Representative Mauree Gingrich is running for nomination in the April 22, 2008 primary election as the Republican representative in the 101st District. She is opposed  by candidates Russ Diamond and Bruce Kreider.

For the reasons set forth below, Vote For Integrity (VFI) vigorously opposes the re-election of Gingrich and urges all Republican voters to vote for either Diamond or Kreider. 

Gingrich has not been a force for reform in the House of Representatives. She sides with leadership on a host of issues and has been described as a pawn of the former Republican Speaker of the House, John Perzel.

Most recently, Gingrich wrote a highly misleading column, published in the Lebanon Daily News on February 10, 2008, informing her constituents why she voted against a bill to eliminate school property taxes for all homeowners and voted for a John Perzel-sponsored bill to eliminate school property taxes for low income senior citizens only. 

The problems with Gingrich’s “explanations” were that facts she provided for voting against the elimination of school property taxes for all homeowners were misleading or outright wrong, while her rationale for voting for John Perzel’s bill to eliminate school property taxes for low income senior citizens only, omitted the crucial fact that funding for the additional relief from school property taxes for low income seniors was to come from all other homeowners giving up forever the scheduled annual school property tax relief from slots-gambling revenues.  

Voters who read Gingrich’s misleading column or who are inclined to vote for her should note that In almost six years in office, Gingrich has not made a single proposal to reduce the ever-escalating costs of K-12 public education, not a single proposal to provide a more equitable funding mechanism for disparate school districts and not a single proposal to eliminate the regressive, archaic, unfair and ever-increasing school property tax. In short, Gingrich has done nothing to help solve the problems she acknowledges exist. She would not even co-sponsor republican representative Sam Rohrer’s school property tax elimination bill or try and work with Rohrer and other reform-minded members of a bi-partisan coalition supporting the elimination of school property taxes. She sided with the leadership of John Perzel, not with reform.

Another reason voters should reject Gingrich is the fact that her son is employed by the state Republican House caucus. This is nepotism and a clear conflict of interest,  providing the Republican leadership with leverage over Gingrich’s votes.

As widely publicized, the validity of Gingrich’s nominating petitions for the April 22, 2008 primary election has been challenged by candidate Russ Diamond.

Diamond believes Gingrich forged certain signatures on a petition she circulated and swore that all signatures on that petition were valid. Diamond challenged this nominating petition and Gingrich’s related Candidate’s Affidavit in the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg on February 26, 2008. The court disallowed Diamond’s challenge.

Diamond subsequently appealed the Commonwealth Court’s ruling to the Supreme Court and engaged an independent, licensed, forensic handwriting expert, Robertson Investigations of Ohio, to examine a portion of the Gingrich petition in question. Mr. Robertson issued his report dated March 14, 2008, wherein he concluded that in his “……Opinion, based on a reasonable degree of professional and scientific certainty……”,  a number of the printed names and/or signatures on Gingrich’s subject petition included certain of Gingrich’s “unique” cursive writing and/or printing. Mr. Roberson also concluded that Gingrich’s petition contained the presence of “unnatural or disguised writing”.

Robertson Investigations “…..Recommended… this matter be turned over to law enforcement for criminal investigation…...” On March 19, 2008, Diamond met with representatives of the state Attorney General and requested an investigation of all of the matters documented to date. 

VFI has carefully examined (a) the entire Gingrich petition in question, (b) the Transcript of Proceedings of the Commonwealth Court hearing on February 26, 2008, containing the very limited testimony the Judge allowed, (c) Diamond’s Petition To Set Aside Nominating Papers, (d) his subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court and (e) Robertson Investigation’s “Questioned Document Report” dated March 14, 2008. 

Based on our review of these documents, we believe that Diamond is justified in believing Gingrich engaged in an effort resulting in a number of forged signatures on a nominating petition she swore she circulated and swore that all of the signatures were valid signatures obtained by her. Indeed, we believe because of obvious irregularities not covered by Robertson Investigation’s report, Diamond’s case, which is summarized at www.russdiamond.org/forgery , is even stronger than his summary indicates. 

On February 28, 2008 Attorney General Corbett brought criminal charges against former PA state representative Linda Bebko-Jones and her former chief of staff, alleging that Bebko-Jones, et al “forged dozens of signatures on nominating petitions…. and…. submitt(ed) the fraudulent forms to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.” In commenting on the charges, Corbett said:  “State legislators are responsible for protecting the public trust and ensuring that they uphold the law and abide by it. Nobody is above the law in Pennsylvania and that includes our elected officials”. (Emphasis added)

These criminal charges are virtually identical to the nominating petition irregularities Diamond’s evidence convincingly indicates were perpetrated by Gingrich.

Accordingly, VFI vigorously opposes the re-election of Gingrich as the Republican candidate for Representative in the 101st District. Indeed, if the charges as summarized by Diamond are in fact true, which the cumulative evidence strongly indicates, we believe Gingrich should resign her seat and forego any state pension for which she may otherwise be entitled for her five-plus years in office.

Also, the voters in the 101st House District would be well served by the election of a Representative that would actually work for meaningful reform of our state government, as opposed to supporting the Political Class establishment and misleading constituents on matters of great importance to them such as the elimination of school property taxes.
 

Ken Schaefer is chairman of Vote For Integrity, a bi-partisan political action committee dedicated to helping bring integrity to Pennsylvania’s state government, based in Lebanon County, PA. To date, has not endorsed nor contributed funds to either Russ Diamond or Bruce Kreider.

####