DV Journal

A group of Republicans flocked to the Towne House in Media Thursday to kick off the general election campaign for the GOP’s statewide candidates.

In the two days since the primary, the GOP hopefuls have made appearances in Erie, Washington County, Altoona, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, and Delaware County.

U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick called out the Biden administration on energy and foreign policy.

“I will be a senator for all of you, one who fights for an economy that works for working people,” said McCormick. “Who fights for Pennsylvania to make sure our economy can prosper by exporting natural gas and pipeline reform and drilling, having the opportunity for an offshore port that gets that natural gas out of the ground and creates great-paying jobs. Helps our security. Helps our environment. That’s the vision I have for Pennsylvania.”

President Joe Biden has ordered a “pause” on LNG exports, and on Thursday his administration announced draconian new carbon emissions rules for new natural-gas-fired power plants.

“We deserve better than the leadership we saw in Afghanistan,” he added. “We deserve better than the Chinese surveillance balloon. We deserve better than when American troops are being attacked 160 times last year in the Middle East with very little response.”

(From left) Delaware County Congressional candidate Alfeia Goodwin, Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Dave McCormick, Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, DA Dave Sunday, Delco GOP Chair Frank Agovino, and Auditor General Tim DeFoor.

“When you look abroad, things may be even scarier,” said McCormick, who noted that he went to Israel with his wife, Dina, to assess the aftermath of the Hamas Oct. 7 terror attack that sparked the Gaza war. “We saw first-hand the brutality, the viciousness, the pure evil that essentially the genocide that took place on Oct. 7.”

“It’s not just Israel,” said McCormick. “It’s focused on the West. And the original sin is the $100 billion that was given to Iran by President Obama and President Biden, and the deciding vote in 2015, the deciding vote, was a guy named Bob Casey. We need to be stronger. We deserve better.”

McCormick brought in some local political firepower, too.

State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) rebutted some of the attacks Democrats have made against the GOP nominee.

“For those who think Dave McCormick is not a Pennsylvanian: seven generations. Just let that sink in for a second. I’ve been here in Pennsylvania for 20 years…Not only did he bus tables, but he also worked those jobs delivering papers and trimming Christmas trees when he was a kid.”

Pennycuick, a former Army helicopter pilot, also touted McCormick’s military experience, noting he’s a West Point graduate who also served in the Army. “He served his country, not only in combat but at the Department of Treasury.”

When people criticize McCormick for working with China while CEO of a hedge fund, “I say, ‘Thank God. Because we need somebody who knows what our enemy looks like, talks like, and sounds like,’” Pennycuick added.

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday is running for attorney general. He talked about serving in the Navy and worked his way through college and law school. While in the Navy, he participated in operations to counter drug smugglers.

“I would never imagine in 30 years, I’d be fighting that battle at home, but the drugs would be even more deadly, fentanyl, coming into our community over an open border. It’s a battle we have to win.

“I view the world through the lens of a father and a husband, and I’m definitely afraid of the world my son has to grow up in.”

A prosecutor for 16 years, he touted crime reduction during his tenure as DA.

“Crime is down 41 percent, gang violence is down 80 percent from 2022 to 2023, homicides are down 75 percent, opioid overdose deaths are down 26 percent, whereas they’ve gone up 15 percent around the state. And the way we did that was working as a community, working with police, supporting police, working with the faith-based community, with schools, going after it, being aggressive,” Sunday said. “Doing what we can to attack the supply of illegal drugs coming into our community and also the demand.”

Incumbent Treasurer Stacy Garrity, also an Army veteran, said she is running on her record.

“Since 2021, my office has done a lot, returning record amounts of unclaimed property, $274,000; over 400 military medals to veterans and their families, including 10 purple hearts.” She expanded the college savings program, stood for our veterans all across the commonwealth, and stood “for our greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel.”

“Our great slate of candidates gets things done,” said Garrity. “That is why the Democrats are running all over the place, calling us extremists. ‘Imagine the nerve of those Republicans to let you keep your own money. And decide how to best raise your family. And fight to keep government spending under control!’”

Incumbent Auditor General Timothy DeFoor said his duty is to the taxpayers. He advocated for a financial literacy program in high schools that will take effect in the 2026-27 school year.

“I care about this commonwealth and the entities that we audit. More importantly, I care about the future of this commonwealth,” he said.

Lawrence Tabas praised the statewide candidates and said Republican voter registration is rising.

“Ten years ago, the Democrats out-registered us in Pennsylvania by 1.4 million voters,” said Tabas. “On April 6, 2024, the deficit was down to 396,000. This year alone, 28,000 Democrats and independents switched registration to Republican.”

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Democratic candidates for auditor general, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley participated separately in a Zoom town hall sponsored by New Pennsylvania Project, a voting rights group.

Pinsley touted his qualifications to be the state auditor general and explained how he’s used his position as controller to discover problems and help people. He fired one salvo at Kenyatta, noting that he had refused to debate and “resorted to name calling,” referring to a video of Kenyatta telling a Philadelphia committeewoman that Pinsley “don’t like Black people.”

But Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) didn’t bother to attack Pinsley. Instead, he pivoted to the general election and attacked Republican Auditor General Tim DeFoor.

Kenyatta roasted DeFoor, claiming he abolished the auditor’s bureau of education audits.

DeFoor said, “We have never stopped performing school audits. We have transformed and improved the way we do school audits. What we are doing is school performance audits based on making sure school administrators and school boards are accountable and transparent with taxpayer dollars. In fact, in 2023, we either completed or started 18 audits of school districts, which include both public and charter schools.”

Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley

DeFoor released a report explaining how school districts, including some in the Delaware Valley, moved funds around to avoid referendums where voters would decide whether they can raise taxes.

Kenyatta also complained that when Republicans were in charge of the House, they held committee hearings on the fairness of the 2020 election.

“Tim DeFoor, our current auditor general, came before our committee and I did not think it was the gotcha when I said to him, ‘Mr. Auditor General, you just won a statewide election. Please tell my colleagues and Pennsylvanians they should have trust in the election.’

“And he did the worst dodge that I’ve ever seen where he says, ‘Well, my election was fair, but I can’t comment on the other elections.’ Give me a fricken break. And they want to put that profile in courage in charge of saying whether or not Pennsylvanians should have trust in our future elections.

“We know why he didn’t tell the truth. Because he is afraid of one man, Donald Trump. And if Tim DeFoor is too afraid to say to his party’s leader, ‘Donald Trump, no sir, you were wrong. Here in Pennsylvania, we have free and fair elections’. If he does not have the courage to stand up to one man, he certainly does not have the courage to represent millions of Pennsylvanians. He doesn’t have the courage to take on big bureaucracy and get it to work better. He doesn’t have the courage to be our auditor general for another four years.”

Auditor General Timothy DeFoor

Asked to respond to Kenyatta’s remarks, DeFoor said, “This race is not about Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Nor is it a race about national politics. It is about the Pennsylvania Department of Auditor General and who is best to be auditor general. Something which I have said to both Republicans, Democrats and independents.”

As for the 2020 election, DeFoor said, “I have said numerous times to the media and to the press that there was no fraud altering the results of the 2020 election. Joe Biden was fairly elected president of the United States.”

“My record as auditor general speaks for itself,” said DeFoor. “Simply look at the work we’ve done and the over 3,500 audits the department has performed annually. There may be a desire to make this race about politics. I simply am not going to do that. As a career fraud investigator and auditor, my focus is on the Department of the Auditor General. The citizens of Pennsylvania deserve no less.”

Pinsley, who earned both an undergraduate degree and an MBA in finance, said he found $9 million in waste in the county’s healthcare system. He also audited the county jail’s phone system and found that the county was getting a 70-cent commission on every dollar for inmates’ phone calls.

“So last year, we made $750,000 off of the backs of prisoners. Actually, their families were the ones who were paying the bills,” Pinsley said. In another case, he audited a doctor about whom he had received complaints and found she was unnecessarily sending children into the foster care system.

“My goal is to use the position to help the people, not the powerful,” said Pinsley.

Kenyatta said he’s been involved in six state budgets, chairs the commerce committee, and serves on the banking, finance, and state government committees.

“I come into this with a deep understanding of how state government works and how it can work better,” said Kenyatta.

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Standing in front of the Pennsylvania Capitol, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for auditor general, a job currently held by Republican Tim DeFoor.

“As a state representative for nearly five years, I have worked to protect workers’ rights, pass common-sense gun safety policies, and root out government corruption and waste,” said Kenyatta. “I’ve held multiple legislative leadership roles: as a member of the powerful state government committee with oversight on state agencies and elections, minority chair of the subcommittee on campaign finance and elections, minority chair of automation and technology in the committee on commerce, and a member of the finance committee.”

Kenyatta, a three-term member of the Pennsylvania House, became the first openly gay person of color to serve in that body when he was elected in 2018.

On Thursday, he discussed his story of growing up in a poor working family. He also outlined his agenda to reform the office and use it as a tool to “keep Pennsylvania families from being screwed.”

Kenyatta claimed to have the support of most of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation as well as state House and Senate leaders, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, and organized labor.

Kenyatta announced a three-point agenda for the office that includes: Rebuilding the department of school audits (which was closed under DeFoor), creating a worker liaison, and using the power of the office to take on wage theft, employee misclassification, union busting, and using the office to measure and support efforts to make communities healthier and safer.

Kenyatta ran for the U.S. Senate last year, losing the Democratic primary to now-Sen. John Fetterman.  In that race, he campaigned on an avowedly progressive platform.

House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia/Delaware) said, “Malcolm is exactly what we need in the next auditor general: Tenacious, honest, and mission-driven. I’ve watched him throughout his life and career center on the needs of working Pennsylvanians. I know he will continue that work in this critical statewide role. I’m proud to endorse him.”

Kenyatta earned a B.A. in public communications and a minor in political science from Temple University and an M.S. in strategic and digital communications from Drexel University. He completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executives in State and Local Government program, according to his website.

Congressman Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) said, “I’m proud to endorse Rep. Kenyatta to be our next auditor general. I’ve served in Harrisburg and Washington. I know what it takes to deliver for people, and so does Malcolm. As auditor general, I’m confident he will be a powerful and independent voice for common sense, good government, and fairness. He has worked hard around our commonwealth for years now—he can win, and he will win.”

DeFoor, the current auditor general, took office in January 2021. He was previously the Dauphin County controller and has a background in law enforcement, working as an inspector for the state inspector general and the attorney general. According to his website, he also worked as a fraud investigator and internal auditor for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

DeFoor holds an associate degree in paralegal studies from Harrisburg Area Community College, a B.A., in sociology and history from the University of Pittsburgh, and an M.S. in project management from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

While Kenyatta has been one of the most outspoken members of the state Democratic Party, DeFoor has largely avoided the limelight, instead focusing on the fiscal duties of his office. He released audits last month showing local school districts, including several in the Philly suburbs, were shifting around money to get higher property taxes without facing the voters.

“The overall results of this audit should raise concerns due to the districts’ common yet questionable practices that are placing an excess burden on taxpayers across Pennsylvania,” DeFoor wrote.

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