45th House: Kotik is the experienced and reliable choice
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The 45th Legislative District offers an eight-year incumbent with municipal experience and a challenger who has not held public office. Unless voters are moved by anti-incumbent feelings or strict party allegiance, they'll need a good reason to justify swapping the known for the relatively unknown.
The knowledgeable incumbent seeking his fifth term is Democrat Nick Kotik, 59, of Robinson. He is a former McKees Rocks councilman and a Robinson manager. Before that, he was the administrative assistant to veteran lawmaker Fred Trello.
Mr. Kotik takes pride in helping to create jobs and economic opportunities in the district and is a believer in inter-governmental cooperation to cut costs. The district includes Kennedy, Bridgeville, Carnegie, Coraopolis, Heidelberg, Pennsbury Village and parts of McKees Rocks, Collier, Scott, Robinson, South Fayette and Stowe.
As a leader of the House's conservative Blue Dog Democrats, he is apt to show his independence. He voted against the bill for a severance tax on Marcellus Shale drilling, even though he favors a tax. His beef was that House leaders had not worked in advance on a tax deal with the Senate.
Mr. Kotik says he is anti-tax unless the proponent can prove the need for raising taxes; he favors moderate increases in driver's license and registration fees to fund transportation and infrastructure. But he is for fully funding education and preserving public assistance.
His Republican opponent, Aaron Kime, 38, of South Fayette, doesn't believe Mr. Kotik has been attentive or conservative, noting that during his tenure state spending has soared. Mr. Kime is a chiropractor, a National Guard lieutenant and a former corrections officer. He says Harrisburg has ineffective leadership and that one reason he is running is his corrections-officer brother missed paychecks last year when the Legislature failed to pass a budget on time.
He favors a reasonable tax on Marcellus drilling (although he, too, probably would have rejected the bill passed by the House). While he believes many options should be considered, he favors public-private partnerships for funding additional transportation and infrastructure. Like many political novices, Mr. Kime's views on some issues are still unformed. Like Mr. Kotik, he calls himself pro-life and pro-gun.
Seeing no reason to replace the incumbent, we endorse Nick Kotik.
First Published October 29, 2010 12:00 am
