Tony Deloreto

Tony Deloreto has not held an elected or appointed public office before. However, that is not stopping him from challenging Republican incumbent Sen. Don White for the 41st Senate District seat.

“I decided to take a shot,” said Deloreto, a Democrat.

An Indiana (Pa.) University graduate, Deloreto has lived in Indiana since 1986.

He opened his downtown Indiana restaurant Spaghetti Benders in 1991 with pots and pans from his home.

“No family member helped me to get started. I had to persevere,” he said.

Deloreto supports placing term limits on elected officials, saying he is “tired of career politicians” along with “Harrisburg doing nothing.”

“My opponent has been there for too long,” he said of White, who has held the seat since 2000. “He doesn’t have his constituents in mind. I just think he’s living on easy street.

“Harrisburg is broken. We have a lot of followers, but no leaders.”

Deloreto said he supports limiting senators to two four-year terms and forbidding them or any relative from joining a lobbyist firm for five years.

He said he will “under no circumstances” serve for more than two terms if elected, even without a term-limiting law.

His concerns are with taxes increasing and the amount of jobs decreasing. He said he believes his business background is “superior to the current senator’s.”

“Our state government is going the wrong direction,” he said. “I just think it’s time for a change and we have to get someone in with taxpayers’ and middle class’ best interests.”

Deloreto said for taxes, he “likes the concept” of Bill 76, which authorizes a personal income tax or an earned income tax by a school district subject to voter approval.

“I’d like to go a different angle,” he said. “I think we have to take a look at other states to see what works best overall and then implement some of that. It seems like common sense to make it work even better.”

His website states the purpose is to reduce school districts’ dependence on local property taxes to assure funding, as well as eliminating “the burden of property taxes on homeowners.”

For pension reform, Deloreto said he supports elected officials “taking the same rollbacks in their pensions as they want with every other state employee.”

“I think you’ll see everybody’s attitude change about it,” he said.

Deloreto said the first thing he would do if elected is look to recruit more jobs and industry into the area.

“I realize what it takes for a new business to grow and succeed,” he said.

He also said there is a need to re-evaluate the war on drugs for the state’s heroin epidemic through education, prevention and rehabilitation by treating the problem as a mental health issue rather than a criminal issue.

“The war on drugs is a complete disaster,” he said. “It’s increased crime, it’s polluted our prison system and we have to take a different look at it.”

He said making affordable mental health care accessible to everyone and looking at policies from other states and countries could help with the drug problem.