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Political Note #252         Eugene DePasquale PA CD 10

2020                                  General Election

Look at Eugene DePasquale’s website https://eugeneforcongress.com. It begins with a focus on his family. Typical of most political websites. But his family story is not typical.

His youngest brother developed muscular dystrophy. If there is no Congressional Caucus of Members whose attitude toward health care was shaped by their own illness or the illness of someone in their family, there should be. The insurance company rejected coverage for Eugene DePasquale’s brother claiming his muscular dystrophy was a preexisting condition. The result was financial devastation. The cost of medical care itself, the cost of a wheelchair, the cost of dealing with the illness was overwhelming. Could more or better health care have extended his brother’s life?

Eugene DePasquale’s father was a Vietnam vet who ultimately went to jail. He returned from Vietnam either already dependent on pain killing drugs or primed to be. His drug dependence played its way out to a bad end, but not the worst possible end. He was arrested for selling drugs. Conviction and jail time was a blessing. Eugene DePasquale’s dad returned to his family sober, with a will to work, a will to support himself, which he did, buying houses, repairing them, and reselling them.

Eugene DePasquale made better choices despite the adversity he faced. He worked in the family restaurant. He took care of his siblings. He played sports. He played football at the College of Wooster, a small, competitive private college in Ohio. He returned home to the University of Pittsburg to get an MPA. Next he got a law degree at Widener University in Harrisburg, the state capitol – a sign of his interest in a political career.

After graduating from law school, Eugene DePasquale took a job as Director of Economic Development for the City of York. He kept his political connections in York while serving for three years as Deputy Director of the State EPA. He returned to York in 2007 to be elected state Rep. In 2012, he was elected Pennsylvania’s State Auditor General.

Philadelphia Magazine has an archive of stories about Eugene DePasquale as Auditor General.   Here are headlines and bullet points about the most recent stories:

  • DePasquale: Climate Change Costs Pa. Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year
    • PA needs to make a plan to deal with the consequences of climate change
    • Half of the identified costs have been infrastructure damage
  • The Pennsylvania Turnpike is Pretty Much Screwed, Says State Watchdog
    • The Turnpike Commission is 11.8 million in debt, increasing tolls has not helped and will not help.
    • The solution requires eliminating the Turnpike’s state mandated payments to the Department of Transportation
  • Amid Controversy, City Commissioners Choose New Voting Machines
    • Against the advice of the state auditor who urged machines with a paper record.
  • ’s Auditor General on Legalizing Pot, Spartan Races, and (Maybe) Running for Governor
    • For Legalizing Pot. States that have legalized marijuana got tax revenue and had fewer criminal convictions.
    • His toughest Spartan race, because of the elements was in Iceland.
      • Obstacle races as short as 5K or as long as 50K
    • Term limits require him to look at options.

Eugene DePasquale has the potential to be a sensation.

  • He is physically tough. Ex football player. Spartan race participant.
  • He is mentally tough. A principal care-giver for his brother while still a teenager, family leader when his father went to jail.
  • He is a Pennsylvania progressive, a bread and butter progressive:
    • He says: We live in the greatest, most wealthy country in the world. Every person in this country deserves to have adequate and affordable health care. Our roads and bridges shouldn’t be crumbling. Our seniors shouldn’t struggle so much to live on a fixed-income. And we shouldn’t be rewarding large corporations and our most wealthy with ridiculous tax handouts when we’re not even meeting the most basic needs of our friends, families and neighbors.

Before the 2018 election, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrew the state’s gerrymandered Congressional Districts. Before 2018, Pennsylvania had 12 Republican Members of Congress, 6 Democrats. After the 2018 election, there were 9 of each.

Scott Perry, representing PA 10, was one of the Republican incumbents who survived. He has a pretty good story of his own. He grew up extremely poor in rural Pennsylvania. He graduated from a vocational high school, joined the National Guard, and went on to Penn State University – all in 1980. The National Guard took him to Bosnia-Herzogovena and then to Iraq where he flew helicopters and became a colonel.

Two of Scott Perry’s positions are representative of his approach to politics.

  • He complained, in 2017, that CNN’s Chris Cuomo exaggerated the devastation from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico as he argued against more FEMA funds for Puerto Rico.
  • Well after the event, he suggested that ISIS may have been responsible for the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

No matter how good his story is, his politics are unpalatable.

Help Eugene DePasquale https://eugeneforcongress.com win this seat. Send him some resources. Think about volunteering. You can volunteer from a distance. When you help a Congressional candidate, you help the presidential candidate, too. Make Pennsylvania a blue state.

Candidates for flipping House and Senate seats in November 2020 about whom I have written so far:

Congress

California 50                    Ammar Camp-Hajjar to beat incumbent Duncan Hunter

Florida 16                         Margaret Good to beat incumbent Vern Buchanan

Illinois 13                         Betsy Dirksen Londrigen to beat incumbent Rodney Davis

Iowa 04                            JD Scholten to beat incumbent Steve King)

Michigan 06                    Jon Hoadley to beat incumbent Fred Upton

Minnesota 01                  Dan Feehan to beat incumbent Jim Hagedorn

North Carolina 10          Dan McReady to beat incumbent Dan Bishop, this time

Pennsylvania 10             Eugene DePasquale to beat incumbent Scott Perry

Texas 23                          Gina Ortiz Jones to win this open Republican seat

US Senate:

Alaska                         Al Gross to beat Incumbent Dan Sullivan

Arizona                      Mark Kelly to beat appointee Martha McSally

Iowa                            Theresa Greenfield to beat incumbent Joni Ernst

Maine                         Sara Gideon to beat incumbent Susan Collins             

Mississippi               Mike Espy to beat incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith

North Carolina        Cal Cunningham to beat incumbent Thom Tillis              

South Carolina        Jaime Harrison to beat incumbent Linsday Graham