Trib Endorsements of 2006

==State House ==
===14th Legislative District:===
State Rep. Mike Veon of Beaver Falls has used his 22-year career to build for himself in Beaver County a web of state-funded patronage that has not much improved the lives of ordinary citizens. But while Mr. Veon's district suffered, he voted himself a pay raise and was the only legislator to vote against repeal. How do you spell arrogance? V-e-o-n.
Republican Jim Marshall, a Big Beaver councilman, gets our support. A small-government conservative, he believes the cure for Pennsylvania's economic disaster is to limit the drain on taxpayers so they may seek their own fortunes in a business-friendly climate.
===22nd District:===
Chelsa Wagner, an independent-minded Democrat and up-and-comer of Beechview, is more than just an alternative to scandal-tainted Democrat-turned-Republican state Rep. Michael Diven of Brookline. A lawyer, Ms. Wagner is smart and advocates transparent government. For a Democrat, that's gutsy.
Mr. Diven withdrew from the Republican primary after it came to light the "signatures" of the deceased appeared on his nominating petitions. But he won the write-in vote. How sad.
===33rd District:===
Eileen Watt, a Republican of Cheswick and a former Allegheny County councilwoman, is a sure bet to improve the district's voice in Harrisburg. That voice now is state Rep. Frank Dermody of Oakmont, a pay-jacker who received a questionable $10,500 reimbursement for excess mileage a week after he voted for the pay raise.
Ms. Watt, however, would "shut off the spigot that's draining our wallets through higher taxes." That's a platform all in the 33rd should support.
===42nd District:===
Mark Harris of Mt. Lebanon took the grass-roots approach to beating Republican state Rep. Tom Stevenson in the primary. Then, Mr. Harris graduated from college.
We backed Harris then as we do now. "Republicans in Harrisburg should stop signing off on Ed Rendell's failed agenda and start voting like Republicans," he says.
His Democrat opponent, Matt Smith of Mt. Lebanon, also touts "reform." But his bona fides are wholly suspect; he never did renounce a state Democratic Party smear job against Harris.
A vote for Harris should send a strong message that true reform is in and smear jobs are out.
===50th District:===
The grandiloquent, bombastic and pompous Bill DeWeese who uses big words badly has been in the state House for 30 years. The Democrat of Waynesburg has amassed power. And that power, Mr. DeWeese, an architect of the pay-jacking says, is good for bringing money to his district.
So good says Republican candidate Greg Hopkins that Greene County is the third-poorest in the state.
Mr. Hopkins, a Morris Township auditor, is a former Arena football player and family farmer. Hopkins exudes integrity and the true Republican principle of small, effective government. It's a rare commodity deserving of support.