In 59th District, Dem activist Ellenberger aims to upset GOP's Reese
A longtime Democratic Party activist is facing an uphill battle to try to upset two-term Republican state Rep. Mike Reese in a district that has elected a Republican for 36 years, despite Democrats holding a slight voter registration edge over Republicans.
Former Westmoreland County League of Women Voters President Harriet Ellenberger is challenging Reese in the 59th District, which covers part of eastern Westmoreland County and a slice of northern Fayette County. Ellenberger, 69, said she is looking for a change in leadership in Harrisburg.
Both candidates are from Mt. Pleasant Township.
Reese, 34, has supported Gov. Tom Corbett's initiatives to cut state spending.
State government had to change from the way it operated under former Gov. Ed Rendell, Reese said, because “the spending was absolutely out of control,” with a general fund budget rising at a rate far greater than inflation.
Ellenberger, however, is calling for a change in Harrisburg from an administration whose cuts, she said, have hurt public education, resulting in the loss of about 14,100 teaching jobs — about half of which came from districts not filling vacancies.
“His politics are terrible, she said of Reese. “He votes for Gov. Corbett and the (Republican) party.”
Reese defended the Corbett administration, saying it ran up against “a funding cliff” when federal stimulus dollars used for public education under the Rendell administration were exhausted. He said he voted for both Corbett budgets that reduced spending.
Reese said he and fellow legislators did restore a revenue stream for schools, a $100 million accountability grant, that Corbett sought to eliminate.
“There's more state dollars going into public education than ever before,” he said.
Reese, like Corbett, said local school districts have to be more responsible, and do some “right sizing.”
When Reese ran on a platform for the state House in 2008, he said he would favor reducing the size of the General Assembly. He voted for Speaker Sam Smith's bill to cut the House to 153 members from 203, and the Senate to 38 members from 50. The measure passed in the House, but not in the Senate.
Rather than trying to persuade legislators, in effect, to vote themselves out of office, Ellenberger said it would be more realistic to lengthen the terms to four years and set a maximum of two terms.
Reese has been a supporter of the voucher program for charter and private schools, but the legislation never came to a vote in the House.
Reese said he supports school choice, which includes cyber schools, but has reservations about “major flaws” in a funding formula that gives those cyber schools public funding that has no bearing on the cost of educating those students.
“We should stop privatizing our schools. We need equitable financial reform to make sure the poorer school districts are as good as the richer ones,” Ellenberger said.
Reese supported passage of Act 13, a controversial law that opponents said removed local control over zoning regulation governing natural gas drilling activity. He said the law still permits local governments to enforce zoning regulations on natural gas drilling, but requires all industrial activity to be treated the same.
Reese favored the impact fee on the natural gas industry, some of which benefits local governments, rather than an extraction tax as had been proposed by some.
Ellenberger said she does not believe the state imposed a high enough impact fee on the industry.
Reese, who said he is pro-life, was among 75 sponsors of the controversial Women's Right to Know Act, which would have required pregnant women to have an ultrasound before a physician performs an abortion. Reese said that 95 percent of abortion providers already give women ultrasounds prior to receiving an abortion. If the law had passed, it would have given a woman the right to receive a copy of the ultrasound image of her unborn child and have her questions answered. The House bill did not require a woman to view the ultrasound.
Of the requirements that women facing an abortion have an ultrasound, Ellenberger said, “It's a violation of women's rights.”
Campaign financing
Reese amassed a campaign war chest of $67,073 for the fall campaign, spending $46,315 from May 15 to Oct. 22 on his re-election bid, according to his campaign finance report filed last week in Harrisburg. He had $17,438 after the May primary.
Reese's campaign contribution list is perhaps a prime example of the power of incumbency. He received $49,135 in contributions from political action committees, including donations from First Energy Corp., parent firm of West Penn Power of Greensburg; natural gas producers Range Resources and WHX Energy Inc.; natural gas supplier Dominion Resources; two coal mining companies, Consol Energy Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources; and Highmark Health. The Pennsylvania State Education Association's political action committee, his largest contributor, gave Reese $3,000 during that period.
He declined to comment on how much money he intends to spend in the campaign, saying he did not want to give that information to his opponent.
Reese said he has been “very successful” in fundraising, including receiving a $1,000 donation from the Pennsylvania State Education Association's political action committee. Reese said he has raised sufficient money to get his message to the voters.
Ellenberger's latest campaign financing report was not available as of Friday, but her post-primary report showed the campaign owed her $3,375.
Ellenberger said she has had fundraisers since the primary and has money to conduct her campaign.
Ellenberger, who anticipates spending about $35,000 on the campaign, said she favors public financing of campaigns but has not worked out the details.
Voter registration
Voters in the district have been accustomed to electing a Republican for the House seat. Former Republican Rep. Jess Stairs, also of Mt. Pleasant Township, won 16 elections before retiring in 2008, succeeded by Reese.
Of the 41,395 registered voters in the district, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, 18,661 to 18,327, according to the election bureaus in Fayette and Westmoreland counties. Most of the widespread district lies in Westmoreland County, while the Fayette County portion includes just Saltlick and part of Bullskin.
Westmoreland Republicans hold a slight voter registration edge over Democrats, 16,577 to 16,427, while Democrats have the registration edge in Fayette County, 2,234 to 1,750.
Reese gained experience in politics as chief of staff to former Westmoreland County commissioners Phil Light and the late Terry Marolt. He easily beat his Democratic challenger Michael O'Barto, in 2008 and was unchallenged in the 2010 election.
Ellenberger tried to win the House seat in the 59th District in 2006 by a write-in campaign for the Democratic Party nomination. But she lost her bid to Stairs, who captured both nominations and was unopposed in the general election.
Ellenberger's political activism dates to 1978, when she worked on the campaign of former Rostraver resident Lt. Gov. Ernie Kline, who failed in his bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination to succeed Milton Shapp.
She was vice chairwoman of the Democratic Committee of Westmoreland County and organized Democratic Clubs, was president of the Westmoreland County League of Women Voters and founded the Democratic Women of Westmoreland to promote women.
Her late husband, James Ellenberger, was a business representative for Painters Local 409 of the Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, and she has been active in union politics. She is director of the Committee on Political Education for the Greater Westmoreland County Labor Council.
Both Reese and Ellenberger said they were not certain what impact, if any, the presidential election might have on voters selecting a candidate in their race.
“I think people vote against someone and not for someone,” Ellenberger said.
Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.