Tom Rolland

==Background==
* Candidate for PA House in 2006, 194th
* http://www.voterolland.com/
* Republican challenger
==Insights==
===Tom Rolland's Agenda for Renewal===
[1] Rebuild Pennsylvania's schools through educational choice and public school competition.
[2] Return to a citizen legislature by banning illegal pay raises and prohibiting lobbyists' gifts to lawmakers.
[3] Enforce the death penalty for convicted murderers, while broadening police powers.
[4] Cut taxes for homeowners and job creators to revive Pennsylvania's economy. 
==Details==
Statement from October, 2006 
Pa.'s very own insurgency by Tom Rolland
FOR DECADES, the job security of Pennsylvania's 253
legislators was nearly automatic.
Those of us courageous, or foolish, enough to try to
scale the towering walls of Harrisburg's incumbency
protection program faced a 1 percent chance of
winning, and at best, dismissive glances from the
check-writers and special-interest insiders.
Capitol turnover typically only comes as the result of
voluntary retirement or an occasional front page 6
o'clock news political scandal.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have become experts at gaming
the system. As in few other states, representatives
and senators here have made staying elected an
almost-certain science.
Political campaigns come to our homes disguised as
newsletters, public-service announcements,
special-topic informational meetings, phone surveys
and a host of other taxpayer-funded outreach programs
that have given incumbents a public-relations machine
that rivals Madison Avenue.
Each lawmaker has unlimited cash on hand to contact
voters based on his or her vulnerability in the next
election cycle. If Republican or Democratic leaders
determine a member is "in trouble," new staff members,
state grants and even more helpful "informational"
mail flows in.
But on May 16, the once-impenetrable fortress came
tumbling down with the ballot-box defeats of scores of
state senators and state representatives. By some
estimates, 60 new faces could take the oath of office
in January, a turnover unrivaled in recent history.
The total impact of this voter revolt is yet unseen,
but one thing is clear - voters have cracked the code.
We've solved the puzzle that has sent hundreds of
well-intentioned candidates to certain defeat on
Election Day. Instead of trying to go
dollar-for-dollar with an incumbent's war chest and
paid media arsenal, we challengers are taking our
campaigns directly to the people. To any one willing
to listen. And this year, they are.
People are listening because an illegal pay raise
confirmed what they believed to be true about a broken
political system. More than the taxpayer-funded luxury
cars, restaurant tabs, lifetime health care or
extravagant junkets, the people see Harrisburg
politicians tuned out to the problems of ordinary
Pennsylvanians.
IN MY OWN legislative district, represented for 14
years by Rep. Kathy Manderino, rampant crime,
crumbling schools and high property taxes have become
seemingly unsolvable plagues on our neighborhoods.
While voting for an illegal pay raise may have made
her life somewhat uncomfortable these past few months,
her votes to defend the status quo have caused untold
harm to the families of this district.
I have written to Rep. Manderino to ask for a single,
one-hour, public debate of the issues moderated by a
journalist from this or any other newspaper or the
League of Women voters. I urge her to accept this
challenge in the spirit of May 16.
Unlike the numerous elections in which she went
unchallenged and her re-election virtually unnoticed,
voters want Rep. Manderino and every incumbent running
for re-election to earn trust on their terms, not the
ones devised by the lawmakers themselves.
This year, the people, not the politicians are in the
driver's seat.
Rolland