Oct 30, 2014 3 min read

When contemplating the battle for the seat in the 46th Senatorial District, the temptation is there to reach for some soap and head for the bathtub. By the standards of local races, this one is down in the muck and as dirty as the participants in a pig-wrestling championship.

There are whispers about extramarital affairs and appearances in bottom-of-the-barrel, soft-core porn movies. And that’s before the allegations incumbent Democrat Tim Solobay was grabbing every per diem payment in sight, and increased his own salary and pension during his long tenure in Harrisburg, both in the Senate and the House. Many of these allegations were reiterated in a nonstop barrage of mailings by a political action committee based in York County.

Whoever wins will cross over the finish line tarred and scarred.

The choice between Solobay and Republican Camera Bartolotta left our editorial board at an impasse. Both candidates have creditable qualities and both have equally troubling flaws. But we will endorse neither.

First, there’s Solobay. The senator won the seat after serving for more than 10 years in the 48th House District, and he is a fairly adept legislator. He highlights his service on the Senate’s transportation committee, and said he and Sen. Elder Vogel of Beaver County helped eliminate vapor recovery pumps at gas stations and the “summer blend” gasoline that drives up prices during peak travel seasons. The Southern Beltway, which will one day extend from Pittsburgh International Airport to I-79 near Southpointe, has also been a key agenda item for Solobay, who said it will improve travel times and traffic and boost commerce.

Solobay is also a reliable champion of natural gas development in Washington County – so much so, in fact, some of his constituents believe he is just a little too cozy with the industry. We share those concerns, especially in light of the fact that, in February 2011, Solobay traveled in a Consol Energy corporate jet to Texas to see the Pittsburgh Steelers lose to the Green Bay Packers in that year’s Super Bowl. His hotel bill was also paid for by Consol. Though Solobay said at the time he broke no laws in accepting the freebies from a company that also contributed to his campaigns, his actions carried an undeniably disagreeable stink. Solobay countered he also met with groups harshly critical of the natural gas industry, such as the Center for Coalfield Justice. But, of course, that organization has yet to ferry him to a high-profile sporting event. One can’t help but wonder which group would get a call back from the senator more quickly.

Solobay also opposes the privatization of the commonwealth’s liquor and wine outlets, which should have happened in, say, 1944, rather than still pending in 2014, and seemed to shrug off the extent to which the state’s unfunded pension liabilities could harm Pennsylvania’s economy and crowd out spending for other needs.

Bartolotta, a 50-year-old occasional actress and business owner, does recognize the problems that pensions pose to the state, to her credit, and wants to privatize liquor and wine outlets. She also said she will not accept a pension if elected and wants to reduce the size of the Legislature. However, she lacks Solobay’s fluency in policy, mostly sticking to terse campaign boilerplate about cutting taxes and educating children. We would have been more impressed with Bartolotta had she offered more detailed, nuanced ideas.

The 46th Senate District includes all of Greene County and all of Washington County with the exception of Peters Township.