“Streetcar”: Passion and Power at Gamut Theatre

November 11, 2017 | by Kait Gibboney

Revered by many to be Tennessee Williams’ magnum opus, “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a classic among theatrical works of the 20th century. The play originally ran on Broadway from 1947 to 1949, winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1948 and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Best Play in the same year.

Gamut Theatre Group has now revived the legendary tragedy in a production directed by Clark Nicholson and starring Amber Mann as Blanche DuBois, Michelle Kay Smith as Stella Kowalski and Sean Adams as Stanley Kowalski. Blanche and Stanley’s conflicts are the centerpieces of the play, and their relationship is powerfully depicted by Mann and Adams.

“Streetcar” tells the story of southern belle Blanche DuBois, who visits her younger sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley, in New Orleans. Traveling from the family home, Belle Reve, in Laurel, Miss., Blanche is staying with Stella and Stanley for an extended period of time, having taken a leave of absence from teaching English due to her nerves and after losing Belle Reve to creditors. Without her home and with no money, Blanche has no choice but to live with Stella and Stanley in their already crowded apartment in the French Quarter.

Upon entering the Kowalskis’ apartment, Blanche immediately casts a critical eye on the small, simple, two-room space and its lack of privacy. In the first few scenes, it’s easy to understand why Blanche has a problem with her neves. High-strung, anxious and fastidious, she has no problem talking for the two of them and expressing displeasure at Stella’s living situation, among other things. She blames Stella for leaving her with the full responsibility of managing the deaths of their father and other family members, leading to the financial collapse and eventual loss of Belle Reve.

Upon meeting, Blanche and Stanley immediately dislike one another, which forms the basis of their relationship. Blanche repeatedly critiques Stanley for his rough appearance and boorish nature, and, in turn, Stanley despises Blanche for her rudeness and lengthy presence in his apartment. Stanley asks Blanche about her former marriage, and she explains that she was married young and her husband died, leaving out the details because of apparent distress.

Blanche is clearly careful of her appearance, and her vanity is precious to her. She does not step into direct light, self-conscious of her looks in her 30s. Her clothes are luxurious and plentiful, despite her recent economic hardship. Suspicious of her fine clothes and items in her trunk, Stanley believes that Blanche is lying about losing Belle Reve and is cheating Stella out of money. The couple is expecting a baby, raising the already high tensions in the apartment caused by Blanche’s neuroses and stress. As the play unfolds, the fictions that Blanche has been spinning start to unravel, eventually causing her descent into a psychotic break.

The rawness of their emotions and the strong-willed, stubborn personalities of Stanley and Blanche, played with passion and power by Adams and Mann, are complemented by the gentle, warm character of Stella depicted by Smith. The iconic “Stella!” scene was heart-wrenching and intense, and the final, intense performance by Mann capped this tale of poverty, struggle and regret.

“A Streetcar Named Desire” runs through Nov. 26 at Gamut Theatre, 15 N. 4th St., Harrisburg. For more information and tickets, call 717-238-4111 or visit www.gamuttheatre.org.

Raffle payday comes for some, but not all, shelter patrons.

November 9, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Clients from Downtown Daily Bread, a soup kitchen and drop-in shelter on South Street, were recruited to promote an Election Day raffle. Some still await payment.

Men from the Bethesda Mission shelter who were recruited for an Election Day raffle scheme have been compensated for their work, but patrons of another local shelter say they’re still being stiffed.

Raffle organizer Kyle Myers, who also uses the name Kyle Schlessman, went to Bethesda Mission on Reily Street Wednesday evening to pay seven men $100 each for their work on Tuesday. Myers had hired the men to distribute raffle tickets and promotional fliers to voters entering Harrisburg polling places.

The raffle offered voters a chance to win a free iPhone if they participated in Harrisburg’s mayoral election. It was ended by a Dauphin County court injunction on Tuesday.

Another raffle organizer recruited workers from Downtown Daily Bread, a drop-in shelter and soup kitchen on South Street. Staff there said on Thursday that patrons were still waiting on paychecks.

