21 - Donald Trump. I don't believe, is enough.

14:24 - I think we have to also run on a positive agenda.

14:26 - And I believe Governor Shapiro is doing that.

14:28 - He's talking about

14:29 - if we get the Democratic trifecta, which is also,

14:32 - you know, control of the state Senate, that we're going to get

14:34 - the people of Pennsylvania a raise by raising the minimum wage.

14:37 - We're going to make childcare more affordable.

14:38 - We're continue to make historic investments in public education,

14:43 - and also make our state, college and university system more affordable.

14:46 - So I do believe it is important to have a positive agenda

14:50 - as well as being appropriately critical of the president.

14:54 - How important is Pennsylvania in determining who controls Congress?

14:58 - Look, and Greg and I maybe, you know,

15:01 - we obviously get along and have a lot of agreements here,

15:04 - but the weight in one of the areas that we may most agree on

15:07 - is the way some of these other states have written their

15:10 - it the, the whole gerrymandering that's happened across the country.

15:13 - While I personally, as my small Democrat, are frustrated by that

15:17 - because I think, you know, voters

15:19 - should pick their politicians, not politicians pick their voters.

15:22 - But Pennsylvania is one of the few states that actually has

15:25 - the lion's share of competitive congressional action.

15:28 - So I think our competitive congressional action in Pennsylvania

15:32 - are going to be hugely determinative

15:33 - in who controls Congress, because we're one of the few states

15:37 - that hasn't actually dramatically altered our districts this year.

15:41 - Now you can talk about why, but the short answer is, you know,

15:45 - these districts in Pennsylvania,

15:47 - I believe, are going to determine who controls Congress.

15:50 - Yeah, I think that's safe to say.

15:51 - I do want to mention the trifecta that, you know, it's

15:55 - we saw we've been seeing we've been watching in real time

15:59 - what happened in Virginia, where a Democrat governor who ran as a moderate,

16:03 - Abigail Spanberger,

16:04 - Spanberger has come into office with a Democratic Senate and Democratic House.

16:09 - I think I think,

16:11 - that's their trifecta.

16:13 - And we've already seen just horrible policy decisions and a multiple,

16:18 - just really radical liberal policies.

16:21 - And, you've watched her popularity plummet, I think below 30% in Virginia.

16:25 - So, it's important that we have,

16:29 - you know, keep the Republican Senate.

16:31 - We actually think that we can win back the House.

16:34 - It's only a one vote margin.

16:36 - We can see the the a lot of the more radical

16:39 - things that have come out of the house.

16:42 - And, we actually think, I think personally,

16:45 - I've seen so many upsets in, in politics in the last 40 years.

16:49 - I mean, huge upsets in Pennsylvania where, you know, Harris Wofford beats.

16:53 - Dick Thornburgh or Rick Santorum beats Harris Wofford or,

16:56 - Stacey Garrity beats Joe Torricelli, outspent 12

17:00 - to 1 that we actually think Stacey Garrity could pull an upset.

17:03 - And and I think Eugene and I agree 100% on this.

17:06 - The voters of Pennsylvania know what they're doing.

17:08 - They're smart and they'll make the right decision.

17:10 - And, I trust them.

17:12 - And I think Eugene does, too.

17:13 - And, we could we could have an upset.

17:16 - It would not be the first time

17:17 - in Pennsylvania history. And probably the greatest upset

17:19 - in the history of Pennsylvania was at Valley Forge.

17:21 - And, you know, the 1776, there was one that was a big upset, right?

17:25 - That mean that we had no, no chance if someone told me it's the equivalent

17:29 - military of the United States being defeated in a war by Norway,

17:33 - I mean, that's how that's how big of a deal it was.

17:36 - And we did it, and we did it because the Americans are smart

17:40 - and they know what they're doing.

17:41 - So and and, you know, when you have that, that commitment, it makes a difference.

17:45 - So I mean, that's why we support Stacey Garrity.

17:48 - We think we think she's,

17:50 - a candidate that can beat Josh Shapiro.

17:51 - And there's no question Josh.

17:52 - Shapiro is one of the greatest politicians of our lifetime,

17:55 - and certainly my lifetime.

17:57 - Now, a moment ago, Eugene had referenced, how some other states had redrawn

18:01 - or attempted to redraw their their legislators smile because we did it.

18:04 - We were one of the first to do it.

18:05 - Remember, our Supreme Court threw it out. They threw out our congressional.

18:08 - I was in and just got into the house and it was like 16 or 17.

18:12 - And they made us midterm created all kinds of havoc.

18:15 - And it was a Stanford law professor who drew our map.

18:19 - We didn't even get the legislature usually gets to draw this map.

18:22 - So Pennsylvania sort of started it.

18:25 - Whether or not we change or not.

18:27 - I mean, I also have to laugh because my house seat,

18:30 - which I once represented, which were smack in the middle of right now,

18:33 - very small constricted seat, was put into four different House seats,

18:36 - including crossing the Susquehanna River into the city of Harrisburg.

18:39 - So the Democrats did that to me.

18:42 - Now it worked out because I ran for the Senate. And,

18:45 - I, I think.

18:46 - Gene and I agree, like these seats should be competitive.

18:50 - But they also should follow the, the, the rules, which now

18:53 - the Supreme Court is ways into it that gerrymandering is not healthy.

18:58 - Gene, I want to come back to you for a moment.

18:59 - In several of the Democratic primaries for Congress, candidates

19:04 - seen as being progressive were pitted against candidates seen as being moderate.

19:07 - What does the ultimate, results tell you about the future direction

19:11 - of the Democratic Party?

