Things I learned at Foster School

No, I didn't attend school at Foster. I'm a Jefferson kid. I'm talking about standing outside Foster School for 13 hours on Election Day.

It is extremely disheartening to see how many haters live in Mt. Lebanon. One man came up to Heather Arnet's volunteer and called Heather a baby killer. He kept yelling about Planned Parenthood and repeated over and over how Heather is a baby killer. Heather is a loving mother of an autistic child and was very upset. Rightfully so. He then came up to me and asked if I support Planned Parenthood. I said, "Hey, I'm just a write-in candidate for commissioner." It was awful.

Then there are the deer haters. I couldn't believe how many voted based on that issue alone. Both Andy and Steve got their votes. People kept screaming, "Kill 'em all!" Later, I said to both Andy and Steve how one of them was going to be my commissioner and that deer are not the most important issue in Mt. Lebanon. We have speeders, pedestrians being hit or killed, kids dying of heroin overdoses, houses flooding, sidewalks and streets in disrepair. I took a lot of ribbing over the deer issue. There was a salt box next to the parking lot at Foster, and one Republican joked and said that is where they put the dead deer.

I learned that 16 deer were pulled out of the Conservation District so far. The hunter there is a moonlighting Scott Township police officer. The only complaint that the neighbor had was that the hunter had gone back one time to clean up the entrails, and the coyotes had already gotten to them.

I saw our solicitor at the Foster School and asked him how the mediation went with Scott Township the day before (Monday.) He said that he couldn't talk about it. I hope that Scott Twp. didn't back down.

Both Andy and Steve are against PAYT and the Newcomers Tax.

I learned that Coleen Vuono is capable of smiling and even laughing. Yes, she was doing both when talking with the Dems.

And this is what is most disturbing. A parent from the Goddard School told me that a couple of weeks ago, the owner of The Goddard School on Painters Run, had come to work to a gruesome discovery in her parking lot. There was a dead deer with an arrow. It was so gory that the fire department had to come and hose off the parking lot at 5:30 AM before the kids got to school. Since that is Upper St. Clair, I'm guessing that it wasn't OUR fire department who cleaned up the bloody scene. The owner is VERY upset and was unaware of the archery program going on so close to the school. These maps were shared with the owner, who then called Keith McGill.

The owners of The Goddard School are very concerned about the sharpshooting set for February. In my post The Goddard School is now open, I have the link to Keith McGill's claim that the owner is satisfied with his response. They are not!

We are living in a community of haters. I am so sad to learn that.

The constable was called because of me

The night before every election, Foster School drags two large bulletin boards out of storage.  Facing the entrance, the "Republican Board" is placed on the left hand side and the "Democrat Board" is set up on the right side of the entrance. When I arrived at 6:45 AM at Foster School, signs had already been posted on the Republican board. Since I spent no money on signs or posters, I recycled a 11"x17" poster from my campaign in 2011. Steve McLean's signs and door hangers took up most of the space. Fortunately, my small sign with "Write In" handwritten in the upper left hand corner could squeeze in the remaining space. Steve was really nice about it when he warned me that the committee may take down my sign, but personally, didn't have a problem with my sign being posted. [Queue the Imperial March music, Darth Vader's Theme.] Then Tommy Dunn, head of the Mt. Lebanon Republican Committee showed up and said that my sign is not to be posted on the board.

Republican Board 

I was ready for Tommy. Back in 2011, Tommy pulled the same crap on me. See my May18, 2011 post, I'm tired. Jim Cannon and I were not permitted to post our signs on the board because we were not endorsed candidates. As I wrote on May 18, 2011, the boards belong to the school district and are stored on site. I told Tommy that I was a Republican and had every right to be on that board. I was a write in candidate and will have little impact on the election. Tommy had bigger problems, I told him. In Ward 1, Dan McNichol didn't have contact information on his website. No email address. No contact form. Nothing. I tried to contact him and couldn't. I told him that there were residents of Ward 1 who couldn't reach him. Both he and Temp Smith pulled out their phones and pulled up his website. They were quiet. (John Bendel crushed him at the polls.) Then I asked Tommy what the official color was for Republicans. Red. What's the color for Democrats? Blue.

Democrat Board

What color is Steve McLean's sign? Blue. They cringed. I said to Tommy, "You are really threatened by me, aren't you? You need to choose your battles."

By this time, the Judge of Elections stepped in. He had no idea how to call it, so he called the constable. The first call, the constable said that there are no other locations permitted for signs. Tommy was going to "let it go for now." The second call to/from the constable was that if the signs are owned by the Republican Committee, then they had the right to do that, but since an agreement was reached, it's OK. In the future, he suggested a third board for Write-in or Independents. 

Here are my questions. 

1. Where does the third board go?
2. Who pays for the third board, if the parties allegedly bought their own boards?
3. Can the parties prove that they bought the signs?
4. If the Republican board only posted signs for endorsed candidates, where was sign for the only Republican running for school board?
5. Does this violate my civil rights? 

The Mt. Lebanon Republican Committee is nothing but a bunch of good old boys. Their website is an embarrassment. LeboGOP See the empty blocks on the left? Until recently, they listed Sue Rose as a Republican school board director. Ms. Rose, who switched parties and became a Democrat, missed most 2011, her last year in office, due to illness. The list of Republican elected officials has been removed from their website since there are few remaining in office. Do you see anything on the bulletin board for Matt Kluck, the only Republican running for School Board? Neither do I.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who helped me with my write-in campaign. I had to keep reminding them that I would not win, but we were taking a stand. Thank you to the voters who took the time to write in my name. I'm not going away. I am not upset. I am here for the long haul.

Final results

99.55%  100% of the precincts have reported and here are the results:

Commissioner MT LEBANON WARD 1 Vote for 1 

John Bendel (DEM). . . . . . . . 1,119 62.55 

Daniel T. McNichol (REP) . . . . . 665 37.17 

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 5 .28

Commissioner MT LEBANON WARD 3 Vote for 1 

Andrew Reinhart (DEM) . . . . . . 845 48.09  

Steve McLean (REP) . . . . . . . 885 50.37 

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 27 1.54 

Commissioner MT LEBANON WARD 5 Vote for 1 

Kelly Fraasch (DEM) . . . . . . . 886 58.56 

William L. Hoon (REP) . . . . . . 616 40.71 

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 11 .73

Here are the school board results:

School Director MT LEBANON Vote for 5 

Elaine L. Cappucci (DEM/REP) . . . . 6,226 19.44 

Lawrence Mark Lebowitz (DEM/REP). . . 6,195 19.34 

Sarah L. Olbrich (DEM/REP). . . . . 5,804 18.12 

Hugh L. Beal (DEM) . . . . . . . 4,693 14.65 

William L. Cooper (DEM/REP) . . . . 5,601 17.49 

Matthew J. Kluck (REP) . . . . . . 3,442 10.75 

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 67 .21

Referendum:

Mt. Lebanon Referendum MT LEBANON 

Vote for 1 Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,070 84.17 

No. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,142 15.83

Update November 4, 2015 1:14 PM 2015 General Election Results