Description of office: The General Assembly is the legislative branch of government in Pennsylvania. It is composed of two houses: the Senate is the upper house, and the House of Representatives is the lower house. A majority vote in both houses is necessary to pass a law. The PA Senate consists of 50 members, representing one district each, with an equal number of constituents. Senators must be at least 25 years old, have been a citizen and a resident of the state four years and a resident of their respective districts one year before their election, and shall reside in their respective districts during their terms of service. The Senate develops budget packages, makes taxation decisions, allocates spending, and passes laws (including redistricting in collaboration with the House of Representatives). In addition, the Senate tries officials impeached by the House and authorizes executive appointments. Senators serve on various policy committees that may propose legislation.Term: 4 years Salary: $113,591Vote for ONE.
County
Allegheny
Occupation
State Senator
Education
Community College of Allegheny County, Associate's Degree in Business
Qualifications
Held the seat since 2005
I hear often from my constituents about how property taxes are inconsistent, inequitable, and unfair.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that does not reassess on a standard, cyclical basis.
This dysfunctional system has created a situation in which fifty-four of our sixty-seven counties have not completed a reassessment in fifteen years or more, including ten counties that have not reassessed in 48 years.
That is why I introduced Senate Bill 567, that would require every county reassess once every five years.
Every other state has figured out how to do this and we need to fix this to make our property taxes more consistent and fairer to taxpayers.
In Pennsylvania, elections are conducted by the counties, with support from the Pennsylvania Department of State. Our counties have done a great job to ensure our elections have been free and fair.
Unfortunately, the Trump Administration continues to threaten to interfere with this year's election by sending ICE agents to our polling places.
I am confident that Governor Shapiro will take legal action if federal troops or ICE agents are dispatched to polling places because that would clearly violate federal and state laws against voter intimidation.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the country with a split legislature. Disagreement can be healthy for our democracy and yield better results for all of our constituents.
But disagreement can also lead to procedural paralysis, and that can result in budgets delayed for extended periods, like what happened last year.
It is important to begin communicating and meeting early in the process, and I am pleased to see that is already happening this budget year.
Yes, I support the Governor's proposals for purposeful and thoughtful data center permitting and siting standards. However, I do not support state-level preemption of municipal planning efforts. Communities must be able to make those decisions themselves without political interference from Harrisburg.
County
Allegheny
Occupation
Software Engineer
Education
B.S., M.S., Stanford University
Qualifications
I have held leadership roles in software companies of up to 40 employees. The challenges facing our state are highly technical, and we need leaders with the expertise to understand the issues and protect our communities.
Working families are barely scraping by, but the career politicians in Harrisburg only act to advance corporate interests. Our electric and water bills are skyrocketing because state policy prioritizes the profits of private utilities over those of us paying the bills. The affordable housing crisis is pushing people out of the communities they grew up in, but our leaders won’t fight back against the giant corporations monopolizing housing units. PRT is headed towards a financial cliff because our leaders haven’t acted to fund public transit since 2013. Ending tax exemptions for “skill games” and ridesharing companies would raise $600 million, but their lobbyists in Harrisburg give millions in campaign donations and the exemptions remain.
Pennsylvania must modernize its voting laws. We should allow same-day voter registration, and expand early voting options so that working people can cast their ballot on their own schedule. We should implement a process whereby voters can cure minor defects in their submitted ballots. Our state leaders must defend us against the federal government’s attempt to commandeer our elections. The president recently signed an executive order imposing onerous burdens on mail-in voting, in a transparent attempt to disenfranchise voters who disagree with him. Gov. Shapiro has shown resolve in defending Pennsylvanians from this federal overreach. We need leaders in the state legislature with the energy and backbone to join the governor in that fight.
Passing a budget is the most important duty of the state legislature. The career politicians in Harrisburg are incapable of it. During the 21-year tenure of the incumbent senator in the 42nd district, there have only been 7 on-time budgets. It has been late in each of the 4 years since he was last elected in 2022. Last year’s five-month-long shutdown (only the fourth-longest in the past decade) was devastating for our communities. Health clinics, public schools, food banks, and rape crisis centers were all forced to cut vital services. It was a disgrace. We should explore all options for improving this process, including withholding lawmakers' pay during a shutdown. But the most obvious solution is one we can do ourselves: vote them out.
Data centers are already costing Pennsylvanians $2 billion per year through our electric bills. Instead of regulating them, the career politicians in Harrisburg (including Democrats) vote to give them hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year. We must require data centers to pay their fair share, including paying for the upgrades to our grid infrastructure they’re necessitating. My technical expertise will position me to hold these corporations accountable. We must also equip municipalities to protect their water supply. The MPC was last updated in 1988 - it wasn’t designed to handle data centers. Far from interfering with local authority, we must update the MPC to give local leaders more authority to protect their communities.
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