Bernstine facing Green Party candidate Slappy in 10th
Republican state Rep. Aaron Bernstine is facing a challenge in the upcoming election from Darcelle Slappy, a Democrat from Beaver Falls running on the Green Party ticket, to represent the 10th District.
Bernstine is seeking his second term representing the district, which includes parts of Butler, Beaver and Lawrence counties. Slappy, a member of the Beaver Falls School Board, wants to unseat him.
If Bernstine wins, he will be halfway through his self-imposed limit of four terms.
“I'm a big believer in term limits. When I ran in 2016, I said no more than four terms. It's a maximum of eight years,” said Bernstine, a Lawrence County resident.
A member of the aging and older adult services, finance, game and fisheries, health and state government committees, Bernstine said he wants to continue working with communities like Slippery Rock — which he represents — to help create jobs.
“We've made progress working with Slippery Rock, Slippery Rock Township and Slippery Rock University to create job opportunities. We have a really strong relationship with all three of them,” Bernstine said.
He said he worked with the borough to reduce business fees, including fees for zoning permits and signs, by 25 percent this summer.
Bernstine said he opened a satellite office in the borough and has held more than a dozen town hall meetings to learn about issues impacting district residents.
“I think its important to go out and listen to the issues that are important to the constituents of this district,” he said. “I have 62,000 bosses. That's the number of residents in the district. Those 62,000 people are my bosses.”
He and his wife, Ilia, buy and sell houses, own rental property and sell meat products from their farm. His wife is also in a nuclear engineer for Westinghouse and he is an adjunct professor in the University of Pittsburgh's business school. They have a 3-year-old son named Dierks.
Slappy, a wife, mother and grandmother who stays home to help raise her grandchildren, said she is a Democrat, but she decided to run on the Green Party ticket to give voters a choice.
“I felt just one name on the ballot isn't good enough for our district. I ran on a minor party ticket to give people that choice,” she said.
Slappy said she used to work for DCR Inc. as a job coach for high school students with special needs. She said she helped them develop social skills, conducted job assessments, helped them find jobs and helped them apply to trade schools and colleges. Before that job, she was a hair dresser for 20 years, she said.
She said she supports increased funding for education, a severance tax on natural gas production and funding for opioid abuse treatment, prevention and education.
“A lot of people want to go to college after high school, but they can't afford it. Same with trade school. We really have to do better by our public schools for education funding,” said Slappy who is nearing the end of the third year of her four-year term on the Beaver Falls School Board. “We see first-hand how the lack of education funding impacts education.”She said the state should distribute education dollars based on the needs of school districts.“It shouldn't depend on tax bases. It should be distributed by need, not how much they can raise in taxes,” Slappy said.More funding to help students pay for college and trade schools and for training displaced workers is also needed, she said.She said she served on the Beaver County Career and Technical Center citizens advisory committee before she was elected to the board.“I support a gas severance tax. It is part of Gov. (Tom) Wolf's plan to fund education,” she said.She said she supports gun ownership rights, even though her son died due to gun violence in 2014, but wants more regulations.Reporting the theft of guns should be mandatory, people with histories of violent crime should not be allowed to buy guns, mental health background checks should be required when buying guns and training should be required for people who want a license to carry guns, she said.