Anne Guenin, director of Downtown Daily Bread, was able to confirm that, of the six patrons who were hired to distribute raffle tickets on Tuesday, one was paid $50 – a portion of what she claims she was promised. Guenin said that at least one other woman was still waiting for payment and could not confirm the status of the others.

Tyrone Lewis was napping at Daily Bread on Tuesday morning when a man entered the shelter and shouted an advertisement for paid work. Lewis said the man acted “belligerently” when Karen Fetrow, coordinator of the drop-in shelter, told him he could not recruit patrons.

The man signed into the shelter’s roster as Kevin Brown, according to Fetrow. She said she did not ask him for ID and thinks he used an alias.

Lewis said he left with the man because he needed money and worked all day handing out tickets. He claimed he’s still owed $75.

“I’m not too happy,” Lewis said on Thursday.

On Thursday evening, Myers said he would “absolutely” pay the Daily Bread patrons their wages. He said he would call the shelter on Friday to make arrangements.

Myers went to the Bethesda Mission shelter himself on Tuesday morning to recruit men to promote the raffle. He promised them $10 an hour to distribute the tickets and fliers. After the injunction was filed at midday, some of the men were photographed and interviewed by county sheriffs, who were ordered to seize raffle materials from seven polling places.

By Tuesday evening, Bethesda Mission residents had not been paid for working at the polls all day in freezing weather. They were allegedly told by organizers that they could not collect payment until the county concluded its investigation into the raffle.

TheBurg previously reported that six Mission residents had worked for Myers on Tuesday. Bill Christian, director of the Men’s Shelter at Bethesda Mission, confirmed that seven men had worked.

Christian previously told TheBurg that political candidates and parties often recruit mission residents as canvassers in election season. When Myers came to the mission on Tuesday morning, Christian allowed seven men to leave the shelter with him.

If he had known that the raffle would end in a court-ordered injunction, Christian said he would have never let the men go.

Burg Blog: Oh, Harrisburg

November 9, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

A polling station on State Street in Harrisburg.

On Tuesday night, someone texted me a “face palm” emoji.

That’s a little picture of a guy bringing his hand to his face in a gesture of frustration and exasperation.

I knew where he was going with this.

We had just run a couple of stories about a bizarre Election Day scheme, which began with homeless men standing at polling stations handing out raffle tickets that promised a chance to win big prizes for simply casting a vote, and ended, hours later, with a visit by the Dauphin County sheriff to the hastily assembled downtown campaign office of write-in candidate Gloria Martin-Roberts.

As another friend often says, with a sigh, “Oh, Harrisburg …”

Yes, it was another shameful day for Harrisburg’s political class and, by extension, the rest of us. And now the national press has picked it up, with stories today in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, among other papers, reminding me of the day the big-city press jumped on the story of former Mayor Steve Reed and his house full of museum artifacts.

As of now, details remained a bit sketchy over the plot to round up men from Bethesda Mission and Downtown Daily Bread and dispatch them, armed with campaign flyers and raffle tickets, to polling stations throughout the city. It’s also unclear if the campaign crossed any legal line or if it will be able to maintain a veneer of plausible separation between the pro-Martin-Roberts (and anti-Eric Papenfuse) flyers and the iPhone/cash/gift card raffle drawing.

But this much is clear—the episode is disgraceful, another black eye for the city doled out by some of its own “leaders.” That’s bad enough. But I’m perhaps even more astounded by the profound stupidity of this half-baked enterprise.

Since I’ve been here, I’ve been told that Harrisburg is a “different” kind of place. Too big to be a town, too small to be a proper city, it exists in an urban netherworld, sometimes exhibiting the worst (sometimes, the best) traits of each.

So, Harrisburg has big-city problems, but these often reside within a small-town political framework more akin to Mayberry than Manhattan, in which the players know each other well, often detest each other and engage in a battle to be the biggest minnow in the pond.

In cities with a more evolved political class, here’s what happens in a primary election. People lose, and then they call and congratulate the winner. The losers graciously bow out of contention and support the party’s nominee in the general election. Serious-minded candidates who want another shot study what went wrong, how they can do better and plot a long-term strategy on how to come back and fight another day.

