Excellent speech by Sam Rohrer, please take a moment and read the whole thing.

PMA SEMINAR
The Metropolitan Club – December 12, 2009

** REMARKS AS DELIVERED **

Good morning, and thank you Fred for the kind invitation.
Let me begin by observing the obvious – Pennsylvania Society in 2009 isn’t at all like the other years.  I don’t think you’re going to hear too many jokes or one-liners from the podium this morning.

Our meeting has taken on a much more serious tone when we think about the headlines and sad images from Harrisburg this past year. Colleagues I served with.  Staffers who many of us know and even worked with.  One by one have now marched past the cameras – in handcuffs.

Last year, a lot those same people were down the street in tuxes or formal gowns – loving New York at Christmastime.
This year, life for them, their kids and their families sit in total chaos.

Some might glory in the fact that they got what they deserved.  But that’s not the attitude we should have. There’s no party on State Street. The climate in the Capital has soured. The General Assembly is paralyzed.
Not only is it sad for those who’ve been indicted and for the effect it’s had on the rest of the Assembly, but it’s been a devastating year for our state and to an entire generation of young Pennsylvanians who’ve had their worst stereotypes of politicians confirmed by these events.

My hat’s off to people like Senator Eichleberger for calling for the investigation into illegal bonuses, and General Corbett and his team for following the evidence trail, and getting this necessary but unpleasant process off to a good start these past many months. But Bonusgate investigations and convictions, while necessary, do not address the source of the problem.

So what is the real issue… the issue below the surface that’s at the heart of this whole mess?

There is a repeating cycle in Harrisburg that led to Bonusgate – and even to the 100 budget-less days and a dysfunctional state government this year.

Politics draws idealistic, smart legislators and staffers to Harrisburg to work for “a cause” – conservatives, progressives, libertarians – both parties – they really just want to ‘make a difference.’

But when they get there – to the Capitol – and take the oath or sign a contract to come and work, they immediately find a values system that’s upside down.

They meet the old bulls who tell them how the system really works. They tell them what they have to do to get ahead, how to raise money, and how to get the chairmanship. They’re told: “Don’t rock the boat.  Don’t get too crazy with your ideas. Stay in the middle lane.”

They find out that there is one, unstated value that’s more important than principles, or ideas, or duty or obligation to the citizens and to the Constitution they are sworn to support and to defend -  and that’s getting re-elected.
Sure, nothing new.  Old as politics.  But in Pennsylvania, the drive towards “getting re-elected” is all consuming and it keeps the big things, the really important things from getting done:

Fixing our schools.

Fixing a broken public education funding system.

Fixing a destructive property tax system.

Fixing the labor and regulatory climate for the handful of manufacturers that stayed.

Fixing the business tax and the legal climate to re-open our state for business.

Fixing a state pension system that is nothing short of a fiscal iceberg.

The big things don’t get done, because of the way Harrisburg runs.  The important things just get shoved into the future – just beyond the next election – for ‘someone else’ to worry about. But, they don’t ever go away!
And in the meantime, the problems only get worse, the options become fewer, and the solutions become more difficult.

That’s why the next governor can’t be formed from the same mold.  You and I know that. And the public won’t stand for it anymore.

In our party, Republicans in 2010 must learn from defeat after defeat at the state level that we can no longer choose our candidates because their autograph is worth something on EBay or they had a good run in the press on some issue.  We can no longer choose our candidates on some failed notion that ‘it’s just their time’ or that he or she has ‘earned the right’ to be considered.

Republicans in 2010 can’t nominate a candidate for Governor who doesn’t inspire the vision of the people at the grassroots level or fails to connect with their heart and soul – not with the registration deficit growing, and more and more voters checking that independent box – or searching for a viable third party.

Look around.  Republicans win when they come ready to solve problems.
John Kasich in Ohio, the free-market, conservative policy wonk from the 90’s is leading his opponent for governor by 9 points.  And it’s not because he’s got the prettiest face – it’s because of the strength of his ideas to grow jobs and fix the economy.

Bob McDonnell – a free-market conservative – wins in a landslide because of wild ideas like cutting taxes and reducing spending.

Then there is Mitch Daniels and Rob Portman and Marc Rubio and Bobby Jindal – comprehensive, movement conservatives who aren’t mean spirited, who don’t get personal, who are running and winning on the strength of their ideas.

Pennsylvania’s Republican voters aren’t inspired by our record lately. That’s why we’re bleeding voters.
When they smell old politics, they just sit out. And you can’t blame them. But, these are the ones that would be doing the work – putting up signs, making the calls, going door-to-door.   And these are the ones that are passionate about leadership that’s focused on fixing problems -  not just getting re-elected.

Friends, they’re prepared to sit this election out too if the Republican Party skips the vetting process – doesn’t put it’s candidate for Governor through the paces – and makes a recommendation based on some thin notion that name recognition alone or something that shallow polling may indicate at any given moment.

I know what these people want.  I’ve spoken to tens of thousands of them in the past few years – all across the state.

These are the folks who should make the decision on who carries the Republican banner into the fall.  And they will not settle for a candidate who just checks the right boxes on the issue questionnaire, or gives them a quiet signal that ‘we’re with you on your issue,’ but offers no passion or specific solution to lower taxes or tame the mandate and regulatory system or confront head-on the problem of expensive, but failing schools.

I’m running for Governor of Pennsylvania because the cause of my life – in 15 years of private industry – 17 years in the Capitol – has been working to expand freedom and opportunity to as many people possible urging my colleagues to focus our collective efforts on solving problems not just talking about them until after the next election.

I’m in this race because the four years that will follow next year’s monumental challenges need a governor who can set the right tone – tune out all the noise about re-election or interest group priorities, and for the sake of our families, our businesses and our very freedom- do what’s right.

That’s why I’m in this race.

Thanks for your kind attention, and Merry Christmas to all of you.

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