ADAMS TWP — Gordon Marburger hopes to unseat state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th.

“I feel I am the better person to help steer our state in a better direction,” said Marburger, 57, of Adams Township.

He will run against Metcalfe in the May 20 Republican primary.

Marburger said Metcalfe seems to be too involved with state and even national issues and does not focus on the district or its residents.

He said improvements to Route 228 as well as Freedom and Rochester roads in Cranberry Township, have been “stranded.” He said Route 228, with all of its development, needs to be four lanes. Bridges and other infrastructure also need improvements.

“It’s just fallen off the edge,” Marburger said.

He said the increase in the state tax on gasoline, which was passed by the legislature in November and would go to improve roads, would help those projects. Metcalfe, he noted, did not support the plan.

“What do you have to replace it?” Marburger asked.

He wants to restore Glade Run Lake in Middlesex Township, which was drained in 2011 after its dam was found to be faulty. Metcalfe has said he does not support state dollars being used to fix the lake.

“When he said that, that kind of started the fire,” Marburger said about becoming interested in running for office.

He wants to improve public education and change how it is funded. He said the state should stop sending more money to schools where students have low grades and have more equally fund schools.

He also would support moving away from funding schools using property taxes and going toward using earned income taxes instead.

He supports the development of Marcellus Shale natural gas and said there should be more education for jobs in that field.

“It’s going to bring the jobs,” Marburger said.

Additionally, he supports local zoning control rather than state control for gas drilling.

Marburger said he wants to create new jobs and support the economy.

On Wednesday, Verizon announced it would move 1,000 jobs out of Cranberry and Warrendale. If he was in office, Marburger said he would have tried to find a way to keep the jobs in the area.

Marburger said a lot of tax money from district residents that goes to Harrisburg ends up being used in other parts of the state rather than coming back to the 12th District.

“It almost seems that for every $2 that goes out, $1 comes back,” Marburger said.

He said Metcalfe does not adequately fight to bring money or grants back to the district.

Marburger said he is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, but those would not be his entire agenda.

If he is elected, he said he only would like to serve eight years. If he cannot accomplish his goals in that time, he said it would be time for someone else to take office.

“Being a career politician isn’t my goal,” Marburger said.

Also, if he is elected, he said he will not take a state pension or take per diem pay.

In his campaigning, he plans on going door-to-door and attending municipal meetings. He said that is the best way to learn more about the district and be visible to voters.

He has served on the Mars School Board since 2006. Both his mother and his grandfather served on the school board in the past. He also is on the boards of the Butler County Vocational-Technical School and Butler County Community College.

Marburger is a self-employed farmer and works part-time as a bus driver. He graduated from Mars High School in 1975 and earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business from Penn State University in 1979.

He is involved with the Glade Run United Presbyterian Church and statewide agricultural associations.

His wife, Diane, is the Butler County treasurer. They have two children.

Metcalfe of Cranberry Township won his seat in 1999.

In 2012, Haine Middle School Principal Steve Smith ran a last minute write-in campaign in the Republican primary against Metcalfe.

The 12th District covers Adams, Clinton, Cranberry, Forward, Middlesex and Penn townships, as well as Callery, Mars, Seven Fields and Valencia.