In contrast, here’s what happens in Harrisburg. A candidate loses in the primary and then, more often than not, whines, complains and makes accusations and excuses. He or she then plots and schemes how to still win in the general election they’ve just been knocked out of.

So, for instance, maybe a lifelong Democrat cross-files and wins on the Republican side, becoming the standard-bearer for a party he loathes. Or maybe he backdoors his way in, earning enough write-in votes to get a spot on the other side of the ballot. Or, absent any other alternative, he mounts a pointless write-in campaign.

In any case, staying in a race despite a primary loss usually says nothing good about a candidate or his chances. When candidates continue to run, they’re usually doing so from a place of profound personal ego and political weakness. They simply can’t abandon the spotlight or the belief that they should be the next mayor or council member or whatever. It also usually confirms the primary result, as they typically run as bad a campaign the second time around as the first.

But, mostly, it’s a just a big waste of everyone’s time and attention, since primary losers rarely end up winning. In Harrisburg, the Democratic victor in the primary wins in the general election almost every time, barring intervening scandal or death.

Harrisburg’s recent mayoral races offer great examples. Four years ago, one of the losing Democrats continued to run after “winning” the Republican primary through write-in votes. At the time, I wrote that he would lose badly in the general election running as a Republican, and that’s what happened. A whole lot of time and money was spent for nothing.

This year, we were faced with an even odder situation. Of the four losing primary candidates, two mounted write-in campaigns in the general election. Write-in efforts almost never succeed, requiring months of intense voter engagement and education for even the slimmest chance. Instead, these candidates declared just days before the election—“campaigning” mostly through Facebook. They then lost by a 7 to 1 margin.

This was simply was not a serious effort. So then what was the point? Ego? Delusion? Coercion? Pique? Honestly, I have no idea.

But here we are, stuck with the Election Day version of the Keystone Kops, a group who raided the city’s homeless shelters to field a workforce to support a hopelessly desperate and strangely executed write-in campaign. Their bizarre scheme is now being examined by law enforcement, which may not take kindly to partisans running a raffle to encourage “voter turnout.”

But that still leaves us, the people of Harrisburg, saddled with a political class that, too often, proves to be embarrassing, incompetent or even corrupt. We must demand better from those who purport to represent us: more maturity, more professionalism, more care for the whole of the city. And they must be able to accept criticism and even loss gracefully.

In the battle over the question—is Harrisburg more a big town or a small city?—I tend to side with the latter. However, I’m still waiting for politicians, as a whole, to show greater competence and thicker skins: to do battle, accept their lumps, shake hands and move on. I believe this city has had enough of their petty squabbles, lingering vendettas, Facebook feuds and crazy, embarrassing schemes.

Lawrance Binda is editor in chief of TheBurg.

Road Repave: 3rd Street corridor project officially begins.

November 9, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Marc Kurowski of Capital Region Water, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse and Councilman Dave Madsen officially broke ground today to begin the 3rd Street corridor project.

Harrisburg officials today broke ground on the long-awaited repaving of 3^rd Street, though most of the work will wait until next spring to start.

City Engineer Wayne Martin said that crews will begin on the Midtown portion with new curbing and ADA-compliant ramps at each intersection. Work is expected to continue through December, depending on the weather, and will resume in March.

The entire project includes about a two-mile stretch of the main artery from Chestnut Street downtown to Seneca Street in Uptown Harrisburg.

Actual milling and paving of the street will hold off until next year, said Mayor Eric Papenfuse. The project is expected to continue throughout much of 2018, wrapping up in October.

Papenfuse stressed that the project is not just for motorists. He said the improvements will make it easier to walk and bike, as well as drive along the street.

“By the time we are done, this entire area will be returned to the residents of the city,” he said.

Martin said that, when paving begins next year, he expects temporary road closures and detours lasting about three days at a time. He also said that some parking, about 10 spaces at a time, will be occupied by construction equipment.

“There will be times when parking will be an issue on 3^rd Street,” Martin said, requesting patience among motorists and residents until the project is done.

The street was last paved in 1999, he said, so, “it’s overdue.”

As part of the project, Capital Region Water will install trees and other environmentally friendly infrastructure, including green “bump outs,” to reduce storm-water flow, said CRW board chairman Marc Kurowski.