19:13 - So I, I am promoting the idea that we are going to be a big tent party.

19:17 - And I think the primary reflects that.

19:18 - I mean, certainly you had Chris Rabb, who's on the more progressive side,

19:22 - winning a Philadelphia congressional district primary, and

19:26 - it's the most heavily Democratic district in the country.

19:28 - So he is very likely to go on to be a member of Congress in November.

19:32 - But had Bob Brooks, who's a working class firefighter, you know, winning

19:36 - a very competitive, congressional primary in the Lehigh, in the Lehigh Valley.

19:40 - So, I think, you know, those two, you know, reflected, you know,

19:44 - we are going to be a very diverse coalition going into November.

19:47 - And I you know, I believe we're going to have a big chunk of Republicans

19:50 - and independents part of that co being part of that coalition in November,

19:54 - to push back on this extreme toxic agenda, the president,

19:58 - Senator, do you see similar parallels within the Republican Party with the MAGA

20:01 - conservatives and moderate Republicans?

20:03 - Well, first of all, Chris Rabb, I served with him, too.

20:07 - He's a socialist and Summerlee is an anti-Semite socialist.

20:10 - And I think that's a I think Chris

20:13 - also has some people campaigning for him that are known anti-Semites.

20:16 - And so there's a the radical extreme in the Democratic.

20:21 - Party is winning where in

20:25 - you know, the, the, our candidates.

20:27 - I think, you know, we had this writing campaign from,

20:32 - from maybe the extreme right for Doug Mastriano got less than 2.5%. So,

20:39 - we're all for big tents, but,

20:42 - I don't want to see any anti-Semites in my party.

20:45 - And I certainly would hope that Eugene would kick him out of his party, too.

20:49 - But that's going to mean a couple members of Congress.

20:53 - Gene, a couple weeks ago, US or

20:55 - Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David work to change his party affiliation.

20:59 - He was a Democrat.

21:00 - He announced he was becoming an independent,

21:01 - particularly for concerns of anti-Semitism.

21:04 - Do you see these issues

21:06 - coming up within the party, and if so, how do you call them?

21:08 - Yeah.

21:09 - So first of all, David's a friend

21:11 - and he has the right to register or however he chooses to.

21:14 - And I actually, you know, personally want the court to be much less political.

21:17 - Again, that's me, my own view of it.

21:20 - And look, I do I am

21:21 - concerned about a rise of anti-Semitism across the country.

21:24 - I think there are trouble spots in both the Republican and the be

21:28 - in the Democratic Party on this.

21:29 - And and it's something that is deeply concerning.

21:31 - I think we can have a vigorous debate about the best,

21:34 - you know, view of how we want to pursue peace in the Middle East.

21:38 - I think we can have an appropriate debate about Benjamin, not not Netanyahu,

21:43 - about his tenure as prime minister, where I have certainly my strong disagreements.

21:47 - But at the same token, not holding all people of Jewish

21:50 - faith and all people of Israel accountable because of the political decisions.

21:54 - We may, have strong disagreements with, Benjamin Netanyahu.

21:58 - And again, Israel has been a strong ally of ours for many decades.

22:02 - So I am very concerned about,

22:04 - you know, some of these rise of antisemitism in both political parties.

22:08 - And I think, you know, leaders

22:09 - like myself and Greg and others across the political spectrum,

22:12 - even when we have disagreements about tax policy

22:15 - and in social spending, need to do our part to stamp those out.

22:19 - How much we do endorsements have state committees

22:22 - meet sometimes quarterly, and they make their endorsements.

22:26 - You hear endorsements, President Trump endorsed Stacey.

22:28 - Garrity, governor Shapiro got involved with several of the congressional races,

22:31 - and President Trump's endorsements and primaries matter.

22:35 - And President Trump coming to Pennsylvania to fire up his base and his voters,

22:39 - which there are a lot of independents there.

22:41 - A lot of Democrats do, that support President Trump.

22:44 - Clearly, he won the state in 2024.

22:47 - He will he will fire up that base.

22:49 - And so we hope that he comes here.

22:51 - I have to mention the war in Iran because,

22:54 - another trouble and in I'm sure Eugene agrees that,

22:57 - you know, you have protesters in Philadelphia rooting for Americans

23:01 - to be put in body bags, like rooting for Iran.

23:04 - And that's not American.

23:05 - And, and, there are no Republicans doing that.

23:09 - And so, like, I would would hope that we would announce

23:12 - who were rooting for in that war because I ran cannot get a nuclear weapon.

23:16 - I me be to be clear, Israel is a little Satan.

23:19 - We're great Satan.

23:20 - So Israel is not just an important,

23:23 - historical, ally of ours.

23:26 - And and it's not just because it's geographical location.

23:30 - They are hated by the Iranians and the radical Islam

23:33 - is almost as much as they hate America.

23:36 - And it's just that Israel is easy to pick on because it's smaller.

23:40 - So this war in Iran, which,

23:43 - I think we can all agree that Iran should not have nuclear weapons.

23:46 - And if President Trump pulls us off, which, over the weekend,

23:49 - that's the discussion that they're going to give up all their nuclear capabilities.

23:53 - They're going to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,

23:55 - which is part of the reason

23:57 - why we're seeing gasoline prices and oil prices go up.

24:00 - And if there are any moderates in Iran, but I don't know if there are,

24:05 - but that, we will have peace in Iran

24:08 - and peace in the Middle East, and they will leave Iran.

24:10 - They'll leave, Israel alone.

24:12 - So, you know, that's that's concerning when you have when you have people

24:16 - in the city of Philadelphia rooting for the Iranians to win this war.

