With state Sen. Connie Williams, of Lower Merion, resigning this year, Democrat Daylin Leach and Republican Lance Rogers are engaged in a heated battle for the 17th Congressional District seat.

Rogers, 34, was elected to the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners in 2005, following a successful community campaign to defeat a proposed secondary access route to Lankenau Hospital via Manoa Road.

He earned an undergraduate degree in communications and political science as well as a graduate degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania before studying law at Northwestern University. Rogers has served as an attorney for the past seven years, specializing in media law.

Rogers identified his top priority as ethical reform in Harrisburg. His proposed ethics plan calls for open and fully transparent government, with all government activities posted online.

“Lobbying as we know it should be fundamentally changed,” said Rogers, who wants to ban all gifts from lobbyists. If that’s not possible, “gifts should be posted online, and lobbyists should indicate who is paying them to lobby whom.”

Additionally, Rogers wants to eliminate taxpayer-funded perks, such as lifetime health care and fully funded autos.

Reining in what he believes is “excessive spending” going on in Harrisburg is another must, said Rogers, pointing to a $240 million political slush fund discovered six months ago. Such monies would be better spent on infrastructure repair and lowering the state’s business tax, which, in Rogers’ view, thwarts economic growth and job creation.

Affordable health care, protecting green space from overdevelopment and standing up for the rights of property owners in cases of eminent domain are additional goals.

“I’m an independent reformer … willing to stand up to either party and put principle before politics,” said Rogers, noting his opponent voted with the majority in favor of the 2005 legislative pay raise.

Rogers has also faulted Leach for protecting cocaine and heroin users by allegedly weakening state DUI laws. His campaign mailings, showing overturned school buses and bloody hypodermic needles, have been denounced by Leach.

Leach, 49, has served as the state representative of the 149th Legislative District since 2002. In response to Rogers’ allegations, Leach said the bill he sponsored in 2003 called for establishing, for the first time, blood levels for illegal drugs.

Leach said standards are necessary because someone who has eaten a poppy-seed bagel, taken cough medicine or stood next to someone smoking pot at a rock concert can test positive for trace amounts.

“We’re going to put people in jail because they were at a concert or had a poppy-seed bagel?

"It’s crazy,” said Leach, adding that his bill ordered the Department of Health to set the blood-level standards.

Leach added that Rogers has sent “outrageous and disgusting pieces of hate mail,” stolen his identity for a bogus Web site and made juvenile remarks about his surname in a campaign so negative that it’s “utterly pathologic.”

A graduate of Temple University and University of Houston Law School, Leach worked as an attorney and college professor before taking public office.

Leach’s platform includes universal access to health care, protecting and cleaning up the environment and making our education system “second to none.”

To date, Leach served on the Governor’s Green Ribbon Commission on Environmental Priorities and co-sponsored the Growing Greener II program. His Hybrid Car Act of 2004 called for the state to have 25 percent of its fleet made up of hybrid vehicles in five years.

Leach has introduced comprehensive solar power promotion legislation, which would require the state to use renewable energy in new buildings.

The bill also creates a $25 million fund to assist individuals and businesses with installation of solar energy systems.

A proponent of women’s health care, Leach supports free breast/cervical cancer screenings for women of all ages who are uninsured or economically disadvantaged.

He’s also an advocate of government reform, and said he supports a proposal requiring lobbyists or clients to report gifts and expenses exceeding $2,500 annually to the state Ethics Committee or Department of State for public disclosure.

He also introduced a bill to reform the redistricting process.

Leach serves on the Judiciary, Education, Environmental Resources and Energy and Gaming Oversight committees.

A resident of Upper Merion, Leach is married and has two children.

The 17th District encompasses Haverford and Radnor townships in Delaware County as well as East Norriton, Lower Merion, Plymouth, Upper Merion, Bridgeport, Conshohocken, Narberth, Norristown and West Conshohocken in Montgomery County.

<< BACK