He said the project is part of CRW’s City Beautiful H2O program, which is meant to replace outdated infrastructure and improve storm-water flow.

“We’ll have new trees and new ways to manage storm-water,” Papenfuse said. “This will become a showcase for design for the whole region.”

Harrisburg has contracted with Elizabethtown-based Doug Lamb Construction Inc. for the $5.5 million project, a cost split between the city and CRW. The city is paying an estimated $3.5 million, with CRW footing the remaining $2 million.

Most of the project is funded by a grant from Impact Harrisburg, a nonprofit set up as part of the city’s financial recovery plan.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

November 9, 2017 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Weekend!

Please excuse the abbreviated Weekend Roundup. I have a pretty good reason.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Election day raffle mixed with campaign literature by accident, supervisors say

November 8, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

This story was updated on Nov. 14 with comment from Claude Phipps.

A suspicious Election Day raffle led Dauphin County sheriffs on Tuesday to the offices of a Harrisburg developer, who, along with the raffle organizer, now denies any collusion between the raffle and political campaigns.

Jeremy Hunter, a real estate developer with property holdings in Harrisburg, owns the 308 N. 2^nd St. property where raffle workers reported to receive training and payment on Tuesday. The office was also command central for poll watchers and canvassers promoting two other campaigns in the city: that of Gloria Martin-Roberts, a write-in candidate for mayor, and Claude Phipps, the Republican candidate for a Magisterial District Judge seat in precinct 12-01-05.

Following reports that men were distributing raffle tickets and promotional flyers at polling stations on Tuesday, Dauphin County Judge Scott Evans issued an injunction against the materials, ordering their seizure from seven polling places across the city. The flyer said that voters who participated in Harrisburg’s mayoral race could enter a raffle to win a free iPhone, cash and a gift card.

Raffle materials, along with flyers promoting Martin-Roberts’ write-in campaign, were in Hunter’s office on Tuesday afternoon when county Sheriff Nicholas Chimienti arrived for an investigation.

The coexistence of the raffle materials and campaign operations in the office was sheer coincidence, Hunter said. He denied any intent by the campaign to influence voters by offering them the chance to win a free iPhone.

A bag of material obtained by a poll worker, shown to TheBurg yesterday, showed campaign flyers and raffle tickets intermingled. Kyle Myers, the York county resident who organized the raffle, acknowledged that at least one person he employed for the raffle also distributed campaign literature.

Hunter claims to have spent thousands of dollars on radio and print ads since the primary season attacking Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse. Papenfuse defeated Martin-Roberts in the Democratic primary in May and won a second term last night.

A self-described “anti-politics” guy, Hunter said he printed 40,000 anti-Papenfuse flyers prior to Tuesday’s general election. The flyers, which were distributed by canvassers and poll workers before and during Election Day, also promoted Martin-Roberts’ write-in campaign. Hunter said that he paid for the printing and distribution himself, acting of his own volition.

According to Hunter, his reputation as a self-financed political organizer led Myers to contact him about his own Election Day project.

“He came to me because he knew that I was spending money on literature in the city,” Hunter said. “He knew I had people to pass off material.”

Hunter said he agreed to help Myers hire people to promote the raffle at polls.

Myers claimed that his goal for the raffle was to encourage people to vote. But he could not explain why he chose to debut a voter turnout initiative in a city where most municipal races were uncontested, or why he chose to focus specifically on the mayoral election, where Papenfuse had the nominations of both major political parties.

Myers said he grew up in central Pennsylvania and lives in York County now, adding that he decided to run the raffle in Harrisburg because it is Pennsylvania’s capital city.

Funding for the raffle, including prize money and wages for people distributing tickets and promotional fliers, came from private sources, including Myers’ contacts in Harrisburg. He would not name any of his donors, but denied that any of them worked for campaigns.

Hunter would not say definitively if he thought the raffle would generate votes for Martin-Roberts, his candidate of choice. But he also blamed Martin-Roberts’ loss in the May primary on low voter turnout and believed that incentivizing voters would result in “more honest opinion” from voters.

