ELEPHANT CORNER: G.O.P. Meets In Harrisburg; Germantown Club Reorganizes

Last Friday a group from the Philadelphia herd thundered up the Pennsylvania Turnpike to attend the fall meeting of Republican State Committee in Camp Hill.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party’s fall dinner was held that night with keynote speaker New Jersey GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE. Christie reminded the crowd that TOM CORBETT has earned a second term as Governor of Pennsylvania. He also told us that if he we do not do our job and get Corbett reelected, that he will be back to find out why. The dinner had the largest attendance of any fall PAGOP dinner.

Saturday morning before the general business session of State Committee, the Southeast caucus met for breakfast. The caucus includes the State Committee members from Philadelphia, Delaware, Bucks, and Chester and Montgomery Cos. Every four years the caucus needs to reorganize and did so at the breakfast.

The caucus reelected Republican City Committee GENERAL COUNSEL MIKE MEEHAN as the caucus chairman. Philadelphia has 11 members in addition to Meehan on State Committee, including RCC CHAIRMAN and STATE REP. JOHN TAYLOR, PEG RECUPIDO, DAVID KRALLE and MONIKA CZAPLA, as well as WARD LEADERS AGNES (CHUCKIE) TILLEY, DENISE FUREY, CALVIN TUCKER, CHRIS VOGLER, WALT VOGLER and ANNIE HAVEY.

During the general business session on Saturday morning, State Committee members and guests heard special reports on the State Senate, the State House of Representatives and US Congress. STATE SEN. SCOTT WAGNER gave an update on the State Senate. Wagner is the newest member of the State Senate. He was elected in a special election this year to fill a vacancy created when MIKE WAUGH resigned owing to illness.

STATE REP. MIKE TURZAI offered the State House report. He spoke mostly of the success of the Republican-run state since 2011, and why Gov. Corbett should be reelected. He noted that unemployment was 8.2% when Corbett took office in 2011 and is now 5.8%. It is the lowest unemployment rate among the states surrounding Pennsylvania except for Ohio, which is tied with us.

He noted that over Rendell’s eight years in office, the state’s budget rose by 50% while the compounded rate of inflation was only roughly 20%. He also stated that under Rendell, annual debt service rose from $700 million to $1.1 billion. Turzai observed that Corbett cut state debt levels by $600 million. A vote for Wolf is vote to return to the fiscal irresponsibility of the Rendell administration.

CONGRESSMAN TOM MARINO offered the report on Washington. Marino believes that the “Pennsylvania (Republican) delegation is the most powerful in the House.” Our 13 Republican Congressmen work together and thus greatly influence policy. He emphasized the need to retake the Senate.

Marino noted the US House passed 387 bills (of which 98% were on a bipartisan basis) which went to die on SENATE SPEAKER HARRY REID’S desk. Among them is the bill to approve the Keystone Pipeline, which, according to Marino, would result in 42,000 jobs, $65 million in sales and use taxes and $5.2 billion in property taxes.

LT GOV. JIM CAWLEY and Gov. Corbett were the last speakers of the morning. Corbett dismissed the notion that Republicans are engaged in a war against women. Eight of his cabinet are women – two of whom, the Secretaries of Education and Health & Welfare – control 80% of the State’s budget. Corbett has the first female chief of staff in state history.

During Corbett’s administration, the US Chamber of Commerce raised Pennsylvania’s rating of a state in which to business to “A”. However, we still have an “F” for our pension problems. Corbett noted that in his recent debate with Wolf, Wolf did not seem to think the pension problem was all that serious.

Sunday afternoon, the Germantown Republican Club met at the home of SCHUY WOOD. Attendance was strong despite its conflict with the Eagles game. However, given the Eagle’s lackluster performance that day, some of the crowd were probably happy they missed the game. Calvin Tucker is the president of the club and ran the meeting.

The Germantown Republican Club hosts an annual Lincoln Day Dinner which is the oldest continuously running event of its kind in the US.