Humane PA is pleased to present Humane PA’s 2014 Primary endorsements of candidates for Pennsylvania state offices in the upcoming Primary on May 20th. 
In a recent statewide poll, 86 percent of Pennsylvania voters polled support their legislator’s efforts to ensure humane treatment of animals. Our aim is to make sure that Pennsylvania voters who care about the treatment of animals know which candidates will support a humane agenda and deserve their vote at the polls!
How do we chose who to endorse?
Before we endorse candidates, we give them the opportunity to let us know where they stand on animal cruelty so we can measure their responses and commitment to stand strong for the humane treatment of animals against their opponent(s). Our endorsement process is not taken lightly and we spend a great deal of time reviewing and evaluating an incumbent candidate’s voting record and leadership on animal bills. Priority is always given to an incumbent with a perfect record – we stand by our friends, particularly those who are committed leaders in the fight against cruelty. We also ask every candidate – both incumbents and first time office seekers – to complete our endorsement survey as the survey responses are critical in determining which candidates will receive our endorsement. Our survey queries candidates on key pieces of pending animal legislation, both the bills that are easily supported as well as those that may face opposition. We also ask candidates to tell us about themselves, the role of animals in their lives and their feelings about how animals should be treated. If two non-incumbent candidates are equally qualified based on survey results, we conduct follow up calls, as well as consult with animal loving constituents in their districts who know them. Past responses have been quite illuminating! All responses are kept strictly confidential, and allow us to evaluate the level of commitment a candidate has to helping protect Pennsylvania’s animals from cruel treatment.
We are fortunate this election in that many races are between strong, humane oriented candidates. An example of one such race is the Democratic race for Governor. All four candidates had strong statements and we had difficulty choosing among them, so we asked our members to vote on the strongest statement and the clear frontrunner is Tom Wolf who came in with 65% of the vote. The animals are also fortunate to have very strong humane candidates for Lieutenant Governor, making the endorsement process an agonizing pleasure, however Brad Koplinski has been a vocal and active leader on many issues, including tethering, edging out the others in the endorsement process.
Pennsylvania has closed primaries, meaning that you can only vote in your own party, so we are only endorsing in contested races, and we will be evaluating again in time for the November election. We did not endorse in races where candidates did not respond to the survey or where two new candidates appear equal on the issues. *Please note, as a registered state political action committee, we only issue endorsements of candidates for state offices and make no endorsements for federal offices.
Our goal is for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be a kinder place for animals and for our legislature to pass appropriate laws to protect animals and eliminate cruelty. Thus, we encourage those who care deeply about these issues to consider and be guided by our endorsements, and to support 
candidates who will support a humane agenda. We thank all of the candidates who took the time to complete our survey. Good luck to all of our Humane PA Endorsed Candidates!
Humane PA 