The LuLac Edition #74, Oct. 28, 2006

PICTURE INDEX: Senator Rick Santorum, Ed Sieminski (Republican) and Representative John Yudichak (Democrat, photo courtesy of Citizen's Voice) and the late Senator Joseph Clark.


TALE OF TWO SENATORS

TALE OF TWO ERAS

Take a controversial Senator who has been in office for 12 years and is running for a third term against a somewhat bland but intelligent candidate. The state of Pennsylvania is the battleground. Add to that the Senator is in the Majority Party that controls the Senate, the House and the White House. Oh yes, his President, an incumbent from Texas who after promising to unite the country after a catastrophic event that changed the course of history and politics in the United States is causing him a major political problem. The reason? The President is embroiled in a war in a foreign country that many Americans want to get out of. The incumbent Senator crisscrosses the state bringing in celebrities to bolster his campaign. He comes up with clever poster and bumper sticker ads that proclaim, “Pennsylvanians are bumper to bumper for Senator…………….” In the meantime, his opponent raises hot button issues like gun control, family planning, foreign aide and the support of the war being waged as issues in the campaign. The incumbent Senator has a problem because he has a paper trail of statements on these issues. He has been unapologetic for his often extreme stances and constantly asks his challenger to debate. They do so only a few times with the incumbent being frustrated by his challenger’s nonchalant demeanor. The sitting Senator literally runs away from any support offered by his President or party leaders.
Are we talking about Santorum and Casey here? Nope, it’s 1968 and the incumbent Senator is former Philadelphia Mayor Joseph Clark who is going for term number three. In his 12 years in the Senate, he has advocated family planning, gun control, increasing foreign aide to developing African countries contingent on the aforementioned family issue, and is a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War. He has broken with his President, Lyndon B. Johnson who was elevated to the office after the assassination of President Kennedy and is fighting a trend in his state and country that is indicating there is going to be a different party leading after election day.
On Tuesday, November 5th, Senator Clark lost his seat to Republican Congressman Richard Schweiker who later served 2 terms himself before deciding not to run in 1980. (Senator Specter holds that seat now.) The Democratic Presidential contender Hubert Humphrey carried the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but lost the election to Richard M. Nixon. Schweiker went on to become Ronald Reagan’s proposed running mate for Vice President at the 1976 GOP convention and later Reagan’s Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Clark taught government and politics at Philadelphia area colleges until his death in 1990.
The comparisons to the Casey-Santorum race and the Joseph Clark-Richard Schweiker contest are uncanny. On election night, we shall see if the incumbent, Santorum, much like Clark was done in by controversial statements and an unpopular war started by a President from Texas.

Going to the candidate's debate.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.

YUDICHAK AND FOE SQUARE OFF!

With Election Day less than 10 days away, Republican candidate Ed Sieminski and Democratic incumbent John Yudichak utilized the League of Women Voters forum to distance each other, often responding questions with personal jabs at each other. Less than 30 people showed up at LCCC’s Conference Auditorium for the debate. The league’s moderator questioned the candidates stances on various issues, tax reform, economic revitalization and reforming legislative policies were the focus of both men. Mr. Sieminski, the GOP candidate has called for debates throughout the campaign. He has constantly called radio talk shows taking Mr. Yudiciak on various issues but could not hit him on the big one, the payraise issue. The incumbent seemed to inoculate himself on that issue.
On other aspects of the debate, here is how the Wilkes Barre Citizen’s Voice chose to report it.
Sieminski said tax reform would be his top priority if he’s elected. He criticized Yudichak’s claims of providing “tax relief” to a majority of the seniors in the 119th voting district. Property taxes increase because the state does not fund 50 percent of school districts, he said.“Mr. Yudichak is right, (the legislature) has put some dollars in and raised funding a bit,” Sieminski said. “But property taxes have got to be reformed.”Yudichak stood next to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell when he signed the property tax relief bill into law earlier this year. To qualify under the bill, a homeowner or renter must be at least 65 or disabled.Sieminski said the state needs to make wise choices in funding and should use the sales tax as the fairest way to tax people.“Those who spend the most should bear the burden,” Sieminski said.Yudichak characterized the plan as hurting seniors and poor people.“There are ways that we can go after property tax reform, without taxing the most vulnerable citizens in our society,” he said.The candidates agreed that Harrisburg politics should be more open and that lobbyist reform is needed. Sieminski then called for Yudichak to release all his tax forms and other records to the public, to which Yudichak interrupted Sieminksi’s response by saying every political claim he has made can be backed by newspaper records.“It’s public fact,” Yudichak said. “It may not fit with your distortions or your personal attacks, but it is public fact.”Yudichak tried to characterize Sieminski as overly negative during the forum, saying the republican did not acknowledge the economic renewal in the area as shown by the new jobs from Mohegan Sun’s casino. Sieminski said gambling would not revitalize the area, economically, but would hurt the people who already need economic help.