https://annarthomas.com/
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What is one life experience you have that voters should know about?
Growing up in my hometown, I spent my entire K-12 education in the public schools in the Bethlehem Area School District – which belongs to the bottom 20% of fairly funded school districts in Pennsylvania. When I was a sophomore in high school, Governor Corbett cut over a billion dollars from public education, and my favorite teacher was furloughed. This taught me about the vital importance of state and local government. As a direct response to these and other formative experiences in public education, I became the Student Representative for my high school on the BASD school board – and was called to enter public service.
What sets you apart from other candidates?
I understand what working people in Pennsylvania need from their state government to improve their schools and infrastructure, create a healthier economy, and protect reproductive rights, and I will be highly effective and consistent in my principled stances once I'm in office.
How do you plan to work across ideological lines to achieve shared goals?
My priority as a state legislator will be to advocate for my constituents and prioritize their needs. To that end, I will work with all of my colleagues in the state legislature. My goal is to be an effective lawmaker and to find any and all co-legislators that will effectively help me build coalitions. I am a consensus-builder. There are shared areas of concern across the state, and I want to align with representatives no matter where they are in Pennsylvania to address basic quality of life issues.
What would be your top three policy priorities in office?
1. Protecting reproductive freedom in Pennsylvania. My opponent has voted to ban abortion in Pennsylvania. The government does not belong in our family-planning decisions. 2. Closing tax loopholes that enable individuals and companies to avoid paying their fair share of state taxes in Pennsylvania. 3. Fairly funding our public schools and lowering property taxes. As a former K-12 public school student, I know that the current budget structurally under-funds school districts in high-growth parts of the state, like the Lehigh Valley. In turn, our property taxes are disproportionately high.
The Committee of Seventy has partnered with the Carter Center to promote the Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections (www.principledcandidates.org) to improve the voting process, encourage honest leadership, and promote civic engagement. Do you support the Candidate Principles?
Yes.
