Three local political candidates engaged with voters and fielded questions at a town-hall-style meeting on Friday, April 5th. The event, held at the Waynesboro Country Club, was sponsored by the Conservative Women of the Waynesboro Area. The program was promoted as a forum where Franklin County candidates could introduce themselves and discuss their platforms on issues, allowing informed citizens to vote intelligently as the 2024 election season begins.
The trio of candidates engaged with a sizeable crowd before the program began. Cameron Schroy was the lone Democrat contender present, but chatted amicably with predominantly conservative attendees. The Waynesboro civics teacher is a candidate for the 33rd Senatorial District now held by Republican Doug Mastriano. Senator Mastriano was invited to the event, but did not attend. Besides being an educator, 28-year-old Schroy serves as the chair for the Franklin County Democratic Committee, the youngest Pennsylvanian to achieve that post in the state’s Democratic Party history.
Janon Gray was the second candidate featured. He is the current Vice President of the Greencastle School Board and also Treasurer of the Franklin County Republican Committee. Gray seeks the Republican nomination for the 90th State Representative seat, being vacated by current office-holder Paul Schemel. Gray’s campaign literature described his political ideology as “preserving our past, building our future”. A friendly and approachable candidate, Gray shook hands and mingled with potential voters.
Chad Reichard was the third candidate present, also a Republican vying for the 90th Pennsylvania House seat. He possesses local roots with government experience as a former Washington Township Supervisor and is a current zoning official there. In addition, Reichard has worked in state politics as a legislative aide in the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives. Prior to the event, Reichard worked the room, greeting guests as people found ballroom seats at round communal tables.
Clint Barkdoll served as moderator for the event, and initiated the forum at 6 pm. He first explained the evening’s format, which involved rotating questions from the audience, mixed with questions composed by the event’s sponsoring organization. The trio of candidates was then invited to give a brief opening statement.
Chad Reichard introduced himself, saying: “I am a Waynesboro boy.” He noted the problem with government was it sometimes didn’t listen to the people who elected them. “These top-down, one size fits all approaches are not working for the folks here in Pennsylvania.” Speaking of past experiences, Reichard said: “My entire career has been focused on looking for those items in government that don’t make sense. My goal is to have our conservative values and voices heard and make sure government works for us.”
In his introduction, Janon Gray told his personal story. Gray also championed his Republican credentials, facing head-on the comments some made regarding his transition from a former political affiliation. “I am not the hometown boy. I grew up as a Democrat. But when I moved from home and I looked at the financial situation of our country, being a Democrat did not match being a black citizen in America.” Gray highlighted his childhood saying “my father was the first black police officer in my Virginia hometown. It was very segregated where I was born.” But later as an adult, after moving to Pennsylvania, Gray said: “I am home. I’m very comfortable living in Greencastle and running as a Republican for this seat.”
Gray mentioned that members of conservative Franklin County organizations have approached him and embraced his ideology. “I am a Republican like a majority of you in this room.” Later, when speaking of a potential stint as a State Representative, Gray set his own term limits: “I announce here tonight I will serve no more than 12 years.”
Cameron Schroy opened his night with a smile and playful jab at conservatives in the room. “Believe it or not, there are Democrats in Franklin County.” When discussing his candidacy he said: “Our community deserves an advocate who will go to bat every single day in Harrisburg.” Schroy said the 33rd District faced many challenges. “We need to crack down on overdevelopment of warehouses along the I-81 corridor. I also want to make sure your property taxes stay low.” Schroy espoused a bipartisan desire to achieve results through compromise and cooperation. “I believe at the end of the day there aren’t Democrats and Republicans, there are only Americans.”
During the Q&A period, a wide range of topics was discussed. Each candidate was given ample time for responses. Few surprises emerged from the policy declarations from the two conservative candidates, Reichard and Gray, and Schroy, who describes himself as a ‘Pennsylvania Democrat’. But one refreshing aspect developed during the evening. On several issues, the trio shared common ground about root causes of local problems and solutions to fix them.
Each candidate displayed a firm grasp of issues presented to them, and the audience stayed respectfully engaged. This combination produced an atmosphere of civility and intelligent discussion.
Several times, the candidates were asked how they could afford change on a national scale serving at the state level. Each echoed the other two, saying many political issues originate locally and necessary policy changes begin there and build outward. Gray, Schroy, and Reichard pledged to fully utilize their Franklin County voices if elected to state office.
The three-and-a-half hour program covered too many topics to highlight each individually, but notable subjects included election integrity, farmland preservation, energy policy, immigration reform, education goals, budgetary issues, and government agency and executive branch oversight.
