May 15, 2012

By Hand Delivery
Mr. Steven G. Chiavetta, Director
Elections & Voter Registration
Dauphin County Administration Building
2 South 2nd Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101

Dear Mr. Chiavetta,

I am requesting the following information about Dauphin County’s voting machines:

• Location where all of the active voting machines were stored prior to the April 24th election
• The security status of that location (locked, unlocked, private or public building, types of locks, etc.)
• Who has access to that location
• Who has keys to that location
• How access to that location is monitored
• How access to the machines is monitored or logged
• The identity of the person(s) who maintains the machines’ computer software and mechanisms
• Chain of custody of the machines in the twelve weeks prior to April 24th Election Day
• The process and costs to challenge the election outcome, including the method by which a specialist can inspect the county’s voting machines

As you know, we need timely responses to as many of the questions we are submitting, as possible. I recognize that this is a sensitive subject, and I want you to know that I would not be asking if I did not have a compelling reason. Additionally, I am asking that you immediately secure the location of the voting machines and permit no one to enter until we have a qualified specialist in to inspect the machines located there.

I can be reached at 717 232-8335 if you have any questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Josh First, Candidate
15th PA Senate District

3020 Green Street Harrisburg, PA 17110

May 15, 2012

By U.S. Mail
Ms. Nikki Suchanic, Director
York County Department of Elections and Voter Registration
28 East Market Street
York, PA 17401-1579

Dear Ms. Suchanic,

I am requesting the following information about those voting machines used in the eight precincts in York County that are in the 15th PA Senate District and which were used in the April 24th, 2012 primary election:

•  Location where all of the active voting machines were stored prior to the April 24th election
• The security status of that location (locked, unlocked, private or public building, types of locks, etc.)
• Who has access to that location
• Who has keys to that location
• How access to that location is monitored
• How access to the machines is monitored or logged
• The identity of the person(s) who maintains the machines’ computer software and mechanisms
• Chain of custody of the machines in the twelve weeks prior to April 24th Election Day
• The process and costs to challenge the election outcome, including the method by which a specialist can inspect the county’s voting machines

As you know, we need timely responses to as many of the questions we are submitting, as possible. I recognize that this is a sensitive subject, and I want you to know that I would not be asking if I did not have a compelling reason. Additionally, I am asking that you immediately secure the location of the voting machines and permit no one to enter until we have a qualified specialist in to inspect the machines located there.

I can be reached at 717 232-8335 if you have any questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Josh First, Candidate
15th PA Senate District

 
May 10, 2012
 
Hon. STEPHEN J. MCEWEN, Jr . P.J.E., Chairman
2011 Legislative Reapportionment Commission
North Office Building, Room 104
Harrisburg, PA 17120
 
Dear Chairman McEwen,
 
I am writing to request that redistricting be removed from the Pennsylvania legislature and placed in the hands of a non-partisan, computer-driven process.  There are two reasons for my request.  First, gerrymandering disenfranchises voters by diluting their vote’s effectiveness.  Second, it leads to behavior by those running the partisan process that reinforces entrenched Party interests; those Party interests work harder to protect the Party than the citizens’ interests.
 
Pennsylvania’s redistricting has long been defined by unfair gerrymandering by both Democrats and Republicans, and you now have an opportunity to help end it.  With the January 24th, 2012, Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision rejecting the heavily gerrymandered state redistricting map of 2011, and singling out the 15th Senate District for which I recently ran as especially egregious (calling it “the Iron Cross”), Pennsylvania’s citizens and leaders have the clear authority and opportunity to put in place a non-partisan, computer-generated process that gives neither party an artificial advantage and which honors voters’ full rights.
 
Gerrymandering protects career politician incumbents to keep their seats “safe” from voters wanting electoral change, and safe from independent-minded candidates.  Deals are struck between the parties to protect or trade certain seats for others.  While the political parties gain from this behavior, Pennsylvania’s voters lose: Their votes are artificially diluted, and strong, independent-minded candidates who buck party bosses are artificially eliminated or undermined by their parties from opportunities to run.
 
