Nov 1, 2012 3 min read

Two years ago, Democratic state Rep. Pete Daley, who has been representing the state’s 47th Legislative District since the days when “M*A*S*H” and “Happy Days” were on prime-time television, narrowly escaped being cast into early retirement by Richard Massafra, a Republican challenger and businessman who has never held elected office.In this election cycle, Massafra is looking to close the 1,484-vote gap that separated him from Daley in 2010 and start commuting to Harrisburg come January.Massafra has accused Daley of having “old-school” ideas, and we agree that Daley’s stubborn opposition to privatizing state liquor stores is a notion that has a good bit of mold growing on it. But some of Massafra’s ideas aren’t so much old-school as they are antediluvian. Touting “freedom” and a smaller government as a cure for just about every ailment, he supports repealing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, if you don’t recall from civics class, allows Congress to levy an income tax, along with the 17th Amendment, which established the direct election of U.S. senators, rather than their appointment by state legislatures.Though he says returning the question to legislatures would strengthen the hand of states in relation to the federal government, to us this eyebrow-raiser seems more than a bit anti-democratic.The 49th District includes large swatches of the Mon Valley in Washington and Fayette counties, and Massafra lays some of the blame for the persistent economic sluggishness that has plagued the area at Daley’s doorstep. That communities like Charleroi and Donora have struggled is obvious. But their losses of jobs, people and tax revenue have been replicated throughout the Rust Belt. And Daley has been a solid advocate for the Mon Valley. He believes tax incentives would give a boost to its fortunes, and the completion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway would help the Mon Valley get in on the Marcellus Shale bonanza that has so far bypassed it.Daley says his endorsement of Gov. Tom Corbett two years ago is a marker of his bipartisan bona fides, and he has stood up for volunteer fire departments and American Legion and VFW posts that have been burdened thanks to recent changes in Pennsylvania’s law governing small games of chance.Thirty years after first being elected in the 49th District, Daley is now the longest-serving representative in the western portion of the commonwealth. Voters should add another two years to that tenure.