Mastriano campaigns in Butler County
PENN TWP — If elected, Doug Mastriano said he would get Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, responsibly roll back other environmental regulations, and take action to keep boys out of girls’ bathrooms and off their athletic teams on his first day as governor.
Mastriano, the Republican gubernatorial candidate and a state senator, made a number of “day one” promises, criticized the Democratic Party and Democrats, including his opponent Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Gov. Tom Wolf, during a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 12 in Butler County.
“I’ll smoke Josh Shapiro like a bad cigar,” he said.
About 200 people attended the rally at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, where Mastriano spoke for about 40 minutes inside a hangar.
Mastriano is a retired Army colonel with a doctorate in history who has been representing the 33rd District since 2019. The district includes Adams County, most of Franklin County and parts of Cumberland and York counties.
“We’re going to win huge on 8 November,” Mastriano said, in military phraseology, to a cheering audience before vowing swift action on his first day in office.
Mastriano said he would remove the state from the RGGI and support drilling and digging to extract energy resources.
He touted the Pennsylvania Energy Independence Act, a bill he introduced with Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-21st, who attended the rally along with several other elected officials from Butler County.
The bill, Senate Bill 1219, will spur natural gas production and investment, reduce regulatory and permitting requirements, open new state lands for production, and withdraw the state from the RGGI. Mastriano said the bill would create jobs now and in the future.
RGGI is an initiative of 11 New England and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by setting a regional cap or limit on carbon dioxide emissions. That cap decreases annually. Pennsylvania joined RGGI through an executive order Wolf signed in 2019.
He made more day one promises.
“Day one — no more boys on the girls team,” Mastriano said.
“Day one — no more boys in the girls bathroom,” he said, moments later.
He said he would ban teaching of the critical race theory and reaffirm parental rights on his first day in office.
“Hire me for the job and I’ll deliver for you,” Mastriano said.
He said he supports law enforcement and criticized Shapiro’s job performance.
“He’s been a complete and utter failure,” Mastriano said.
The number of homicides in Philadelphia increased from 277 the year Shapiro took office in 2017 to more than 500 this year, and Pennsylvania has the fourth highest number of fentanyl overdose deaths among the states, he said.
He said he introduced a bill that would create Tyler’s Law, which would create a mandatory, minimum punishment of 25 years in prison for convicted fentanyl dealers.
Crime has increased 40% while Shapiro has been state attorney general, Mastriano said.
He also criticized Shapiro for taking legal action to uphold the business closings and other restrictions Wolf ordered to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mastriano said he also supports school choice, and would create a sex trafficking task force.
In addition, he took multiple swipes at the Democratic Party, calling it an “elite cabal,” borrowing a phrase used Tuesday by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, who called the party an “elitist cabal of warmongers” in announcing she was leaving the Democrats.
Two voters who attended the rally said they appreciated Mastriano’s ambition and confidence.
Courtney Murray, a Republican voter from Rimersburg in Clarion County, said Mastriano convinced her to vote for him.
“I was a little iffy until today,” Murray said.
She said she enjoyed his address, but wants him to follow through with his day one promises.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said.
Murray came with Pamela Anderson, a registered independent voter from Butler, who said she hasn’t yet decided who will get her vote.
“I really loved his ambition,” Anderson said.
She described many of Mastriano’s ideas as common sense. Boys and girls should have separate restrooms and athletic teams, and more needs to be done to improve public safety, she said.
“Our families need to be safe,” Anderson said.