24:21 - Jim, just going back to my original question,

24:23 - can you talk a little bit as well on the weight of endorsements?

24:27 - Yeah, I do.

24:27 - Well, first of all, I would say this I want this war to go well.

24:31 - I have deep reservations about it.

24:33 - I have concerns about the president's policy.

24:36 - And I also agree that Iran should not and cannot have a nuclear weapon.

24:39 - And I have no disagreement with president how to go about that.

24:42 - Having said that,

24:43 - I believe the vast majority of Democrats, the vast majority, have disagreements

24:47 - with the policy but want the war to go well,

24:49 - and nobody should be rooting for Americans to come back in body bags.

24:53 - That is completely unacceptable.

24:55 - Now, on the weight of endorsements, I will say the the president,

24:58 - probably has a good his track record on any.

25:00 - And you've seen this across the country, which is probably one of the reasons

25:03 - why he gets congressional Republicans cowering in fear to vote

25:07 - along with his extreme toxic agenda, which is when I do these higher prices

25:12 - that we're all confronting now across Pennsylvania and across the country.

25:16 - But I do think in the primaries, the president has been very effective

25:20 - in delivering on his endorsements.

25:22 - I look, you know, Governor Shapiro certainly made his endorsements.

25:25 - And a lot of those went went well for, for us

25:29 - as Democrats as well, I think leading in the November.

25:32 - But I think, at the end of the day, it is up to these candidates

25:36 - to put forward an agenda that is,

25:39 - not only appropriately critical of the president, but also a positive agenda and

25:45 - as to why they're going to make their region and their

25:47 - and the state of Pennsylvania in the country better.

25:49 - I think that will carry the day in November, but certainly in the primary,

25:53 - when the leaders of the party stand up and make endorsements, that has some impact.

25:57 - Since we're talking about that,

26:00 - Governor Shapiro endorsed,

26:01 - I believe, three candidates in select congressional races, all three of those.

26:04 - What does that bode well for the governor as well?

26:07 - To me, there's no question.

26:08 - I first of all, when you just look at it from 40,000ft, Governor.

26:12 - Shapiro is an incredibly popular governor.

26:14 - I think the vast majority of Democrats and a significant part of Republicans

26:20 - and a whole big chunk of independents approve of the job he is doing.

26:24 - I think they like how he has managed the state.

26:26 - I think they like the investments he's made in education.

26:30 - I think they like also that, you know, we were on PC

26:33 - and so I got to be appropriate here.

26:34 - It's the getting stuff done, done agenda.

26:36 - And I think that's why he is in a very strong position to get reelected.

26:41 - But I also think that those endorsements,

26:43 - at least in the primary, would not have carried the weight they did

26:47 - if it wasn't for his popularity and people agreeing with his agenda.

26:50 - And so I think there's no question that his popularity within

26:54 - the Democratic Party, but certainly independents

26:56 - and Republicans, bodes well for those candidates going into November as well.

27:00 - We're going to continue our discussion in just a moment.

27:02 - But first, let's give our guests

27:03 - a quick break while we look at where CNNs cameras will be this week

27:07 - on tomorrow's PCN capital preview, we'll discuss school funding in Pennsylvania,

27:11 - Aaron Chapman from the Pennsylvania State Education Association,

27:15 - my music from Children's First PA, and Marcus Hite, executive director

27:19 - of the Pennsylvania Association of Public Cyber Charter Schools, will be our guest.

27:23 - That's tomorrow morning live at 9 a.m.

27:25 - on the issues.

27:26 - Has Roxann Brown, the new president of the United Steelworkers union

27:30 - that airs Wednesday at 7 p.m..

27:33 - This week's edition of Journalists Roundtable features Mark Levy

27:36 - from the Associated Press, Gillian McGoldrick from The Philadelphia.

27:39 - Inquirer and Whitney Downward from the Pennsylvania Capital.

27:42 - Star Journalists Roundtable airs Thursday nights at 7:00.

27:47 - Senator Scott Martin, majority chair of the Senate Appropriations.

27:50 - Committee, will be the guest at the Capitol Blue Cross Forum.

27:53 - That's Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

27:56 - on the history and culture side of programing.

27:57 - We explore the day 26 year old Colonel George Washington put himself between

28:02 - two firing lines that have mistaken one another for the enemy.

28:05 - You can learn about this friendly fire incident Tuesday at 9 p.m..

28:10 - You can watch the show and all of our public affairs

28:12 - programing free of charge by visiting PC and select.com.

28:16 - While you're there, you can download our streaming service PC and select.

28:20 - BCN is everything. Pennsylvania.

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28:28 - Visit PC and tv.com.

28:31 - Let's continue our discussion

28:32 - about the primary election and what that means as we look forward.

28:35 - We talked a little bit about the third congressional.

28:37 - What are their congressional seats? Is your party targeting?

28:40 - Well, yeah, of course, the 10th where we're sitting now with Scott Perry.

28:43 - And we also have Bresnahan and McKenzie, in the northeast, which we see.

28:48 - The northeast is an important part of the Republic expansion.

28:51 - We've already done great work expanding the West.

28:54 - We've obviously, fallen short in the southeast where we're losing support.

28:59 - But, the northeast is a place where we see opportunity.

29:04 - I wanted to mention Governor Shearer and his popularity this past weekend.

29:07 - There was a poll that has him

29:08 - at 10% of the Democratic Party for the presidential nomination.

29:12 - And, certainly we think that based on,

29:15 - you know, his actions and he's got a lot of people

29:17 - working for him on his public relations team and his communications team.

29:21 - He's doing a lot of traveling.

