page_title: The Pennsylvania Society
section_title: Criticism and Counter event
hierarchical_section_title: The Pennsylvania Society / Criticism and Counter event
caption_attribution_description: English: Panorama of the East Wing of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Originally three horizontal photos.
context_page_description: The Pennsylvania Society is an annual weekend retreat for Pennsylvania's politicians and business leaders held in New York City. It began during the late 19th century as a meeting of Pennsylvanians living in New York City who gathered annually beginning in 1899 to discuss events in their home state. As the first few meetings developed into an annual event, it morphed into weekend-long retreat where political networking and fundraising took place in New York's finest clubs, restaurants, and hotels. The main event of the weekend is the "Pennsylvania Society Dinner," which is sponsored by "The Pennsylvania Society," a nonprofit corporation. In recent years the receptions hosted by lobbyists, political committees, and corporations have taken on increased importance.
  It has been criticized because of its image as a stereotypical "smoke-filled room" where lobby groups gain access to government officials, a few of whom have been known to use taxpayer funds to pay their way to New York. Other observers criticize the retreat for being held in New York instead of within Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: Public watchdogs have criticized the event as a chance for "wealthy special interests to mingle with the movers and shakers in state government" or as a gathering for "fat cat" politicians away from their Pennsylvania constituents.
  During the 2005 Pennsylvania Society weekend, Gene Stilp and Eric Epstein, governmental reform and anti-pay raise activists, hosted the "Pennsylvania People's Dinner," a reform-themed potluck dinner in the "darkened, barely heated" East Wing of the Pennsylvania State Capitol while the members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly are in New York City. The event, described as "part parody, part celebration" of the November repeal of the controversial pay raise, featured paper plates and folding chairs for the potluck style dinner.  The hosts decorated the capitol with toy pigs, the mascot of the anti-pay-raise movement, and stuffed cows, mocking John Perzel's defense of the pay raise by claiming that "immigrant cow-milkers" make as much as legislators. The dinner has become an annual event, with the lack of lighting and heating becoming part of the tradition. The event has undergone several name changes: in 2006 it was called the "Pennsylvania New Society Dinner," in 2007 it was the "Real Pennsylvania Society Dinner."
caption: East Wing of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, the site of the "Pennsylvania People's Dinner" protest event.
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