HomeNewsCandidate plans vast changes for Register of Wills office

Candidate plans vast changes for Register of Wills office

Making promises: Republican candidate Ross Feinberg, a Rhawnhurst resident, claims he will put an end to the partisan politics running through the Register of Wills office. SOURCE: FACEBOOK

Ross Feinberg, a Rhawnhurst resident and the Republican candidate for Register of Wills, said it is “appalling” that the office makes dozens of patronage hires.

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Feinberg is running against Democrat Ron Donatucci, who was first elected in 1979. Donatucci is seeking re-election, even though he signed up for the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) in 2007.

The Committee of Seventy, a government watchdog group, has called for eliminating the office, and a study by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority said eliminating the office could save taxpayers millions of dollars.

“I plan on making vast changes within the Register of Wills office that will put an end to the partisan politics running through an office that has no business being in that business. When I call for civil service standards to be upheld on day one of my swearing in, the Register of Wills office will finally serve the residents of Philadelphia the way it’s supposed to be run. Not the self-serving office it is now,” Feinberg said.

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Terry Tracy, a Republican candidate for an at-large City Council seat, named Farah Jimenez as his campaign chairwoman.

Jimenez replaces Joe McColgan, an East Torresdale resident who left because of his appointment to the board of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

ldquo;Congratulations to Joe on his appointment to the PICA board. I know no one who will take his fiduciary responsibility to the people of this city more seriously. He will bring a much-needed fresh perspective to the budgetary oversight process. I am deeply grateful for his many contributions to my campaign,” Tracy said.

Jimenez serves on the School Reform Commission and was CEO of the People’s Emergency Center. During her time with the PEC, Jimenez worked to provide housing, life skills training and education to women and children in need.

“With the thorny issues before Philadelphia today, it is imperative that we elect on to City Council an informed, decisive and courageous leader,” Jimenez said. “We need a leader with a passion for Philadelphia and a compassion for its people. And, we need an individual with the ability to work collaboratively in Philadelphia, as well as in Harrisburg. Terry Tracy is that individual, and that leader, that Philadelphia needs. As such, I couldn’t be more delighted to be working on his behalf.”

••

Former congressman Joe Sestak, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, praised the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a nuclear pact signed by the United States, Iran, the European Union and five other nations.

“Today’s nuclear agreement with Iran is another cautious, crucial step toward peacefully and permanently stopping the Iranians from attaining nuclear weapons. Diplomacy is protracted, difficult and complex — but it must always be the first option to try over war,” Sestak said.

Sestak, who is hoping to challenge Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, said the U.S. military might have difficulty halting Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

“Because of a sophisticated air defense system, an array of offensive missile, naval and air forces, and the fact that a number of Iran’s nuclear facilities are deeply buried underground — one protected by hundreds of feet of stone — any U.S. airstrikes would be wide in breadth and long in duration to accomplish,” he said.

Sestak said successful U.S. strikes would result in stopping Iran’s nuclear program, but for only four years. In contrast, last week’s agreement could potentially be much longer lasting — 15 years or more — if the deal is truly verifiable.

••

Meanwhile, Sestak last week continued his statewide book tour in Reading, where he and supporters walked from Reading Hospital to a local restaurant to talk about the health security chapter from his book, Walking in Your Shoes to Restore the American Dream.

The chapter, “A Health Security Strategy,” highlights what Sestak believes is the progress made by the Affordable Care Act and includes some of the specific policies that the candidate would fight for in the Senate.

“In the military, we give everybody health care not because we are liberals, but because it pays great dividends to our nation,” Sestak said. “SEAL Team 6 isn’t ready to go when one of their members has an abscessed tooth that has been left untreated or not prevented. And just as we need a productive warrior force to carry out our national defense mission, our national workforce must be equally able to carry out our economic mission.”

Sestak argues that the ACA has taken steps toward fair access to quality care and lower costs through private market mechanisms. He pointed to a 44-state analysis that found that the number of new marketplace insurers was five times greater than insurers exiting the market, creating more choice for individual consumers and new opportunities for issuers with lower, competitive pricing.

Sestak contended that the ACA has also added 13 years to the life of the Medicare trust fund, which will now be solvent through 2030 instead of 2017 pre-ACA.

Similarly, the ACA is fining hospitals with excessive readmission rates, incentivizing hospitals to focus on post-discharge health. Hospital errors have dropped 17 percent since 2010, saving 50,000 lives and $12 billion to the health care system, according to Sestak.

The uninsured rate has fallen from 20 percent to 11.4 percent.

Sestak supports allowing individuals — as long as the safety standards are the same as in the U.S. — to import cheaper drugs from Canada, where American pharmaceutical firms sell the same drugs for lower prices.

Maine has permitted citizens to reimport U.S.-made drugs from Canada for almost a decade. A month’s prescription of Cymbalta costs $113 there instead of $149, and Nasonex is discounted from $105 to $29.

Sestak also supports allowing Medicare to bargain directly with pharmaceuticals for best prices, as Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs already do.

••

PEG PAC, the affiliated political action committee of the Pennsylvania Business Council and the state’s oldest pro-business PAC, announced its endorsement of Northampton County Common Pleas Court Judge Emil Giordano for Superior Court.

Giordano, a Republican, will face Democrat Alice Beck Dubow, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge.

“Judge Giordano would bring to the Superior Court a wealth of trial court experience that will serve him well as an appellate court judge,” said David W. Patti, president and CEO of the PBC.

The Superior Court, which hears criminal and civil appeals, is often the final determinant in lawsuits against businesses.

The makeup of the Superior Court — the largest of Pennsylvania’s appellate courts — is critical to the business community, in Patti’s view. The 15-member full court seldom hears a case, as most of the work of the Superior Court is done in panels of three judges.

Giordano has served on the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas since 2003, and his background includes time as an assistant district attorney, a public defender and in private practice, where he worked on civil law cases.

Patti said PEG PAC is confident that Giordano will always balance the rights and needs of plaintiffs and defendants fairly.

PEG PAC supports candidates for office with financial contributions, campaign consulting and grassroots action. ••

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