It is NO! big surprise that the Tribune Review continues to fail the voters of Westmoreland County!

It is NO! big surprise that the Tribune-Review continues to fail the voters of Westmoreland County!

It is NO! big surprise that the Tribune-Review endorsed my Republican opponents for Westmoreland County Commissioners…

When you have a person like the owner of the partisan newspaper spending $20 million a year to prop up his paper that continues to lose money, it is NO! big surprise that his editors would ignore the facts.

For instance, a fact like George Dunbar was the Chief Financial Officer for a company that went bankrupt, even though it was his responsibility to maintain the company’s financial stability. Should someone with a background like Dunbar’s be elected to make decisions about how the people’s taxes are to be spent?

Not to mention the hatchet job that the paper tries to do on our ability to raise the monies necessary to be able to run an efficient and clean campaign. It is NO! big surprise that neither the editors, nor their owner, have provided the candidates with equal treatment, like presenting the voters with the facts on how Ward and Dunbar obtained their money. The paper never published that almost half of the $118,000 fund raised by Ward and Dunbar in this current election has come from Dunbar, his dad and Ward's husband. Clearly, Ward and Dunbar lack a wide support base from the voters in Westmoreland County since they had to provide $52,000 to their own campaigns.

At the behest of Ward & Dunbar, the Trib published a big story on who received the absentee voter list before they did. It is NO! big surprise then that yesterday Ward posted a link to her endorsement on her website. Since Ward’s link was posted long before the paper’s website update (which occurs after midnight), she must have received that information before any Dems had access to it.

When you’re an elected official like Kim Ward, and you raise multiple fees (some of which were increased over 100%) that the people you represent must pay (HIDDEN TAX INCREASES), and then as an elected official, you provide yourself FREE HEALTH INSURANCE even though you don't work full-time and you run your own consulting business, it is NO! big surprise the partisan paper in this county fails to inform the voters of all the facts surrounding such a candidate for County Commissioner.

It is NO! big surprise that this same partisan paper failed to fully inform the voters of the public record about George Dunbar. How can a paper be so partisan that it fails to report the facts about a County Commissioner candidate who has a history of running a business into the ground by not paying for his employees’ healthcare, pension or union dues. How can this same partisan newspaper give its endorsement, which is supposed to denote credibility, to these flawed candidates for County Commissioner?

It is NO! big surprise that Westmoreland’s partisan newspaper even failed to provide voters with the facts that the current elected County Commissioners, Tom Ceraso and Tom Balya, have reduced the size of the workforce in the county, made the workers that receive health care pay a portion of it and have participated in the first bond issues in almost 20 years that were done competitively.

It is NO! big surprise that the partisan newspaper’s reporters continue to fail in doing their research. As a result, these reporters have failed to provide the voters with the fact that all county-purchased materials bought from a vendor that weren't bid were purchased under state contract. And these materials had already gone through a process to leverage the buying power of the entire commonwealth, not just the power of one county, thus saving the voters’ tax money.

It is NO! big surprise when these same reporters write a story that fails to present the facts, such as that the County Director of Information Technology recommended the purchasing of specific equipment that interfaces with the county computer system, thus saving taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in man-hours and additional equipment over the other brands that where brought in and tried.

It is NO! big surprise why people get disgusted with elected officials when such partisan reporting is designed to write as many negative stories as possible, even if it means not presenting all the facts or not doing reputable research. The partisan news media under the Trib banner in Westmoreland County doesn't want to fairly report anything. Rather, they want to push their social and partisan agenda, and do nothing more than sell their product.

Having been elected and re-elected by the voters of Westmoreland County, I know when I go out and meet people in this county they tell me that Tom Balya and I do a good job of running county Government. That endorsement by the voters in our county means more to me than what the partisan newspaper has to say. I am sure we have been endorsed by the man on the street and that's what will matter come November 6.

I ask that you vote for Tom Balya and Tom Ceraso on November 6, and we will keep Westmoreland County moving in the right direction.