Tea Party group hosts candidates
Elections and voter registration director speaks on protocol
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LEWISTOWN -- The Mifflin County 9-12 Tea Party group hosted state representative candidates from the 82nd District, as well as various guests, during its April meeting on Tuesday night at the Mifflin County Library.
Zane Swanger, director of elections and voter registration for Mifflin County, was first to speak at the meeting regarding the upcoming election season as well as various voting protocols. After his presentation, Swanger also took a few moments to answer questions from the individuals in attendance.
After Swanger's presentation, Tea Party member Jim Smith mentioned that U.S. Congressman Tom Marino was invited to speak at the meeting, but was unable to attend. Instead, Lisa Nancollas was present in order to speak on Marino's behalf and provide some updates on Marino's work, such as his focuses on defense spending, school safety and mental health training, his pro-life stance and his address to rural broadband internet.
Later, the meeting featured presentations from state representative candidate for the 82nd District, Joseph Ughetto (R), of Mifflin County, as well as Doug McLinko (R), of Bradford County, a candidate for U.S. representative for the 12th congressional district. Both Ughetto and McLinko described their backgrounds as well as their platforms and areas of interest for their candidacies.
"I'm very concerned about our community here, I believe in this area, I believe we have a lot to offer," said Ughetto. "Change starts here with our own backyards. Moving forward I want to focus on our education system. We need to supply our teachers with better resources, more modern technology and more training. We need to prepare our future leaders and our future work force--our kids are our future and our top priority."
McLinko spoke in regards to a variety of issues including the opioid crisis, protection of the 2nd Amendment and his objection to Planned Parenthood. He also described the plans of operation that he would implement if elected to office.
"We're going to run a district as it should be run--it's grassroots," said McLinko. "We're going to work with our boroughs, we're going to work with our elected officials, we're going to work with the people that we love the most--and that's the people that we serve. It's going to be a district-first operation, period."
State representative candidate, John Hershey (R), of Juniata County, was also given the opportunity to speak in order to clarify issues that arose in regards to his residency and his eligibility to run for state representative. Hershey had previously lived in Virginia while serving on the legislative staff for U.S. Congressman, Charlie Dent (R-PA). After consulting with multiple election attorneys, Hershey stated that he is completely eligible to run for office.
"Its been unanimous among the attorneys that I've talked to that I am good to go for this seat," Hershey stated. "I told our party chairman in Juniata County that I would be happy to drop out of the race if I wasn't 100 percent sure that I was good to go and that remains the case."
The Mifflin County 9-12 Tea Party's next meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 8 at the Mifflin County Library. The group plans to host state representative candidate for the 82nd District, Nicole Sherlock-King (R), of Juniata County during the meeting and will announce other guests when they are confirmed.