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I just want to outline why I'm voting for @SummerForPA and against @Chris_RolandPA for PA 34th District. tl;dr - I believe Summer will help those who need it most in the district and the state, and Chris will only help those who have the deepest pockets.
When I look at who is running for a race, I try to take into account both who they are and what they have done. I've already looked into Summer Lee, and I'm happy with the work she's already put in and what she wants to do in the future. She's also a really good speaker.
I believe she is a deliberative person, she looks at the law and the pending bills, and tries to fix what is broken. She listens when folks say "this is a problem" or "this is a half-measure, do more". She's also worked to bring light to injustices for the downtrodden.
I'd be thrilled to have her as my rep again. When I heard she had a challenger, I wondered who was this person, and why is he running against her? The first I heard of Chris Roland was that Fitzgerald was backing him. That... put some of my hackles up.
I've disliked how he often puts jobs above anything else, even when getting those jobs is a net loss to the community, the environment, and to frankly the balance sheet at the end of the day. (I'm looking at you, Amazon - that deal would have been horrible for us.)
I'd also heard that Roland was going to be for the fracking down at the steel mill in Braddock, although that seems to have evaporated since. I can't find anything to back that up, so it's possible he was advised against that stance, or the internet lied to me.
So I said what does he actually have listed as issues, and the first iteration I found was I swear copy-pasta from Summer's page. Like, it was embarassing how close it was. It's a bit different now, but the issues really aren't that far apart, so again I thought, why this guy?
And then the push poll showed up. They called and called and called and okay fine, five calls in a half hour. Answered and it started off with some softball questions on presidential race, issues, then got into Summer/Chris competition.
It was horrible! It just started by lying and went on and on till we hung up and said what the fork was that? I thought, maybe someone on the campaign thought this was a good idea, and really running a negative campaign like that isn't good. Then it got worse.
The mailers. Oh, the mailers. We've gotten non-stop ones from him, and they are uniformly "I am good, and she's BAD no really, look it up, but take my word for it - BAD." And it was all lies, a la Obi-Wan Kenobi "from a certain point of view" lies.
All I can think is, if the person who approved this, who has slung such mud against another person, is going to be my representative in the government? HOW can I trust him? HOW? If he's lying NOW, before he has power to affect me? How will he perform when he's making the laws?
So, as I started this thread - I am voting FOR Summer Lee, and VERY MUCH against Chris Roland. I want him to lose, and I want him to take a hard look at himself and what he is doing here, and back the HELL away from ever doing this again.
The horrible coda? He's been in local government and has held positions, and helped people around here. He's not unknown in the area. I just don't understand what got into what seemed like an alright person on paper to be like this. It's just not good.
