Election Coverage: Meet Your State Representatives
In preparation for the upcoming
election, every Friday the GRC blog will feature those who will be on the
ticket in the two districts that make up the Oakland campus, starting from
local elections and moving on up to the presidential race. Though the following three representatives in
the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are running uncontested, please take a
minute to get to know the people who serve as your voice in the state government.
For those living in Upper Campus
(Sutherland, Pennsylvania and Panther Halls, and Frat Housing), Forbes Hall and
Lothrop Hall:
Rep. Jake Wheatley, D- 19th
District: Representative Wheatley was
elected in 2003 and will be running for re-election this year. Originally from Minnesota, he completed his
B.A. in Political Science at North Carolina A&T State University before
doing his Master of Public Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the House Committees on Education,
Human Services, Veteran Services & Emergency Preparedness, Local
Government, and Rules.
He is the sponsor of 1,048 House
Bills, for 34 of them he is the prime sponsor (the legislator who claims the
most responsibility for the bill and decides who can co-sponsor it). Of these 34 bills, the majority focus on
inner-city issues such as gun control, building and housing codes, providing
limited licenses for first-time DUI or drug offenders as a “second chance,”
extending the definition of “hazardous school transportation routes” to include
areas deemed unsafe by the police, and a redefinition of small businesses that
raised the employee cap to 175 rather than 100.
Also prominent in his bill list are bills concerning contracting between
the government and businesses, including a bill that added businesses owned and
operated by veterans to the list of “disadvantaged businesses” that receive
higher priority from the state in contracting.
Rep. Wheatley’s Website: http://www.pahouse.com/wheatley/
PA House Website Profile:
Sponsored Legislation (2011-2012
only; must filter legislation by year):
For those living in Litchfield
Towers, the Quad (Amos Hall, Brackenridge Hall, Bruce Hall, Holland Hall, and McCormick
Hall), Bouquet Gardens, Forbes-Craig, Oakwood, Ruskin Hall, and anywhere in
South Oakland:
Rep. Dan Frankel, D- 23rd
District: Representative Frankel was
elected to the House in 1999 and will be running for re-election this year. Originally from Pennington, New Jersey,
Frankel received his B.S. from Kenyon College before completing the Certificate
Program for Senior
Executives in State and Local
Government at the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University. He is a member of the Rules
Committee in the House.
He is the sponsor of 4,181 House
bills and the prime sponsor of 177 bills. While his career cannot be adequately
summarized in a single blog post, we can at least look at his recent
initiatives. Most of his prime sponsored
bills from this past House session focus on transportation, specifically motorcycle
laws. He created special motorcycle
license plates to denote drivers who are 20 or younger and created an exception
to the protective equipment requirement for those who have comprehensive
long-term health insurance. He has also
spearheaded efforts to counteract the current voter ID law by establishing
mobile units to distribute photo IDs to disadvantaged voters, by creating an
electronic voter registration system, and by waiving the $50 fee to obtain a
birth certificate (required to obtain a free photo ID) from the state. Other initiatives include bills prohibit
gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination in housing and
employment, applying the 1986 Whistleblower Law to employees of oil and gas companies,
and requiring medical students to receive training in how to treat and
communicate with terminally-ill patients nearing the end of their life.
Rep. Frankel’s Website: http://www.pahouse.com/frankel/
PA House Website Profile:
2011-2012 Sponsored Legislation:
For those living in Centre Plaza:
Rep. Dom Costa, D- 21st District: Representative Dom Costa is a native citizen of Pittsburgh, having grown up in the suburban area of Penn Hills a few miles northeast of campus. His family has a record of public service; his uncle, Jay Costa Sr., was Allegheny County Treasurer, and
he has four cousins serving in various levels of the state and local government. Originally a
plumber and later a police officer, Costa was shot while negotiating an armed standoff. He
was briefly retired, but soon thereafter was appointed chief of police. In 2009, Costa ran for
public office as a state representative. He is currently the minority chair of the Tourism &
Recreational Development Subcommittee on Arts and Entertainment, the minority vice chair of the Insurance Committee, and a member of the committees on Gaming Oversight and the
Judiciary.
In his two sessions in service, Costa has sponsored 1,438 House bills, and was the prime
sponsor of 21 of them. His prime sponsored bills focus mostly on law enforcement, as might
be expected from his background, though he legislates on a number of other issues as well.
His bills would extend the definition of “aggravated assault” to include school crossing guards,
service company employees, and volunteer firemen as potential victims; create a special State Police advisory to track and capture those who murder or attempt murder on law enforcement
officers; protect the home addresses of public school district employees from the
Right-to-Know Law; require nonpublic schools to create policies on bullying; double the fines on offenses ranging from misdemeanors of the third degree (those warranting up to a year of jail
time) to murder and attempted murder; create more stringent penalties for supplying inmates
with tools to escape; and prohibit the creation, possession, and use of EMP weapons and
devices.
Rep. Costa’s Website: http://pahouse.com/DCosta/
PA House Website Profile:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/house_bio.cfm?id=1164
2011-2012 Sponsored Legislation:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDocs/Legis/BS/bs_action.cfm?SessId=20110&Sponsors=H|21|0|Dom%20Costa
For more on the Costa Family legacy:
http://www.iop.pitt.edu/documents/report/Report%2048%20Summer%202011.pdf
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