Matt Coughlin
Bucks County Courier Times
16 September 2005All incumbents must go, according to the grassroots organization Pennsylvania Clean Sweep.
"It's simple," local coordinator Tom Lingenfelter said Thursday night, "Get rid of the incumbents."
The Bucks branch of the state's 4,000-member grassroots organization met inside the Blue Fountain Diner in Middletown.
So far the organization is using word of mouth, the Internet, posters, call-in shows and letters to the editor to spread its message, coordinator Robert Lusch of Bristol Township [sic] said. Some members are considering "flip flopping" their party affiliations to vote against incumbents in primaries.
Lusch said he believes even "no" voting legislators were in on the pay raise and that "no" votes were arranged with party leaders in areas where incumbents were seen as vulnerable to defeat in the next election.
The group is now trying to find challengers who promise to rescind the pay raise, Lingenfelter said. Lusch said he expects in upcoming elections voters of all parties will set aside other political issues to get incumbents out.
"You are an American first, you're not a Republican, you're not a Democrat, you're not a Constitutionalist," Catherine Bonaventura of Middletown said. "You're an American first and we want our congressmen to vote as Americans - not for the party, not for themselves, but for the people."
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Der Aasichter bemerkt: Hr. Lusch wuhnt im "Bristol Borough."