Gerrymandering has created a “Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe” culture, with each political party using minor, legalistic technicalities to achieve huge, undeserved results against the voters’ interests.  The protected seats have become profit centers for the Party’s chosen government affairs firms and other selected private businesses.  This weasely culture creates elected leaders who are less willing to take clear positions on important issues.  They instead rely upon redistricting to eliminate potential challengers who are motivated by parties’ failures to resolve important societal issues.  Gerrymandering reinforces an entrenched political establishment that is more interested in making deals and profits that benefit the parties than in leading and making hard choices that benefit citizens.
 
As a conservative Republican candidate in the contested April 24th, 2012, primary race for the 15th Senate District, I am eminently qualified to comment on this situation. 
 
Long a politically active Republican voter in the 15th Senate District, and a known potential candidate for the 15th Senate District seat, the area I live in, Harrisburg City, was “mysteriously” eliminated at the last minute (late 2011) from the original senate district.  No observers I knew could make sense of how Harrisburg City was removed from the senate district that had so long served it, especially considering that the city was being separated from its own county.  It appeared to be a blatant and contrived decision effort to eliminate a strong candidate who was not hand-picked by the Republican Party leaders.  Only the January 24th, 2012 Supreme Court rejection of the “Iron Cross” district allowed me to enter that race. 
 
Separating the city of Harrisburg from most of Dauphin County makes no sense, because each of those political entities shares in a $300 million incinerator debt, common infrastructure, school districts, economies, and communities.  Had the senate district been shaped with the citizens and their infrastructure in mind, then we would have had a more level playing field to compete on, more competition, more meaningful choices for the voters, better, more representative government.
 
To highlight just how negative this politicized redistricting can be, consider that only two weeks before the April 24th, 2012, primary election, your commission issued a proposed redistricting map for the 15th Senate District that looked exactly like the one that had been struck down by the court.  Why your commission did not wait until after the April 24th election date is a poorly kept secret:  Republican leaders used the proposed map to unfairly influence the primary election in the 15th Senate District.  Because I live in Harrisburg City, which under the new proposal would once again be outside of the new 15th Senate District, releasing the proposed map was a strategic effort to persuade Republican voters not to vote for me.  Voters received a strong message (reported in the press) not to vote for me, because I would not be able to represent them, unless I moved into the new district.  Republican leaders from all over the state were actively and openly supporting candidate John McNally, who received at least $150,000 from the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.  It was a shameless manipulation of the process by Party leaders trying to protect their “investment.”
 
This kind of weasely, manipulative, unethical behavior is a direct result of the Party’s participation in redistricting.  If you take the Party out, and put in charge a disinterested computer, then these fool-the-voter games will cease.
 
Another poorly kept Harrisburg secret is that elected Republican leaders have subsequently worked out an agreement with Republican justices on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to avoid another rejection of the “Iron Cross.”  This, despite the proposed 15th Senate District map’s facts remaining the same now as they were on January 23, 2012.  That the court will have to now find differently on the same facts that caused rejection only a few months ago, will degrade the voters’ confidence in both the judiciary and legislature.  Voter confidence in elected officials is core to the success of our Commonwealth and Republic’s representative form of government.
 
If you are happy with the current defunct arrangement, then the Commission can carry on.  If you believe in professional government, with the best interests of the voters at heart, however, then please make a recommendation to end gerrymandering once and for all and place the process in the hands of a computer.
 
Thank you for considering my comments.
 
                                                                        Sincerely,
 

Josh First,
Voting Citizen

“Conservatives and liberals alike said they missed the blog when our state senate campaign began, so it will be coming back soon,” says Josh First.

The 2012 senate race web page content will be archived on the blog.

“People who agree and disagree with my political and social views said that they found the blog content refreshingly honest, clear, and undogmatic. With the senate race fresh behind us, the race issues aren’t going anywhere, but few media outlets will cover them as in-depth as we will,” says First.

First identified current issues as Harrisburg incinerator debt and alleged corruption, ongoing Pennsylvania Republican Party interference in Republican primary races, Dauphin County Republican Committee politics, conservation spending, and natural gas markets.

