Pennsylvania’s primary elections will take place April 23. This year, the race in the Republican primary for the state House of Representatives, 80th district, is competitive. The district covers most of Blair County — outside of Altoona — and a small part of Huntingdon County. No Democrats are on the ballot, so the primary will likely decide the winner. WPSU’s Anne Danahy spoke with the two Republican candidates. Here's her conversation with the challenger, Scott Barger.
Anne Danahy
Scott Barger, thank you for coming in to talk with us.
Scott Barger
Happy to be here, Anne, happy to be here.
Anne Danahy
Is there a specific issue or piece of legislation that would be your priority if you are elected?
Scott Barger
I think as a Republican, the top priority is to try to win the House back. You know, we can't really push any agenda through without doing that first. But without that, if we could convince our friends on the other side to go along with something like a meaningful voter ID law would be would be helpful. That's what people in the 80th district are looking for. I would love to see us solve funding for public schools, you know, do something that actually is going to make a difference. I think some version of a school report card combined with a, you know, some sort of parents' choice, school choice for education would be something I think — we all know that there's a problem there. And I think we could agree that something should be done. And I'd like to be part of finding a solution to that.
Anne Danahy
On the voter ID question. You've talked about that the voter ID requirements would be a priority. There's been no evidence of widespread voter fraud — people have to show an ID the first time that you vote, why do you think that's needed?
Scott Barger
To me, it's needed because there is a lack of confidence. And if we could do something that is inexpensive and simple, that restores people's confidence, whether there's, there's some sort of funny business going on, or not. I know, at least in the 80th district, confidence in our system of voting and counting votes is low. When I hear as we're knocking on doors, which we do all the time, Anne, when people keep saying: Boy, I just don't know, it seems like there's something wrong and and how do we verify how can we validate that our votes are being counted? I think representatives should listen to that and offer sensible solutions that restores voters confidence in the system.
Anne Danahy
So you're challenging the incumbent, Jim Gregory, and a key issue that you've pointed to is his support for a Democrat, Mark Rozzi, as House speaker last January, and the two had worked together on legislation to expand the time victims of sexual abuse have to take civil action. What do you see as wrong with Jim Gregory's decision to essentially reach across the aisle, work across the aisle? And Jim Gregory has said that Representative Rozzi was going to become an Independent.
Scott Barger
What I see wrong with it, there's two things primarily. Number 1, I think that it completely scuttled efforts for meaningful voter ID legislation that was kicked over from the Senate. It all stopped. So that any conservative agenda that we were working on stopped that day. We had, you know, another six or eight weeks where Republicans had the majority, we could have got some work done. And the second, and maybe more important, objection I have is that that's not what the people in the 80th have wanted to happen. Our job as representatives are to represent the people from our district, and maybe in other parts of the state, that would have been a sensible vote that that voters who live in that area would want their representative to make, but in the 80th district, that was objectionable. And so that's the reason I'm running against it.
Anne Danahy
One of the critiques coming from the incumbent, your opponent, is that you're identifying as anti-abortion or pro-life now, but that you had previously said that you were not against abortion. Has your position changed?
Scott Barger
My position has not changed. And this is what I was warned about coming into this, Anne, is that that there is there are shenanigans in politics. There's 'gotcha' politics that's going to be leveled against me. And I have asked for an open and honest debate about what Representative Gregory objects to in my comments when I was a radio show host. I have never been given the full context of those comments. I don't know what the programs were. I don't know what point I was trying to make. I often would want to encourage rigorous open minded debate about every side of every issue. And maybe I am guilty from time to time of playing devil's advocate or asking tough questions to get people thinking, or maybe sometimes more importantly, to get people calling, you know. But I without having the full context of these comments or an open face to face dialogue about "Hey, Mr. Barger, what were you trying to say here?" I don't know how to respond to those things other than to say, I have always been a pro-life person, I have questioned sometimes the method of the pro-life movement. Sometimes I think they were pushing in directions that they shouldn't have been. But I've always been someone who thought that what's best for our society is that when mothers encounter the stress of a unplanned pregnancy that they have support systems there that will help them. That we would eliminate not only like using a legal cudgel but a kind of... we'd eliminate the need for abortion by making sure that all of these factors that push women in that direction are addressed. And I love that we're talking about that kind of stuff. And the comments that are being used against me, Anne, I don't know what to — without you know, you hear recording of it sounds like my voice from six, seven, eight years ago. But what was the point I was making there? Until I hear the whole conversation. I don't know how to even explain it.
Anne Danahy
The Democrats do control the House in Pennsylvania right now. But if that were to change, if the governor's party were to change, would you support a ban on abortion in Pennsylvania?
Scott Barger
I would want to move the needle. My personal conviction, and I understand that I'm not going to get my personal conviction every time, but my personal conviction is that God has created every human being and that his image is, is an indelible thumbprint on the DNA of every person. So every life is sacred. I would love to see no more abortions; I would settle for a heartbeat bill. I think that would be a reasonable some version of heartbeat bill. I don't know that we'll ever see, you know, the law completely changed the way I would want it to be. But I think what I would rather see the pro-life movement do, and they are doing and I think is more effective, is let's do the things we don't need a law to do. Let's help women. Let's make sure that mothers are cared for. Let's make sure that that sex education is thorough. I mean, things that we know prevent unwanted pregnancies we should put effort into you know, and when you have a mother that's dealing with an unplanned for pregnancy, how do you help them? How do you love them? How do you — I mean I'm a Christian person? The Christian viewpoint is how do we care for these women? What can we do to provide for them and help them.
Anne Danahy
On a different topic an issue affecting young people that's getting a lot of attention is TikTok. Would you support restrictions or greater oversight of TikTok for minors in Pennsylvania?
Scott Barger
I am going to sound like an old old man, I do not understand the appeal to TikTok. And I'm not sure that I understand the objection to TikTok. It's to me I'm a small government kind of conservative and it sounds like the government getting involved in how companies run their business to me. So without having real information that this is actually a national security threat, I wouldn't want to see that before I would be OK with the government coming in to save us from another problem, because history has shown us that when the government saves us from one problem they tend to cause to more.
Anne Danahy
Scott Barger, thank you so much for talking with us.
Scott Barger
It's been great. Thanks for having me.
