Perez last month endorsed Boyd, saying the candidate had for years respected her request to keep her account regarding Zabel private. “You don’t just let it go.” Boyd responded that she did not endorse or support Zabel after hearing Perez’s account, and while active in the county Democratic Party hierarchy she tried to find someone to run against Zabel but was not successful. “Common sense says that if someone comes to you and says that they’re being sexually harassed, you do something about it,” Ford said during the debate. Zabel told The Associated Press, when he defend himself through the House Ethics Committee but ultimately decided he did not want to continue putting his loved ones through a public ordeal. She argues that Boyd did not respond sufficiently when she learned of Service Employees International Union lobbyist Andi Perez’s account, that Zabel caressed her leg while they discussed legislation outside the Capitol in 2018 and did not stop when she moved away from him. Ford said she is personally opposed to abortion but would not seek to change existing state law.īoyd’s effort to tie Ford to the longstanding Republican effort to ban or further restrict abortion access in Pennsylvania includes an ad in which Shapiro warns that a Republican House majority will move to strip him of veto power over anti-abortion legislation.įord has focused her own campaign messaging on the Zabel scandal. Libertarian Alfe Goodwin, whose campaign focuses on criminal justice reform and fighting homelessness, is also on the ballot.ĭuring a debate between Ford and Boyd that was hosted by WHTM-TV in Harrisburg last week, Ford said she is against having Pennsylvania voters decide the does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions. Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia Democrat, has presided over the House since January.īut the Democrat in the race, Heather Boyd, a former congressional and state legislative aide, is running in a district that has given solid margins to Democratic candidates in recent elections. Mike Zabel resigned in March, a week after a lobbyist accused him by name of sexual harassment.Ī win by Republican candidate Katie Ford, a military veteran, school volunteer and behavioral therapist, would likely give the House GOP a 102-101 majority and the power to reclaim control of the legislative agenda and the chamber’s voting calendar. The seat became open when Democratic Rep.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |