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On Sunday, May 18th, the Penn Manor Democratic Club held an Open House which featured Bruce Slater and Jose Urdaneta. Bruce is running for Joe Pitts' Congressional seat and Jose is the Democratic candidate for the 13th state senate seat being vacated by Gib Armstrong. The fundraiser was held at the home of Judy and Bill Saylor.

Penn Manor is a very active Democratic Club and has made major gains in both voter registration and Democratic turnout a t the polls. To learn more about Penn Manor Dems, click here. To view pictures of this event, click here.

Bruce Slater attended the Spring Event of the Chester County Democratic Committee with county, state and Congressional candidates and 300 committee people on Sunday, May 18th.

Bruce was introduced to the Committee by Senator Harrison Wolford. Bruce is pictured here with Philadelphia mayor, Michael Nutter. Nutter has spent a considerable amount of in Chester County building cooperative relationship to solve regional problems.

Slater said, "We in the 16th Congressional district must be a part of that regional development. Public transportation is key to reducing our dependency on foreign oil. And, increasing market share in the region for small farm produce will help preserve our ever decreasing farmland in Lancaster and Chester counties. Helping small farms to become financially viable is the best way to preserve farmland."

Slater also encouraged the Committee to unite behind the three Congressional candidates who will serve Chester County. Joe Sestak is currently serving in the U.S. House for the 7th district. Democrat Bob Roggio is running against Jim Gerlach in the 6th district. Bruce Slater is running against Joe Pitts for the 16th. View pictures of this event...

Last week, Joe Pitts voted to put free trade before American workers. by voting to force the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement through the House of Representatives.

Bruce Slater said of Pitts' vote, "Joe Pitts continually refuses to understand that supporting unrestrained free trade hurts small business and working families in the 16th Congressional district. I support the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives and their decision to delay this resolution."

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a plan to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them substitute high interest mortgages for affordable, federally backed mortgages. The House approved the plan by a vote of 266-154. Thirty-nine Republicans joined Democrats in backing the bill.

Representative Joe Pitts, who's congressional district includes all of Lancaster County, voted against the plan but was silent when the Administration bailed out a major investment firm six-weeks ago. Pitts views the bill as a bailout for irresponsible borrowers. Read more...

The new Slater for Congress Campaign Headquarters  will open May 1st, 2008 in downtown Lancaster located at the Brunswick Hotel on the corner of North Queen and West Chestnut Street. View map...

The new address for Slater Campaign Headquarters will be:

Bruce Slater for Congress
151 N Queen St.
Lancaster, PA  17603

Bruce Blasts Pitts for Medicaid Cuts at Pig Roast

Yesterday at the Pig Roast Fundraiser sponsored by the Garden Spot Democratic Club, Bruce Slater blasted Joe Pitts vote to support the Administration's plan to cut 13 billon dollars for the Medicaid program over the next 5 years.

Slater said, "We saw this with children's health insurance and now with Medicaid and Medicare. Health insurance providers fund his campaigns and he votes for them and against us."

"This is not being fiscally conservative, this is being self-serving and putting money into your own back pocket."

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to block the Bush Administration from cutting federal spending on Medicaid benefits for the poor by $13 billion over the next 5 years.  Two-thirds of House Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the bill which had 220 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. 

The proposed Bush White House cuts were opposed by all 50 State Governors.  The final vote in the House of Represent-atives was 369 to 62.  Congressman Joe Pitts voted to preserve the cuts.

Bruce Slater responded to Pitts' NO vote by saying, "Joe Pitts' vote to deny our poorest seniors Medicaid benefits is unconscionable. This is just one more vote that shows Pitts' disconnect with the needs of his constituency. There is no legitimate rationalization for continually voting for tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and for international corporations at the expense of the health of our senior citizens."

I would like to commend each and every Democratic voter who participated in the primary election on Tuesday. Over 53% of all registered Democrats voted in this presidential primary.  Only a quarter of registered Republicans bothered to vote. Over 80% of you on the Democratic side moved down the ticket to vote for me. Thank you. Read more...

Bruce Slater, the Democratic Candidate for Congress in the 16th district which covers all of Lancaster County and part of Berks and Chester Counties, out-polled Joe Pitts, the Republican incumbent, by 9000 votes.

Slater was helped by high Democratic voter turnout and relatively low Republican turnout. In some precincts, Democratic turnout was two and three times higher than that of Republicans.

However, Pitts has problems within his own party. Many Republicans withheld their votes for the 6-term congressman.

Republicans are displeased with his votes against child health insurance, his anti-environmental record, his support of the Bush War in Iraq and his abandonment of traditional fiscal conservatism. Pitts voted for the largest deficit creation budgets in history.

