Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor, visits The Farm & Table in Nazareth on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com
Co-opting the pandemic battle cry “follow the science” and blasting Pennsylvania’s crime rate, the Republican candidate for governor spoke to supporters Tuesday during a swing through the Lehigh Valley.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican serving the state’s south-central 33rd Senate District, is running in the Nov. 8 election against Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
Mastriano visited Nazareth first, before heading to Macungie Memorial Park.
In Nazareth, the candidate spoke inside the bowling alley of The Farm & Table restaurant that opened earlier this summer in what had been the Jacksonian Club. Owners Amie and Pete Eckert sought to distance themselves from the appearance, stressing they’re a public place open to anyone and that they didn’t want to appear as supporting one candidate or the other.
A reporter and photographer from lehighvalleylive.com and The Express-Times joined a photographer who’s been following the Mastriano campaign and a crew from NBC10 in Philadelphia — all sequestered by the candidate’s security team in the arcade adjacent to the six-lane bowling alley. There were no opportunities to ask Mastriano any questions, and his campaign did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment or clarification on some of the points made.
Mastriano is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He bested the nine-candidate field to win the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania governor in May, despite some in the party warning that his far-right views on everything from abortion to the 2020 presidential election would squander an otherwise attainable seat in a critical battleground state. He opposes abortion rights with no exceptions, has spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Bre Lutri, left, and Emry Lutri, 14, right, take a selfie with Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s bus, after listening to the Republican candidate for governor speak at The Farm & Table in Nazareth on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com
In Nazareth, he was welcomed with a “Doug for guv” chant before quickly referencing the appearance at a campaign rally Friday in Pittsburgh on his behalf by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered a frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
Seeking to undercut Shapiro’s record as Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement official, Mastriano said crime has risen by 37% since Shapiro took office in January 2017 and accused his opponent of slinging mud during the 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
“So he can’t run on a record, so he has to name-call and sadly his talking points are amplified in the mainstream media,” Mastriano said.
A look at Summary Reporting System Offense Trends from ucr.pa.gov, however, shows that while murder/non-negligent homicide increased statewide by 38% from 2017 through 2021, overall Part 1 offenses dropped by 20%. Manslaughter by negligence and vehicle theft also both rose during that timeframe while rape, robbery, assault, burglary and larceny-theft all dropped, the statistics show.
“Crime is through the roof, criminals walk free,” Mastriano said.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor, visits The Farm & Table in Nazareth on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com
The Republican also hit back against the Pennsylvania State Education Association’s criticism last week of Mastriano’s proposal to lower the state’s per-student funding amount from $19,000 to $9,000 or $10,000, along with eliminating property taxes. He claimed on Tuesday, however, that he hasn’t released his education funding plan, and noted his support for an $850 million increase in education spending passed by the state Senate this year.
Mastriano did say his education directives will include “no more CRT or whatever it’s called,” a reference to critical race theory that looks at historical wrongdoing and oppression by those in power. He also said Pennsylvania schools under a Mastriano administration would teach civics and “good ol’ American history, as well,” and that there won’t be any male teammates on female athletic teams or men in women’s restrooms.
Mastriano also called for enforcing illegal immigration laws statewide, and acknowledged the suffering of Pennsylvanians that he said includes around a thousand homeless veterans and some 15,000 children in foster care or awaiting adoption, and elderly at risk of losing their homes over property taxes.
“And while we have our people suffering, we don’t have any space for illegals in Pennsylvania,” he said.
He pointed to his plan for “digging and drilling” for Pennsylvania’s plentiful natural gas reserves, while getting the state out of its commitments to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“And we’re going to do it safely, I’m an Eagle Scout, ‘leave no trace.’ None of us want to poison the water or poison the air,” Mastriano said, rejecting what he called the “fallacy” that Democrats have cornered the push for environmental protection. “That’s bull crap, ‘cause guess what? More of us are out in the woods hunting or fishing than those snowflakes in Harrisburg, right?”
