BELLEVILLE–The Mifflin County Republican Committee hosted its spring banquet on Thursday evening at the Union Township Activity Center in Belleville.

The event featured presentations from several candidates who are currently running for office, including the Republican state representative candidates for the 82nd District, U.S. representative candidate for the 12th Congressional District, Doug McLinko, as well as the wife of U.S. Congressman Tom Marino, Edie Marino, and chairman of the State Committee, Val DiGiorgio.

Republican candidate for the position of Lieutenant Governor, Jeff Bartos, was also present in order to speak about his race for office alongside Scott Wagner, Republican frontrunner for Pennsylvania Governor.

“Scott’s vision was very much to beat Tom Wolf in this environment–we needed a strong team from day one,” said Bartos. “There’s not a lot of leaders out there in the political world who have the foresight to say, ‘Here’s what I’m great at, here’s what I’m strong at, here’s where I’m weak or where I need to work on things, and let me put a team together that compliments my strengths.’ That’s the kind of leader he is–he builds a great team around him, all rowing in the same direction.”

Bartos also spoke in regards to what he and Wagner believe to be the biggest challenges currently facing Pennsylvania, such as job security and affordable heathcare.

“Ultimately, in politics, in government, in public service, it all comes down to the economic well-being of the people of Pennsylvania,” Bartos stated. “At the end of the day, across the commonwealth, north to south, east to west, wherever I meet people, Scott will say the same thing, the number one issue that people are concerned about is their job. Will they have a job, what’s the security around their job, and will their children have jobs, their grandchildren have opportunities?”

“We’re running because we want our children and our grandchildren, and all of your children and grandchildren, to want to live in Pennsylvania,” Bartos said later.

Later in the evening, the state representative candidates for the 82nd District were each given approximately five minutes to share their thoughts and opinions on four key topics in state government: school safety, aid for small dairy farms, right-to-work in Pennsylvania and sanctuary cities. The candidates presented their ideas in the order that their names will appear on the ballot for the primary elections, beginning with Nicole Sherlock-King, followed by Joshua Fultz, Tracy Powell-Markle, Joe Ughetto II, Terrance Shepler, Jerry Leach, James Junkin, Beth Laughlin and John Hershey.

“School safety is of the utmost importance to me,” said Sherlock-King. “Ensuring that what happened in Florida, and so many other schools, never happens again will be one of my top priorities in office. To me, school safety starts with ensuring that our schools have the means to promote the well-being of our children.”

In regards to small farms and the milk industry, James Junkin, of Franklin County, stated, “Milk consumption has been going down in the United States for decades, and some of that has something to do with schools not using the product. The other thought is, let’s find alternative ways for the milk consumption–come up with fresh ideas to boost the consumption of milk and also look at exports.”

“Whoever wins this position is going to represent the entire 82nd District,” Laughlin later stated. “Different people, different ideas–we need to listen, we need to be accessible, we need to come to a compromise and we need to make good decisions.”

The primary election to determine which candidates will run for all partisan offices for Pennsylvania, including state representatives and governor, will be held on May 15, 2018, and the general election will take place on Nov. 6, 2018.