29:23 - It seems like he's running for president.

29:25 - And, we, you know, historically, he didn't

29:30 - finish his job as state representative to become county commissioner.

29:33 - He didn't finish

29:33 - his job as county commissioner or become attorney

29:35 - general, didn't finish his term as attorney general, become governor.

29:38 - And if he elected, he runs for president.

29:40 - He won't finish this term either.

29:42 - And you know, my father always said, you do a job and you finish your job

29:45 - and you don't leave till you finish your job.

29:47 - But, you know, part of me thinks that Governor Shapiro should just go straight

29:50 - to South Carolina, skip this election,

29:53 - and just run for president, because that's what he's doing.

29:55 - And he cares way more about Pennsylvania Avenue than he does against Pennsylvania.

29:59 - I think that's why he sued President Trump 19 times.

30:03 - You know, at the party, we think that he suffers from Trump Derangement

30:06 - syndrome, 19 times suing President Trump. But,

30:11 - President Trump is on the ballot.

30:13 - And in the sense that, he has an agenda, we think that

30:17 - that you will see the benefit of it.

30:19 - How do you declare war on Iran and not expect the price of gas to go up?

30:23 - But gas still hasn't gone up as high as it was during the Biden administration,

30:26 - and there is no logical reason

30:27 - for that other than the policies of the Democratic Party.

30:31 - And and stopping the,

30:35 - drilling of oil and in Alaska and, and war and,

30:39 - you know, putting constraints on our domestic energy.

30:43 - And so we expect I mean, the prices went up at,

30:46 - you know, in the 8% range, they're going up at 2%, 3%.

30:51 - And the price of housing in Pennsylvania doubled under

30:54 - the Biden administration the last year, it's been steady.

30:58 - So these policies do take times, to take time.

31:02 - I wish President Trump would come out and explain,

31:05 - why the price of gas is going up.

31:07 - But if you look at futures are going back down. So,

31:11 - and I think there are things we can do on a state level, I'd love to see us

31:14 - spend the gas tax, $0.58 for cars and 72% for diesel.

31:19 - Let's give a holiday for that.

31:20 - I mean, that's, that's, an issue, but, we're heading into budget season, and the,

31:26 - governor has proposed in the House, Democrats have passed a budget

31:29 - that is nearly $5 billion on balanced.

31:32 - And, that's going to be a problem.

31:34 - We are not bringing in as much revenues. We're spending.

31:37 - I don't think it's a revenue problem.

31:39 - I think we spend too much.

31:41 - And so the governor may have high approval ratings,

31:45 - but that's because Republicans in

31:46 - the Senate have stopped him from doing the things that are fiscally irresponsible,

31:50 - like overspending by $5 billion.

31:52 - And I expect that's going to happen this summer to Gene should speculation

31:56 - about whether the governor might be running for president, impact

31:59 - voters willingness to support him as governor once again.

32:03 - Look, I think one of the reasons why he's incredibly popular is

32:06 - meeting Governor Shapiro is the job he's done so far.

32:10 - I think the investments in education, I think, are critical.

32:13 - But I also, you know, and this is not the you know, pick a fight with Greg.

32:17 - But I want to make clear that the some of those lawsuits that that,

32:21 - that Greg has talked

32:22 - about, I think the public wanted him to do that.

32:25 - Governor Shapiro stood up to the excesses of President Trump. And

32:29 - some of those lawsuits were specifically about protecting Pennsylvanians.

32:34 - One of the areas in particular was on health care and medical research.

32:38 - You know, some of our

32:39 - universities are leading the way in cancer research, muscular dystrophy research

32:43 - and the president tried to put a stop to that.

32:46 - And Governor Shapiro stood up to that,

32:48 - filed those lawsuits, along with attorneys general across the country.

32:52 - And prevented some of those changes happening.

32:55 - And when it came to the tariff policy, again, some of these things,

32:58 - I want to be clear,

32:59 - you know, if the Congress had debated this and passed it along with President.

33:02 - Trump signing into war, we might be in a different situation.

33:05 - But the president tried to do

33:06 - a lot of this stuff through his own executive order, making health care

33:10 - and research cuts and basically tariffs, which are a backdoor tax increase

33:14 - on the American people.

33:15 - And Governor Shapiro stood up for that.

33:17 - I think that's part of his job as governor. Why?

33:20 - One of the reasons why he is incredibly popular,

33:24 - and is widely favored to be reelected

33:26 - because people like the job he is doing as the governor of this state.

33:31 - If Stacey Garrity were successful, she would have to vacate her

33:34 - current position as treasurer. Is that any different?

33:36 - Yeah, it's different because Stacey Garrity, served 30 years in our military,

33:41 - three different deployments in the Middle East in combat.

33:46 - Retired colonel,

33:47 - she served in business, worked in a private company.

33:51 - Had never run for office before she was elected treasurer.

33:54 - And a huge upset.

33:56 - Is she is not a politician.

33:59 - She does not pull test stuff for, focus group stuff.

34:04 - She's there's there's, and by the way, she's criticized for this.

34:08 - She doesn't have that charisma or that that smoothness.

34:11 - She's not a politician. She's a soldier.

34:14 - She's a businesswoman.

34:15 - She's a proud daughter of Pennsylvania.

34:18 - But she is has stepped up, in a time where a lot of people

34:22 - said, well, Josh Shapiro can't be beaten, and I think he can be.

34:26 - I need to, say something to having Eugene on.

34:30 - We talked about David Wecht.

34:32 - There was a big campaign in 2025.

34:34 - The Republican Party had a had a no to retention.

