The decision by a former state representative to run a primary challenge against Chester County’s only Democrat in Harrisburg may signal a divide within the party.

Tom Houghton of London Grove has declared he will challenge state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th, of West Whiteland, in the April primary. According to Democratic sources, Houghton may have an inside track on the party’s endorsement during its Jan. 25 county convention.

One party source said a few of Dinniman’s recent votes — most notably his support for school vouchers — have angered party members and go against Democratic ideals.

And party sources said Dinniman no longer attempts to work with his party.

“He believes he is larger than the party, and that has angered some,” one Democratic source said.

But during an interview Friday at the Daily Local News, Dinniman said he believes his ideals are in line with a large section of voters in his district and that is why he has won elections.

“In both parties you have people that are more on the right or more on the left, but you have to realize that a vast bulk of our citizens are right in the middle,” said Dinniman, who said this is his last run for Senate. “I express the values of a majority of residents.”

Houghton said he may be able to garner enough support for the party endorsement later this month. He said he recently sent a letter to every Democratic committeeperson in Chester County and has received written notification back from 40 that he will have their support.

“I’m getting a lot of support in the party, and I think I have a good chance at getting the endorsement,” Houghton said in an interview Thursday.

Dinniman said he does not support an endorsement process and would prefer to just allow voters to decide at the polls during a primary.

Disturbing Changes in the West Chester School Board

Right wing Republicans have already hijacked the West Chester School Board as a result of the previous election. In 150 years there has never been an elected  school board candidate who was not Republican. With the right wing now controlling the local Republican Party, the last election swept out the moderates and installed a right wing majority in control.

In this election there are five open school board positions and far-right wing Republicans are running to fill those positions. As a result we support all the write-in candidates running under the West Chester VOTE umbrella. West Chester VOTE candidates comprise registered Democrats, Republicans and Independents. We met and talked with them all and found them all qualified, experienced, and strong public school supporters. Although it is always difficult to succeed as a write-in, it is the only alternative to a further Republican right wing entrenchment in this, already reactionary, school board. Another right-wing sweep would assure critical cuts to local school budgets, and quality diminution of our highly rated schools. The continued unsustainable borrowing against the reserve funds will lead to a spiral of credit rating downgrades, higher interest payments and future deeper budget cuts. Since a school district’s rating affects the value of homes in a community, homeowners would, in time, find their property declining & their taxes increased to offset missing revenues.

Republican Commissioners’ Incompetence Costs County $500,000

The current Republican County Commissioners, Terrance Farrell and Ryan Costello, allowed free access to a county database when they served as Recorder of Deeds from 2001 to 2011 that cost Chester County at least $500,000.  The database, ChescoPIN, is a paid subscriber service used mostly by attorneys and realtors to search land and deed records, court filings and other public information.  There are 676 registered users of the service that pay approximately $150,000 per year for the service.  The Recorder of Deeds Office under Farrell in 2001 listed a user name and password on its website that allowed cronies to gain access to the database without paying.  Russ Phifer, Democratic candidate for Recorder of Deeds, who discovered the problem while researching the office, identified over 3.5 million searches used with the account.  This type of total mismanagement while in office should not be tolerated and comes about from electing people who do not devote full time to the job.  Russ Phifer will work full time when elected Recorder of Deeds. A question that needs to be asked is “How much of that $500,000 ended up coming back to Republican candidates as campaign contributions?” A changing of the guard is needed in Chester County to prevent this type of mismanagement and “cronyism” that has occurred under Republican control.

