Your 2012 Republican Candidates!

Keith Rothfus for Congress www.keithrothfus.com

Keith Rothfus is a conservative who brings a wide range of experience and a deep commitment to his campaign for Congress.

After graduating from Notre Dame Law School twenty years ago, Keith, his wife Elsie, and their young daughter moved to Southwestern Pennsylvania. Keith and Elsie reside in Allegheny County, in the same neighborhood where Elsie was raised, and that young daughter is now a senior in college and the oldest of six children.

Most of Keith’s professional life has been as an attorney in the private sector, working with large and small businesses as they strive to expand and create the jobs and opportunities that will shape the future of our country. He has seen firsthand the impact high taxes, onerous regulation and ill-conceived policies have on the lives of the people in the area.

From 2006 to 2007, Keith worked in the Department of Homeland Security, creating and heading the office that was set up to work with faith-based organizations to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters.

Keith’s approach to healthcare is shaped by his own experience as a cancer survivor. Keith benefited from having access to the world’s best health care right here in the United States, where innovation was allowed to flourish and develop the cure he received. Eighteen months after major abdominal surgery, he ran his first marathon. This result is a far cry from a government-run health care system would have produced.

Keith serves on the Zoning Board in Edgeworth, PA. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Veterans Leadership Program (VLP) of Western Pennsylvania. In May 2011 he ran in the Pittsburgh Marathon for VLP, raising $4,500 for the organization’s programs for local veterans. Keith also ran in a marathon in 2008 and raised more than $8,000 for the Fisher’s House charity.

Keith’s campaign for Congress has strong support from many residents across Southwestern Pennsylvania — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents — who all believe the time has come to elect (1) a citizen candidate instead of a career politician and (2) a lawmaker who not only shares their values but is not afraid to lead with those values.

Timothy P. Houser for 35th District State Senate

Timothy P. Houser, a thirty year resident of Ebensburg, was born and raised in neighboring Tyrone, Pennsylvania.  A graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, where he attained a B.S. degree in music education, he began his working career as a high school music teacher, did some graduate work in Education Administration, and then graduated from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science in 1982. Tim has been affiliated with the Askew Funeral Home since his graduation and has been owner and president of the Askew-Houser Funeral Homes’ since 1986.

 Active in his community, he had served as a member and past president of the very successful Ebensburg Business District Commission for 18 years and was one of the founding members of the community’s Potatofest committee.   He serves as a second responder and cook for the Dauntless Fire Company, as well as a former member of the Ebensburg Rotary Club where he served as president and Paul Harris Fellow.   Tim has also served as a former member of the Board of Directors for the Cambria County Area on Aging Agency, and as a former trustee for the local Knights of Columbus Council.  Tim and his wife are active in many area Arts programs. 

Since purchasing the funeral home in 1986, he was instrumental in the establishment of a branch funeral business in the nearby community of Nanty Glo, and enjoys membership in the funeral professions’ International Order of the Golden Rule, where he was awarded the Silver Award for Exemplary Service in 2010.  Tim and his wife, Marianne, reside in Ebensburg and are the parents of four children:  John Paul, a funeral director with the family firm;  Joseph, a self employed Visual Arts graduate at Penn State;  Cecilia, who serves as Executive Director of the Cambria County Republican Party, and Claire, a self employed professional photographer;  and proud new grandparents to there first grandchild, Sebastian.

Sherry Stalley for 71st District State Representative

Sherry resides in Richland Township (Johnstown, PA) with her husband, Andrew, and their two children: Drew (age 14) and Jessica (10). Andrew is the Captain of Police for the city of Johnstown. Sherry is presently employed as a Marketing Coordinator for The Learning Lamp.

Sherry and her husband’s  famiy are from Johnstown. Her father was employed for the Conemaugh Blacklick Railroad. Sherry Stalley has lived in the Johnstown area (71st district) since 1992.

Stalley graduated from Northern Arizona University in 1988 with a Bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism (She received a full-ride athletic scholarship to NAU for swimming after16 years of competitive swimming and 10 years on a National Swim Team.). She was  also a competitive gymnast for 12 years.

More recently, Stalley has been a Equestrian rider (competitively for 10 years). She has raised 4 “Guide Dogs for the Blind” (a 4-H program).

Sherry Stalley has 21 years of experience as a News Anchor and Reporter in Arizona, Idaho and Pennsylvania — including 16 years at Fox8 and ABC23 and 2 years at WJAC. She was one of the first reporters on the scene of the Flight 93 crash on 9-11. Stalley also helped to write 3 books on the coverage of the September 11th tragedies.

