State Sen. David Argall, R-29, has been in the General Assembly since 1985.
Elected to the House in 1984, and to the Senate in a 2009 special election to fill the vacancy left by the death of GOP Sen. James J. Rhoades, Argall is facing a battle in his first campaign for a full four-year term in the upper chamber.
"I enjoyed some of my previous campaigns where my opponent and I were able to get through the race without ever even mentioning each other by name. But this is obviously not one of those by cases," Argall said during a meeting with The Republican-Herald editorial board.
Reading Anthracite President Brian Rich, railing against the fiscal burden of the General Assembly's pensions, is also seeking the GOP nomination in Tuesday's primary.
"I've demonstrated in the last three years that I was willing to pick up the challenge after the terrible loss of Senator Rhoades," Argall said. "I helped to push through his blight bill into law. It was signed by Governor Rendell in the final days of the 2010 session. That is a piece of legislation that gives local governments all over Pennsylvania - especially places like Schuylkill County - a whole host of new weapons in fighting blight."
He reminded the voters of his work over the years with Downtown Tamaqua, a revitalization effort in an economically challenged coal region town, as well as his collaboration to create the Tidewood Industrial park outside Hometown where seven businesses employ 500. He touted his work with Rhoades to establish the Lehigh Carbon Community College campus in Tamaqua and build the Ciletti Memorial Library at the PennState Schuylkill campus in Schuylkill Haven.
Confronting his opponent's campaign advertisements faulting his pension, Argall said Rich has it wrong.
"The foundation of those ads is built upon a lie that I only care about myself," Argall said. "I wouldn't have taken a $26,000 pay cut to run for the Senate with two kids in college if that were true. I wouldn't voluntarily return the COLA to the state treasury every month if that were true. I would have never run for the General Assembly in the first place. I wouldn't be driving a 10-year-old Jeep with 176,000 miles on it. And I certainly wouldn't have cut a quarter million dollars from my own annual office budget if those things were true."
Argall's salary decreased when he went to the Senate because he held a leadership post as Republican whip in the House.
"I agree with him partially that we do need to do a better job of restricting the state pension costs ... We've done some reforms in the past couple of years and we certainly do need to do more," Argall said.
Any state employee hired after Dec. 1, 2010, is under new rules and pays more in, gets less out and must work longer before accepting retirement. Argall agrees with Rich ultimately favoring a 401(k)-like system for assemblymen.
Argall warns against underestimating the demands of serving in the General Assembly.
"Brian Rich can afford to do this job for free. David Argall cannot. My grandfather worked for his grandfather. My grandfather was a mechanic in the mines. Not the mine owner," Argall said.
"(The job of a legislator) is one thing that brings a host of challenges and it is one that I don't think he understands. It is not a hobby. This is a full-time obligation. I don't see how he can imagine that he could be an effective senator and still run a coal company at the same time - not to even mention the conflicts of interest that would arise every day."
Argall said Rich's weakest point, which is referred to in Argall's campaign ads, is legal entanglements and lawsuits arising from his business. He stood by statements that Rich family businesses received $147 million in state and federal financial backing to develop a coal to liquid fuel plan in northern Schuylkill County. Rich said such attack ads are false because his company never received any of the combination of loan guarantees and tax credits. However, Argall counters that was only because the business plan never got off the ground in 10 years.
Argall supports Gov. Corbett's budget, which includes cuts to state education subsidies, welfare and other spending. He warned that the picture is always more bleak early in the year but, after March and April, the heaviest tax collecting months, lawmakers are often able to "backfill" spending cuts in the budget. Argall praises the cost reduction in the Department of Welfare and favors the idea of drug testing welfare recipients who are convicted felons.
Argall voted in support of county-based Marcellus Shale drilling impact fees.
"If we do it right, this could be the best thing to happen to the Pennsylvania economy in a long time," Argall said of gas drilling.
Instead of term limits, Argall is working to reduce the size of the state House of Representatives from 203 to 153, and he wants to see the property tax eliminated, the difference made up with a larger flat sales tax.
"Maybe the property tax made sense when my grandfather was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920s and they paid him partly in vegetables," he said. "We don't do that anymore. But we are still stuck with this same archaic, stupid tax."