PARPAC Lashes Out
[11.23.05] Mr. Russ Diamond
Chair PA CleanSweep Dear Mr. Diamond:
It is with great dismay and disbelief that I
respond to your direct attacks on the Pennsylvania Retailers' Association
, our member stores, their employees, their customers and our right to
participate in the political process we are fortunate to call a
democracy. No officer and/or employee of any of our member stores,
or the Pennsylvania Retail Political Action Committee (PaRPAC) chose
to support any member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly based upon his
or her vote on the July 7, 2005 pay raise. Instead, we base our
support, as we have done for decades, on the worthiness of these elected
officials. These lawmakers supported by our member stores and PaRPAC
have been, and continue to be strong supporters of the retail industry in
Pennsylvania. They have helped to create a business climate in our
state that allows retailers to continue to keep their stores open, which
in turn permits them to employ thousands of Pennsylvanians, pay millions
of dollars in state taxes, (from which our residents directly benefit),
and allows many retailers to be good corporate citizens.
Your short-sighted attack on Pennsylvania-based
retailers by urging people to boycott retail stores at this critical time
of year is untenable. If retailers cannot remain profitable,
especially during the holiday shopping season, it becomes more challenging
for them to continue to provide employment opportunities for people who
choose to work in the retail industry. We urge you to
reconsider your boycott of our member's stores so that Pennsylvania-based
retailers can remain strong corporate citizens.
It would be unfair in the extreme to attempt to
penalize any group, organization, company or individual because they
support lawmakers for reasons that have nothing to do with the July 7th
legislative pay raise vote.
Brian A. Rider
President Pennsylvania Retailers' Association
PACleanSweep Responds
[11.27.05]
Mr. Rider: Thank you for your letter regarding our recent call for a boycott of
one of your members, Boscov's Department Store, LLC.
As stated in our news release on November 21, we are in full
agreement that your members have every right to participate in the
political process. In Pennsylvania, when that participation is through the
financial support of a candidate for public office, it is subject to
scrutiny as part of the public record.
Although the July 7 pay raise gave birth to our organization,
PACleanSweep is not an anti-pay raise movement. There are serious
constitutional issues which lie beneath the pay raise. While that
particular legislation has now been repealed, the underlying conditions
remain in place and leave Pennsylvania's retailers, their employees and
customers in danger of being victimized by further unconstitutional
action.
The financial support of the re-election campaigns of David Argall
and other incumbent candidates is objectionable for a number or
reasons.
Your letter and another we received from Albert Boscov seem to
suggest your contributions are in response to legislative action in your
favor. We view this as further evidence of a political system which is
distinctly not what anyone might label a democracy. Instead, it indicates
a competition for the attention of a ruling class through payments of
tribute.
That the contributions were made to re-election campaigns indicate
blind faith in a notion that among tens of thousands of other eligible
Pennsylvanians residing in their districts, these individuals are best
suited to fulfill the duties of a member of the General Assembly.
Those duties begin with an oath to "support, obey and defend the
Constitution." We find it difficult - if not impossible - to name any
sitting lawmaker in compliance with this obligation. The pay raise merely
brought public attention to the inclination of incumbent legislators to
forgo this duty.
As the PA Constitution represents the supreme law of our
Commonwealth, PACleanSweep views any failure to support, obey and defend
it not as a mere factor to be considered in weighing a lawmaker's overall
performance, but as a disqualification from further service.
PACleanSweep will continue to fight for the restoration of
constitutional rule in Harrisburg. Shining some light on those who
financially support lawmakers prone to make unconstitutional decisions
will remain part of our efforts.
Again, we agree that all Pennsylvanians have the right to contribute
to any candidate they choose. Pennsylvanians also have an equal right to
examine the public record of those contributions in order to better
understand the way business is conducted in Harrisburg.
We invite you and all other concerned citizens to join PACleanSweep
in examining this public record at http://www.campaignfinance.state.pa.us.
Sincerely,
Russ Diamond PACleanSweep Chair PACleanSweep is a non-partisan effort
dedicated to defeating incumbent elected officials in Pennsylvania and
replacing them with true public servants. For more information, please
visit www.PACleanSweep.com. |