Tea Party Republicans Put Our Local Economy in Jeopardy

As you may know Standard & Poor’s has lowered America’s long term rating from AAA to AA+. This has sent the world markets in turmoil and has even put our local economy in jeopardy. Here is what S&P had to say regarding Tea Party Republican policies:
“Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”
-Standard & Poor’s, Ratings on the Global Credit Portal, August 5, 2011

Why this matters to you

Moody’s currently rates the school district with an AAA bond rating. A loss of the AAA bond rating of the West Chester Area School District will have more of an impact locally than the downgraded rating of the United States. The current Tea Party controlled school board has already decided to borrow funds from the general reserve fund that was meant for emergency uses only! Depletion of the general reserve fund and a deterioration of the tax base, due to the real estate market, will have a negative impact on this rating that could lead to a downgrade. This will force to the school board to either cut educational programs, athletics, furlough teachers, or dramatically raise taxes. Not to mention that home values will fall dramatically because cuts to education will make the school district a less attractive place to live and raise a family. These polices are a recipe for an economic disaster that may take years to recover from. Can you really afford to lose any more value to your home?

Beware of Fake Democrats

Last spring, just before the primary election there was a poisonous letter sent to many Democrats in East Bradford Township under the guise of a Democratic mailing. It attacked candidate Rita Arnold in a slanderous fashion. Some East Bradford Democrats were influenced by this deceit and voted for her opponent, Don Skomsky. In addition it attacked the East Bradford Democrats, naming the officers and accusing them of conspiracy. However, in our newsletter last spring, we endorsed Rita Arnold.

The fake mailing claimed to represent Chester County Democrats and used the Chester County Democratic Committee (CCDC) return address on the mailing. Since then, her opponent, Don Skomsky and his wife, Valerie Palfy, have been arrested and charged with forgery and conspiracy. The use of their credit card to print the false materials and eyewitnesses make a strong case against them. They are to be tried before Chester County District Attorney Joseph Carroll. Also, Rita Arnold won her nomination and will be on the ballot in this fall. Numerous articles concerning these charges have appeared in the Daily Local and the Philadelphia Inquirer. See Daily Local News Aug 18, 2011. http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2011/08/18/news/doc4e4d39afbf0fe549812749.txt

Our support for Justice Arnold was not given arbitrarily. In the past Justice Arnold had run as a Republican. During this spring primary, she was cross-filed both as a Democrat and a Republican. More importantly, no registered Democrat was running for the office of district justice. Before endorsing Justice Arnold, we had interviewed her at one of our meetings. We also sought the opinions of others in the community concerning Justice Arnold’s record. It was only then that we decided that she was the better choice over her Republican challenger and better represented the values of our party. In addition, the Republicans, at that time, had refused to endorse her, although Rita Arnold had won their endorsement in the past.

Further misconceptions on who is & who isn’t a Democrat – Ted Diehl?  In Name Only!

While on this same topic, there is a candidate running for school board as a Democrat in this Fall election who will not receive our endorsement. His name is Ted Diehl. We spoke with Wayne Burton and Ted Diehl at our June meeting. It quickly became apparent to all members in attendance that Ted Diehl’s positions on public education did not represent the values and goals of our party. He was openly disinterested in school board functions and appeared hostile to the idea of taxpayer funded public schools in general. He told us that he pays a substantial tuition to have his own children attend private Catholic schools. We found his ideas to be more in keeping with Tea Party objectives than Democrats.

His appearance as a Democrat on the ballot is a result of a flawed primary process, which allows Republican school board candidates to cross-file as Democrats.  Also Maureen Snook and Karen Miller are conservative Tea Party-type Republicans, cross-filed as Democrats on the Fall ballot. As a result WE STRONGLY DISCOURAGE A STRAIGHT PARTY TICKET VOTE.

If you ever have questions about our position on candidates, please consult this web page where we post our endorsements and other information concerning local politics and candidates. Also, you can talk to a committee person, sign up for our e-mail, or join our group. Contact information is on our web page. We are here to inform the Democratic community and serve your interests.

e-mail: ebcitizens@yahoo.com
http://www.westchestervote.org/

Election Day, Tuesday, November 8nd

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

(Please click below to view your Specimen Ballot)

East Bradford Elementary School Ballot

East Bradford Township Building Ballot

Chester County Art Association Ballot

Hillsdale Elementary School Ballot