34:37 - I don't know if Eugene is regretting spending that money on David Wacker, but,

34:41 - nevertheless,

34:43 - on the day after the election, I had gone down to DC,

34:46 - to give a debrief on the 2025 election, which was not good for Republicans.

34:51 - And I was driving back from DC and my phone rang.

34:53 - I looked down my phone. It was Eugene David Squali calling me.

34:56 - I thought, he's kind of rushed this in and, I thought about

35:00 - not answering it, and I answered and I said, what is this, a wellness check?

35:03 - And he was calling to say, hey, I've been there.

35:06 - I thought it was really sweet of him, kind,

35:10 - I just want to make it clear we represent different parties, but I.

35:13 - Eugene has been a friend.

35:15 - I supported him a long time ago when he first ran for the house.

35:18 - We have always gotten along, and, I think we need more civility in government.

35:23 - I think people judge government the way they treat themselves,

35:26 - but they judge politics the way we treat each other. And.

35:29 - And I just want to thank Jean. I've told that story a lot of times

35:31 - because I thought that was a greatest thing.

35:33 - So thank you, Gene. I will call you in November.

35:36 - Greg, you're a good egg.

35:38 - Hopefully, hopefully I get to make a similar type of call this November.

35:41 - But at the end of the day, look, I I've said this publicly, privately

35:45 - and anywhere in between.

35:46 - We need to have more debates like this, more civil discussion work.

35:50 - And there should be we should have vigorous debates on the policy.

35:54 - There's no question about it.

35:55 - I think that makes makes our party better.

35:58 - I think that makes Republicans better.

36:00 - But we don't need to go down the gutter and trying to destroy people.

36:04 - Personally, I just don't like it and don't agree with it.

36:07 - So in the governor's race, the primaries were both kind of quiet.

36:10 - Both Josh Shapiro and Stacey Kennedy were unopposed.

36:13 - However, were there issues or themes that started to emerge that you anticipate

36:16 - seeing, come, you know, be revisited as we get closer to the general November?

36:22 - I think in Pennsylvania in particular in the governor's race.

36:24 - I, I'm not going to speak for the governor

36:27 - on, you know, what's going to lead to ads and

36:29 - certainly not going to speak for Stacey.

36:30 - But I am telling you right now, health care

36:32 - is going to be a big issue in this election along with the economy.

36:35 - I think some of the cuts that come out of that big,

36:38 - beautiful bill that are going to impact rural hospitals, leading

36:41 - to rising premiums for people that are,

36:44 - that are on the Affordable Care Act, exchanges

36:48 - and the people that have already lost health care coverage.

36:50 - I think that is going to be a huge issue this November.

36:53 - And even, you know, extending into the 2028 campaign, again,

36:57 - we've already had about 140,000 people lose health care coverage in Pennsylvania,

37:02 - and and several thousand have already had their premiums skyrocket.

37:06 - And both of those numbers are going to continue to go up.

37:09 - And I think that is going to be a big part of the of the campaign cycle this year.

37:15 - And I think that's going to be one of the one of the reasons why, along

37:18 - with the higher prices and the trumpet toxic agenda and the war of choice,

37:23 - that is why, we as Democrats are going to have a big November.

37:26 - Yeah.

37:27 - Look, one of the things that President Trump

37:28 - did is to get the prescription drug prices down.

37:32 - The the Americans were paying the highest rates for prescription drugs.

37:35 - Now with Trump our X, which he said he didn't name himself,

37:40 - but with the with the executive order,

37:44 - which said that the drug companies can't pharmaceutical companies can't

37:47 - charge Americans more than they charge Canadians or any other country.

37:51 - But, you know, the Affordable Care Act

37:54 - or Obamacare, you know, we predicted this would happen.

37:57 - The insurance companies having lost money,

37:59 - the rates and the premiums have gone through the roof.

38:02 - The deductibles are higher.

38:04 - People are not able to keep their doctors.

38:06 - Remember, you're going to be able keep your doctor and keep your plan.

38:08 - And this is exactly what Republicans predicted.

38:12 - And so, Donald Trump has showed up and said,

38:15 - look, we're not going to continue to subsidize the insurance companies.

38:20 - We've got to interject, some, some market forces into the health care system.

38:25 - And that includes, a free market for prescription drugs.

38:29 - And it should include more transparency on how much procedures, costs and,

38:34 - medical savings accounts, all Republican ideas.

38:36 - But there's no question that, things are too expensive.

38:40 - But we also need to, to see wages rise and we are seeing that

38:43 - and we need to see more economic activity and more productivity.

38:47 - But if you want to lower the cost of anything, it's basic economics.

38:50 - You need more of a supply.

38:52 - And so we need to we need more productivity

38:55 - and we need more, energy, and we need more, options for health care.

39:00 - And the Affordable Care Act didn't do that.

39:02 - Actually had the opposite effect.

39:03 - And, I remember the debates on that and the fact that this was going to cost

39:09 - more and has done exactly what it's going to do, but.

39:12 - I expect the debates on Pennsylvania are going to be,

39:16 - the same that we have a national debate, like, what do we want our future to be?

39:20 - We're getting ready to celebrate our 250th birthday in America.

39:23 - America's, you know, the greatest country in the history of the world.

39:26 - Pennsylvania is the most important state.

39:29 - You know, this is where we were birth.

39:31 - And this is where our Declaration of Independence was,

39:34 - passed in our Constitution.

39:36 - And, but I see the biggest issue facing Pennsylvania is our demographic challenge.

39:42 - We are losing young people.

39:44 - We are losing people who work, between the ages of 20 and 64.

39:48 - We are losing in real numbers.

