The LuLac Edition #2027, April 17th, 2012

State Representative Ken Smith of the 112th. 

TAKE A CHANCE ON HAGGERTY 

 Kevin Haggerty seems to be making some enemies in his race for State Representative in the 112th Legislative Race against incumbent Ken Smith. Haggerty has not been forthcoming about certain details of his life while Smith is playing the fiddle of sorrow and telling anyone who would listen how much he is debt and why voters should feel sorry for him. If I were a voter in the 112th, I'd take my chance on Haggerty. Here’s why: When Ken Smith owned his restaurant he played fast and loose with the lives and well being of his employees. This excerpt from the Scranton Times says it all; Those liens include unpaid sales tax at various times between March 2009 and June 2011, as well as the state personal income tax and unemployment tax the business withheld from employees from January 2010 through June 2010, but did not remit to the state. That means that when his employees who helped run his business went to do their taxes and collect, NOTHING WAS THERE. Much has been said about former Lackawanna County Commissioner Bob Cordaro who is now serving a jail term. Cordaro did wrong but to my knowledge, when Cordaro had private businesses, no employee was ever left holding the bag. Smith has not paid anything on loans or back taxes except on his own property. Here’s my question, how can the voters in the 112th elect a Representative so far in debt that in any other business he’d be considered a security risk? How can the voters put a guy in office who so mismanaged his finances that he is trusted with taxpayer funds? And finally, if any of the voters in the 112th had such outstanding loans, would they get a pass from the community? Kenny Smith should never be confused with George Bailey. His restaurant might have been a Scranton institution but it was a for profit business. A business supported by employees who deserved better than to have the well dry when they went to put their lives together after his business went under. Smith might be in debt, but he's making over $70,000 a year in tax payer dollars. Did his former employees land on their feet as well as he did? I think not. Ken Smith will tell you he’s a Democrat but man his actions are more like the Wall Street big business people that put themselves first and the little guy way down the line. Haggerty might have some question marks which he needs to address but he does not have Ken Smith’s record of irresponsibility. Smith might tell talk radio and his campaign events that he had bad luck in this economy......I get that. But he's not the only one. And I have yet to see what he brought back to his district that can tell voters he is worth keeping.

GOING POSTAL FOR CARTWRIGHT 

The Scranton Area postal workers are coming out for Matt Cartwright. A press release from the campaign states, The Scranton area’s local postal union, Local #101 of the American Postal Workers Union, threw its support behind Matt Cartwright today. The decision to endorse Cartwright’s candidacy comes following a unanimous vote of local membership “I am very pleased to accept the endorsement of the Postal Workers Union that represents the countless dedicated public service employees throughout my district,” said Matt Cartwright. “Their support is indicative of the widespread support my campaign has sought and received as we have worked to reach out to directly to the voters of the 17th District,” Cartwright continued. The Postal Workers endorsement was based upon Cartwright’s platform on job creation and retention for working class families and a pledge to ensure that the U.S. Postal Service does not impact local jobs as it seeks to reorganize. As Kevin Gallagher, President of Local #101, states in a letter announcing the endorsement, “We need someone who will fight for our Area and middle class families and to keep decent paying jobs in our Area... including the Scranton mail procession plant.” Matt Cartwright is a Democrat, running for Congress in the 17th Congressional District, which now includes parts of Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe and Northampton Counties, as well as all of Schuylkill County. Cartwright is running for Congress to bring jobs to Northeast Pennsylvania, and make sure that corporations and wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes.