Down River
By John Lipez
Looks Like Zero for Two:
Two years ago a couple different local media organizations had attempted to line up a pre-election debate in what was then a hotly contested 76th district state House race between longtime Democratic incumbent Mike Hanna and neophyte Republican challenger Stephanie Borowicz.
While Hanna was good to go in 2016, Borowicz never was, belatedly responding to a Record request she “would be unable to attend” for a shared appearance with Hanna at the Ross Library. The same thing also happened back then with an unsuccessful attempt by the Lock Haven Express to set up a candidates’ forum.
Flash forward to 2018. Hanna’s son Mike Jr. is the Democratic Party’s nominee and Borowicz is back for a second try. But again it would appear, at least as of Oct. 4, the GOP candidate chooses not to articulate her views on the issues in a joint public setting.
Two years ago there was a Christian Coalition debate between the elder Hanna and Borowicz but no further joint appearances took place in Clinton County. This year, for whatever reason, the annual Christian Coalition get-together, a longstanding local event, had been reported scheduled but now will not take place, this despite the younger Hanna’s willingness to attend.
And weeks and weeks ago The Express had been in touch with others in the local media, including WSQV/WBPZ, WQBR and The Record and therecord-online about a joint candidates’ night; again the Hanna folks were okay to participate but nothing affirmative ever was heard from the Borowicz camp, so those plans never came to fruition.
As the 76th district extends into Centre County, the League of Women Voters there was going about lining up various legislative candidates for joint appearances; again Hanna said he will participate but the last report we saw from the Centre Daily Times was that Borowicz had not been heard from.
Upon learning the lack of success on The Express candidates’ night initiative, The Record last month (Sept. 21, to be precise) emailed Borowicz and Clinton County GOP chairman Kurtis Smith detaling our proposal for a public and online Borowicz-Hanna appearance at the Ross Library later this month. As of this column’s writing at midweek this week, nothing had been heard back; this just as happened two years ago.
Voters, Republicans, Democrats, independents, can only hope something affirmative may still flow from the Grand Old Party candidate.
When Borowicz chose not to participate two years ago, Down River wrote that this had never been seen before and, it was added, “You can draw your own conclusions as to what that means to you but here it says candidates for elected jobs in Harrisburg should be looking for opportunities to get their message out to prospective voters, not shrinking from them. This unwillingness to participate in a dialogue with your opponent only harms the democratic process, denies the voter the ability to better gauge what the candidates have to offer.”
Maybe our 2018 emailed request for a joint appearance got hung up or delayed somewhere between Lock Haven and McElhattan. Maybe a joint appearance can still take place. If we get something affirmative back, you’ll be the first to know.
It would be in the voters’ best interest if a candidate give-and-take can take place between now and Nov. 6. No matter who wins, a first-timer will be elected on that date. It would be helpful for all of us if we had more than some canned advertising bullet points upon which to base our decision.
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Alex, Alex, Alex:
Speaking of debates, did any of you catch the one and only head-to-head get-together between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican challenger Scott Wagner? The setting was a packed house on Monday of this week at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce and Industry dinner in Hershey.
Wolf and Wagner both behaved admirably (civility doesn’t always show up at these things these days, sadly). Each stayed close to character, for Wolf not unlike a more kindly J. Montgomery Burns, the power-plant chief in “The Simpsons” and Wagner akin to the Charles Durning character Pappy O’Daniel in “Oh Brother Where Art Thou.”
But both had to play second fiddle to the event moderator, Jeopardy! game show host Alex Trebek. As John Baer from the Philadelphia Inquirer put it, “Celebrity meets politics in Chocolate Town. At best, a suspect mix.”
Trebek made the 45 minutes or so all about himself and Wolf and Wagner had little or no time to detail their views. Trebek went all over the map, from his experience as a Catholic attending a Church boarding school as a youth to asking the candidates to name the only NFL player to earn a Super Bowl ring on two different teams the last two years (the Eagles’ Chris Long, in case you were wondering; neither candidate knew the answer).
So attendees and viewers on the PCN cable channel had no opportunity to hear Wagner and Wolf go at each-other over pressing issues, from the state’s fiscal soundness to fair funding for public education to Pennsylvania’s huge pension debt.
Unfortunately, there won’t be any more joint Wolf-Wagner appearances as incumbent Gov. Wolf, reported comfortably ahead in the polls, has chosen not to agree to any additional debates. But at least he and Wagner got together once, which appears to be one more than the number of joint appearances for the two candidates for the 76th district House seat.
