An enthusiastic crowd of supporters gathered at the Thirsty Farmer Brew Works in Biglerville on Wednesday to support Bermudian Springs School Board Vice President Rich Sterner’s announcement that he is running for the 33rd Pennsylvania State Senate district.
Sterner [photo by Pete Vogel]
Sterner is running as a Democrat.
The district, which includes all of Adams County and parts of Cumberland County, Franklin County, and York County, is currently represented by Republican Douglas V. Mastriano.
Sterner laid out his positions on a number of issues. “There should be no ‘R’ button or ‘D’ button, just government that represents everyone,” said Sterner. Sterner said he once told a voter he was a Democrat and that voter said, “You’re going to take our guns away.” Sterner said he told the voter he wasn’t going to take his guns away but he wanted to make sure that people who shouldn’t have guns should not be able to get them.
Sterner is a career educator who has served as a history teacher and middle school principal in the Upper Adams school district and who was elected in 2018 to the Bermudian Springs school board on which he currently serves as Vice President.
Sterner spoke of the need to restore state funding to 50% of cost with strong local control and to eliminate school rankings strictly on student performance on standardized tests. “Schools should be evaluated on graduation rates and what students do after graduation.”
Sterner is an advocate for health care and wants to protect each person’s ability to receive it, to control costs on prescription drugs, and to promote programs for mental health and addiction.
Many of those attending the meeting signed election petitions. To appear on the Democratic ballot for the April 28 Pennsylvania Primary Sterner needs 500 signatures of registered Democratic voters by February 14.
Petitions are available at Democratic Headquarters at 52 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg.
Pete Vogel, freelance reporter and photographer, is a writer and photographer in the Gettysburg Area.