HARRISBURG − Over a dozen people were arrested inside the Pennsylvania Capitol Monday during an hours-long, non-violent protest calling for a ban on gifts to lawmakers.
The event started with speeches on the steps inside the building’s rotunda.
“When we get money out of politics, when we build elections and democratic systems that are accountable to voters, when we bring democracy into the state Legislature itself, we will come together and build the Pennsylvania we all deserve,” said Michael Pollack, a rabbi in Philadelphia and executive director of March on Harrisburg, a group that uses protest strategies of non-violent direct action to advocate for ethics reforms in state government.
A dozen speakers took the microphone, flanked by a banner reading, “Get MONEY out of POLITICS” and “You take bribes, people die.”
The latter is a reference to industry insiders blocking health care reform, Pollack said.
Rabbi Elyse Wechterman of Montgomery County was one of several to speak in stark terms about Pennsylvania’s “downward spiral,” one in which she said “people will continue to suffer and get hurt from the increasing violence of our policies and our corrupt system.”
Other speakers, including Revs. Kevin Long of Harrisburg and Tim Seitz Brown of Mount Joy, described a vision of Pennsylvania in which everyone has health care, environmental degradation is stopped, schools are properly funded, housing is affordable, and nobody is poor, homeless, or hungry. That vision could be made real, they said, if only the Legislature would ban corrupting money from politics.
A few lawmakers have brought forth bills to limit or outright ban gifts to legislators over the last 25 years, but no proposal has come close to passing. The last time a gift ban bill made it out of committee, the very first step toward becoming a law, was in 2021. Though the bill received unanimous, bipartisan support in committee, it died on the then-GOP-controlled House floor.
This year, two bipartisan bills — HB 556 and HB 774 — sit in the House State Government Committee, to which they were referred in February and March, respectively. Senate bills, also bipartisan and also without leadership support, similarly sit in that chamber’s State Government Committee. On both sides of the Capitol, the proposals appear to be on hold.
Other bills to curb influence or the appearance of influence have fared similarly. March on Harrisburg has called for campaign finance reform and a ban on lawmakers from taking side jobs that involve businesses with a stake in laws passed by the Legislature.
WITF sent questions to leadership of both parties in the House and Senate asking if they supported these anti-corruption reforms but did not receive any responses by the time of publication.
Double standard
State government workers are not allowed to take gifts or payment or perform work for entities they regulate. Police are not allowed to accept gifts. Neither are judges, the protesters said, and called for lawmakers to follow suit.
“We’re tired of being told that somehow Pennsylvania state legislators are above being influenced by an industry of lobbyists whose job is to influence them and those lobbyists are armed with gifts, campaign cash, side jobs, future jobs, and independent spending,” Pollack said.
As it stands, Pollack said Pennsylvania is not a democracy. Rather than power lying with the people, special interests control the Legislature, he said.
When the speech ended, Pollack called out the first chant, “Pass the gift ban, stop taking bribes.”
Two groups of protesters then blocked the entrances to the House and Senate wings of the Capitol, holding up banners. Capitol police arrested 14 people to clear the hallways.
Then, Pollack led the group to Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman’s office, where they again chanted and asked to meet with the GOP senator or his staff. After 30 minutes, the protesters lined up to march into Pittman’s office, where they were blocked by Senate security and Capitol police, who arrested four more protesters.
Turned away, the 30 remaining protesters headed across the Capitol to House Majority Leader Matt Bradford’s office, while beating their signs and water bottles while chanting. Pollack entered the office with a small group of protestors to request a meeting with Bradford.
“Do the right thing, Matt, do the right thing,” the group chanted.
After an hour, when legislative staff had left the office and Bradford, a Democrat, did not come out, the protesters went home.
“These issues of money and politics and corrupting influence are systemic and bipartisan, non-partisan issues,” Pollack said. “They affect everybody in our political system, and we’re incredibly disappointed that neither party is stepping forward to be the party of democracy that frankly they both claim to be.”
As of 6:40 p.m. Monday night, each of the arrested protesters had been cited for disorderly conduct and released from custody by Capitol police, according to March on Harrisburg organizer Andrea Pauliuc.
Going forward, Pollack said March on Harrisburg will continue to escalate its nonviolent protests by disrupting campaign fundraisers and committee hearings.
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