I had the pleasure of speaking with Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor Valerie McDonald Roberts here in PA last night on the phone for forty-five minutes after a long day on the campaign trail which didn’t end for her until well after sunset. The race is for the #2 spot in the 6th most populated state in the country and she’s a very progressive/liberal person with a progressive political agenda. This position could be called a vanity position, but not with a person like McDonald Roberts at the post. Seeing progressive candidates in statewide races gives me hope and a sense that all is not lost. We’ve still got some great candidates to fight for.
McDonald Roberts is currently in her fifth year as the Allegheny County [Pittsburgh’s county] Recorder of Deeds and prior to that she served on the Pittsburgh City Council and was a member of the Pittsburgh School Board. Her background also includes experience as a teacher, small business owner, Fortune 500 employee, mother and chemist. She’d love to serve the state as an elected official and bring her progressive agenda to the other 11+ million residents of Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania is one of the few states which holds separate primary elections for the spot of Lt. Governor and Governor which McDonald Roberts says has its advantages and disadvantages. While it has been the tendency for the gubernatorial candidate to indicate who their preferred running mate is, it is not always the case and it wasn’t in 2002 where now Gov. Ed Rendell did not indicate a preference and the ensuing campaign was said to have more of a shotgun wedding feel to it. McDonald Roberts feels that the Lt. Governor, in addition to simply having a good working relationship with the Governor, s/he should also be philosophically in tandem as s/he could take over the position of Governor for one reason or another, she feels that she is in tandem with Gov. Rendell’s philosophies. It happened in 2001 when Tom Ridge was picked by President Bush to be the Secretary of Homeland Security. If the Democrats take a house of Congress and the Presidency in 2008, Gov. Rendell, the former chair of the DNC, could very well be picked by President X (D) for a cabinet position. On the upside, it allows the people to choose the ticket they feel best represents their views thereby empowering them. McDonald Roberts points to her experience in legislative and executive capacities as examples of her superiority as a Lt. Governor candidate.
I asked her about the two main duties of Lt. Governor: serving as chair of the state’s emergency services [PEMA] and chairing the Board of Pardons [parole board]. While she could not cite specifics as to how she would improve the inner workings of PEMA, she stated that she’d implement an initial assessment once in office to establish a boilerplate of the agency and map out where it needed to go from there, something she did when she was elected by 1.3 million voters to the office of Recorder of Deeds.
In regards to the growing problems of prisons becoming leeches of taxpayer money, McDonald Roberts said: “Tax dollars are always spent more wisely when you have a proactive approach.” which is similar to her thoughts on reforming education by taking a proactive role. Pennsylvania can work to reduce the number of people who enter the penal system through proactvie approaches like social service programs, outreach in churches, temples and other faith-based communities all in an effort to get to young people and get them motivated and constructive before they start committing crimes. But at the same time, she knows we must be reactive and deal with the issues as they stand. She calls for alternative measures for “softer” crimes, not so say that they should get off easy – she is clear that criminals must serve time for their crimes – but that keeping people in jail, unproductive and unnecessarily institutionalized is counterproductive.
McDonald Roberts is against mandatory sentencing and feels that cases should be dealt with on a case by case issue. She thinks that while there should be parameters for sentencing, there is a need for measures to be in place for equity and fairness in sentencing that is adjudicated, but that there is no need for mandatory sentencing rigidity. Calling on her background in science, she brought up the physics and how there is one true black [the absence of all wavelengths] and one true white [the presence of all wavelengths] with tons of grey in between. While something may look white, it isn’t really, it’s grey and while something may seem black, it too isn’t, it’s grey. And coming from an urban setting with violence, illiteracy kids dropping out of schools… McDonald Roberts understands the needs of the community and the dynamics that cause a person to commit crimes and end up in jail.
In particular, I brought up two large stories in two of Pennsylvania’s largest papers in regards to the ever growing elderly population across the U.S. and specifically here in PA. Recent articles in the Philadelphia Daily News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discuss whether or not elderly prisoners [those over the age of 55] should be removed from the penal system’s general population [there are currently almost 3,000 elderly inmates in PA]. McDonald Roberts said that prison should never become a home for those who are not a threat to society. They should not be institutionalized in jail if they can be productive back within society and that they should not be warehoused contributing nothing to society. McDonald Roberts thinks that the elderly should not remain in prison and through alternative housing with measures and monitors in place to ensure public safety of law abiding citizens is a way for inmates to be graduated back into society.
