Maybe nothing in politics attracts candidates like an open elected office.
State Rep. Aaron Kaufer’s sudden January announcement that he’s bowing out after 10 years in Harrisburg produced the usual aftermath.
Five candidates – two Democrats and three Republicans – want to take over the 120th House District seat. Four – Democrats John Morgan and Fern Leard and Republicans LeeAnn and Patrick Musto – have run for office before. This is Brenda Pugh’s first run for office.
Leard, 39, of Dallas Twp., who grew up in Scranton, lost to Kaufer in 2022. She was a certified nursing assistant, but volunteers as an advocate for children with learning disabilities. She is not currently employed because she’s running for office.
She touted her years of advocacy for a federal law requiring insurance companies to cover treatment for lymphedema, a disease that affects a body’s lymphatic system.
Leard contends her lobbying for the law taught her a lot about government.
“My ability to work across the aisle and my ability to step back and see things from different perspectives, in addition to my education in political process, I believe, makes me a great candidate for the job,” she said.
Leard said she will make controlling price gouging a top priority by increasing fines on companies guilty of the practice. She will also advocate for fairer funding for public schools and more money for first responders.
McDermott, 54, of Kingston Township, is a Luzerne County Council member. She was first elected in 2019 and re-elected last year. She and her husband co-own a township real estate appraisal company.
“I have the experience with legislating and doing the budget,” McDermott said. “Obviously, I'm conservative, but being on county council, I have worked with both sides of the aisle to get things done to try to make the county better … But I do believe I've done a good job and I will continue that in the state House.”
McDermott said affordable housing, voter ID and school choice will top her priority list.
Morgan, 48, of Exeter, is borough council vice president and emergency management director. The council appointed him to fill a vacancy in 2010, and he won four-year terms in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023.
He once ran a food truck and installed communications wire. More recently, he worked as a clerical assistant at the State Workers Insurance Fund. He gave up that job in February to run for office. He has served as Exeter’s representative on the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority since 2019.
Morgan said his varied experiences qualify him to be a representative because he’s learned to work with various levels of government.
“I always answer everybody’s phone calls whether people have not had trash picked up, recycling, sewer laterals collapsing at their houses,” Morgan said.
Morgan said his top priorities will be “the three things that I talk about all the time” _ public safety, public school education and fixing roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Musto, 74, of Dallas Township, co-owns Tuft-Tex Flooring in Plains Township. First elected in 2015, he’s serving his third term as a Dallas school director.
His business experience and service on the school board prepared him to be a representative, he said. School funding is a large part of the state budget and he’s worked on plenty of school budgets, he said.
Musto said eliminating school property taxes will top his priority list.
Pugh, 57, of Dallas Township, is the majority owner and CEO of AMP Global Strategies, a Shavertown company that installs computer systems in police cars and security systems in buildings. She’s chairwoman of the Dallas Area Fall Fair and president of the Back Mountain Chamber of Commerce.
Pugh said her community involvement and business experience qualify her to serve as a representative.
“I've always been one of those people that actions speak louder than words,” she said. “Sitting on the sidelines and complaining doesn't always get this job done.”
She said tackling inflation by lowering property taxes, controlling illegal immigration and public safety will be her top priorities.
The 120th district consists of Dallas, Exeter, Franklin, Jackson and Kingston townships and Courtdale, Exeter, Forty Fort, Kingston, Luzerne, Pringle, Swoyersville, West Wyoming and Wyoming boroughs.
Representatives serve two-year terms and will earn $106,422.33 in the current session of the General Assembly, but that will rise Dec. 1 based on inflation.
WVIA News contacted the candidates to explain their positions on issues. Here are their answers:
ABORTION
LEARD: Favors a woman’s right to choose an abortion and opposes altering the state’s 24-week limit. Favors eliminating the spousal notice requirement and allowing properly trained nurse practitioners to perform abortions.
“I firmly believe that it's none of our business. It's between a woman and her doctor or her family or what have you,” she said.
MCDERMOTT: Opposes abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or to save the mother’s life. Favors shortening the time after which abortions are banned to four months from the current six months.
MORGAN: Favors a woman’s right to choose an abortion and opposes altering the state’s 24-week limit.
“I would just leave it up to the woman, her doctor and her clergy as what she does with her body,” he said.