Press Release
April 24, 2012

The First for PA Senate Campaign announced tonight that Josh First has conceded the race for the Pennsylvania 15th senate district to candidate John McNally and the Republican establishment political machine.

“We were out-spent about 25 to 1, and despite getting into the race late as a result of the Supreme Court decision, we nevertheless mounted a respectable effort in the face of overwhelming odds,” said First.

“Combined together, the votes cast for Josh First and Bill Seeds greatly exceeded those cast for McNally. That’s a clear message from the Republican voters to the party leadership.”

Josh with Gabe (left) and Isaiah (right)

“I am proud of our volunteers and supporters across Dauphin County and York County, who despite losing today still delivered a strong message to the establishment machine,” said Josh First.

“Republican voters across Pennsylvania are demanding that the Republican Party stay out of primary races and let all Republican candidates compete equally on a level playing field, without Party interference.  This historic race is evidence that those demands are increasingly being converted into votes,” First said.

“This has been a true grass roots campaign, and I want to thank all of our volunteers and supporters” said volunteer coordinator Isaiah Cohen.

Josh First with long-time SCI volunteer, conservation leader, and friend Gene O.

Safari Club International is one of the world’s leading non-profit hunting-conservation groups, and one of the leaders in youth hunter recruitment.

SCI’s Blue Mountain Chapter held its annual banquet today, at the Penn Radisson Convention Center in Camp Hill, and Josh First attended.

First is a member of SCI.

First donated a cast-n-blast turkey hunt, which was auctioned off and earned a $175.00 charitable donation for SCI. First will guide a father and son pair in a morning of turkey hunting and an afternoon of fly fishing on private hunting ground in Dauphin County.

Approximately 300 outdoors enthusiasts participated in the banquet. Many are voters from the 15th Senate District, and Josh enjoyed meeting all of them. His background in land conservation and hunting are of great interest to nature lovers and outdoorsmen alike.

Press Release
April 20, 2012

​The First for PA Senate Campaign announced today the release of some campaign humor, aimed at both entertaining and educating the voters of the 15th Senate District, which includes most of Dauphin County and northern York County.

​“The McNally Meter TM is a light-hearted but poignant jab at the strange symmetries that emerge from the party establishment, which is out of touch with every day Republican voters” says volunteer coordinator Isaiah Cohen.

​“While chairman of the Dauphin County Republican Committee, candidate John McNally presided over the loss of the Republican majority in Dauphin County, going from 82,000 registered Republicans in 2008, to 71,000 registered Republicans by December, 2011.  Only a party establishment that values rubber-stamp loyalty over good performance would endorse and fund someone with this record,” Cohen said.

​“Additionally, the McNally Meter TM graphics show that the McNally campaign has spent a record amount of money and sent a record number of mailers in what appears to voters we meet to be an attempt to buy this election, outspending the First campaign by a ratio of about 22:1,” Cohen said.

​The McNally campaign’s expenses are estimated from the known paid staff, professional consultants, expensive mailers, radio ads, premium office space, and other high-end costs associated with their gold-plated campaign.  The McNally campaign’s April 13th finance report, however, claims only $104,000 in costs, which cannot be accurate, because that would be the low end of the cost of the mailers alone.

​The First campaign, on the other hand, is a 100% grass-roots campaign that involves real voters who are genuinely excited about Josh’s candidacy and his clear positions on important issues.

​The First for PA Senate Campaign can be reached at info@joshfirst.com, or 717 232-8335.  The website is www.joshfirst.com

2012 15th District Senate Race

Announcement

The First for PA Senate Campaign announced Thursday, April 19, 2012 that their targeted mailer was beginning to reach voters, and that the WHP580 radio spot is now posted on the campaign website.

“I would like to thank DRS Printing in Dillsburg, PA, for working on and getting out a complicated mailer at what felt like the last minute,” said candidate Josh First.

The mailer is aimed at different demographics and regions.

“We are not trying to be all things to all voters, which is what voters usually see in mailers that are full of generalities or platitudes,” said First.