Changing gears to her thoughts on the increased role of the internet in politics, she said, “I think that [increased] internet access has been absolutely wonderful” and is incredibly glad to have such an amazing tool to use to reach out to groups of younger people, progressive people, people who have been disenfranchised and ostracized and tell them that they’re voters too and that they need to be involved in the process. She stressed the low-cost of internet outreach allows non-insiders, non-wealthy, good people, to reach out and have a viable campaign; the internet allows candidates to make serious inroads into communities without spending too much money which requires fundraising which takes away from the time the candidates can be out meeting their constituents.
In a Keystone Politics interview, McDonald Roberts said: “As President of the Senate I will ensure that parliamentary procedures are followed correctly and do what I can to bring transparency to this process” which brought to mind two things, the recent pay-raise scandal in Pennsylvania and her own transparency in listing her record of votes and positions for the past decade on her website. In regards to the pay-raise scandal [quickie recap, PA legislators gave themselves a pay-raise of 16% – 34% during a 2am vote on June 7, 2004 with no chance for public scrutiny; the pay-raise has since been repealed] as Lt. Governor, she would have spoken up on the process of the pai-raise [not the content of the legislation as the Lt. Governor is not responsible for that] as it was, in her opinion, a near violation of the Constitution as there needs to be public notice of any legislation that impacts the public’s checkbook. The current Lt. Governor did nothing. McDonald Roberts would have sought remedies and measures to defer the deliberation and the vote on the legislation; she would’ve pursued any legal means to stop it until a proper public notice was given.
McDonald Roberts is a strong advocate for reform, especially in regards to more transparency in government. Her listing of her votes and positions, when many municipalities don’t even keep proper records let alone make them available to the public, is admirable. With the bully pulpit of Lt. Governor which would make her the President of the Senate, she would opine about certain issues like transparency in government and a need for constitutional reform. She would defiantly challenge attempts at legislation which thwarted the Constitution as it would be her duty to do so as convener of the Senate.
As a mother to seven, former teacher and City School Board Member, McDonald Roberts has had more experience than most with the educational system. She knows firsthand that the under funded mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act is unreasonable. She argues that the NCLBA does not accommodate all kinds of children noting that education is not an exact science, but a fluid one changing with the children it serves. McDonald Roberts is an advocate of adequacy in funding, not just equity. The state must step in and help local schools especially in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. It is common sense that a poor neighborhood will not have the tax base of a rich one, the state must step in and help level the playing field as the poorer neighborhoods do not produce less smart children, they are just as capable, but they need more resources in the form of breakfast and after school programs, tutoring and smaller classrooms [something every economic class benefits from]. McDonald Roberts notes that Gov. Rendell’s plan to use gambling revenues to reduce property taxes and help with education is a good idea, she wants to set education as a priority on the lists.
Gun violence and violent neighborhoods also effect a child’s ability to learn. In municipalities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, gun violence is the most pressing issue at hand with homicide by handgun on the rise each year. McDonald Roberts does not think that it is fair for Harrisburg to paint a broad brushstroke in it’s legislation of gun laws. One size does not fit all: no two communities, no two school districts, no two populations are alike and the differences between the levels of gun violence in Philadelphia and rural Clarion County are like night and day, McDonald Roberts sees these differences. She thinks that urban areas like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh should be given the latitude and flexibility to address their communities concerns and create more stringent gun laws and protect their law abiding citizens. In addition, she is in favor of gun owners reporting lost or stolen guns and aid law enforcement in keeping tabs on illegal gun activity as it is the illegal guns that are the problem, not the properly registered and maintained guns and their owners.
In the same Keystone Politics interview, McDonald Roberts stated “Elected officials must be able to see past their moment in history, to look ahead and accept new ideas, new ways of doing things. The only way we better ourselves and our communities is to add new ideas into the mix.” She explained that she had always felt this way as a result of personal experience. She had seen first hand: discrimination, unfairness, inequity, injustice; she grew up with the need for new ideas. We as a people progress through new ideas, better ideas, fresh ideas. McDonald Roberts points out that holding on to tradition just for the sake of tradition will stagnate you and will become regressive after awhile and when tradition no longer serves people, you have to move on to something new. New ideas, progressive ideas are in Valerie McDonald Roberts’ blood. Coupled with proven leadership and experience in various fields she is an incredible public servant and the state of Pennsylvania would benefit from her leadership just as the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County has for the past seventeen years.
Information was gathered mainly from the following sources:
X-posted @ MyDD, PhillyFuture, my place, Young Philly Politics.
