The Conservative Christian Center 2019 York General Election Value Voters Guide and the top 5 rated candidates
By
Robert Cosgrove
Board
Member, Conservative Christian Center
Remarks adapted from the October 19, 2019 Statesman of the Year and Candidate Forum annual Breakfast at the Country Club of York
Once again it is my pleasure to announce the Value Voters guide. This is the November 5 general election issue, one of the 2 published by Conservative Christian Center each year. York County Action and CCC have done this for nine years. This is the third year with ratings, based upon the answers given by the candidates (the guide as carried by the York Daily Record and the York Dispatch HERE).
I thank those who participated, including the candidates who might not have scored so well. We respect and appreciate your offering yourself for office and we wish you well, especially those who are here with us today. In fact at the end today we’ll even pray for you.
We have five “A” or “B” rated candidates, our highest score. Matthew D. Menges is listed for the second year with an “A.” Julie Wheeler and Shane Becker have an “A” rating. Ron Smith and Rich Keurleber have “B.”
Our mission at Conservative Christian Center is to help persuade more conservative-minded, church-going Christians to vote with an informed conscience. The Voter Guide is one tool to help with that. Being here today to listen to the candidates who are interested in York County values voters, is another.
We don’t pay any attention to party label in our ratings, nor do we ever actually ask anybody if they are a Christian. We do give you 10 points out of a 100 if you go to church regularly. You can decide for yourself if one question or several, are more important than the overall rating or score.
One of the candidates who was very disappointed in her “C” score, has really issued some harsh criticism of our organization and our leaders. I try not to take it personally. But I do appreciate having this chance to respond.
Allison Blew is the candidate. I’m sorry she’s so unhappy about this. But I think she should spend her time campaigning for office, telling voters what she stands for, and showing why she thinks she would make a better officeholder than the Democrat, who like her, also got a “C” rating.
The anger at CCC is misplaced. If you got a bad grade in school, it isn’t very productive to go home and tell your parents it is all the teacher’s fault. All I did was grade what Allison put on her questionnaire she sent back to us.
Contrary to the unfair claims about us she sent to people in mass emails several times, I didn’t make any decisions. Our board doesn’t vote on this. I just grade the papers and then we publish the whole thing – her answers are there on the Value Voters Guide, along with the answers of her opponent, Sandra Harrison, who I want to thank for being here with us today.
We simply reported what all the candidates said, without favor to party or personality or any favoritism.
I’ll stop talking about this now, but consider what I just said as the introduction. For the full response to the incorrect information being circulated about the Value Voters Guide of Conservative Christian Center being circulated, we’ll have more later. But I’ll just say this now.
We put a lot of work into this Value Voters Guide. I hope you find it useful. I’m open for any suggestions, whether you want to write to me or talk to me today. And for the rest of what we have to say about the misleading information being circulated about me and this 9th year of our Value Voter Guide, stay tuned for what we post about this at our website, e-newsletter and Facebook page.
Thank you for being here today at the annual Candidate Forum and Statesman of the Year Breakfast of the Conservative Christian Center and our York County Action e-newsletter.
To comment you may write to York CCC Board Member Bob at RJC@ConservativeChristianCenter.org or to CCC South Central PA Coordinator Ross Cleveland at SouthCentralPA@ConservativeChristianCenter.org.