Shapiro on his campaign website has also come out in support of protecting both energy-producing jobs and the environment.
Mastriano labeled Shapiro a failure, and said with a chuckle that in the Army — Mastriano attained the rank of colonel — he would have kicked Shapiro out.
Mastriano painted this campaign season as a crossroads between what he called “government control, shutdown, tyranny — or freedom, walk as free men and women.”
“We know the future of our state is at stake,” Mastriano said. “This is no game. This is not another ticket like Josh Shapiro who has ambitions beyond governor.”
Mastriano repeatedly returned to the phrase “follow the science” during his Nazareth stop, labeling it something lectured and preached “by media and left-wingers” during the fight against the coronavirus pandemic over the past two and a half years. He called requirements that schoolchildren wear masks “a way to control … a signal that the government knows better than the parents.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says masks primarily work by reducing “the emission of virus-laden droplets by the wearer.”
Mastriano at one point turned “follow the science” to refer to gender choice. He also enlisted his wife, Rebecca, to speak to counter claims that conservatives don’t believe in women’s rights. That’s not true, she said, continuing to say they believe in a woman’s right to: have a say in her child’s education through school choice, have access to baby formula, raise family in safe community that enforces the law, live in a country with a secure border, exercise the First and Second Amendments, be able to have a business without the government shutting it down, and participate in sports without being dominated by men.
She urged those listening Tuesday to spread the campaign’s word in church, in the grocery store, in their neighborhood and at community events: “You have now heard us speak in person, so you have authority” to share the campaign’s message, she said.
Marcella Keyes, of Nazareth, escorts her grandkids as she carries out campaign signs for Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, after listening to the Republican candidate for governor speak at The Farm & Table in Nazareth on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com
Linda Stubits, of Nazareth, said she came to Mastriano’s South Main Street stop to hear what he “has to say, to listen to his policies, to listen to his message that he was going to send out to the people of Pennsylvania in order to make a wise voting decision in the November election.” Leaving with her grandchildren, ages 11 and 7, Stubits said: “I thought he was well-spoken, I think he cares about what’s happening here in Pennsylvania. He cares about education, obviously, he does have bills in the Senate to improve the quality of the economy and overall education here in Pennsylvania.”
Mike Nostrand and his wife, Diane, left with an armful of Mastriano yard signs that were being given away and which included a Biblical verse reference to John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
“We were going to vote for him prior to today,” Mike Nostrand said, adding that they “don’t agree with everything the Republican does or says, but think we need common sense and Col. Mastriano’s kind of like an everyday kind of guy — an average person so to speak.
“And I think that was reaffirmed today in how he talks. He’s not a polished politician where you just hear the same talking points over and over. Just kind of the way things have gone over the last few years for sure, I wouldn’t vote for a Democrat again,” he continued, noting he supported Democratic Gov. Bob Casey Sr.
In a statement responding to some of Mastriano’s claims Tuesday, Shapiro campaign spokesman Will Simons said: “As Attorney General, Josh Shapiro has arrested over 8,000 drug dealers, seized 3.2 million doses of heroin and 5.7 million doses of fentanyl, broken up interstate gun trafficking rings, and led the fight to close the ghost gun loophole — he has a proven record of holding criminals accountable, and that’s why police officers and local law enforcement leaders across the Commonwealth are supporting his campaign.
“Doug Mastriano, on the other hand, continues to throw out lies and fake statistics to hide from his extreme agenda to ban abortion with no exceptions, upend Pennsylvania’s elections and gain support from anti-Semitic extremists. It’s clear he is too extreme for Pennsylvania.”
On the antisemitic point, Mastriano took to social media in July to renounce anti-Semitism after mounting criticism from his opponent and other critics of his campaign’s use of the Gab social media platform for advertising and voter outreach services, pennlive.com reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
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