MUSTO: Opposes abortion and believes life begins at conception.
“I feel that abortion should take place, if the mother is at risk, or it's a result of rape or incest,” he said.
PUGH: Opposes abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or to save the mother’s life. With technology improving the chances of viability outside the womb, believes it might be time to reduce the 24-week time limit on abortions.
EDUCATION
PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING:
LEARD: Favors developing a fairer school funding formula, especially for special education.
“We haven't been equitably or adequately funded. The quality of our education depended on our zip code,” she said. “Every child should have the chance at a good quality public education and our job (is) to provide the foundation … that our children are going to grow from.”
Favors renewed auditor general oversight of school spending.
MCDERMOTT: Says she must further research the issue, but believes some schools already have advantages over others.
MORGAN: Favors fair funding because she believes it’s long overdue. Favors spending more on upgrading or replacing old school buildings.
MUSTO: Favors fair funding but believes developing the proper formula will be difficult without a “hold-harmless clause,” which means no district loses funding under the new formula.
PUGH: Favors fair funding because many rural schools are underfunded.
SCHOOL PROPERTY TAXES:
LEARD: Acknowledges that as a nursing assistant, she met many elderly residents worried about losing their homes to high property taxes. Opposes raising sales taxes to lower the property taxes but wants to work on a solution.
MCDERMOTT: Favors reform and maybe lowering property taxes by increasing the sales tax.
MORGAN: Wants to further research lowering property taxes by increasing the sales or income taxes or both.
MUSTO: Favors eliminating property taxes by raising the sales tax. Believes people can choose not to pay a sales tax by not buying a product, but don’t have the same choice with a property tax.
PUGH: Favors taking a serious look at lowering property taxes by increasing the sales tax. Generally opposes a higher income tax, but may be willing to hike it to lower property taxes as long as the hike applies only at higher income levels.
SCHOOL CHOICE/CHARTER SCHOOL REFORM
LEARD: Opposes school choice because charter and private schools don’t have the same costs as public schools.
“There is so much room for exploiting that,” she said. “They don’t need to adhere to some of the federal laws in regard to special education that a public education would do. And all of the students that don’t get to take advantage of it are left behind in a school that was already woefully underfunded.”
Favors reforming charter school funding to reflect actual costs.
MCDERMOTT: Favors school choice, arguing taxpayer dollars should follow a student to the chosen schools. Says she can’t comment on charter school reform without doing more research.
MORGAN: Opposes school choice, but if it exists the charter schools should test students and meet the same academic standards as public schools.
MUSTO: Favors school choice because he believes students should be able to learn in the setting that best suits their needs.
PUGH: Wants to further research charter school reform, but says the schools’ teachers work just as hard as public school teachers.
Favors school choice.
“I think the funding should follow the child,” she said. “I feel it creates competitiveness among the schools to do better.
ELECTION REFORM/TERM LIMITS
LEARD: Favors better voter education and eliminating unnecessary restrictions that lead to votes not counting. Has no problem with requiring voter to show ID the first time voting at a precinct but sees no need to produce one each election.
Doubtful about term limits because experienced legislators often teach new legislators about issues and that training could fall into the hands of lobbyists.
“I do acknowledge that lifelong politicians are a problem,” she said.
MCDERMOTT: Favors requiring voters to show identification when voting.
“When I have to go and buy Allegra-D (an allergy medicine) from the pharmacy, I have to show an ID. I think that you should … show it when you go to vote,” she said.
Favors banning ballot drop boxes.
Favors limiting representatives to no more than 10 years in office.
MORGAN: Opposes voter ID and thinks the current mail-in balloting and voting systems work well.
“I think we should make it easier to vote, not harder,” he said.
Opposes term limits.
“I have no problem with people staying … as long as they’re bringing money back to their communities, making their community safer and creating jobs for ... families and stuff like that,” he said.
Says voters can always vote someone out of office.
MUSTO: Favors eliminating no-excuse mail-in balloting and returning to exclusively in-person voting, except for absentee balloting with a valid excuse.
Favors requiring voters to show identification when voting.
“We need an ID card for almost everything we do today. And I don't know why we don't have one for a voter,” he said.
Favors limiting state representatives to no more than eight years in office.
