Democrat PA Senate Candidate Anne Henning Scheuring would appreciate you just giving her the job and not asking too many questions in the meantime, if that’s OK.  She knows she’s for changing Harrisburg. As for the specifics, well she’d like you to know she’ll figure it out when she gets there.

Pensions for public employees will face a crisis in 2011, according to Mensch. He said the remedies will likely include a reduction in benefits from the state, an increase in individual contributions or a combination both.

Scheuring said she was unfamiliar with the the issue, but vowed to study it when she got to Harrisburg.

I’m all for a “hands-off approach” to government from the municipal to the federal level.  It’s when you get to the “disinterested approach” to government that things get a little iffy for me.

Scheuring is involved in a three-way special election on September 29, competing with Republican Bob Mensch and Libertarian Barbara Steever to fill the state Senate’s 24th District seat vacated by Rob Wonderling. The 24th District contains towns in Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh and Northampton Counties.

Looking for some information about Scheuring’s positions on other major state issues? Don’t bother with her web site, where you’ll be greeted with a picture of the 64-year-old looking very Senatorial in a tank-top and above-the-knee miniskirt before making yourself crazy searching for anything other than well-worn platitudes and cliches.

And if you want to check into Scheuring’s public record, don’t bother.  It starts in January 2008, when she began serving on the council in Landsdale.

The Democrat chairs the Lansdale Borough Council Library Committee and the Parks and Recreation Committee and co-founded the Economic Development Committee, which endeavors to entice new businesses to the borough’s downtown area.
[...]

She spends the rest of her time as a homemaker and a volunteer, holding leadership positions on the Lansdale Historical Society the Restoration of Jenkins Homestead and the Holiday History Tour. But she’s enthused about the chance to represent the 24th Senate district.

Oh, she’s enthused all right. So enthused, in fact, that she has refused to participate in debates or joint interviews with her opponents, Republican Bob Mensch and Libertarian Barbara Steever.

Scheuring has spurned invitations to debates and candidate forums offered by WNPV-AM, the Upper Bucks and Upper Perkiomen Valley Chambers of Commerce, the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, PBS Channel 39 and WFMS Channel 69, according to Peterson.

In contrast, Mensch, a Montgomery County state representative, and Libertarian candidate Barbara Steever have accepted invitations from these same organizations, said Peterson Tuesday.

The newspaper could not reach Scheuring or any official from her campaign by e-mail or phone.

Probably the single best indicator of how poorly run Scheuring’s campaign has been is how it forced The Intelligencer, one of the Bucks County newspapers run by lefty Calkins Media, to begrudgingly endorse her pro-life, pro-gun Republican opponent.

Scheuring was more or less drafted to run for the seat on the Democratic side, and her lack of knowledge of state issues showed during our interview. Though clearly sincere, she tended to speak in generalities (her recurring themes were common sense and accountability), and when pressed on specifics, her answers were uninformed and inconsistent. She admitted she has a lot to learn. Nothing wrong with such an admission, but we expected a candidate who was better prepared.

She also scored negatively with our board for her refusal to participate in a series of Chamber of Commerce-sponsored debates with her two opponents. Her reason: She thought the debates would be too political. But this is politics we’re talking about, isn’t it?

[...]

As for Steever, she similarly answered the Libertarian Party’s call for a volunteer to run, and is likewise to be commended. A self-described Democrat for whom the party has drifted too far to the left, Steever was very honest in noting that she had no plans to enter the race, has no illusions of winning and joined the fray primarily to call attention to certain issues near and dear to her heart. On one such issue, the proposed National Animal Identification System that would be administered by the states, she spoke eloquently in opposition. (She owns horses.)

[...]

That leaves Bob Mensch, who has our endorsement to take over for Wonderling and serve as the Senate voice for people in the 24th District.

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Tagged

2009 Election, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Senate