Over the next several months we need to shift our focus to the primary elections this spring and make every effort to strengthen support in the General Assembly for the COS resolution.
Every House member and half of the Senators are up for re-election and must win the primary to be on the ballot in December. This means they’ll be paying close attention to what their constituents are saying during the run-up to the primary.
Every COS supporter will need to make it clear to them that we are very upset with their performance over the past three years. Those of us in Republican districts need to make sure they know how furious we are with the Republicans in both chambers regarding their unwillingness to pass the COS resolution and support election integrity efforts. In addition, we all need to consider finding and/or voting for primary opponents to Republican incumbents in many districts during the primary election.
Why the shift in focus? As you may be aware, we have been working since 2015 to get the COS resolution passed by the General Assembly. No action by the Governor is needed. Other than a House State Government Committee vote on the resolution in December 2019, there has been no other legislative action on the resolution in the House or the Senate.
The primary reason for this is the fact that many legislators fear that voting in favor of an Article V convention resolution will enrage pro-Second Amendment/gun owner rights groups in PA and consequently cause them to lose their next re-election bid. Despite this, in late 2020 the Senate State Government Committee passed an Article V resolution (for term limits on members of Congress) and another one this past December (to set a fixed number of Supreme Court Justices), but have so far been unwilling to pass the COS resolution. I have no idea why.
I understand why some legislators are more focused on keeping their seats than strictly honoring their oaths of office to protect and defend both the PA and US Constitutions. As you know, PA has a full-time legislature, and our legislators are paid significantly more than legislators in most other states. Their legislative seat is how most of them support their families, and unemployment is a very uncomfortable prospect. Consequently, many legislators are very, very reluctant to cast a tough vote and will do whatever they can procedurally to prevent such a vote from occurring.
It is now apparent that, if we expect members of the General Assembly to take principled stands on matters covered in the PA and US Constitutions, we need to put different people in as many of the seats as soon as possible. The time to deal with this problem is this spring in the primary elections.
I am asking every PA COS supporter to look at your Rep's and Senator’s voting record in support of passage of the COS resolution. Each of us needs to be prepared to actively support primary opponents of selected Representatives and Senators, including getting on the primary ballot ourselves if necessary.
Here is a list of the Representatives and Senators who are current co-sponsors of the COS resolution, were co-sponsors in the 2019-2020 session or voted in favor of the resolution in committee in 2019:
Representatives: Armanini, Borowicz, Burns, Dowling, Davanzo, Day, Hamm, Gillen, Grove, Irvin, Jones, Kauffman, Keefer, Lawrence, Lewis, Lewis DelRosso, R Mackenzie, M Mackenzie, Masser, Mentzer, Mercuri, Metzgar, Miller, Moul, Mustello, Nelson, Pennycuick, Rader, Roae, Rothman, Schemel, Schmitt, Smith, Staats, Stambaugh, Thomas, Warner, Wentling, Wheeland, Zimmerman
Senators (who are up for re-election this year): Phillips-Hill
Additionally, the following members, along with some of those mentioned above, have taken legal action to challenge the constitutionality of Act 77 (which provides for no excuse, mail in voting): Bonner, Jozwiak, Rapp, Maloney, Gleim, Brooks, Twardzik and Cook.
I believe the members listed above deserve your support in the primary election this year. If your House or Senate member is not listed above, I suggest you take two actions:
- Ask him/her to sign on as a co-sponsor of the COS resolutions (HR 109 and SR 152). I suggest you also indicate that if they don’t sign on as a co-sponsor, you’ll assume that they are opposed and that you will vote accordingly in the primary and general elections.
- If you are aware of anyone who is planning to run in the primary against a member who is not listed above, please let me know as soon as possible. Also, if you are willing to get your name on the primary ballot and would like more information on how to make that happen, please let me know.