PUGH: Favors voter ID.
“We had to go get REAL ID to fly on an airplane. We can't do anything in life. We can't drive a car. We can't do anything in life without an ID,” she said. “I think that is one key way to start bringing back some sort of confidence in our elections.”
“I’m okay with mail-in ballots as long as we have voter ID,” she said.
Favors banning drop boxes.
Favors limiting representatives to no more than 10 years in office.
“I like to see new ideas. I think things get stagnant. And we get stuck in our ways in and day to day things taking place. I think term limits are a fantastic idea,” she said.
EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT
LEARD: Favors replacing per-diem expense reimbursements for legislators with reimbursements based on actual expenses and receipts. Favors banning all gifts to legislators.
MCDERMOTT: Favors replacing per-diem expense reimbursements for legislators with reimbursements based on actual expenses and receipts.
MORGAN: Favors replacing per-diem expense reimbursements for legislators with reimbursements based on actual expenses and receipts if the state General Assembly approves that.
Would have no problem banning gifts to legislators.
MUSTO: Favors replacing per-diem expense reimbursements for legislators with reimbursements based on actual expenses and receipts. Favors a ban on gifts to legislators.
PUGH: Favors replacing per-diem expense reimbursements for legislators with reimbursements based on actual expenses and receipts. Favors banning all gifts to legislators.
GUN RIGHTS:
LEARD: Favors requiring universal background checks for gun ownership and banning ghost guns. Has doubts about red flag laws because defining mental illness is tricky.
MCDERMOTT: Opposes further gun regulation.
“Prosecutors need to enforce the laws that are on the books and be able to work with what we have,” she said.
MORGAN: Favors universal background checks and banning assault weapons and ghost guns.
“I (believe in) responsible gun ownership that these should be secured and safe and stuff like that,” Morgan said. “But I don't necessarily know if you need to kill a deer with an AK-47. They should be registered.”
MUSTO: Opposes further gun regulation. Might be willing to consider universal background checks but leans against it because he fears creating a federal registry.
PUGH: Opposes further gun regulation.
“Every time we start messing with the gun rights, all we're doing is affecting the law -biding gun owners,” she said.
MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION:
LEARD: Favors legalizing and taxing marijuana.
“I think we are missing out on a lot of revenue,” she said. “I think that we would see our stats in crime would go down because then it would no longer be a crime to have it.”
MCDERMOTT: Opposes legalization for recreational use for now because she believes more study is required, including what’s happening in other states where it’s already legal. Says developing standards for allowable blood levels is essential.
MORGAN: Opposes legalization for recreational use for now “until we can evaluate the pros and cons of the medical marijuana treatment program.”
“I think we have to have a plan in place before we just all of a sudden, say we're going to legalize it,” he said.
MUSTO: Opposes legalization because he considers marijuana a gateway to harder drugs.
PUGH: Opposes legalization at least as long as federal law outlaws it and would probably oppose even after it’s nationally legal.
“I would not legalize the drug that would potentially give our youth easier access to it while their brains are still developing,” she said.
MINIMUM WAGE:
LEARD: Favors gradually increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
“I don't believe that $15 is enough. But I do think that it's a reasonable compromise,” she said.
MCDERMOTT: Favors gradually raising the minimum to $10 an hour, then re-evaluating after a few years to determine if another increase is necessary.
MORGAN: Favors gradually increasing the minimum to $15 an hour.
“If you have people making more money, they could be home with their kids, they're not working two and three jobs,” he said. “It'd be good for the economy, people have more money to spend. Maybe they can go for a pizza or an ice cream or something like that.”
MUSTO: Opposes raising the minimum because he believes that “is a job killer.”
PUGH: Opposes raising the minimum because mostly high school and college students take jobs paying the minimum and learn character and a work ethic that way. Says most jobs pay far above the national $7.25 an hour minimum.
“The market has taken care of it,” she said.
NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION TAX:
LEARD: Favors the tax and says it’s crazy Pennsylvania is one of the only drilling states without one.
MCDERMOTT: Opposes the tax because she fears it would drive gas producers out of the state.
MORGAN: Says he would have to study the issue more before deciding.
MUSTO: Opposes the tax because he believes it would discourage drilling and raise the price consumers pay.