“Our campaign mailers are filled with policy substance, our exact positions on the issues. Nothing is misleading or general about them, and one of our mailers even turns the phrase that Barack Hussein Obama made famous in 2008, where he ridiculed Pennsylvanians for ‘clinging to their guns and religion’. We Central Pennsylvanians are proud of our identity, of our faith, of our culture of Second Amendment liberty, and this one mailer in particular reminds voters that this is the case,” First said.

Thus far the voters’ responses to the mailers have been quite positive, even emotionally charged, despite the fact that the campaign takes stands on some thorny issues.

“Actually, voters want candidates who clearly stand for something, and I think they find our candor refreshing. Today, while going door to door, I was pulled into several homes for long, enjoyable sit-down discussions with voters about our mailers. Even though some disagree with me on one or two issues, they still said they were voting for me because I am taking principled stands. Especially reassuring is the fact that I will take zero benefits: No pension, no healthcare, no state car, no per diems, and that I will term out after no more than three terms, which is twelve years, which is an awfully long time and as long as anyone should be in elected office,” First said.

The ‘God and guns’ mailer elicited the most intensity from its recipients.

“We expected that kind of intense response from the voters we sent that mailer to. Their steely resolve to save this nation from corrosive social policies and unfair economic policies has been reinforced by a mailer that tells them they have a fierce advocate for their traditional beliefs in Josh First,” said Isaiah Cohen, the campaign’s volunteer coordinator.

The WHP580 spot begins airing on the RJ Harris in the Morning Show at 6:00 AM on Friday, April 20, 2012, and is also posted on the home page of www.joshfirst.com, along with radio interviews from 2010 and 2012.

DATE: April 16, 2012
CONTACT: Kim Stolfer, Chairman
PHONE: (412) 221-3346
CELL: (412) 352-5018
E-MAIL: activist@fyi.net
WEB: www.foac-pac.org

Josh First-A Standout In A Crowded Election
(15th PA State Senate District)

Firearms Owners Against Crime is pleased to announce our highest endorsement of Josh First, Republican Candidate for the 15th PA State Senate District in the 2012-Primary Election cycle. Pennsylvania citizens residing in this district will have a clear choice to make on their ballot. Constituents and voters in this district will have the opportunity to send a clear message to bureaucrats who want to impose more government control over our personal freedoms and acquiesce to the party bosses on important social issues, or a candidate, Josh First, who will respect the rights of all Pennsylvanians, including an individual’s choice on how to protect their families and property. The right choice is clearly Josh First.

Josh First understands the issues and the consequences of misdirecting public policy. He will champion the cause of civil rights, government accountability and holding the guilty responsible for their actions. “It is fundamentally wrong to predicate the rights of law-abiding citizens on the misdeeds of a few”, said Kim Stolfer Chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime.

Josh First had this to say about the FOAC endorsement and our constitutional freedoms:

“FOAC is Pennsylvania’s leading grass roots advocacy group for Second Amendment rights, and I am deeply honored to receive their endorsement,” said candidate Josh First.

First is a lifelong hunter, firearm collector, and target shooter, whose three children have been taught to shoot and hunt since they could walk. He and his wife are both concealed carry permit holders.

In 2008, First used his legally concealed handgun to successfully defend two of his small children, who experienced an unprovoked, life-threatening attack by two pet pitbull dogs off their leashes in a public area.

“The Second Amendment is the greatest of all our individual Constitutional rights, because it guarantees all the other rights,” says First. “As the next state senator representing Central Pennsylvania, you can count on me to be a fierce and unbending proponent of the Second Amendment, concealed carry, national reciprocity, and other civil rights associated with the Second Amendment,” First said.

First is also a decades-long, proud, and active member of the National Rifle Association. He is a member of many central Pennsylvania shooting clubs, including Duncannon Sportsmen.

Campaign volunteer coordinator Isaiah Cohen asks that interested gun owners and other Second Amendment supporters contact the campaign office to volunteer, including delivering campaign brochures door to door, placing yard signs, and handing out campaign brochures at polling stations on Election Day, which is April 24th.

