We'll hear from the candidates

Dear Editor:

Now that the preliminaries are over, I guess we can look forward to a lot of boring, disgusting, half-truth political commercials and loads of taxpayer-funded mail ads until November. I imagine we'll hear of the pro and con votes from each side and the record of each. Some will be true, but most will be untrue.

I'm sure we'll hear the most from the two candidates from this area running for Congress. There will be plenty of material, because of the tenure of both candidates that have served us for so long. For instance, we'll hear of the infamous midnight secret voting sessions of Republican candidate Dave Argall, as well as how five of his fellow state employees gave themselves raises in salary, retirement pensions, and more.

But, Dave, after much soul searching, did give back some loot from that deal. The raise in pension and per diem may still be in effect, but so what? None of Dave's critics ever mentioned his gracious act of repentance in giving back some of the loot, did they? No! Didn't Dave, in his rebuttal to Dr. Picciano's last letter, tell us "my problems dealing with slot machines, table games and gay marriage were time consuming and our views will not always prevail in these and other matters."

The voters understand this, and Dave did give other reasons for his mistakes. Some years ago, after the midnight deal, he explained that he was planning to send a couple of his children to college, and that all he was getting besides his salary and medical benefits was a lousy $9,000 per year for travel expenses (gas, tolls, tires, etc.). That's probably gone up a few per diems by now.

So, have faith. Look at Huey Long's record and all that he brought to Louisiana. Those voters that kept voting for Long had to be at least as intelligent as Dave's loyal followers. As for (Democrat) Tim Holden, you'll probably hear a lot about his failure to undo what Dave and Rhoades accomplished in their 24 years as leaders of our area. That is, Holden failed to restore the thousands of jobs and almost all of the industry in this area that Dave and Rhoades overlooked.

I read in your paper this morning that the results of the "Argall-led" committee efforts to cut costs across the state are to be resolved soon. This certainly should put Dave "over the top." The thousands of people that used to work don't have to buy gas, tires, and other worrisome things that go with a troublesome job.

Now that is some cost-cutting, and who could know more about that than Dave? Go out and vote.

Joe Lincovich,

Tuscarora