CAP to Geist: Lead, Follow or Retire

Member Group : News Releases

HARRISBURG (3.10.11) – Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania (CAP) today rebuked state Rep. Rick Geist (R-Altoona) for stating that Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposal to get rid of WAMs is "unrealistic," and not signing on to the "No WAMs" Pledge.

"The only thing preventing an end to business as usual in Harrisburg is ‘old bulls’ like Rick Geist who’ve made a career out of protecting the status quo," said CAP executive director Joe Sterns. "Rep. Geist had better soon realize that the taxpayers in his district and across the state are at wit’s end, want reform, and are on the Governor’s side. Otherwise, his current term might very well be his last."

Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania (CAP) is a non-profit organization co-founded to raise the standard of living of all Pennsylvanians by restoring limited government, economic freedom, and personal responsibility. CAP believes that by empowering the Commonwealth’s employers and taxpayers to break state government’s "Iron Triangle" of career politicians, bureaucrats, and Big Government lobbyists, this restoration will occur and Pennsylvania will prosper.

In its infancy in 2010, CAP took Harrisburg by storm. In the Primary Election, the group was pivotal in 23-year-old Justin Simmons’ stunning defeat of State Rep. Karen Beyer, one of only five Republicans who voted for Rendell’s last tax-hiking budget and the only one endorsed by the AFL-CIO. CAP was credited with killing the trial lawyers’ pet legislation that would have allowed a plaintiff’s lawyer in an auto accident case to directly ask a jury for an unlimited sum of money for "pain and suffering."

In the General Election, nine of twelve CAP-endorsed candidates—including Simmons, who the political establishment wrote off as "too conservative" to carry his district—were victorious. CAP now has among its ranks two Senators—John Eichelberger and Mike "Citizen Mike" Folmer—and eight House members, six of whom have foresworn the lucrative state pension that ensnares would-be public servants into the Iron Triangle, which the organization has made its mission to dismantle.

The group has raised $530,000 since the summer. CAP is mobilizing public support for elements of Corbett’s agenda consistent with the group’s free-market and reform principles, including: school choice for children; eliminating all unnecessary spending, streamlining government, and holding the line on taxes; curbing lawsuit abuse; and selling the state liquor stores.
Finally, CAP is recruiting candidates for 2012 in districts with incumbents—Republican and Democrat—who are hopelessly entrenched in Harrisburg’s Iron Triangle that perpetuates a status quo of too big, too expensive, and too intrusive state government.