Mark Pinsley has served our nation in many ways.
He is an Army veteran. Only around 6% of Americans now serve or ever served in the military. If I ever had the misfortune of fighting from a foxhole, I’d want Pinsley right beside me. His life is helping people. Never have I asked for his help that he didn’t deliver.
Loyalty is Mark Pinsley. Many politicians run from tough fights. Not Pinsley. He was even featured in a New York Times podcast, “The Preventionist, Episode 1: Creative Financing,” about how he helped families plagued by bureaucratic intrusions into their lives.
It recounts how Pinsley organized a presentation to county commissioners for parents to tell how government systems sometimes harm, even while intending good. This saga demonstrates his tenacity when fighting against officials who ostracized him, cut his budget, threatened his job and tried to silence him. His voice stood strong in search for solutions for these children and families.
So courage is Mark Pinsley — courage as a warrior for justice.
Pinsley is a successful businessman in the Lehigh Valley. He knows accounting ledgers, profit and loss statements, and when it comes to fiscal abuses of government, he knows how to read the tea leaves. As Lehigh County controller, Pinsley has saved taxpayers millions of dollars. Some people take a job and go through the motions. But Pinsley, as watchdog for Lehigh County citizens, tirelessly tracks how every penny is spent.
He and his staff identified more than $1.6 million in potential prescription benefit savings, just one example of protecting public dollars with careful oversight. In the spreadsheets and audits, Pinsley sees people and their needs and struggles, not just numbers. It’s always about people for him.
Empathy — that’s Mark Pinsley, seeing his own family in the families of others.
Pinsley is dedicated to economic justice, one of his top issues. He understands how greed seeps through the economy to impact us all. He abhors the indefensible gap between the super-wealthy and the rest of us. He rails against the fact that the top 1% — just around 1.3 million families —for the first time possesses more wealth then the bottom 90% — some 314 million Americans, including you and me.
The top 0.1%, just 137,000 families, has doubled its wealth since 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal. They are worth $28 trillion, or about 15% of the nation’s total wealth. The average wealth for a household in this group is over $200 million. Moreover, the wealthiest of that group, the billionaires, have tripled their aggregate wealth since 2019, now possessing $9.2 trillion, more than twice that of the bottom half.
Pinsley’s analysis of these vast inequalities cuts like the scalpel of a fine surgeon, explaining how these numbers affect groceries and gas prices, as well as rent and mortgage expenses: “How in the world can Pennsylvania families and their children even survive, much less thrive!”
Pinsley’s about fairness, and he’ll fight for a living wage for Pennsylvania citizens against the greed that brings exorbitant gas and grocery prices.
When we discuss these outrageous statistics, Pinsley’s mind — and his heart — goes immediately to the human cost of these numbers. Local food pantries are exploding with demand, many new faces, including veterans, desperate to feed themselves and their families. Pinsley denounces the food cuts, pointing out that the SNAP budget is around $100 billion — that just 10% of the net worth of Elon Musk, the guy who danced with a chainsaw. Pinsley sees the hurt behind the numbers.
So empathy is Mark Pinsley. He grew up in a household where the heat got turned off because of high utility bills, or the refrigerator was on the fritz for lack of money to get it fixed. Pinsley never forgets where he came from.
Compare all of this with his opponent, Sen. Jarrett Coleman’s website: “Fight the Inflation Squeeze,” it says, but click on “See Jarrett’s Plan” and it says “check back soon.” “Stop Reckless Spending,” it says, but click on “See Jarrett’s Plan,” and it says, again, “check back soon.”
Well, “soon” is now, sir.
Pinsley, on the other hand, stands ready to fight for workers — the people who built and run this nation.
This is a contributed opinion column. Ettore J. Angelo is a criminal defense attorney in the Lehigh Valley. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at mcall.com/opinion.