Well, that didn’t take long.
Last week, Governor Tom Wolf revealed he created a new PAC to help him in the upcoming legislative battles.
Rebuild Pennsylvania, the new organization led by Mike Mikus, isn’t wasting any time.
Today they sent out an email criticizing conservative champion State Sen. Scott Wagner. The basis of the message, titled “Scott Wagner’s Tired of Saving the Children”, was a quote that came from a tweet by the Morning Call’s Steve Esack.
Sen. Scott Wagner, R, says he's tired of 'saving the children' talk when education debate is about school construction costs
— Steve Esack (@sesack) June 28, 2015
“Pennsylvania parents would be shocked to discover that their children are irrelevant in the education debate as Senator Scott Wagner suggests,” Rebuild Pennsylvania spokesman Mike Mikus said. “Scott Wagner’s outrageous comments show that the Republicans in Harrisburg will say just about anything to explain away their refusal to fund our public schools.”
“Since Senator Scott Wagner is calling the shots in the Republican Caucus, every GOP Senator needs to go on the record as to whether or not they agree that children didn’t matter when they crafted their sham of a budget,” Mikus challenged.
Unsurprisingly, Sen. Wagner was not enthused to find himself the target of the latest budget battle.
“This is a pathetic and transparent attempt to mischaracterize Scott’s remarks,” Sen. Wagner’s Chief of Staff Jason E. High told PoliticsPA. “What Scott actually said in the committee is that he’s tired of the people that are defending the status quo, like the Governor and his union allies, claiming that it’s ‘for the children.’ He went on to explain that we need to address the cost drivers such as pensions, prevailing wage, etc, or else the money isn’t going to get to the kids.”
“Mr. Mikus is either incapable of understanding the argument, or he’s being willfully dishonest,” he concluded.
All the while, the State Senate continues to debate the proposal passed by the House that the Governor has threatened to veto.
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9 Responses
Well done!!! Wagner is spot on. I’m behind you Senator!!!
I understand what Scott Wagner was saying in the Committee and totally agree with him! We have heard the mantra “its for the children” for years and years. If action was truly taken for the childrens’education, we would not be confronted ontinually with requests for more and more money for education, oops, “for the children”! Geting the pensions under control and teaching the rudiment ABC”s, plus American history, Governement,Civics and the like will definitely be “for the children”.
Tom Balya-
I certainly don’t see any problems with Mike’s voting history. But, it appears that yet another anonymous poster with an ax to grind has tried to make a point he can’t/hasn’t backed up.
But, I think the “What does that have to do?” from Plubius is that he doesn’t trust Mikus because he believes Mikus has been “willfully dishonest” in other areas (namely voting registration). Clearly, Plubius considers Mikus a bad choice.
It sounds like his grudge against Mikus may be a bit personal. Maybe he was one of those “members of the party” that feels attacked.
But, posting anonymously isn’t going to win the argument.
The issue isn’t Mike Mikus’ voting history. What does that have to do with education funding in PA? That’s what’s wrong, too many people distracted with non-issues because the substantive ones require actual thinking. Mikus isn’t casting any votes that affect public policy, but Wagner is casting those votes.
It’s no secret that the Republican establishment hates Wagner more than the Democrats ever could, but now he’s “calling the shots” in the Republican caucus?
Imagine how much better off we’d be if that were true!
I seem to recall Gov Wolf’s spokesman, Jeff Sheridan, saying just the other day that Sen Wagner was a non-factor and now the Wolf PAC is targeting Wagner. Which is it?
Plubius-
I checked Mikus’s voter record. He is currently registered in Allegheny county, and voted in the May Primary. He shows a “gap” in his voting record for Nov 2013, May 2014 and Nov 2014, and a solid voting record for the previous half-dozen elections.
Without checking the voter files for 2014 (a pain to retrieve and search), I can’t say if he was registered elsewhere and recently returned to Allegheny, or was just out-of-town/unavailable on election day working on a campaign.
If he had dropped his Allegheny registration and registered elsewhere, and then re-registered in Allegheny, his Allegheny history might likely have been lost. Since his history is present (and you haven’t given me a good reason to check 2014 data archives), I can’t confirm your allegations against him.
If you have additional knowledge/information (like where you claim he registered), please provide it to back up your assertions and aspersions. Specifically, where you think/claim he registered (county?).
If you are going to accuse someone of wrong-doing, then post under your own name and back it up, instead of hiding behind an alias.
It’s just an email. Not sure the purpose or the target audience. Either way it’s about as persuasive as accusing him of eating cats.
Incapable of understanding the argument of being willfully dishonest? Given Mikus track record of falsifying his address for purposes of registering to vote in an election and attacking members of his own party, it’s not a tough call. If the governor is hoping to use his new pac for purposes of persuading opponents and advancing his agenda and this is the person whom the governor is relying upon to het that done, it’s going to be a long hot summer. Not a good fit for that particular job at all.