PA Caucus at the Road to Victory Conference

Washington, DC - September 18 - 19, 1998

Christian Coalition of Pennsylvania
Names of people associated with the CC of PA -
Clay Mankemeyer - Exec. Dir.
Steve Ulrich - Office Manager
Don Thompson - Board Member
Ken Baker - Treasurer
Virginia Ulrich - Secretary
Rhoda Solomon - Lobbyist

The people from PA attending the Christian Coalition Conference met twice over the lunch hour.

The following information was disclosed:

1,350,000 voter guides for the governor's race will be coming into PA the Sunday before the elections, this is financed from the National Office. The same number of 'Score cards' showing the voting records of PA legislators will be available prior to the release of the voter guides, financed through the PA office by generous contributors who have underwritten the cost. Discussion then ensued about the problems in releasing the guides too early. Among those concerns was that if the 'opponent" gets their hands on them, they will try to discredit them. It was stated several times that the "official" mission was to educate the voters, and get these guides into the churches. .

The CC voter guides are almost always 2 candidates. The CC has decided to include Peg Luksik on the voter guides, making it a 3 candidate voter guide. There was a lot of talk about this decision, weighing concern about taking votes away from the 'other' candidate, while trying to determine if Peg Luksik is a viable candidate. It was decided that she was. However, no one at the caucus had anything nice to say about Governor Ridge.

Virginia Ulrich, Secretary of the CC of PA, was given the floor. She stated, "As a Republican Committeewoman, I want to say that we are a bipartisan organization. I am voting for Peg Luksik. You can do as you please, but the last time around I voted for Ridge, but now I have seen the light. This is the most importing thing to me, that a candidate be pro life, next is anti gay. I am also voting for Bill Lloyd. He is a democrat, and he is pro life. This is the way we seen things right now.

Sam Zeisloff, a member of the board of the CC of PA told everyone that Ridge's campaign for governor was financed by Elsie Hillman, a wealthy GOP pro-abortion National Committeewoman, therefore they have had the door slammed in their face regarding partial birth abortion, and parental rights, despite the efforts of Sam Rohrer. Zeisloff stated, "Sam Rohrer is one of our people, and he couldn't even get the Parental Rights Bill out of committee."

He also confirmed the opinion one of the participants who was with the Peg Luksik-for-Governor who stated that Ridge was deceiving the people of PA because OBE (Outcomes based education) was not dead, only renamed.

Don Thompson, another board member then got up and told us, "...when Ralph Reed says, 'This is who I am voting for,' that's who we have to rally behind". Adding, "That's my personal opinion".

It was obvious from the people in the room, and Peg Luksik-for-Governor people campaigning and distributing bumper stickers and literature in the hall way in front of the caucus room door, that this is their candidate of choice, unofficially, of course.

And the good news is:

The office in Harrisburg is not in real good shape. Overhead expenses for the CC of PA (not to be confused with the unofficial Pennsylvania Christian Coalition) is about $2500/month. They currently have $2000 in the bank, and $700 to be deposited. The copier is 15 years old. The paper folder is broken and is so old replacement parts cannot be bought, and it is being held together with a vacuum belt. The only paid staff is the office manager, Steve Ulrich. Clay Mankemeyer, the Exec. Dir. is still unpaid. This year, they are being required by the IRS to comply with an audit, that will cost over $2000.