Mahoney's Broken Soap Box

Posted: Tuesday, October 4, 2016 by Pezzonovante in Labels: , , ,
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State Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-51) recently sent out a taxpayer-funded, pre-election newsletter titled "Opioid Crisis -- Fall 2016."

Let’s examine the newsletter’s first article, specifically the first and second paragraphs:

As I look around this summer and see other elected officials in the local newspapers stating their concern over the opioid abuse and heroin use crisis that’s crippling our area, state and nation, I’m left to wonder: where were they in April and May of 2015?


More than a year before anyone else went public in a big way, I was holding a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing with my fellow state legislators and a Town Hall meeting, trying to get everyone’s attention about this growing epidemic.


In the first paragraph, Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-51) excoriates “other elected officials” for being late to state their concern over “the opioid abuse and heroin use crisis. . . .” and wonders “where were they in April and May of 2015?”  In the second paragraph, Rep. Mahoney claims credit for being out front on the issue “more than a year before anyone else went public in a big way.”  Rep. Mahoney then cites a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing and a Town Hall meeting he held in 2015.

It is true that Rep. Tim Mahoney held both a Town Hall meeting (April 2, 2015) and a Democratic Policy Committee hearing (April 30, 2015).  While that covers April 2015, obviously, those events precede May 2015 – the second of the two months Rep. Mahoney cites in his newsletter.

It’s interesting that Rep. Mahoney brings up May 2015 to chastise elected officials.  

On May 5, 2015, the FBI conducted a major drug raid on 11 locations across Fayette County, Pennsylvania, as well as neighboring counties.  As Rep. Mahoney’s legislative district covers a massive portion of Fayette County it would be safe to assume that some of those locations were within the 51st Legislative District.

That being said, let’s turn Rep. Mahoney’s question around and ask where he was in May 2015.  Specifically, where was he in the aftermath of the May 5, 2015, drug raids some of which took place in his district?  Remember, he claims credit in the newsletter for being up on his soap box more than a year out in front of everyone else.

A check of Rep. Mahoney’s  House website and social media (see: Facebook and Twitter) demonstrates that there is a lone drug-issue-related, May 2015 post made on May 7, 2015. The Facebook post is a link to a Tribune-Review article by Brad Bumsted lamenting seven deaths per day in Pennsylvania due to drug overdoses.  There are no other May 2015 Facebook posts on the drug issue or the May 5, 2015, drug raids.  Ditto for June 2015, July 2015, August 2015, September 2015, and October 2015.  It was not until November 17, 2015, that a drug-issue-related post of a link to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article appeared on Rep. Mahoney’s Facebook page – just in time to dust off the issue ahead of the 2016 Primary Election.

In fact, in the wake of the May 5, 2015, raid, 16,675,200 seconds, or 277,920 minutes, or 4632 hours, or 27 weeks and 4 days, or 6 months and 9 days, or 52.88% of 2015, or 193 days passed between Rep. Mahoney’s May 7, 2015, drug-issue-related, Facebook post and his November 17, 2015, drug-issue-related, Facebook post.

A check of Rep. Tim Mahoney’s House website and social media and also demonstrates that Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Broken Soap Box) has never made a public mention of the May 5, 2015, drug raid on his House website, on his Facebook page or on his Twitter feed – never!  One has to wonder what happened to his April 2015 anti-drug soap box.
 
What better opportunity ever would be presented to mount his anti-drug soap box, to show his support for law enforcement, and to advance his so-called claim to the anti-drug issue than the May 5, 2015, drug raids within his own legislative district?  Were not seven Pennsylvanians a day (193 days * 7 PA deaths per day = 1,351 PA deaths) yet dying from drug overdoses?

While Rep. Mahoney chastises “other elected officials” for being late to jump on their anti-drug soap boxes, in May 2015, in the wake of the May 5 drug raid (and subsequent indictments) , when the rubber met the road, Rep. Tim Mahoney went more silent than a group of mimes at a marathon game of Quaker's Meeting.

Where was Rep. Tim Mahoney on the opioid issue and the May 5 drug raids in May 2015 (and beyond)?
 
He and his broken soap box were nowhere to be found.


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