39:50 - That's why every ten years, the last 50 years, we have lost a congressional seat.

39:56 - And so how do we get those young people to come back here?

39:59 - How do we get, kids like Eugene and my kids

40:02 - to come here, and they need economic opportunity.

40:05 - We need to say we are a state that once

40:07 - you and once you're a business, and we want economic activity, and,

40:11 - we have great universities and they attract kids.

40:13 - They attract kids from other states.

40:15 - But then when those kids leave, sometimes they take one of our kids with them.

40:18 - So I think we can agree on that, too.

40:21 - Former Shapiro administration official

40:23 - Mike verb resigned after being accused of sexual harassment.

40:27 - Brian Liberty recently wrote an article about this,

40:30 - and they've been following the story for the past year or so.

40:32 - Do you think this issue, particularly the transparency concerns that are raised

40:36 - in that story, will have an impact at all in the governor's race?

40:39 - I it's inexplicable to me why Governor Shapiro let,

40:44 - this staffer stick around after he knew what happened.

40:47 - Let it was a almost a $300,000 payout, which I think is disgusting.

40:51 - We ought to have a law against that.

40:54 - And, you know, look, I've got four daughters.

40:57 - There's something historical about Stacy Garrity.

40:59 - She's going to be the first female governor of Pennsylvania.

41:02 - I know Josh Shapiro talks about women's rights a lot,

41:05 - but here he had a chance to do the right thing, and he didn't.

41:08 - And he failed.

41:08 - And so I think Stacy is going to talk about it.

41:12 - I the the the the fact that they allowed emails to be deleted.

41:17 - Her emails, the victim's emails,

41:19 - to be deleted in violation of law, a law

41:22 - that as a former attorney general, Josh Shapiro would know.

41:26 - And so I do think it I do think it brings a question.

41:28 - But again, I don't understand how he would let this happen.

41:31 - And it's still not too late to do the right thing.

41:33 - But if there was a cover up, which it appears to be,

41:36 - if there was a payout, which I understand the nuances

41:39 - of protecting the identity of the victim.

41:41 - And I don't want to affect that, but the taxpayers have a right to know,

41:47 - about these payouts and, whether it's on the federal level or on the state level.

41:51 - I just think it's disgusting.

41:54 - Gene, do you care to comment on this as well?

41:56 - Yeah.

41:56 - Whatever happened in the settlement, you know, I'm not privy to those details.

41:59 - And we obviously want to protect,

42:01 - any victims in this, but I do know that Governor Shapiro,

42:04 - in his role as attorney general, stood up to the Catholic Church

42:07 - and the abuse abuses that happened to so many,

42:10 - younger Catholics across the state and standing up to those victims.

42:13 - So, you know, look, I think he has had a pattern

42:17 - of standing up to people that have abused others.

42:20 - I certainly believe his tenure as governor showed that as well.

42:23 - Whatever particulars in this instance, I think we're in negotiate it out.

42:26 - But again, his track record on standing up, protecting victims

42:30 - and standing up to powerful institutions like he did against the Catholic Church,

42:34 - I, you know, someone who is a Catholic, I think are were certainly show where

42:38 - where his heart is and where he puts, his power in

42:42 - that is standing up for victims and taking on the powerful.

42:45 - But but

42:47 - knowing what had happened, knowing the details.

42:49 - Because at some point he does know the details.

42:52 - He still says, I want to thank my aide for his service

42:56 - to the Commonwealth on his way out, and he knew the payout had taken place.

43:00 - I just don't it just doesn't make any sense to me. Why?

43:03 - Why Governor Shapiro, who as Eugene said, you know, has has a,

43:08 - a history would not know,

43:11 - what he should do in this case and ended up,

43:15 - putting his own interests ahead of the interest, certainly of the woman.

43:19 - But also, there are still people working in the Shapiro

43:22 - administration that were involved and knew about it and covered it up.

43:25 - And, they should be fired, too.

43:28 - Let's shift our focus.

43:29 - We only have a couple minutes left.

43:31 - Gene, you're a former state House member.

43:34 - Senator, you're still in the General Assembly.

43:37 - Let's talk briefly about the races for General Assembly.

43:40 - The House has a one seat majority.

43:42 - The Republicans have a three seat hold on the Senate.

43:44 - Do you either see a scenario where the control of either of those chamber shifts?

43:50 - Well, obviously Pennsylvania.

43:51 - So it's going to be competitive,

43:52 - but I believe we are going to hold the house and add some seats on.

43:56 - And I believe we have a very good chance of flipping the,

43:58 - Pennsylvania State Senate.

44:00 - You know, so I want to start off with we're going to be competing

44:04 - aggressively in both.

44:05 - And I think considering the current, primary turnout numbers and what,

44:10 - you know, we're seeing out of Washington with, with Donald Trump and higher costs

44:14 - and the congressional Republicans going along with it, and Stacy

44:17 - Garrett in particular, cheerleading this, I think, create the environment

44:19 - where we can add seats to our house and pick up the state Senate.

44:23 - And I want to go back to the last time the Democrats actually had

44:26 - all three was 1992.

44:28 - And the first thing we did was pass the Children's Health Insurance program.

44:32 - And so the reason why I say that is the first thing we're going to do

44:35 - if we get that trifecta this time, is we are going to pass a minimum wage

44:39 - increase and give the people of Pennsylvania raise.

44:41 - And that's what we're going to campaign on, is that if you give us that trifecta,

44:45 - the people of Pennsylvania are going to get a raise.

44:48 - So, first of all,

44:50 - less than one half of 1% of people in Pennsylvania making minimum wage.