Stalley has been a Spokesperson for the Laurel Auto Group’s “Pro-Am Charity Golf Classic for Ovarian Cancer.”

For more information or to volunteer for Sherry Stalley please email ElectStalley@gmail.com

RJ Wilson for 73rd District State Representative

RJ Wilson is  a U.S. Navy veteran that was honorably discharged in 1994. As a cryptologist in the Navy, he was stationed in Sugar Grove, West Virginia. Wilson graduated from Glendale Junior Senior High School in 1989 and graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in both 2001 and in 2002. RJ is a volunteer fire fighter with Station 63 in Reade Township. RJ currently works as Director of Information Technology for WTAJ.

Your PA GOP Endorsed State Candidates

Steve Welch for US Senate www.welchforpa.com

The son of an engineer and a teacher, Steve grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania and attended Penn State University, where he earned a Mechanical Engineering degree.

Steve married his childhood best friend Nicole. They live in Malvern, Chester County and are proud parents of a passionate 4 year old daughter, a lively 2 year old son, and a precious new-born daughter.

Steve started his first big entrepreneurial success, Mitos, in 2001 with hardly a cent to his name.  Under Steve’s guidance, Mitos developed several critical patents which transformed the biological drug and vaccine industries, and allowed Mitos to flourish.  The company still resides in Phoenixville, PA under Parker Hannifin guidance.

Following the sale of Mitos, Steve co-founded DreamIt Ventures, a new business accelerator model that has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal as a new model for launching technology companies.  In just four years, DreamIt Ventures has helped launch 64 new companies.

DreamIt is now running programs in Philadelphia and New York, and turning out 25+ technology companies per year. From this experience, Steve has worked with hundreds of early stage entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality.

As an Eisenhower Fellow, Steve has spent time around the world studying all aspects of economic development. Throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, Steve has examined how government policy, technology transfer institutions, funding sources, and culture impact economic development.

In 2010, Steve published “We Are All Born Entrepreneurs” in which he uses his story and those of over a dozen other entrepreneurs to explain what drives invention, innovation, and job creation,  while at the same time sharing lessons learned from the success — and failures — of entrepreneurs.

Steve’s great passion has always been education.  In 2011, he founded education technology company KinderTown.  KinderTown is a business designed to help parents engage in their children’s education at an early age.

John Maher for Auditor General www.repmaher.com

Maher serves as Speaker pro tempore during the current legislative session

 Rep. John A. Maher has been a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since September 1997, representing the 40th District.

“My 60,000+ bosses live in Bethel Park, Peters Township and Upper St. Clair,” Rep. Maher frequently observes.

A Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylvania since 1983, Rep. Maher launched one of the largest CPA auditing firms founded in Pennsylvania during the past half-century. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, with an A.B. degree in Management Sciences/Accounting. He also completed scholarship studies at Oxford University and the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Legislative Service

Rep. Maher has devoted himself to forcing systemic changes to Pennsylvania that will have enduring benefit long after his public service ends. Among his notable accomplishments: 

• Authored the Open Records Law. This landmark legislation was the first advance in generations for your rights to government records. The preceding law dated to the 1950s and was notorious for high hurdles obstructing public access and was consistent with an era when not even photocopying was common. Technology marched on and most states did too, but Pennsylvania remained defiantly resistant to efforts to expand your “right to know” about state and local government records. Maher believes “sunshine is the best disinfectant” and that easy public access to most government records promotes healthy civic involvement and helps inspire better performance by those in government. The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association awarded Maher its rarely presented “Award for Open Government” for this landmark legislation. 
• Authored the Lobbying Law ending Pennsylvania’s unfortunate distinction as the only state in the nation which had absolutely no law governing lobbying. This law not only lets the public know who is paying whom for lobbying (Registration Quick Search) but also prohibits lobbyists from a range of activities that are obviously at odds with the public interest. 
• Authored the Audit Integrity Act criminalizing material deceptions committed in connection with a CPA’s attestation report intended for public use. Maher has made protecting the public from financial crime a priority in many other legislative efforts as well.  
• Authored Local Tax Conformance Act replacing thousands of confusing and unequal local tax practices with a single definition of earned income that now applies equally to all Pennsylvanians, regardless of where they reside. This act was essential to creating the opportunity to actually streamline government for Pennsylvania’s 3,000+ local taxing jurisdictions.        
• Authored Prudent Investor Requirements requiring that the state Treasury make safety the top priority for investing funds — just in time to protect PA from the market meltdown of 2008.