Tag: Doug Mastriano

Former Prosecutor McSwain Running on Constitutional and Economic Conservatism

Bradley Vasoli

Bill McSwain, a Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, likes to emphasize his public-service experience — and his distinction as a relative political newcomer.

The 53-year old former federal prosecutor and Chester County native hasn’t held elected office, unlike other high-polling hopefuls state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg), former Congressman Lou Barletta (R-PA-11) and former County Commissioner Dave White (R-Delaware). That’s often among the first details McSwain and his supporters mention about him.

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Pennsylvania Lawmaker Proposes ‘Office of Election Crimes and Security’

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) announced on Thursday he intends to draft legislation creating an Office of Election Crimes and Security.

The new division within the Pennsylvania Department of State would be charged with probing all alleged violations of voting laws. The proposed bill also targets “ballot harvesting,” the illegal practice of hand-delivering absentee ballots — usually by depositing them in election drop boxes — on behalf of voters other than oneself. Currently, state law treats ballot harvesting as a misdemeanor; Mastriano’s measure would make it a third-degree felony.

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Longtime Conservative Campaign Strategist Gerow Persists in Bid for Pennsylvania Governorship

Bradley Vasoli

Charlie Gerow has worked with Republican public officials for over four decades. He hasn’t been among them, though he contends that augurs well for how he would perform if elected governor. 

“I’m an outsider who knows what’s going on inside,” he told The Pennsylvania Daily Star. “And that’s what voters are looking for — somebody who’s not an officeholder, who’s not part of what’s going on right now but who knows what needs to be done and knows how to do it.”

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Commentary: High Stakes in Pennsylvania’s Primary Races

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Pennsylvania, where deep-blue and deep-red politics collide, is in the midst of an unprecedented primary election season. The May primary is the first one in the Commonwealth’s 235-year history in which voters – except registered Independents – will have the chance to vote for candidates in open gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, new state House and Senate districts, and new congressional districts.

In the marquee races for Senate and governor, both major parties are struggling to nominate candidates who can not only make it through the paddlewheel of the primary, but also win in the general election – especially in a state that typically plays politics between the 40-yard lines.

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Pennsylvania Phyllis Schlafly Eagles Honor Flynn and Mastriano

Bradley Vasoli

LAFAYETTE HILL, Pennsylvania— Pennsylvania Phyllis Schlafly Eagles held their 2022 Awards Ceremony at the Green Valley Country Club just north of Philadelphia on Friday, honoring Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg).

“I am absolutely honored to be here,” Flynn told the crowd. “It’s really amazing for me to be up at this dais with this great group of people here.”

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Mastriano and McSwain Tie for First in Pennsylvania Leadership Conference Gubernatorial Straw Poll; Barnette Wins Senate Poll and Schillinger Takes First for Lieutenant Governor

Bradley Vasoli
William McSwain and Doug Mastriano

  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania— In a straw poll of conservative activists from across Pennsylvania last weekend, Kathy Barnette, Doug Mastriano, Bill McSwain and Clarice Schillinger finished ahead for the statewide offices they’re seeking. About half of the nearly 800 attendees from all around the Keystone State (and a few from nearby states) participated in the annual survey at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference (PLC) in Camp Hill, just across the river from Harrisburg. Information-technology expert Scott R. Davis oversaw the survey and discussed the results with attendees Saturday afternoon. Barnette, a veteran and political commentator, earned 35 percent of votes cast for that office at the gathering throughout Friday and Saturday. Her fellow Montgomery Countian, real-estate developer Jeff Bartos, came in second with 17.8 percent. Former Ambassador Carla Sands and former hedge-fund executive David McCormick both received roughly 14 percent and celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz got 12 percent.  “I did have the opportunity to listen to the majority of the [GOP] Senate candidates,” Davis said, “and I will echo what I heard before I stepped on the stage. And each and every one of these candidates is going to be better than the candidate the other side puts up.”  Pennsylvania will hold…

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Pennsylvania Senators Introduce Tax Breaks and Regulatory Reform for Energy Producers

Bradley Vasoli
Doug Mastriano and Scott Hutchinson

Pennsylvania State Senators Doug Mastriano (R-Chambersburg) and Scott Hutchinson (R-Oil City) last week proposed a measure to lighten the tax and regulatory burden for fossil-fuel producers.

Their legislation, entitled the PA Energy Independence Act, would immediately pause income taxation for natural-gas developers, reduce state gas-extraction fees by 200 percent and end Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) moratorium on new state-land leases for fossil-fuel drilling. It would also suspend the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would amount to a tax on carbon emissions.

