Philadephia Inquirer (Pennsylvania), October 24, 2006, Tuesday

Copyright 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

October 24, 2006 Tuesday

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

HEADLINE: McGill faces fight for seventh term

BYLINE: Keith Herbert, The Philadelphia Inquirer

BODY:
Oct. 24--Some 25 years ago Eugene McGill had just bought a house in Ambler and was struggling to pay his mortgage. So when he got a notice that the trash-collection fee was going up, he went to Borough Council to complain.
"I didn't think I would have the money for the increase," McGill said.
He argued his case so well that the council president appointed McGill to head a committee to study the issue.
A political career was born. As another election draws near, McGill, 50, is in his toughest political fight ever. Now a Horsham resident, the Republican was first elected in November 1993 and is trying to win a seventh term representing the 151st District.

His challenger is Democrat Rick Taylor, an Ambler Borough Council member. Taylor's foray into politics was motivated by a sense of obligation, he said.
"I owe a debt to society," said Taylor, adding that he felt "opportunity is slipping away from the middle class." Taylor, 37, said he had benefitted from government programs that helped him pursue a college education.
The 151st District, which encompasses Ambler, most of Montgomery and Horsham Townships, swaths of Upper Dublin and Lower Gwynedd, and a piece of Abington, is one of the key races that will help determine whether the GOP retains control of the House. It currently has a 109-93 margin, with one vacancy.
Last week, as McGill was still smarting from news accounts about his writing a letter that urged a judge to show leniency at sentencing for a convicted sex offender, his friends in Montgomery County law enforcement offered him support.
Led by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., more than 25 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and police officers gathered in Horsham to support a McGill effort to pass legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for the crime of assault on a police officer.
"I want to publicly thank Representative McGill for again responding to law enforcement," Castor said.
McGill acknowledged there were parts of his letter to the judge in the sex-offender case that he'd like to take back.
"Where I made the mistake in the letter is, instead of psychiatric help, I said leniency," McGill said.
The letter controversy has sparked television advertisements paid for by the Democratic House Campaign Committee that suggest McGill is soft on child molesters.

"I'm repulsed by [Taylor's] commercials," McGill said.

His parents divorced when he was 10, and Taylor said his mother raised him as a single parent. Without the help of government programs, he wouldn't have been able to graduate from Cornell University with a master's degree in labor relations. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Minnesota.
Taylor said he was motivated to run against McGill because too many politicians in Harrisburg are motivated by self-interest.
"My way of change was to get involved in the most direct way," said Taylor, a manager of global compensation for IMS Consulting, which works with pharmaceutical companies.
Along with the letter, Taylor criticized McGill's vote against landmark legislation that in June gave senior citizens property-tax relief through revenue from slot-machine gambling. Taylor said he supported the legislation.
McGill has said property tax relief tied to revenues from slot machine gambling isn't really tax relief at all because the measure could also require an increase in earned income taxes.
Under the bill, voters in suburban areas like the 151st District will be asked to vote on whether to accept higher earned income taxes in exchange for lower property taxes. Income taxes should have less impact on seniors with fixed incomes.
McGill prefers a change to the school-aid distribution formula, which would allow larger school districts, like Hatboro-Horsham, to receive more state aid. That, McGill said, would allow school districts to cut local property taxes.
On another issue that's grabbed attention recently -- gun control -- McGill has endorsed legislation that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons to police.
"You need to notify police within 48 hours that you've lost a gun or that a gun has been stolen," McGill said. "That way, we at least have a serial number and the idea that the gun is out on the street.
Taylor, expressed disappointment that a special legislative session on crime in early October didn't produce more concrete support for gun-control legislation.
Contact staff writer Keith Herbert at 610-313-8007 or keithherbert@phillynews.com.
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