Robert C. Jubelirer Senate of Pennsylvania 1975-2006
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Lessons from a Legislative Life First Edition Robert C. Jubelirer Senate of Pennsylvania 1975-2006 As told to Vincent P. Carocci With David A. Atkinson Bassim Hamadeh, CEO and Publisher Kassie Graves, Director of Acquisitions and Sales Jamie Giganti, Senior Managing Editor Miguel Macias, Senior Graphic Designer John Remington, Senior Field Acquisitions Editor Monika Dziamka, Project Editor Brian Fahey, Licensing Specialist Christian Berk, Interior Designer Copyright © 2018 by Cognella, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information retrieval system without the written permission of Cognella, Inc. 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Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-5165-1136-5 (pbk) / 978-1-5165-1137-2 (br) Contents Dedication v About the Principal vii About the Collaborators ix Acknowledgments xi INTRODUCTION xv CHAPTER I A Pay Raise, a Primary, and Poof, a New Career Path 1 CHAPTER II The Beginning: Influences, Inspirations, and Elections 11 CHAPTER III Welcome to the Capitol 15 CHAPTER IV The Principal Players 21 CHAPTER V Grading the Governors 41 CHAPTER VI The General Assembly 67 iv | Lessons from a Legislative Life CHAPTER VII Hits, Misses, and (If Only We Could) Do-Overs 75 CHAPTER VIII The Media 101 CHAPTER IX The Lobbyists 113 CHAPTER X Legal vs. Legislative 123 CHAPTER XI The Projects 135 CHAPTER XII Friends and Allies 155 EPILOGUE: LESSONS FROM, AND FOR, LEGISLATIVE LIFE 159 DEDICATION o my mother and father, who were endlessly faithful in their encour- T agement and never stopped believing in me. My mother was as loving and supportive as any mother could be. My father taught me the value of honesty and hard work. He frequently reminded me that all he had to leave me was his good name, and admonished that I better not screw things up. To Laurie and Jeff, two amazing kids who did not always have it easy during my campaigns, during my time away from home, and during the many times when I was publicly criticized and scorned. They could not have been more supportive or more patient with me. I am so very proud of who they have become as adults, with wonderful spouses and children and careers they fashioned in their own right. To Andy, who I dearly miss and think about daily. To Renee, who has been at my side for more than a decade, who keeps me focused and looking at the bright side of life, and who encouraged me to chronicle my experiences and insight in this book. She is a truly wonderful partner and daily demonstrates the attributes of a brilliant and exceedingly hard-working judge, characteristics and traits she possessed long before meeting me. To my staff, in Harrisburg and in the district, who gave me loyalty, dedication, intelligence, skill, and so much more for thirty-two years. There was a saying that “the staff reflects the member,” but this member was able to succeed more often than not because of the outstanding people and profes- sionals I was privileged to work with. vi | Lessons from a Legislative Life To the residents of the Thirtieth Senatorial District, who put their trust in me for more than three decades, who gave me the chance to serve and to lead through good times and tough times, and who always offered plain-spoken and unvarnished opinions, advice, suggestions, and criticism as the circumstances warranted. To the public-spirited men and women with whom I served, foremost for their service and contributions, but also for their confidence in me. To the many individuals whose instruction, encouragement, guidance, and support made my career possible, and by extension, this book. They are owed more credit and gratitude than I can possibly express. —Robert C. Jubelirer August 2017 ABOUT THE PRINCIPAL obert C. Jubelirer, with thirty-two years of electoral service cover- R ing eight consecutive four-year terms between 1975 and 2006, is the longest-serving president pro tempore—the third-highest elective office in the commonwealth—in the chamber’s history, nearly twenty-one years. He also is the first elected Pennsylvania official to serve simultaneously as lieutenant governor and president pro tempore, following the resignation in October 2001 of former Governor Tom Ridge to become the nation’s first national security advisor of the president. When first elected in November 1974, he was the only Republican candidate for the state Senate to win in the wake of the national Watergate political scandal. When his Senate service ended in 2006, he became the head of the Government Relations Division of the Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel law firm, with offices in Harrisburg and Altoona, Pennsylvania. He is married to Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer and is the father of three—Laurie Jubelirer Langman, married to Dr. Charles Langman; Andrew (deceased); and Jeffrey, married to Dr. Tracey Friedman Jubelirer. He also is the stepfather of three sons—Gideon, Michael, and Jonathan Cohn—and the grandfather of two boys and three girls: Samuel, Rebecca and Andrew Langman, and Sofie and Alison Jubelirer. Former Senator Jubelirer and Judge Cohn Jubelirer reside in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. He was elected in May 2014 as an alumni member of the Penn State Board of Trustees. ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS ince Carocci is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with V a BA in journalism. After an active duty tour as a lieutenant with a US military intelligence unit in Washington, DC, he entered a career as a capitol correspondent in Harrisburg for United Press International (1961); the Associated Press (1962–68) and the Philadelphia Inquirer (1970–71). He entered public service in 1971 as a senior aide with the Democratic caucus of the Pennsylvania Senate. He served on the senior staff of the late Governor Robert P. Casey (1987–95), the last five years of which he was press secretary to the governor. He is the author of four books (A Father’s Life, self-published; A Capitol Journey, Penn State Press; Harry’s Way, Tuxedo Press; and Part of the Parade, Mawby Project Group) and a collaborator on two others (this one and Ward Leader in circulation to potential publishers). He and his wife, Antoinette, live in Camp Hill. They are the parents of four grown children. David Atkinson is a graduate of Shippensburg University with a BA in Government and an MS in Mass Communications. He was a senior staff aide and advisor to Senator Robert C. Jubelirer for nearly thirty years, then spent two years on the staff of Senator Gib Armstrong of Lancaster County before retiring in March 2012 after thirty-five years of staff service with the Pennsylvania Senate. Prior to joining the Senate, he worked for the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee, including an assignment as me- dia relations director for the Pennsylvania delegation to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City. He now works as a consultant in the Harrisburg area and is an associate with the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy. He and his wife, Anne, live in Susquehanna Township. They are the parents of a daughter and a son, and the grandparents of two girls. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FROM BOB JUBELIRER hen we began thinking about a collaborator for this “as told to” W book, our initial fishing expedition among academic types—even at my alma mater—turned up no interest whatsoever. Then David Atkinson suggested Vince Carocci. Vince had written and had published several books, one in particular about his experiences in Pennsylvania state government, politics, and the press corps. He started out professionally as a reporter, so clearly he had the requisite journalistic training and know-how. He was a Democrat, so he brought political balance to the effort. His career spanned mine, so he was familiar with most of the events we would be discussing and could serve as an additional fact-checker. I had interacted with Vince when he worked for the Senate Democrats, when he was representing the State System of Higher Education, when he was in the inner circle during the Casey administration, and when he was doing public affairs work at Capital BlueCross. I knew him to be intelligent, fair, and capable. We met for lunch, with Steve MacNett and John Giannelli joining David and me for the presentation—and, as it turned out, persuasion. Vince was hesitant at first, no doubt haunted still by the memory of the exceptionally partisan and disputatious Casey years. But as we talked about our enthusiasm xii | Lessons from a Legislative Life for the project, showed him the outline we had assembled, and assured him our intention was not to do a version of Harrisburg Babylon, he began to warm to the idea. Having spent more than two years putting a manuscript together, which was deeper and broader than I ever imagined, I have no hesitation in saying our choice was inspired. Vince exhibited remarkable patience in coaxing out the stories in coherent fashion, in waiting for my recovered memories to kick in, and in having to constantly add material and reedit what had sup- posedly been put to bed.