POTTSTOWN — The rivals for Pennsylvania’s 146th House District seat faced off in front of a crowd of about 40 people at the Ricketts Community Center on Thursday night.
Incumbent Democrat Joe Ciresi and Republican challenger Mike McCloskey answered questions from the audience and the Pottstown Chapter of the NAACP, which sponsored the event.
Topics discussed included redevelopment and revitalization in the district, homelessness, the local economy, education funding, abortion, the minimum wage, trans high school athletes, gun violence, political animosity, and political ethics.
McCloskey, who has served for six years as a Limerick Township Supervisor, started by saying “I am not a politician, I’m just me.” He is also a “local volunteer, leader and employer, and “don’t take no for an answer,” he said.
Ciresi, who is running for his third two-year term, noted “once you get elected, you’re a politician,” and focused on his accomplishments in office, including “a record level of funding for school districts in the 146h,” which resulted in a tax rebate in Pottstown. “That has been my fight since I got to Harrisburg,” he said.
On the subject of homelessness, McCloskey said it is often related to one or a combination of three major problems, drug addiction, mental illness, or losing a job. Pottstown has a higher homeless population, he said, because of the record number of recovery homes in the borough; “more than any other municipality in Montgomery County.” And when some in those homes, start to use again, they are thrown out and end up on the streets of Pottstown.
Ciresi agreed. “There are too many of these places in Pottstown. The county has to do more. He praised McCloskey for his strong support for Beacon of Hope, the non-profit organization working to build a 24-hour shelter at the corner of High and Glasgow streets. “We must help. We have to work as a community,” he said.
“It should not be the burden of one of the poorest municipalities in Montgomery County. When Lower Merion, and Gladwyn and Springfield build homeless shelters, then come talk to me about what Pottstown is doing,” said Ciresi.
McCloskey said for revitalization to occur, it’s necessary to get developers, long-time residents, newer residents and local government “on the same page and put the egos in the back seat. We have to do more than build breweries, distilleries and posh hotels. You don’t build the roof first, you build the foundation first. This town could be the Picasso of Montgomery County, easily.”
Ciresi responded to one question by noting that the House voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, but the Senate, which has a Republican majority, will not take it up for a vote. However, he acknowledged that provisions have to be made to protect smaller businesses from the impacts of a higher minimum wage.
McCloskey said not only is it impossible to live on $7.25 an hour, it is nearly as hard to do it at $15 an hour. In his business, he said, “I’ll take less so my team has more.”
The candidates were also asked about the thorny issue of trans athletes in high school.
Limerick resident and former Limerick supervisor Tom Neafcy said Ciresi voted against a bill that would have made it illegal for trans athletes to play on the team of the gender with which they identify. Ciresi responded that the vote was to let the PIAA make its own rules on the matter.
McCloskey said the matter was “way too important” to leave in the hands of the PIAA. “I’m not OK with it, with the crossover,” he said.
The two candidates also agreed there were problems with the way that business restrictions were handled during the COVID-19 pandemic. “You don’t know what it’s like to watch 52 people lose sleep because they don’t know if they’re going to have a job,” said McCloskey. “It was a failure of state leadership. It was about control.”
Ciresi said he complained to then-governor Tom Wolf about how waivers to stay open were handled. “They were handing them out willy-nilly, 38,000 of them. You had a florist that was allowed to open in Upper Darby, but a florist couldn’t open in Pottstown,” he said.
McCloskey responded to another question saying political hostility is on the rise because of television, social media and learned behaviors. “It has to stop,” he said.
Ciresi said he works across the aisle with Republicans and was the only Democrat on the Spring-Ford School board, but was elected president nonetheless. “The problem is we can agree on 97 percent of things, but we don’t come to the table because of the 3 percent.”
McCloskey said elected officials should not only have criminal background checks, but credit checks as well, before they could be allowed to run for public office, something Ciresi also agreed with. Then, in an obvious reference to former President Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction in a New York courtroom, Democratic Pottstown Borough Council President Dan Weand asked “Should anyone be allowed to run for office who is a convicted felon?”
McCloskey replied “No.”
In response to another question, McCloskey also said “It’s way too easy to get a gun in Pennsylvania. The things I see people walk out of a store with after only 15 minutes is not acceptable.”
“People need to understand, a gun is not a video game,” Ciresi said in agreement. “We need better gun laws. I’m not talking about taking guns away, I own a gun.”
Ciresi said he opposed the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and was unequivocal in his support for a woman’s right to choose. “An old man should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”
McCloskey said he agreed with the decision that the law should be left for individual states to decide but neglected to say if he would vote to restrict further abortion in Pennsylvania the way other states have. Both candidates said they support a limit on allowing abortions too late in a pregnancy.
Both also said they support measures to limit the amount of money in politics. “The amount of money being spent is disgusting,” said McCloskey. “Just imagine all the things we could do with that money instead.”
Ciresi said one way to limit the influence of money is to have term limits on elected state offices.
In closing, McCloskey said he has never voted to raise taxes and always favors building things up. “I want to be an asset to this community,” he said.
Ciresi credited his staff and local leaders for working with him to achieve goals and said being a House member “is a full-time job. It’s not about a photo op, it’s about doing the work.”
Early voting by mail is underway. In-person Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