Slater said in an interview last evening, "I thank all the Democratic voters who voted for me today. But, we are facing a 1.8 to 1.0 Republican voter registration edge in Lancaster County and we must get the word out to our friends and neighbors who are Republican, many who share our values and issues. Joe Pitts votes against us. He votes against children, against retirees and against working families in our district consistently. The only way to stop the bleeding of our money from our pockets to his rich friends' hands, is to beat him in November."

Charles Melchior from Chester County has published an analysis of the economic impact of the Iraq War in an article that appears on www.newPA16.com.

Melchior states, "Our current list of national economic difficulties and governmental failures is a direct result of nearly 30 years of failed Republican policies. We are paying the price in many ways for our national love affair with slick, emotionally appealing Republican political rhetoric and candidates. We ignore the harsh reality behind the deceitful words." Read more...

The House of Representatives has passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, H.R. 5351, which will end unnecessary subsidies to Big Oil companies and invest in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Joe Pitts voted NO to this Bill, I support the legislation. Read more...

If you have not yet heard the name Bruce Slater, then get ready
by Jim Jones, West Chester

If you have not yet heard the name Bruce Slater, then get ready. That is about to change. He's running for the U.S. Congress against the incumbent Republican Joe Pitts.

Pitts is best known in the (West Chester) Borough for his "guest editorials" which appear regularly in the Daily Local News. They carry titles like "The Bush plan for fiscal sanity" (Mar. 13, 2001), "No weapons, but a weapons program" (Feb. 29, 2004), and "Freedom on the march once again" (Jan. 25, 2005). He also receives frequent praise from the Local for "protecting our cell phones" (June 9, 2004), visiting a mushroom farm (July 28, 2004), and in a rare instance of implied criticism for the Bush administration, for offering a "fix" for the Patriot Act (Aug. 8, 2006).

The Local also publishes plenty of letters criticizing Pitts, giving them headlines like "Pitts leaves questions unanswered" (Mar. 6, 2004), "Pitts, Christianity and abortion" (Jan. 11, 2005) and "Pitts out of touch with reality" (July 28, 2006).

Read more...

In League of Women's Voters Lancaster 2008 Voters' Guide, Bruce Slater stated, "The federal government needs to enact the National Health Insurance Bill (H.B. 676). I support its passage as soon as possible. 

"There are 47 million Americans without health coverage and millions more are inadequately covered.  This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans."

Joe Pitts favors private health care insurance, the current system that has left American's uninsured and paying more.

The highest rated health care system in the world is found in Japan. Japanese live longer and visit their doctor at a rate three times that of Americans. The Japanese system is universal and government regulated. The average cost of health care per family in Japan is equivalent to $280.00 per month. Read more from NPR...

Public schools, and other community institutions, must be considered essential to the future of our nation. To control local taxation and provide for our public schools, I believe that certain priorities must be set. Read more...

Representative Joe Pitts hit a 4-term high of 10 on his League of Conservation Voters ratings. Pitts’ LCV scores expose the real record behind the rhetoric: a lifetime pattern of voting with polluters and special interests or ducking the important votes. Read more about Bruce Slater's stand on the environment...

View Joe Pitts' record on the environment...

As he (Pitts) comes from an area dedicated to saving farmland, wilderness areas, historical buildings and towns, and now in the throes of facing the fact that the EPA has judged Lancaster County air unfit to breathe during several days of every summer, I'm shocked at his lack of responsible voting on serious environmental matters. Read more...

Debbie Franz, Lancaster County

The House of Representatives has passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008, H.R. 5351, which will end unnecessary subsidies to Big Oil companies and invest in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The bill will expand tax incentives for renewable electricity, energy and fuel, as well as for plug-in hybrid cars, and energy efficient homes, buildings, and appliances. These provisions will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. It will preserve existing jobs: a recent study showed that allowing the renewable energy incentives to expire would lead to about 116,000 jobs being lost in the wind and solar industries through the end of 2009.

Joe Pitts, the 16th district's Congressman, voted in lock-step with big-oil and his friends at the Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, which until recently he served on the Board of Directors. He voted no. Read more about the House legislation...

John McCain was the only Senator who two weeks ago chose to skip a crucial vote on the future of clean energy in America -- dooming the measure to fail by just a single vote. This is a pattern with Senator McCain. On the League of Conservation Voters scorecard he received a 0 for missing the 15 most important environmental votes in 2007. McCain's score of 0 is lower than members of Congress who died last year.

PA Senator Casey, on the other hand, has a 100 score for environmental legislation in 2007.  Senator Clinton voted positively on all environmental legislation but missed 4 votes, which lowered her score to 73.  Senator Obama voted positively on all but one of the environmental bills and missed 4 votes for a score of 67.

Representative Joe Pitts (PA-16) hit a 4-term high of 10 on his LCV ratings. Pitts’ and McCain’s LCV scores expose the real record behind the rhetoric: a lifetime pattern of voting with polluters and special interests or ducking the important votes.

View Joe Pitts' record on the environment...