OK, IT’S MONDAY! The Primary Election was held last Tuesday and although the state-wide results were not exactly what we worked for, there are four qualified Democratic candidates on the November ballot for Pennsylvania court positions. This is an important choice for November. We need qualified judges in our state-wide courts who will uphold the rule of law and lead us into an ideological rabbit hole. We will publish biographical and experience information on these candidates as we move forward to November.
At the county level, we nominated Jean Shaw for Auditor, and Jeff Pisarcik and John Adduci for Commissioner. The big surprise here is that incumbent Commissioner Herb Bullers (R) did not survive a challenge by Mark Humes (R). That means there will be two incumbents and two challengers on the fall ballot. This could be interesting.
Local ballot positions had a few write-in campaigns which take a little longer to be certified. What it means is that there will be a few more Democrats on the fall ballot than usual. We need to do a better job of nominating Dems for positions, but we seem to be moving in the right direction.
Our State Committee Person, John Adduci, recently contacted the offices of two of our legislators, Rep. GT Thompson and Sen. Bob Casey concerning our national problem with mass shootings and what we may do to correct it. The responses could not have taken more opposite directions. Glenn repeated the usual tripe about mental health, better communication between schools, police, and safety agencies, and better enforcement of existing laws. He stated, with some accuracy, that all commercial gun sales go through a background check, but he did not address the issue of off-the-books sales between individuals, relatives, and some sales at gun shows, flea markets, etc. His basic position is that the Second Amendment, even though it is wildly misinterpreted, is sacrosanct, and therefore we can do nothing to effectively prevent people from being shot to death in schools, churches, and shopping centers.
Senator Casey, in counterpoint, talked about SB25, which would re-enact the assault weapons ban that was once law. It would include magazines of more than ten rounds. That is a good start, but it should include armor-piercing and fragmenting ammunition. The weak point is the grandfather clause, which permits all weapons in current ownership to remain. It only bans future sales. That will not alleviate our problem considering the millions of these weapons already in circulation. Everybody should keep in mind that we do not live in a perfect world and there will always be killings and senseless murders. What we should strive for is to just not make it so darn easy. It is only a matter of time before it happens in a community close to us.
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John Huot, JeffDems Chairperson
CALENDAR
May 24, 7pm Ex Bd Mtg, CREATE, 185 Main Street, Brookville, PA 15825
June 11 – 19: Brookville Laurel Festival, Sidewalk sale and Parade
July 1 – 8: Punxsutawney Festival in the Park
July 4: Brockway 4th of July, Parade
July 16 – 23: Jefferson County Fair (Brookville)
August 11 -13: Demstock 23, Jefferson County Fairgrounds
Sept. 9 – JeffDems Picnic at Nick’s
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Jefferson County Democratic Committee
c/o Jane Halin, Treasurer
PO Box 266
Punxsutawney, PA 15767
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