The first topic discussed was election integrity, which included a two-part question about Pennsylvania’s current participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) a third-party voting organization, and also Pennsylvania’s automatic voter registration through the state’s Department of Transportation. This discussion led to comments about the safety of mail-in voting. Moderator Barkdoll asked if the candidates would cancel the current contract with ERIC or support bonded county employees as exclusive designated election agents.
All three candidates agreed election integrity was critical, but held different views on how to achieve it. Candidate Gray said he would eliminate the state’s participation in ERIC, and favored bonding local election workers. Reichard echoed that latter position, and said trusting third-party affiliates with sensitive voting data was dangerous. “We see data breaches every day,” Reichard said. “Our information is vulnerable.” He also stressed voters should be required to show an ID when voting.
Candidate Schroy countered with his election safety stances. He would not terminate ERIC. “The program’s premise is to make sure people don’t vote illegally.” Regarding bonding county election workers, Schroy said: “county employees are already overstressed. We’re currently staffed by election volunteers because we don’t have additional money to hire people. You can either pay people and raise taxes, or not pay people and not raise taxes.” He said until funding was found, it wouldn’t be prudent to require bonded election workers. Schroy concluded by saying: “I believe mail-in voting is safe and secure. There are multiple layers of security.”
Conservatives Reichard and Gray preferred absentee voting to mail-in voting. All three candidates agreed laws should be passed to protect the safety of election officials.
Another important issue was energy policy and how solar power impacted local farmland. Moderator Barkdoll explained the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (REGGI), a cap and trade program for coal-fired power plants which required buying an allowance for carbon dioxide they emitted. He asked each candidate their position on REGGI and also if solar farming was the best use for local fields.
Schroy said, “we need to go back to the drawing board on REGGI to make a clean energy future while making sure we don’t hurt consumers. Climate change is real and a threat to our national security.” Schroy explained he wasn’t a big fan of solar energy, but thought it made more sense to utilize solar farms at arid western lands and invest in local Franklin County farmland preservation.
Chad Reichard agreed with Schroy on farm preservation, and added, “solar is increasing the burden on existing energy sources and pricing folks out of the market. Franklin County is blessed with some of the greatest farmland in the nation. It’s a shame to see that land taken out of productive agriculture,” Reichard said.
Janon Gray stated his position: “Cut the cord on REGGI. We also need to do a better job with zoning for solar panels” Although Gray said he believes in land-owner rights, he worried about potential soil damage from the metals and glass used in solar panel production.
With Schroy’s teaching experience, and Gray’s current position as a School Board Vice President, education was a prominent part of the evening’s discussion.
One local issue all candidates agreed on was the proposed closure of South Mountain Golf Course. They voiced their unanimous opposition to Pennsylvania’s DCNR conversion of the golf property to a visitor center with hiking trails. The trio cited lost jobs and tax revenue, and favored maintaining the scenic course as a traditional recreation resource, saying the golf club should be allowed to renew their long-term lease.
When discussion turned to local services, Chad Reichard received the evening’s biggest applause when he voiced his passionate support for local volunteer fireman. Throughout the evening, many other issues were discussed as local citizens stood and asked insightful questions.
Discussion of the upcoming presidential election, with a presumed rematch of 2020 candidates, was absent from the evening’s discussion. Neither the audience nor the event’s sponsors asked questions about that race or mentioned the national candidates by name. The Conservative Women of Waynesboro event stayed focused on the three candidates present and the local issues forum attendees cared about most.
After a mid-meeting break, Moderator Barkdoll kept the evening flowing smoothly as he mixed an affable personality with his ability to juggle a variety of questions that often contained two or three separate parts. Later, as the evening wound down, Barkdoll joked he was willing to continue the engaging political discourse late into the evening.
Cameron Schroy runs unopposed in the April 23rd Democratic primary. Incumbent Republican Senator Doug Mastriano is also unchallenged. Reichard and Gray face off in the Republican primary on the same date. The winner will almost certainly win the general election, since no Democratic candidate has entered the 90th District race. Schroy, Gray, and Reichard hope to stand at the winner’s podium after the November 5th general election concludes.
Many other state Republican and Democratic nominations will be decided on April 23rd. Pennsylvania has a closed primary system, so only voters registered within each party can vote in their respective primaries.
With candidates like Gray, Schroy, and Reichard, the stage is set for intelligent debate on issues that affect all Pennsylvania residents. For more information, Franklin Votes (franklinvotes.org) is a non-partisan online resource that offers voting information on registration, how to vote, mail-in voting, polling places, and a sample Franklin County primary ballot.
