My endorsements this fall are shorter than usual. Because of actions taken against me by local Democratic Party officials I am only endorsing the candidates who expressed their support for me: you don't support me, I don't support you. That's the way it goes Kevin.
For County Commissioner: Tom Gajewski.
Tom has worked tirelessly for the people of Berks County putting in 70 hour work weeks all the while dealing with major family concerns. Yes, sometimes they spilled over to work because of the enormous stress but he's a man of great integrity and he's accomplished much. Tom spearheaded the entire Community Corrections process and has coordinated efforts to regionalize police. For this the FOP refused to endorse him because he happened to be on a much needed vacation when they met and voted. That vote was a disgrace by the police.
Tom also is partly responsible, with the rest of the Board for the turnaround of Berks Heim. Instead of costing taxpayer $1-2 million per year the newly open and designed facility is breaking even and on the verge of making money.
Republican financial mismanagement resulted in an $11 million funding shortfall which necessitated a tax increase when Tom first took office. Let's be very clear about the facts on this tax increase issue: it was the result of bad decisions and horrible financial management by Mark Scott and Tim Reiver. Tom inherited their financial mess. Since then Tom has helped self insure for health coverage and the County reduced employment by 100 workers saving further tax increases.
Christian Leinbach is an extreme, evangelical Christian fringe lunatic. He chose to attend racist and segragationist Bob Jones University in South Carolina. The school outlawed interracial dating and marriage. He is a Santorum Republican who accepted campaign money from the likes of Glen Meakem who believes we shouldn't fund stem cell research. Why is he against stem cell research? He thinks people shouldn't want to live longer because they should want to get to heaven as soon as possible.
Leinbach and Scott together, as a majority, will be a racist Board which would give Berks County a huge black eye and prevent companies from wanting to locate here.
For Recorder of Deeds: Fred Sheeler:
This office has been a disgrace. Ellie Antoine not only got sued for mismanagement, favoritism and bias toward title agents the Judge ordered her to begin running the office in compliance with the law. She refused and was found in contempt of court. Property deeds and mortgages are important legal documents and must be recorded precisely as they come into this office to insure your ownership of real property. It was taking six months for deeds to be recorded and this actually prevented some people from selling their homes.
If you have more than one mortgage the order with which these are recorded is essential. Under the law legal priority goes to the order in which they were recorded. If Antoine's office recorded them out of sequence, which frequently happened, you could be screwed. Let's take a hypothetical example. We Snyder, the crook who just closed his local mortgage company, is being sued. Say you're holding his mortgage or home equity line of credit and someone sues him. If the Recorder of Deeds office negligently didn't record your lien against him in the order it came into the office you're farther down the line to collect what you are owed than you should be. Someone else's claim got in ahead of yours even though it was filed after you.
This is why what has happened under Ellie Antoine is important. Fred Sheeler has been in the mortgage business for years. He knows the business, knows the industry. He is an all around good guy who is also a "stand up guy." I've seen this personally.
John Fielding is a perennial candidate who runs for whatever office he thinks is vulnerable. He works as a public defender for the County while trashing government. Why does he keep cashing his government paycheck if he's so against government? His campaign treasurer, Democrat Liz Ebner, filed paperwork with election services showing Fielding spent several hundred dollars on vehicle repairs, something which is not an allowable expenditure under the law.
Worse, at a trial this summer related to the Scott Wertz police killing Fielding said this in open court: "So a policeman was killed, Boo Hoo."
This Halloween season give John Fielding your own boo hoo and vote for Fred Sheeler.
My endorsements for state judicial candidates are posted at my parent blog The Pennsylvania Progressive. Here are links:
Seamus McCaffery
Debra Todd
Chrsitine Donohue
John Milton Younge
Judge John Musmanno (retention)