“I told [the raffle organizers] I wanted as many people to come out as possible, because how do you know what people will do unless everyone comes?” Hunter said. “Last time, we lost by 500 votes because nobody came out. I agree the city needs a big turnout, so I agreed to let my office be used by raffle people.”

Hunter also denied that his office doubled as Martin-Roberts’ official campaign office, even though a woman working there on Tuesday told reporters it was. On Wednesday, Martin-Roberts volunteers waiting outside the office for payment said that the write-in candidate had not sanctioned the raffle.

In response to reports that raffle promoters were denied their pay on Tuesday evening, Hunter said that 50 people who worked out of the 2^nd Street office were paid there that night. Hunter claims that he gave out more than $5,000 of his own money to poll watchers, canvassers and raffle workers who were waiting outside his office at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

“It was chaos last night,” Hunter said. “Claude [Phipps’] people weren’t paid, ticket people weren’t paid. I was just handing out $50 bills like I was a McDonalds or something.”

In remarks on Friday, Nov. 10, Phipps denied ever working with Hunter on his campaign. Phipps said that he hired and paid all of his own staff, but Shymar McBride, his campaign manager, acknowledged that some Phipps staffers sought out additional work with Hunter in their off hours.

Myers pledged to personally pay everyone who was owed money by Thursday, Nov. 9. He also said he would compensate people who were underpaid on Tuesday night.

Six men from Bethesda Mission who were promised $10 an hour to work for Myers were not paid by Wednesday morning, according to Bill Christian, director of the men’s shelter. Myers said he plans to pay those men tonight.

Hunter says now that he wishes Myers hadn’t approached him with his Election Day project. He regrets that confusion in his office on Tuesday led to the perception of collusion between campaigns.

As for his part, Myers doesn’t think he’ll try a voter turnout raffle in another city. He said he’s “not passionate about politics,” but does want people to be informed and educated.

“Given the backlash from this, I’m not really sure we’ll repeat it in the future,” Myers said. “But the message of getting people to the polls is still a good message.”

Martin-Roberts did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Papenfuse Wins Re-Election for Harrisburg Mayor; Council, School Board Set

November 7, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

The makeup of Harrisburg City Council will not change, as five sitting council members won election tonight.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse sailed to an easy reelection victory tonight, despite two candidates mounting late write-in bids.

With all 28 precincts reporting, Papenfuse garnered 3,782 votes. All write-in candidates together tallied 501.

Just days ago, two of Papenfuse’s defeated opponents in the Democratic primary, Gloria Martin-Roberts and Lewis Butts, declared that they would mount write-in campaigns in the general election. Both lost handily.

With his victory, Papenfuse will begin his second, four-year mayoral term in January.

Five Harrisburg City Council candidates also ran unopposed in their races. Council incumbents Wanda Williams, Shamaine Daniels and Ben Allatt each won four-year terms, as did newcomer Ausha Green. Councilman Dave Madsen earned a two-year seat.

Harrisburg Treasurer Dan Miller and Controller Charlie DeBrunner each ran unopposed and will serve four-year terms.

For school board, all the listed Democrats won four-year seats: Brian Carter, Carrie Fowler, Danielle Robinson and Judd Pittman. Incumbent James Thompson, who lost in the Democratic primary but cross-filed, lost on the Republican side tonight.

Percel Eiland, running unopposed, took the two-year seat for school board.

One district justice seat was contested. In the race for district 12-01-05. Democrat Hanif Johnson beat back Claude Phipps, who was on the Republican ballot, by a vote of 953-347.

In Dauphin County, Republican Matthew Krupp defeated Democrat Diane Bowman in a close race for prothonotary. In the heated contest for three Court of Common Pleas judgeships, sitting Judge Lori Serratelli lost to challengers Ed Marsico, Royce Morris and John McNally.

Homeless people recruited for election raffle scheme, denied pay by organizers

November 7, 2017 | by Lizzy Hardison

Residents at the Bethesda Mission homeless shelter say they were recruited to promote a raffle outside of polling stations today.

The offer was enticing — $10 an hour for easy work.

On election day, men eager to earn money were shuttled to polling locations across the city, where they were told to hand voters raffle tickets as they entered the polls. Standing in rain that turned to sleet and snow, the men followed all the instructions given to them by their bosses, including the request that they not promote any one candidate.

