Election Day

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Comparing pertinent info from the Pa Catholic Conf/Archdiocese (1, 2), the Pa Family Council, and the Pa Pro Life Federation, and realizing that I did NOT have ANY strong and consistently pro life / pro family candidates for whom to vote, I held my nose and voted as follows:

• Mike Fitzpatrick (US House, PA 08),

• David Gibbon (Pa House 31 - Gibbon did not even respond to questions from the Pa Catholic or the Pa Family Council and did not get a rating from the Pa Pro Life Federation.  While he is certainly an "unkown," Santarsiero is well known to be anti life and anti marriage/family.).

• write-in (Pa Senate 10),

• Corbett/Cawley (Gov/Lt.Gov)

Tomorrow, Pro Life / Pro Family people need to get back to work on advocating for issues raised by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference!  How we vote today will not suffice.

Pa's 8th Congressional District

In my mind, there is little doubt that Mike Fitzpatrick will be victorious over the Tom Hanks look-alike:

Mike Fitzpatrick has been quoted as saying that this will be his last term in the U.S. House; he will not run in 2016.  Fitzpatrick is to be commended for his favorable vote on No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act  (HR 7) and his co-sponsorship of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (HR 940).  Yet the failure of this proudly Catholic congressman to co-sponsor other USCCB-backed legislation should trouble all of us:

• Marriage Protection Amendment  (HJ Res 51)
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• Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (HR 3133)
• State Marriage Defense Act  (HR 3829) 
• Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014 (HR 5285)
• Second Chance Act (HR 3465)

As per an 11/4/14 check of the Library of Congress web site (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php), Fitzpatrick is the primary sponsor of 35 pieces of legislation.  He has gathered 134 co-sponsors for one piece of legislation, his Captive Primate Safety Act, which is more than double what he gathered for his next most co-sponsored piece of legislation:

Come on Mike, do you really want this to be your legacy?  We need you to step up to the plate and co-sponsor/support the Marriage Protection Amendment  (HJ Res 51), the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (HR 3133), the State Marriage Defense Act  (HR 3829), the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014 (HR 5285), and the Second Chance Act (HR 3465).

Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor / Lt. Governor

On a state level, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference urges us to advocate to: 

• Support Marriage,  
• Support equal education funding,
• Oppose the death penalty,
• Oppose HB 300 / SB 300.