I’ve been in politics business since I was a teenager, and I’m still making rookie mistakes. Before the meeting with Rep. Doyle Heffley at the Lehigh Township municipal building, I took my memo on absentee voting and HB 1576 (on PA endangered species) to Heffley’s two staff members sitting at the front of the room. They showed the memo to Rep. Heffley, who told me this was an official meeting, and asked me not distribute my memo to the audience until the end of the meeting. And I agreed. I should have distributed my memo without asking.
I knew that, but I wimped out. I’m of German heritage. I don’t cross the street until the sign says “walk.”
During the question period, I brought up the onerous requirements to get an absentee ballot in PA, and Heffley seemed sympathetic to my concerns.
Later he said he supported HB 1576. The PA House intends to limit the term of the members of the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission to four years instead of eight. Right now the members of the two commissions are somewhat isolated from political pressures. By making the terms four years, the appointments would be politicized, and the Commissioners would be under the legislators’ thumbs.
After the meeting I told Rep. Heffley that I was very concerned about the elimination of the category “species of special concern” in HB 1576, and I noted how tracking such species could prevent them from becoming endangered. He told me the bill was still being amended, and that might be changed.
I’ll keep you posted.
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