44:54 - So we want to talk about maximum wage.

44:56 - I want to increase wages. That's what we want to do.

44:58 - But yeah, I think the chairman is absolutely correct based on the turnout

45:02 - in the primary, if Republicans don't show up, we're at risk of losing the Senate

45:06 - and we will lose seats in the House and Stacey Garrity will not get elected.

45:11 - But for whatever reason, the people have chosen to stay home.

45:15 - And, you know, I looked at the votes in Cumberland County.

45:18 - Three quarters of the Democrat votes were by male

45:21 - and one quarter of Republican votes by mail.

45:23 - So our message is going to be vote by mail.

45:28 - Take 30 days to vote instead of one day, go vote early.

45:32 - Bank your vote.

45:33 - The other good thing

45:33 - about voting early and voting by mail is you stop getting the TV ads.

45:37 - You start getting the the mail sent to your house.

45:40 - Right? So,

45:42 - Eugene and I are both, Well, he's an athlete.

45:44 - I'm a I'm a I'm a fan of sports, but I'm a big baseball fan.

45:48 - I cannot stand the designated hitter rule,

45:51 - but I'm not going to bat my pitcher while the designated hitter rules.

45:55 - So let's vote by mail.

45:57 - Republicans who are busy work in taking care of their kids,

46:00 - taking care of their families, running small businesses, serving in the military,

46:04 - you know, being our first responders,

46:07 - 80% of them didn't show up to vote, on primary day.

46:11 - So we're encouraging people to vote by mail.

46:13 - And the Democrats have done a great job

46:15 - at getting their people to to vote early and not just low propensity.

46:18 - The average voters now in the Democratic Party is voting by mail.

46:21 - So we're hoping to bring some parity that,

46:24 - when I started in politics, probably when Eugene, before even Eugene started,

46:29 - there were a million and a half more Democrats

46:30 - registered to vote than Republicans in Pennsylvania.

46:32 - And that number is down to below 200,000.

46:35 - I saw over the weekend that, governor DeSantis in Florida said

46:38 - when he took office, there were 300,000 more Democrats and Republicans.

46:41 - Now there's a million and a half more Republicans in, in Florida.

46:46 - And the Democrats have started to catch up or started to slow it down a little bit.

46:50 - But it's they're not slowing it down.

46:52 - The million two or million three shift that we've seen in the last ten years. So,

46:58 - turnout is all that matters.

47:01 - You know, if you've got the best nine baseball players and,

47:04 - only five of them show up,

47:06 - there are a lot of holes

47:07 - in the infield that can be hidden to, to use another sports metaphor.

47:10 - But, you know, Greg's just trying to butter me up with the baseball analogy.

47:14 - Yes. That's going.

47:15 - Oh, are you a football star, too? Right.

47:17 - Well, I played baseball football in college.

47:19 - Yeah, like, good enough to take it to the next level.

47:21 - The other thing that Eugene and I agree, because we've talked about this

47:24 - and, you know, the political violence has to stop.

47:28 - Just in just in the last month, two more shots

47:31 - fired, one at the white House, one at the white House Correspondents Dinner.

47:35 - You know, it was just in Butler a couple of years ago,

47:39 - where the president was shot in the air.

47:40 - Like we need to reject political violence.

47:42 - It's scary that there are 42% of the Democrats,

47:45 - polled think that Butler or the Correspondents Dinner was staged.

47:49 - And, I mean, that's got to stop.

47:52 - A couple weeks ago, we had an arrest in central Pennsylvania

47:55 - of a man who had a hit list of Democratic legislators.

47:58 - I didn't know everybody on that list,

48:00 - but everybody on that list is a colleague of mine.

48:03 - And half of those people.

48:04 - I mean, half of the people on the list I consider friends.

48:08 - And so, I think we have an obligation.

48:10 - The governor certainly is has talked about it.

48:13 - You won't hear any Republicans, elected officials not say the same thing.

48:18 - We have to put a stop to political violence.

48:20 - This is this is a threat to our democracy.

48:23 - Look, I appreciate Greg saying that we obviously had our own

48:25 - governor was targeted,

48:27 - with the firebombing at the governor's residence and work in our own state.

48:30 - President Trump was clearly targeted at Butler.

48:34 - You know, I

48:34 - believe any time the president's at a facility

48:36 - like the white House Correspondents Dinner, without

48:38 - knowing all the details of who was that specifically that not was trying to get,

48:42 - you have to assume the president was at least one of the people

48:45 - that was on that list because he was there, and certainly the list of,

48:49 - the hits, at least potential hits on Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania.

48:52 - It's all disgusting.

48:54 - When I tell people, I'm sure, Greg, the same thing.

48:56 - But if you want to stand up to President Trump,

48:59 - if you want to change this agenda, this is what you do in the United States.

49:03 - You go vote in November and you change it that way.

49:06 - That's how you that's how you changes every other avenue

49:10 - and talked about violence so completely unacceptable.

49:14 - It's got to come to an end.

49:16 - If you want to change the direction of this country, vote.

49:19 - That's our means in this country.

49:20 - Or if you or if you want to run for office,

49:22 - you want to donate, you want to do it. Knock on doors.

49:25 - Hey, we I encourage all that.

49:26 - I'm sure Greg does the same way.

49:28 - We want more political activity, not less.

49:30 - But the number of violent acts in the last ten years is completely unacceptable.

49:36 - And we've seen a lot of those right here in Pennsylvania,

49:38 - meaning Butler with President Trump and the firebombing in the governor's

49:41 - residence with Governor Shapiro, all of it completely unacceptable.

49:45 - That will have to be the last word.

