GOP governor hopeful tours downtown Butler
Lou Barletta, a former Pennsylvania congressman, toured downtown Butler on Monday as part of his campaign for governor.
Barletta, a Republican, met with business owners up and down Main Street, from Natili North to Cannella Cafe, to hear opinions on the area and what it’s like owning a small business in Pennsylvania.
The campaign trail for Barletta has followed this routine of touring main streets of communities across the state. He said he would like to lower state business taxes.
“I heard a lot about how difficult it is to get employees and stay in business,” Barletta said. “Pennsylvania is not very business-friendly ... especially with natural gas and energy here, we could fuel the world, which also means good jobs here.”
At the end of the tour, which was led by county officials and leaders of community organizations, Barletta said he got an idea of what was on the minds of local business owners.
Barletta, who was mayor of Hazleton, Pa., from 2000 until 2010, served in the 11th congressional district from 2011 to 2019.
The tour ended at The Venue on Main, where Barletta had a luncheon event to speak with additional community officials and people interested in his campaign. He said he would use the governor’s seat to promote conservative values and repeal no-excuse mail-in ballots.
He also said under his leadership parents would be more involved in their children’s public school education, including with topics such as critical race theory and athletic participation.
“Election integrity is something people are very concerned about,” he said. “I think boys should play boys sports, and girls should play girls sports. I think we should respect the privacy of young women.”
The constant rain showering the tour didn’t deter some local residents interested in the race for governor.
Jerry and Jan Maharg, of Zelienople, said they attended the beginning of the tour to meet Barletta to see what he was like. They also said they were interested to hear Barletta’s take on state spending, which is one area of interest for the couple.
“We’re looking for someone to make better decisions,” Jerry Maharg said. “We want no money to nonsense. We should focus on money for infrastructure.”
Barbara Davidson said she appreciated Barletta’s work as mayor of Hazleton and hoped he would bring his work fighting against immigration, which she called one of the biggest issues in the state, to a higher office.
“I want people on Main Street to know that he’s a fighter for conservative values,” Davidson said.
Barletta told the Associated Press that as governor, he would do away with sanctuary cities. Barletta also posted on Twitter several times calling for stronger U.S. borders, most recently on Saturday.
Barletta said meeting with business owners is important to him because their economic contributions keep people within a community. He also complemented the look of Main Street, and said the community leaders should be proud for the number of businesses in the downtown area.
“It’s not easy to keep businesses in downtown, Butler has a very vibrant downtown, so I like what I saw,” he said. “We’re going to keep businesses in Pennsylvania because when businesses leave, so do their children and grandchildren leave with them. We’re going to change that.”
