Blue Pennsylvania: Tracy Pennycuick Takes on Tracy Pennycuick

In the past nine months, data centers have migrated from obscurity to being the bête noire of all political issues.  The vast majority of Pennsylvania voters oppose data centers being built in their community, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in July.  Under this backdrop, Republican State Senator Tracy Pennycuick spent over $7000 for a 15-second Facebook ad about her opposition to Big Tech by successfully stripping fast-track language from SB 939, a data center bill that was in committee.

The ad says, “ Big Tech wants to use secret deals to force data centers into our towns.  Tracy Pennycuick removed the fast-track language, stopped the bill in her committee, and is fighting to give our communities the final say in stopping data centers.” 

What the ad does not say is that Tracy Pennycuick was a co-sponsor of the original bill.  So, in other words, Tracy Pennycuick has taken the brave move of opposing her own legislation.

Meanwhile, you may have seen the television ad denigrating Pennycuick’s Democratic opponent – Chris Thomas.  The short ad says, “Chris Thomas wants to be state senator.  But ethics records prove Thomas is paid by real estate developer Gilmore and associates, the same developer bankrolling his campaign.  Chris Thomas’s real bosses are data center developers.  Not us.

If you look up Gilmore and Associates on the web, you learn that it is a worker-owned business with about 200 employees, concentrated in the following areas of work: Community planning, construction engineering, environmental, geographic information systems, geotechnical, landscape architecture, land surveying, municipal engineering, site planning and design, structural and forensic, transportation, water resources.

Nowhere does the company claim to be a real estate developer – and certainly not one building data centers.  What is known is that Gilmore and Associates did provide some consulting services for one of Amazon’s data center proposals in Bucks County, and that Thomas had provided some consulting to Gilmore and Associates, although it is unclear what project Thomas was working on.

What can you do?

In the meantime, this coming Tuesday, September 8, Blue Pennsylvania will be hosting Tuesday postcard writing at the Highpoint Allen Lane Train Station from 1 - 3 pm, where we will be writing postcards for Chris.  Below is a list of our state senate targets for this postcard writing campaign.  As I have stressed in previous emails, we have a Democratic majority in the state house, and we are only two seats away from having a majority (with Austin Davis as the deciding vote) in the senate.  That means we are only two senate seats away from cleaner air and water, good public schools and transportation, sensible gun laws, and affordable health and housing.

PA Senate

Candidate (Democrat)	District	Count(y/ies)	Incumbent (Republican)
Eileen Harnett Albillar	SD-6	Bucks	Frank Farry
Mark Pinsley	SD-16	Bucks/Lehigh	Jarrett Coleman
Chris Thomas	SD-24	Berks/Montgomery	Tracy Pennycuick

One Final Word

The passing of Dolly Parton last week has rekindled awareness about her Imagination Library, which sends free books each month to children under five.  Currently, about 75,000 Pennsylvania children participate in this program, with the help of local non-profits. 

While this is an impressive number, many more children could use such help.  Over half of the states have contributed to the Imagination Library since its founding in 1995.  Oddly enough, not Pennsylvania.  A state House bill, which passed the chamber by a 116-87 vote last December, seeks to remedy this.  The state senate, however, has acted neither on the house bill nor on it’s own bill since the house vote.

You may want to contact your state legislators to find out what is happening with this legislation, but it would be hard to find a better way to celebrate the good work of an American icon like Dolly Parton, than by participating in this wonderful program.

Thanks,

Coleman