Centre Daily Times - "Vast 5th District finds common ground"

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After four weeks of running for Congress, the 12 candidates have encountered deeper economic worries than expected among the people who live in the sprawling 5th District.

"People are afraid of the economy and the direction it's going," said Lock Haven Mayor Rick Vilello. "People are putting $75 to $100 of gas in their vehicle each week. When you're putting that much money into the car and your home heating costs have doubled, there's a problem."

"The citizens here largely live paycheck to paycheck," added Glenn Thompson, of Howard Township, chairman of the Centre County Republican Committee.

Vilello is one of three Democrats and Thompson one of nine Republicans who've been putting thousands of winter miles on their cars since U.S. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pleasantville, jolted Pennsylvania politics Jan. 3 by announcing he wouldn't seek a seventh two-year term.

The candidates are running for the $169,300 job to represent one of 19 congressional districts in Pennsylvania and 435 in the United States. With roughly 645,000 residents each, the districts vary in their physical size depending on population density. Of the 258 districts east of the Mississippi River, Pennsylvania's 5th is bigger than any other except Maine's 2nd. The 5th reaches from the sparsely populated northern tier along the New York border to the Interstate 80 corridor, the district's riverlike transportation resource. It reaches south to Juniata County, taking in the urbanized economic center around State College in the district's most populated county, Centre.

Although the candidates are also hearing from residents about health care costs, education policy and especially the Iraq war, it is the economy that encompasses these other issues and drives the interaction between vote-seeker and vote-giver.
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"It's definitely the No. 1 issue in the district," said Republican Matt Shaner, of Patton Township. "Almost every county except Centre is experiencing job losses."

Clinton County Republican John Krupa agreed that the economy "is the top issue by far." He said he would seek opinions from the district on how to improve it.

"I don't have the answers," Krupa said. "I'm telling them I'm going to represent them and use the collective wisdom of the district."

Bellefonte Democrat Bill Cahir has posted a detailed policy statement on "reclaiming our economic future." Among other things, Cahir calls for public investment in alternative energy, tax incentives to manufacturers "that keep and create jobs at home," and the creation of job-training and vocational education initiatives for people who don't go to college.

"No matter how hard you work, your wages aren't going up and your purchasing power is being eroded," Cahir said in an interview. "That's a huge problem because Pennsylvanians want to work hard; they want to earn a living. There's nobody in Pennsylvania that wants a handout."

Candidates frame their economic critiques differently. John Stroup, Republican mayor of Clarion in the district's western region, anchors his view around the state's controversial plan to toll I-80. Like Peterson, Stroup as been an outspoken toll opponent, in part because trucking businesses and industrial sites have grown up along the highway.

Stroup went to Washington two weeks ago to speak against the toll plan to Federal Highway Administration officials. Last week, he attacked a study by state House Democrats that said tolling I-80 is more cost-effective than leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to private investors.

"In Clarion County alone," Stroup said, "I can point out three business parks that will be severely damaged by tolls. That will waste more than $10 million in public investment and at least another $10 million in private dollars. These costs aren't even mentioned in the House Democrats' study."

Elk County Coroner Lou Radkowski pinpointed a local manufacturing issue that concerns his neighborhood because it means more than 200 jobs in an industry in transition.

The Osram Sylvania plant in St. Marys, part of the German conglomerate Siemens, makes almost 2 million incandescent light bulbs each day. Another Sylvania plant in another 5th District small-town, Wellsboro in Tioga County, makes parts for the St. Marys bulbs.

But the lighting industry is moving away from the classic incandescent bulbs toward halogens and especially China-made compact fluorescents. The St. Marys plant would have to be retooled for halogens.

"We want to make sure that the bulb plants in Wellsboro and St. Marys are going to stay open," Radkowski said. "My own position is in keeping the jobs we have now."

Clarion Republican Keith Richardson, a Baptist pastor, puts "the spending problem" at the top of his Web site's issues list. He faults government spending, especially earmarks for pork-barrel projects, for saddling "our grandchildren with massive debt."

He would give the president line-item veto authority, enforce House rules against unauthorized spending, require full disclosure for each requested earmark, require a three-fifths majority to raise taxes and impose a one-year moratorium on congressional earmarks.

Lycoming County Republican Jeff Stroehmann, a former Woodward Township supervisor, sets forth a three-part platform to build the economy: Reinvent the railroad to cut down fuel consumption and other transport costs; strive for energy independence by taking advantage of Pennsylvania coal and build up the redevelopment of brownfields.

"It's all right here in Pennsylvania," he said. "It's a perfect fit and it's the best marketing tool that Pennsylvania has to attract businesses to it."

As candidates drive back and forth across small-town Pennsylvania — in two months, Thompson has put more than 7,100 miles on his car — they're developing energy policies alongside economic positions.

Clearfield County Commissioner Mark McCracken, a Democrat, likes the idea of promoting domestically produced alternative fuels, such as from the corn-based ethanol plants going up in his county.

"The thing that I'm really finding here and what's really hitting home are the gas and fuel prices going up," McCracken said. "The people on fixed incomes are getting hit hard this year."

Derek Walker, a Clearfield County Republican, says the nation's sluggish economy will be job one for the next congressman. Walker would put the district's abundant natural resources — timber, natural gas, coal and other minerals — to work to keep current jobs, create new ones, help achieve energy independence.

Former Centre County Commissioner Chris Exarchos says the United States should devise an energy policy backed by a level of commitment, drive and focus that the country applied to putting a man on the moon four decades ago. "Energy prices and the economy — that's all I'm hearing about," he said. "Fuel prices and, in particular, gas prices: ‘Where's this going to stop, and is anybody going to do anything about it?'"

Exarchos, who has a Penn State doctorate in geochemistry, lays out a comprehensive program to move away from fossil fuels to non-carbon solar, hydrogen and nuclear sources, noting that nuclear technology is much safer today than it has been.

"You can't talk about the economy unless you talk about energy," Exarchos said. "This is our national priority. Where are the hearings on energy?"

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.

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