49:47 - Our guests have been Eugene De Pasquale, chair of the Democratic State Committee,

49:51 - and Senator Greg Rothman, chair of the Republican State Committee.

49:53 - Gentlemen, thank you both for joining us. Thank you.

49:56 - Thank you.

49:57 - PC and recently spoke with Representative Roman.

49:59 - Kozak about his proposal to change the state's moped laws.

50:04 - Welcome to our program.

50:06 - You plan on introducing legislation to change Pennsylvania's moped laws.

50:10 - What does Pennsylvania consider a moped?

50:13 - A moped is generally, a bike with a motor on it.

50:17 - And also a pedal.

50:18 - So moped, motorized pedal cycle is the way to put it.

50:22 - Generally speaking, we would talk about 50 cc engine

50:27 - between 30 to 35mph max speed.

50:32 - These are bikes, vehicles we may call them that.

50:36 - That, will run on generally municipal roads.

50:39 - People usually utilize them for hobby, mostly hobby thing.

50:44 - Other times two people might use them to get around their local neighborhoods,

50:46 - especially in places like cities.

50:48 - If you go to Europe,

50:49 - you'll notice mopeds are, still in use regularly in those places.

50:54 - And, so that's kind of the general framework of what a moped is.

50:58 - What are the current laws surrounding mopeds in Pennsylvania?

51:02 - So there's a lot of

51:03 - confusion about mopeds and their utilization in Pennsylvania,

51:07 - whether or not they could be street legal or not.

51:11 - Often times the problem, which is what my bill seeks to to deal

51:15 - with, is that mopeds are vintage the of many of these vintage mopeds.

51:20 - They stopped manufacturing in the early 1980s,

51:24 - and there has been a cottage industry, a revival of moped riding hobbyists.

51:28 - In my area particularly, and I know individuals

51:32 - who own a moped restoration shop and they it's the entire

51:38 - region here, but all over the country that are coming to them.

51:41 - And one of the frustrations in Pennsylvania is

51:44 - how do we deal with these on the roads?

51:46 - How do we legally ride them,

51:48 - and do it the right way?

51:50 - That's safe.

51:51 - Places like Ohio, places like Vermont, have adopted standards

51:55 - to allow for these mopeds,

51:57 - to be on the roads and to be legally registered

52:00 - to be on the roads, which would allow them to have a small license plate.

52:03 - And the biggest problem, the biggest hurdle

52:06 - the owners of these face is they they rediscover these somewhere.

52:09 - They buy them off a marketplace, maybe find

52:13 - and there's no title for them.

52:15 - So when you need the title to in order to get the registration.

52:18 - So the idea behind the bill is that they could provide

52:22 - a bill of sale, provide a Vin number, show that these are legit,

52:25 - vehicles or mopeds, and that they could register these

52:28 - without title because the titles are often lost for decades

52:32 - now, with these mopeds being able to go on all types of roads, such as highways,

52:36 - or would they be restricted to just like municipal roads?

52:40 - Well, you'd be restricted primarily, Matt, with that max speed,

52:45 - that limitations to be considered classified as a moped,

52:48 - you wouldn't be able to ride these, you know, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike

52:52 - or anything like that.

52:53 - You'd probably be pulled over very quickly, especially for going 30mph.

52:58 - And all the hobbyists that ride these, they want them for the neighborhoods

53:02 - to ride you on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon with their friends.

53:07 - Maybe get

53:08 - to and from a grocery store or a local coffee shop.

53:12 - And, it's become, like I said, it's reviving in, especially in my region.

53:17 - And it's a really cool thing to see.

53:18 - So it's trying to be helpful to those who.

53:22 - What feedback have you heard from moped riders

53:25 - and community members about this bill?

53:28 - You know, this is not something that I'm particularly,

53:32 - like, super passionate about.

53:33 - It's just

53:34 - I have friends and neighbors and people who are involved in this community.

53:38 - So much so that I, I own moped myself and, it's it's a joy.

53:43 - It's a fun it's a fun time.

53:45 - But they advocated to me as constituents for this, and it made sense.

53:50 - And I understood the reasoning behind it.

53:52 - And it's become part of the community here. And people love it.

53:55 - People end up registering these mopeds in other states in order to ride them.

54:00 - Local police in my

54:01 - area have been gracious and have been good about it and understanding about it.

54:05 - Everybody tries to follow the rules.

54:06 - No one's trying to do anything crazy with it.

54:09 - But it's been it's been a wonderful thing for them.

54:11 - And so that's why I figured I'd

54:13 - help these guys out and to try to make sense of the,

54:16 - the laws around what they're frustrated with.

54:18 - Lastly, where is this bill in the legislative process currently?

54:22 - So we've introduced a co-sponsor memo to gather co-sponsors on to the bill.

54:27 - I'm trying to work across party lines, bipartisan lead,

54:30 - because this is not a Partizan political issue, just to see

54:33 - if we can get Democrats and Republicans together, to create a simple

54:37 - fix in our vehicle code, to help hobbyists in our region.

54:40 - That's simple as that.

54:41 - Representative Roman Kozak, thank you for joining us.

54:45 - Thank you.

54:46 - That concludes today's show.

54:48 - Join us for tomorrow's

54:49 - episode of the PC and Capitol Preview where we'll discuss school funding.

54:53 - Aaron Chapman from the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

54:56 - My music from Children First PA and Marcus High, executive director

55:00 - of the Pennsylvania Association of Public Cyber Charter Schools,

55:03 - will be our guests tomorrow morning live at 9 a.m.

55:07 - I'm Francine Schwarzer. Thanks for watching.