• The First campaign can be reached at 717-232-8335, or info@joshfirst.com and the website is www.joshfirst.com

We must elect legislators who understand that it is time to redirect law enforcement resources to focus attention on the truly violent recidivist criminals who repeatedly prey upon the unsuspecting and vulnerable citizens of this state. Pennsylvanians need representatives who will have the courage to place individuals above unproven ‘feel good’ social experiments.

“Josh First’s commitment to our freedoms is beyond reproach”, said Kim Stolfer, Chairman of Firearms Owners Against Crime. “His leadership is desperately needed if we are to surmount the challenges facing our State and we are convinced that he has the wherewithal to make the tough decisions”, says Stolfer.

We highly recommend Josh First for the 15th District PA State Senate.

* * * End * * *

Firearm Owners Against Crime (FOAC) is non-partisan, non-connected Political Action Committee organized to empower all gun owners, outdoors enthusiasts and supporters of the 2nd Amendment to the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 Section 21 of the PA Constitution with the tools and information necessary to protect this freedom from transgression. Candidates for office are evaluated every election cycle, approved, placed on an FOAC voter guide and distributed throughout the region.

CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News 04/15/2012 8:38 PM

John McNally has never held public office, but in the Republican primary race for the 15th District state Senate seat, make no mistake: He is running like the incumbent.

McNally, the former chairman of the Dauphin County Republican Committee, is the choice of local party titans and at least some Senate Republican leaders, who are helping the candidate carpet-bomb Dauphin and York counties with mailers this spring.

The race has been a mailbox mismatch, for sure.

But there are two other Republican candidates vying to succeed longtime senator Jeffrey Piccola, Josh First and Bill Seeds, who are trying to give voice to what they call the true conservatives that they say the party establishment too often ignores after Election Day.

Both men frequently tell voters they would serve in the mold of arch-conservative Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, who shocked the state in 2006 when, buoyed by anger over the legislative pay raise, he defeated sitting Senate Majority Leader David “Chip” Brightbill in the primary.

First, a self-styled “green” conservative, has aggressively criticized McNally as a “wishy-washy, Republican-In-Name-Only, country club Republican who doesn’t really stand for anything.”

“I want the citizens to get equal representation with the special interests,” First said, “and I want the Republican Party to return to its traditional conservative roots. We’re not going to get that with John McNally.”

Seeds, more recently, has piled on, too.

In a recent commentary, he called McNally the handpicked choice of the same Harrisburg political order that helped deliver the city to its debt crisis.

McNally, a lawyer with the Harrisburg law firm of Thomas, Thomas & Hafer — which has never been directly involved in incinerator work — bristles at his foes’ characterizations and makes no apologies for support he’s attracted from Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre County, Rapp and many county officials.

“If you mean the establishment being our community, yes, I am the establishment candidate,” McNally said. “I have established myself in the community by being a good citizen … and through that I have had the opportunity to make friendships with good elected officials and with other community leaders.

“This is the establishment that has recognized the work that I am capable of. They may define it differently,” McNally said of his opponents, “but they don’t define who I am.”

Who McNally is, is a longtime Republican Party activist from Lower Paxton Township who led his own revolution within the Dauphin GOP in 2006, when he and his allies — including Dauphin County’s GOP commissioners — wrested control of the county leadership from county Treasurer Bob Dick and former county Commissioner Lowman Henry.

In the five years since, McNally, 49, has consolidated his grip on the party machinery, forging alliances and winning backers along the way. Party activists say he has earned their loyalty and support for this run.

First, 47, is paying homage to the establishment of a different generation. His grandfather Edward First was a longtime Republican, attorney and civic leader in the Harrisburg area, involved in the development of regional landmarks including Harrisburg International Airport and Penn National Race Course.

Though a Centre County native, Josh First has lived in Harrisburg for most of his adult life, using it as the base for his conservation-based real estate businesses. He is an unusual mix of city-dwelling, outdoor-loving sportsman with a guiding pro-environment sensibility, but rock-ribbed conservative on most other fronts.

First, a proud gun owner who made the news for opening fire in the city on a pit bull that was threatening one of his children in 2008, hates most gun-control proposals, wants to make abortions harder to obtain in Pennsylvania and is big on restoring a culture of responsibility.

