Education. Family planning. The state’s hand in running Harrisburg.
These are among the issues that divide state Senate candidates Rob Teplitz and John McNally, giving voters a clear choice on Nov. 6.
Teplitz and McNally, competing to replace retiring legislator Jeff Piccola for the 15th Senate district, found few points of agreement during a candidate’s debate held last month at Midtown Scholar Bookstore and sponsored by Harrisburg Hope.
Right from the start, Democrat Teplitz blasted Republican McNally for supporting school vouchers and privately sponsored charter schools, a charge he repeated throughout the hour-long event.
“You’re using [campaign] money from organizations that support privatization of schools then saying the opposite,” said Teplitz. “For you now to begin to Etch-a-Sketch your way through the fall campaign doesn’t do a service to anyone in this community.”
After some prodding, McNally said that he does support vouchers, but denied Teplitz’s claim that he wants to gut public education.
“I am for increasing funding for basic education,” said McNally. “This campaign is about getting to the truth, about integrity. I have not said I will cut education.”
McNally added that he supported other school reforms, including creating a county-wide system of school administration, which he called “the Maryland model.” Teplitz said his educational policy would focus on providing greater funding to reduce class size and boost early education, a hot issue in Harrisburg as kindergarten was nearly eliminated this school year before the state restored some funding cuts.
Moderator Alan Kennedy-Shaffer then turned the debate to Harrisburg issues, asking about the state’s rocky relationship with its capital city.
Teplitz said he opposed repeated moves by Piccola to intervene in city affairs, which led to a 10-year takeover of the city school district and, currently, to state receivership of the city.
“It’s unfortunate that the senator we have now has not played a constructive role,” he said. “My job as senator would be to bring all the parties together. Every option must be on the table.”
McNally was more supportive of the state’s interventions.
“You have to get all the people to the table, and I believe [receiver] Gen. Lynch can do that,” he said.
In a rare moment of agreement, both candidates said they expected creditor concessions and possibly restitution to result from a final deal to resolve Harrisburg’s debt crisis.
Audience questions broadened the scope of the debate, with several members of the large crowd asking about issues that included the state’s troubled voter ID law and women’s reproductive rights.
Teplitz said he opposed voter ID, while McNally said he supported it as long as measures were taken to ensure everyone has the proper identification to vote.
“Let’s all take personal responsibility so that all our neighbors have ID so that they are not disenfranchised,” McNally said.
An audience member questioned the candidates on the subject of funding for Planned Parenthood, providing perhaps the sharpest distinction between the candidates.
McNally called himself “unapologetically pro-life,” saying he would like to ban all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest.
“We have too many abortions already,” he said, adding that he opposed public funding of abortion.
Teplitz accused McNally of purposely confusing the issues of family planning and abortion, as state funding of abortion is already illegal in Pennsylvania.
“We need to support women in this country and women’s ability to make their own reproductive decisions,” said Teplitz.