But then they were told to collect their earnings at 8:00 p.m. at 308 N. 2nd Street – the campaign headquarters of Gloria Martin-Roberts, a write-in candidate for Harrisburg mayor.

Six men enrolled in the long-term recovery program at Bethesda Mission—five of whom were interviewed on the condition that TheBurg not name them in this article—say that they are being denied the money they were offered to distribute raffle tickets outside of polling places on election day. The tickets were accompanied by a flier advertising a chance to win a free iPhone X.

Dauphin County judge Scott Evans issued an injunction against the tickets and fliers today, outlawing their distribution during the county’s investigation. The injunction ordered sheriffs to report to polling places, seize the materials, and get the names and photographs of people proffering them.

The Bethesda Mission residents said that they were questioned and photographed by sheriffs, who told them that they hoped they would get the pay they were promised. The residents also confirmed that they were instructed to report to 308 N. 2nd street at 8 p.m. this evening to collect their earnings for the day — $110 in cash for 11 hours of work.

Now, they’re allegedly being told by the raffle organizers that they won’t receive payment until the county concludes its investigation into the scheme.

“We’re just trying to get paid,” one of the men said. “We stood outside all day and I want my money.”

At 8 p.m., the 2nd street office was darkened and locked, but a group of about 10 people waited outside to collect their money. The men from Bethesda Mission, who represented only a portion of the people who were recruited for the scheme, said they did not plan on going to the office.

Many Harrisburg residents expected today’s general election to be an uneventful affair. When men appeared outside of polling stations and gave voters raffle tickets and fliers, nobody knew what to think—but everyone agreed it was strange.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said city solicitor Neil Grover, who reviewed one of the fliers at the 11th ward polls, hosted inside the Neighborhood Center on 3rd Street, Tuesday evening.

Shamaine Daniels, a Harrisburg councilwoman who campaigned for Judge Lori Serratelli at the Neighborhood Center, didn’t know what to make of the raffle scheme.

“Usually, my antenna goes up when there’s a quid pro quo violation,” said Daniels, who is also attorney.

The legal term “quid pro quo” refers to a transactional exchange between two parties.

“But this was just so strange, I didn’t know what to think,” Daniels said.

When county officials arrived and issued the injunction against the raffle, people at the polls worried that the men handing out tickets were vulnerable.

“That’s what worried me, that innocent people would be in trouble,” said Sherry Summerfield, a Republican Party poll watcher at the Neighborhood Center. “They clearly had no idea what they were doing.”

Indeed, some of the men at Bethesda Mission did not know who Gloria Martin-Roberts was. They were told that the raffle tickets were meant to incentivize voting and were instructed to not promote any one candidate.

“They told us there was nothing wrong with it,” one man said about the raffle scheme.

They identified at least two people by photo who helped organize the raffle. They said that Kyle Myers, who appears in a Facebook video promoting the raffle, drove them to polling places. Other men identified Jennie Jenkins, a former mayoral candidate, as someone who brought them pizza and gave them instructions for engaging voters.

Myers did not respond to a message sent to his Facebook account on Tuesday night, and Jenkins declined to comment by phone.

Bill Christian, director of the men’s shelter at Bethesda Mission, said that candidates and political parties often recruit at the Mission during elections, offering men money to distribute campaign literature.

Christian did not know that the men were being roped into a legally murky scheme or that they’d be asked to share only limited information with voters.

“I would have never let them go if I’d known that,” Christian said.

The Mission residents said that they get few chances to earn cash and jumped at the opportunity to work the polls. Many of the men are nearing the end of their 12-month recovery program at the shelter, and were hoping to use the money when they leave.

“What everyone should be mad about is that they’re ripping off homeless people,” said one resident.

Another said that he kept his raffle tickets as a form of insurance in case he is denied pay.

“If they don’t pay me I have proof that I worked,” he said.

Attempts to reach Martin-Roberts and her campaign on Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

Dauphin County Sheriff Visits Martin-Roberts Campaign Office as Raffle Probe Mounts

November 7, 2017 | by By Lizzy Hardison and Lawrance Binda

The downtown Harrisburg building housing the campaign office of Gloria Martin-Roberts.

