{"id":447,"date":"2010-10-15T09:29:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T13:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2010-10-15T09:29:38","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T13:29:38","slug":"democrat-gop-house-candidates-snub-cheney-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=447","title":{"rendered":"Democrat, GOP house candidates snub Cheney event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent Dave Cleary makes his case when opponents no-show at NAACP event<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dave Cleary speaks to students and local residents at Cheney. The independent 160th District candidate was the only district candidate to attend an NAACP sponsored forum on the campus, Thursday night.\u2014Mike McGann Photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

THORNBURY \u2014 For a man in a room full of people, Dave Cleary was feeling awfully alone Thursday night. Cleary was the only candidate from the 160th State House District to attend a candidate forum sponsored by the Cheney University NAACP.<\/p>\n

State Representative Steve Barrar (R-Upper Chichester) and Democratic nominee Nick DiGregory did not attend the event, although more than 100 students and local residents filled the multi-purpose room in the Cheney student center.<\/p>\n

Running as an independent, Cleary says he\u2019s gotten used to charting his own course \u2014 and made it clear to the crowd he \u2014 if not his opponents \u2014 was appreciative of the opportunity to come out and speak to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really appreciate the opportunity,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cI get a lot more rejections than I do invitations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other candidates might have been frustrated or even angry to be left without a chance to take on his opponents, Cleary is more philosophical about things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing that this sort of event doesn\u2019t interest the other candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I appreciate the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleary, who shared the stage with Democrat Gail Connor, one of two state house candidates in the 168th District \u2014 the campus is split between the 160th District and the 168th District \u2014 was asked a number of questions by organizers and members of the audience, including the topic of spending by the two party caucuses in the legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money is actually budgeted to the Democratic and Republican parties,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I were elected, there would be no budget for me to have a staff or office unless I agreed to caucus with one of the two parties. I not sure that\u2019s Constitutional. There should be a set budget for each of the 203 districts for offices and staff and the money should not be run through the parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that the two parties already spend entirely too much money on staffs and that some of the staff duties seem like they violate the checks and balances of the state constitution. He cited the many legislators who have people on staff to help local residents get drivers licenses. He notes that\u2019s the job of the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and that the executive branch of the government ought to be getting that job done.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they can tell people they\u2019re fiscal conservatives,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when they\u2019re spending money on things like this, I guess it\u2019s pretty obvious that\u2019s not true. That sort of thing may make a legislator popular, but it doesn\u2019t make it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the Wall Street bailout, Cleary said that issues like that don\u2019t really come before the state legislature, but cautioned that it could set a poor precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about rewarding bad behavior,\u201d he said. \u201cThe regulation wasn\u2019t being enforced.\u201d Cleary makes that argument that new regulation just seems to punish those who were already playing by the rules \u2014 something that could have been avoided if regulators had done their jobs in the first place.<\/p>\n

On health care, Cleary said he was worried about the lack of state oversight \u2014 and that a handful of providers are charging the state a great deal, but not providing the proper level of care at times. He also said he opposes the legalization of marijuana and even questions whether it makes sense as a prescribed drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with so many people having problems with addiction, you have to be sure there\u2019s a real benefit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another question came on electricity rate caps,\u00a0 which expire in January, 2011 in this area and are expected to lead to moderate to serious rate increases from PECO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge there is that you have one utility run to your house, the options for competition remain limited,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why there were rate caps in the first place. Unfortunately, the legislature \u2014 and my opponent \u2014 voted to remove those caps without really having another option for consumers. A lot of people are going to suffer as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

One student asked what Cleary could do for students at Cheney if elected.<\/p>\n

Cleary noted, with a laugh, that virtually anything would be better for Cheney than the incumbent, Barrar, who Cleary says lists only one university as being in his district on his district Web site, Neumann University in Aston, a private school, as opposed to Cheney which is part of the state university system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make sure that the university is funded properly,\u201d Cleary said. \u201cWe need to make sure that the facilities are kept up. If I\u2019m elected, you can be sure I\u2019ll be here and make sure that people know your needs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Independent Dave Cleary makes his case when opponents no-show at NAACP event By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com THORNBURY \u2014 For a man in a room full of people, Dave Cleary was feeling awfully alone Thursday night. Cleary was the only candidate from the 160th State House District to attend a candidate forum sponsored by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}