Election Coverage: U.S. Senate Race

As part of the continuing election coverage, each week before Election Day we will spotlight the candidates on the ballot in Oakland this fall.  This week will focus on the race for one of Pennsylvania’s two seats in the U.S. Senate between incumbent Bob Casey, Jr. and challenger Tom Smith.

Sen. Bob Casey Jr., (D):

Senator Bob Casey Jr. is a first-term U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and the son of the late Governor Robert Casey Sr.  He was born and raised in Scranton, received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in 1982, and graduated with a law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1988.  He kept a private law practice from 1991-1996 before being elected the State Auditor General  in 1996, a position he held for eight years.  In 2002 he ran unsuccessfully for governor, being defeated in the primaries by Ed Rendell.  His term of office having expired, in 2004 he ran for and was elected State Treasurer.  In 2006 he ran for U.S. Senate, defeating incumbent Rick Santorum.

Senator Casey is chair of the Joint Economic Committee and the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, and is a member of eleven other committees and subcommittees on subjects such as agriculture, foreign affairs, and health care.  His most recent bills in Congress are a bill to forbid workplace discrimination against pregnant women, to provide increased humanitarian support for the conflict in Syria, to create a grant for states that promote the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel, to prohibit the sale of drugs containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to minors, and to create a tax credit for the use of alternative fuel vehicles.

This year he is running on a platform of promoting jobs in PA through tax cuts for businesses and federal funding for life science research, restricting outsourcing and imports, and increased loans to businesses.  He is a proponent of maintaining Medicare and Social Security and for increasing healthcare for children.  He introduced the Campus SaVE Act (S. 834) to address sexual violence on college campuses by creating prevention programs and assistance for victims.

U.S. Senate Webpage: http://www.casey.senate.gov/

Campaign Website: http://bobcasey.com/

Govtrack page: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/robert_casey/412246

VoteSmart page: http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/2541#.UHg0rsVG-So

Tom Smith, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate

Tom Smith is a native of Armstrong County.  He graduated from high school in 1965, but chose to help his father on the family farm rather than attend college.  Plans were further delayed as he got married, started a family, and went to work in a coal mine.  In 1989, he bought his way into the coal industry, finding financial success there and building several companies, which he sold in 2010.

His campaign focuses on the budget and job creation.  He wants to end the current tiered system of taxation and replace it with a low flat tax rate, eliminating tax loopholes for special interest groups while maintaining the system of tax deductions for low income taxpayers and students.  He wants to curb deficit spending by capping government spending at 20% of the national GDP, eliminating or privatizing inefficient sectors of government, freeze hiring of federal workers in all areas except for defense, and end tax breaks and grants to specific industries.

Smith would also would like to cut regulation of businesses and increase congressional control of what regulations are in place, leave alternative energy investment to private firms rather than government sponsorship, repeal the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), and create Social Security sustainability by allowing younger workers to personally invest a portion of their Social Security contribution rather than pay into the system while gradually increasing the retirement age.  He is in favor of reforming Medicare to a system where recipients use a government subsidy to purchase their own healthcare coverage, and this subsidy is distributed to give greater support to sick and poor recipients than healthier or wealthier recipients.

Tom Smith’s campaign website: http://tomsmithforsenate.com/

Tom Smith’s political platform: http://restore.tomsmithforsenate.com/