A raffle scheme offering voters the chance to win a free iPhone X has apparent connections to the Gloria Martin-Roberts mayoral campaign, but it is unclear whether the write-in candidate sanctioned it herself.

Dauphin County Sheriff Nicholas Chimienti Jr. and an investigator went to the Martin-Roberts campaign office on N. 2nd Street at about 4:45 p.m. this afternoon, where they spoke with staffers. At that time, a box with flyers advertising the raffle and flyers proclaiming, “Vote NO Papenfuse; Write in Gloria Martin Roberts,” were in the office, along with reams of blue raffle tickets.

Chimienti would not comment on the investigation as he left the campaign office just after 5 p.m.

Campaign staffers also declined to speak with reporters and became hostile when they tried to take photos inside or outside the office. People who said they were hired by the campaign to distribute flyers (pictured below) and raffle tickets also filed out of the building and declined to comment.

Several Harrisburg voters filed complaints today after receiving raffle tickets from men stationed at the entrances of polling places. At some locations, the tickets were accompanied by flyers advertising a voter turnout initiative offering voters the chance to win prizes if they voted. The raffle offered a free iPhone X, valued at $1,000, to a first-prize winner, $500 cash to a second-place winner, and a $200 Best Buy gift card to a third winner.

Subsequently, early this afternoon, Dauphin County Judge Arthur Evans issued an injunction that all raffle tickets be seized from precincts 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. He further ordered that all Dauphin County sheriffs visit all polling stations and seize all raffle tickets.

Devar Bailey of Harrisburg said he was stationed at the 10-1 polling location at Woodbine and N. 3rd streets. He got the job after answering a Craigslist ad offering $10 an hour to hand out materials that included pro-Martin-Roberts flyers and raffle tickets.

“A lot of people took it,” he said, adding that he was recruited by a woman he identified as “Jennie Jenkins.”

Jenkins, a former candidate for mayor, refused to be interviewed for this story, saying that all questions should be directed to her attorney.

At the same location, a poll watcher left behind a bag of flyers and raffle tickets, which was later obtained by TheBurg (pictured below).

Bailey said he was instructed to visit the Martin-Roberts headquarters on N. 2nd Street at 8 p.m. to get paid. He said he worked a total of nine hours, until 3 p.m., handing out material.

While Bailey was recruited by a Craigslist ad, other large groups of poll workers were recruited from local shelters, including Bethesda Mission and Downtown Daily Bread, according to sources.

Martin-Roberts lost to Mayor Eric Papenfuse in the May Democratic primary for mayor. She declared just last week that she would mount a write-in campaign for the seat.

This story was updated to include that Jennie Jenkins refused comment.

Raffle Tickets, Flyers Dent Harrisburg’s Mayoral Election

November 7, 2017 | by Lawrance Binda

Campaign signs line the State Street median in Harrisburg.

A Dauphin County judge issued an injunction today to stop the distribution of raffle tickets that appeared to encourage people to vote a certain way in the race for Harrisburg mayor.

People at many city polling stations were found to be handing out raffle tickets, which promised prizes including a new iPhone X (first prize), $500 in cash (second prize) and a $200 Best Buy gift card (third prize).

Winners, the ticket said, would be announced on a Facebook page called Harrisburg Mayoral Election 2017.

“The Court finds that the raffle ticket is also promoting of a particular race and suggestive of balloting,” according to the court order.

Judge Arthur Evans ordered that all raffle tickets be seized from precincts 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. He further ordered that all Dauphin County sheriffs visit all polling stations and seize all raffle tickets.

To promote the raffle, fliers were also handed out saying, “NO Papenfuse. Vote Write-in. Gloria Martin-Roberts. Stand for Equality.”

Just a few days ago, Martin-Roberts announced on Facebook that she would mount a late write-in campaign for mayor. She lost in the Democratic primary in May to incumbent Mayor Eric Papenfuse. Papenfuse also gained more write-in votes than Martin-Roberts from Republican voters, so also appears on the Republican ballot for mayor.

Polls close at 8 p.m.

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