By WENDY STIVER

wstiver@lockhaven.com

MILL HALL – Clinton County Democrats will play “a pivotal and important role” in the Primary Election on Tuesday, according to Josh Shapiro, candidate for state Attorney General.

He asked for the support of the 100 or so people at the Clinton County Democratic Party’s sixth annual Carl Kephart Sr. Spring Dinner, held Thursday at Haywood’s on the Green.

Also speaking at the dinner was Jerri Buchanan, a write-in candidate for state Senate for the 25th District and the only Democrat to step forward to run against Republican incumbent Joseph Scarnati.

State Rep. Mike Hanna of Lock Haven had a seat at the head table. He is running to keep his seat in the House but is unopposed in the Primary. He asked his fellow Democrats in this county to elect both Shapiro and Buchanan.

John and Betty Brendel were called to the podium by local party chair Joe Waltz and honored with the 2016 Democrats of the Year Award. Betty Brendel spoke eloquently about the party’s values and the democratic government many of us take for granted. Our democracy needs support, she said, urging her listeners to step up and volunteer.

Waltz also introduced the Democrats who are currently serving as elected officials. Three who were elected to their positions for the first time in 2015 took the chance to thank the voters for their support: County Commissioner Paul Conklin, sheriff Kerry Stover, and David Strouse, district attorney.

Shapiro was making his second appearance in Clinton County within two weeks, after a stop at Avenue 209 Coffee Shop on April 9. He reiterated much of the message he brought that day, and also talked about serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly with Hanna and helping elect him as House Minority Whip.

Hanna said he and the candidate worked closely together in the House. Without Shapiro, he said, he might not be in the leadership position of minority Whip today. He and his supporters built a coalition from every corner of the state to get him elected to that position, he said.

“I’m proud of that,” he said. “That’s what it takes to get things done… building coalitions.”

Shapiro urged voters to choose him for a variety of reasons, including that Pennsylvanians “need someone to restore integrity and fairness,” not just in the Attorney General position but throughout the state’s justice system. He referred to the Supreme Court email scandal.

“We are a society of laws,” he said. “We need to make sure they are applied fairly across the board.”

Pennsylvanians also need an Attorney General who can clean up a mess, Shapiro said, earning laughter when he said his job as the first Democratic chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 150 years, following so many Republicans, has amply prepared him for that task.

He also stressed that the Attorney General should protect the public, and should be someone who every day will protect citizens’ rights. He pledged to create a division to focus solely on scams and crimes against senior citizens.

Pointing to his many endorsements by environmental groups, he said Pennsylvanians have a right to drinking water free of fracking contamination, as well as to a “thorough and efficient” educational system.

He pledged to be “smart on crime,” particularly where it concerns the heroin epidemic which he called “the No. 1 killer in Pennsylvania.”

Incarceration is costing Pennsylvanians $3.8 billion a year, he said, and prison space should be used for criminals who need to be in jail, not for addicts who are not drug dealers or for the nonviolent mentally ill.

As he has traveled across the state for his campaign, he said, he has learned one important thing: “People are all basically the same… They want honest government, people who are going to fight and work hard for them, safe communities, good schools. That’s what they want, and I think I can do that for them.”

Buchanan is a fourth grade teacher from Dubois who called for more transparency in state government. She also wants to bring more skilled labor jobs and employment opportunities to the region.

“The whole 25th District has lost a lot of family-sustaining jobs,” she said. As senator, she pledged, she would woo businesses back to the area.

Candidates who sent speakers on their behalf were Kerith Strano Taylor running for the U.S. House of Representatives; Attorney General candidate Stephen Zappala; and Joe Sestak and Katie McGinty, both candidates for the same U.S. Senate seats.

Hanna congratulated the Brendels on their award and endorsed other candidates, including Taylor, McGinty, Shapiro, and Eugene DePasquale who is the only Democratic candidate for Auditor General on the ballot.

He also urged people to take one of Buchanan’s wallet cards and write in her name on Tuesday. “We need help in the Senate restoring public education,” he said.

The crowd chuckled when he said, “I don’t think this is a news flash, but Harrisburg is broken.”

This should be no surprise after four years of Republican control, he said. He and Shapiro started the Reform Caucus, he said, and he is taking on campaign financing reform and redistricting reform to prevent legislators choosing their voters instead of the other way around.

He also supports a ban on gifts for all state employees.

His stand on budget reform brought applause.

“Here’s one way we can get it done- there’s no budget, there’s no pay,” he said. “We have legislation introduced to do that. I introduced legislation that if the leaders can’t deliver a budget by July 1, they immediately stand for re-election in November. If it goes until August 1, the entire Legislature stands for re-election.”

Hanna said he did not take a paycheck after July 1 because there was no budget in place. When the governor signed a “partial budget” in December, he said, he started receiving paychecks, but in January, when things seemed to fall apart, he stopped accepting them again and did not do so until a budget was signed just recently.

“We want to deliver government that works, schools that teach, jobs that pay,” he said, urging the Democrats to help Gov. Tom Wolf deliver those things by voting on Tuesday.