CleanSweep Democratic candidate Harris Martin (House 18th) signs on to the 55 pro-reform House members’ Platform for Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 07/08/2006
Bensalem, PA
Contact 215-208-5264
electmartin@yahoo.com
www.martin.bensalemdemocrats.com

18th House District PA CleanSweep Democratic candidate Harris Martin announced today that he fully supports the bipartisan 55 pro-reform House members’ 9-point Platform for Reform.

Martin supports the following nine proposals of the Platform for Reform (source: Bucks County Courier Times and Philadelphia Inquirer) [text in brackets added for clarification]:

1. All legislative spending accounts, including leadership accounts [shall be] subject to the Open Records Act for public review.

2. [The] leadership controlled Rules Committee [shall be] given over to randomly selected members. [The] Rules [Committee] has been used to send undesirable legislation [legislation not supported by the leadership] to a slow death.

3. Bills may be amended on second consideration only. Third consideration or final passage of a bill requires 24-hour notice. This would prevent last minute changes to bills before members of the public have time to review.

4. During sine die -- the period between the November election and the end of the term [lame duck session], legislation must be approved with a two thirds majority and leadership shall be barred from suspending the rules to immediately consider bills during that period.

5. No legislative business [shall be conducted] between midnight and 8 AM.

6. Committee chairs [shall be] termed out [replaced] after four terms (eight years).

7. Each member may choose a bill for guaranteed committee action each term, and if [that bill is] reported out, [it] must be voted on in the House within a specific time frame.

8. Consider campaign finance reform changes

9. Consider the possibility of a [state] constitutional convention.

Differences between the 55 House members’ point 4 on sine die sessions and the Reform Coalition’s Roadmap to Reform point 2, “over by October” (end sine die lame duck sessions entirely), will have to be resolved. The two proposals are both reasonable but are not compatible. Other reform proposals from the various reform proponents are compatible with and complimentary to one another.

Martin is a signatory to the CleanSweep reform pledge and previously announced his support for the Reform Coalition’s 10-point roadmap to Reform, the Rules Committee reform proposal of the House Democrats and Republican Jefferson Reform Initiative, and Internet posting of floor votes and the legislative journal as proposed by Senator Fumo.

Martin also proposes to eliminate ghost voting by legislators, eliminate taxpayer funded campaign newsletters and TV commercials for incumbents that masquerade as public service announcements, convert WAMs to competitive grant programs, strengthen open records and government in the sunshine laws and provide more effective means to enforce them, post all state laws on the Internet, and review state statutes for outdated and unworkable provisions to be abolished.

A combination of:

1. PACleanSweep’s reform principles
2. The Reform Coalition’s 10-point Roadmap to Reform
3. The House Democrats’ and Republican Jefferson Reform Initiative’s proposals
4. Senator Fumo’s reform proposals
5. Martin’s reform proposals
6. and now, The bipartisan 55 House members’ 9-point Platform for Reform

Martin encourages other candidates to sign on to the Platform for Reform, the Roadmap to Reform, and the other reforms listed here. Once elected, reformers in each branch of the legislature should form a bipartisan Reform Caucus to work to enact these reforms into law and into the House and Senate rules.

Martin challenges his incumbent Republican opponent Gene DiGirolamo, a dutiful but lackluster protégé of Republican House Speaker John Perzel, to sign on to the Platform for Reform or explain why he will not. When previously challenged to sign on to the Reform Coalition’s Roadmap to Reform, DiGirolamo refused to do so or explain why he would not. In twelve years in the State House, DiGirolamo has done little or nothing to advance government integrity or legislative reform. He even voted in favor of Ghost Voting.