He sought the Republican nomination for the 17th Congressional District seat in 2010, finishing third overall but carrying Dauphin County with 46.7 percent of the vote in a four-way field — giving rise to the notion that the 15th District seat might be a good fit for him.

Seeds, 69, has spent much of his adult life working quietly in state and public service, including nearly 20 years as a township supervisor in Lower Paxton Township. He is retired from the state after years spent as a maintenance supervisor for the Department of General Services.

As the only candidate with local government experience, Seeds says he is best-qualified to represent the people of the 15th at the Capitol. As a retiree, he sees himself in the best position to give constituents his full-time attention. “I answer every phone call, I work for the people and I care about the people,” he said.

Background, connections and personalities matter in this race in part because the candidates are not so different on the issues.

For example, all support Gov. Tom Corbett’s major budget decisions to ate, including cuts in education and other areas. They support trying at least a pilot school-choice program as part of larger education reform packages. And they would work for the elimination of property taxes as the major source of funds for public schools.

They all want to at least raise the cost threshold for triggering the state’s prevailing-wage law, and none speaks in favor of any type of new gun-control laws.

But there are some subtle distinctions: While all the candidates identify as anti-abortion, only First and McNally voice support for a controversial bill mandating that women considering an abortion have an ultrasound first.

First and McNally specify they would support that bill only if it did not require a vaginal ultrasound, which they regard as cutting too close to government-forced health care.

But First, who uses the strongest terms on the abortion issue, argues that making a woman acknowledge she is carrying a healthy baby is a good way to underline the seriousness of an abortion so women “see what it is they’re doing and aren’t able to pretend that they’re not terminating a life.”

Seeds supports Pennsylvania’s restrictions on abortion but said he would not support the ultrasound bill. “Government should only do for the people what the people can’t do for themselves,” he said.

McNally and First are also strongly in support of privatization of the state-owned liquor stores and might be willing to support other privatization efforts. Seeds said he wants to take more study of that issue, including whether the state stores could simply be run more effectively by the state.

First, who worked in Gov. Tom Ridge’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and was nominated by Gov. Ed Rendell to an open seat on the Pennsylvania Game Commission in 2007, differs from the pack in his identity as a “green Republican.”

He says he would carry to the Legislature a strong interest in promoting farmland and open-space preservation, efforts that he says need to be supported as a matter of long-term quality of life and food and ecological security.

As to regional issues, McNally has endorsed the heart of the state receiver’s plan for the Harrisburg: selling or leasing assets such as the public parking garages and the incinerator plant, renegotiating city workers’ contracts and enticing new investment with tax abatements.

First is OK with leasing the city’s assets, but he also vows to place a new emphasis on winning a regular payment in lieu of taxes from the state to the city for the Capitol Complex that is exempt from local property taxes. Tax-exempt properties “are the giant hole in the doughnut, as I see it, of the city’s budget,” and he believes the state should be contributing millions more annually than it does.

Seeds has said his long background in municipal government can be helpful in right-sizing Harrisburg’s government and in fostering cooperation among city, county and state officials. He has also backed First’s call for more state reimbursements for the tax-exempt properties it controls in the city.

Piccola chose in winter not to seek re-election to a fifth four-year term in the Senate.

The winner of the Republican primary will face what is likely to be a pitched general election battle this fall against Democrats Rob Teplitz, chief counsel for the state auditor general, and Lower Paxton Township clergyman/consultant Alvin Q. Taylor.

The 15th state Senate District consists of Harrisburg and the townships of Derry, East Hanover, Halifax, Londonderry, Lower Paxton, Lower Swatara, Middle Paxton, Reed, South Hanover, Susquehanna, Swatara and West Hanover and the boroughs of Dauphin, Halifax, Highspire, Hummelstown, Middletown, Paxtang, Penbrook, Royalton and Steelton in Dauphin County and part of York County consisting of the townships of Conewago and Newberry and the boroughs of Goldsboro, Lewisberry and York Haven.

Article Link: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/04/in_the_state_senate_15th_distr.html