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Pauses Examination of Fulton County Voting Machines

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee contractor Envoy Sage cannot yet gather data from Fulton County’s election devices according to a Friday order of the state Supreme Court.

That directive stays part of a recent Commonwealth-Court ruling that allows the investigation to proceed. Fulton County’s commissioners have voted to comply with the Senate probe, which is part of a broader examination of the 2020 and 2021 Pennsylvania elections and has been spearheaded by the committee’s Republican Chairman Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro). The Democrat-run Pennsylvania Department of State and the voting machines’ manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems are litigating to stop it.

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Pennsylvania Republican Lawmakers Planning Bill to Relocate Illegal Aliens from Covert DHS Flights to Delaware

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person sitting in airplane seat

In Pennsylvania, Republican members of the state legislature are drafting a bill that would forcibly relocate illegal aliens brought into the state by Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and instead move them to Biden’s home state of Delaware.

Fox News reports that the legislation was first mentioned in a memo by State Senator Mario Scavello (R-Penn.), who informed his colleagues of his intentions to introduce the bill.

“In the very near future, I intend to introduce legislation to address the influx of illegal immigrants being relocated into Pennsylvania,” Scavello stated. “How many illegal immigrants has the president relocated to his own home state of Delaware? If it is good enough for Pennsylvania, then why not redirect the relocation to Delaware?”

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Legislation Would Allow Pennsylvanians to Sue Big Tech Companies for Censorship

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Two Pennsylvania state senators said recently they want to hold social media companies accountable for religious or political censorship.

Sens. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, and Scott Hutchinson, R-Oil City, said their Senate Bill 604, also called the Social Media Accountability Act, would create a private right of action to allow residents to sue social media companies like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter for banning or censoring their account due to sharing religious or political beliefs on the platform.

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Pennsylvania Dems in Lockstep Against Election-Integrity Policy that Once Had Bipartisan Support

Bradley Vasoli

Legislation passed by the Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee on Tuesday would allow candidates and political parties to appoint poll watchers from any Pennsylvania county to any election precinct.

Under current law, candidates and parties may assign poll watchers—often party committee members or other volunteers—to election districts only within those poll watchers’ respective counties. The appointed watchers may make good-faith challenges to a voters’ identity, residence or voting eligibility.

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Pennsylvania Senate Panel Wants Citizens to Testify If They Witnessed Election Malfeasance

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The Pennsylvania Senate committee tasked with investigating instances of election malfeasance asked residents this week to submit their testimony for its review.

Intergovernmental Operations Committee Chairman Cris Dush, R-Wellsboro, said residents should only submit their stories if they are willing to sign an affidavit and potentially testify under oath, under penalty of perjury, before the panel during forthcoming hearings.

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Pennsylvania GOP Senators’ Internal Battle Over Imperiled Forensic Election Audit Goes Public

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An internal fight among legislators over a forensic election audit is spilling into public after Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, accused leaders in his own party of stonewalling his investigation.

The senator made the comments during a Thursday interview with One America News Network that he later doubled down on in a lengthy statement posted to his social media pages the following day.

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Fulton County, Pennsylvania Defends Post-2020 Election Audit and Right to Keep Voting Machines

Bradley Vasoli

Fulton County, Pennsylvania election officials are defending their decision to conduct an audit of the 2020 election in their jurisdiction and their right to continue use of their voting machines.

Attorneys from Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham LLP who are affiliated with an election-integrity nonprofit known as the Amistad Project, will be handling the case for the small county of about 14,500 residents, situated about 90 miles southwest of Harrisburg.

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Pennsylvania Punishes County That Allowed Audit of Vote Counting Machines

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The Pennsylvania Department of State decertified Fulton County’s voting machines on Wednesday after officials there participated in a third-party audit.

The voluntary probe came at the request of Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) who’s currently spearheading a larger effort to audit machines in Tioga, York and Philadelphia counties amid his ongoing campaign to ferret out fraudulent activity during the past two elections.

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Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano Initiates Forensic Investigation of 2020 Election

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Doug Mastriano

The Pennsylvania state senator who led a hearing on election fraud in Gettysburg, PA, last November, has initiated a “full forensic investigation” into 2020 election results in several counties.

Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano said in a statement that as chair of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, that he has issued letters to several counties representing “different geographical regions of Pennsylvania and differing political makeups,” requesting “information and materials needed to conduct a forensic investigation of the 2020 General Election and the 2021 Primary.”

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