Politics PA

KEMPTON, Pa. – When U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach withdrew from the governor’s race last week, Republican leaders said the party could now unite behind the presumptive nominee, Attorney General Tom Corbett.

For supporters of state Rep. Sam Rohrer, including 175 people who turned out last night at a fire hall in this rural area of Berks County, that apparent dismissal of Rohrer’s candidacy smacked of more than disrespect for the veteran legislator, best known for his long crusade against school property taxes.

For a network of antitax activists across the state, it signaled that the GOP leadership was also ignoring what they see as the political mood of 2010, one more against big government than at any other time in years.

“I, for one, am sick and tired of the party bosses telling me who I can vote for,” said David Baldinger, leader of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations, who attended the town-hall meeting with Rohrer last night. “It makes my blood boil.”

Mike Fogarty, member of a former taxpayer alliance in the Coatesville Area School District, put his feelings this way Monday: “They’re writing off Sam Rohrer so they can get the old-school guy in there. They’re not listening to the public.”

From John J. McCartney, leader of an antitax group in southern Lancaster and Chester Counties, came this: “Certainly, Corbett is the more recognized name in Pennsylvania. Sam Rohrer is not that well-known statewide. But I don’t believe name recognition qualifies you for the job of governor.”

The man who has inspired this passion is a bespectacled, soft-spoken 54-year-old in a blue suit and crisp white shirt who grew up on a farm in eastern Ohio. He went to Bob Jones University in South Carolina and came to Pennsylvania because he married a woman from Media, with whom he now has six children. He worked for a couple of years as a radio station manager, then became marketing director for a company that makes children’s furniture.

Elected to the state House in 1992 from a district that abuts Reading, he quickly established himself as the legislature’s number-one foe of the school property tax, which he says is crippling homeowners, especially in poor districts that often have the highest tax rates.

In each legislative session since 2004, Rohrer has introduced House Bill 1275, which he has dubbed the School Property Tax Elimination Act. Unlike some other efforts to wipe out the real estate levy, he says, his bill is fiscally responsible.

Read the full Inquirer article here

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Tags: Sam Rohrer

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