Humane PA is pleased to present its Endorsements for Pennsylvania State Offices in the upcoming general election on Tuesday, November 3rd:
Humane PA 2020 Endorsements
When polled, the vast majority of Pennsylvania voters give priority to their legislators’ efforts to ensure the humane treatment of animals. Humane PA PAC’s goal is to make sure that Pennsylvania voters who care about the treatment of animals know which candidates deserve their vote at the polls.
How do we choose 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 commitment to stand strong for the humane treatment of animals against that of their opponent. Our endorsement process is not taken lightly and we spend a great deal of time reviewing and evaluating a legislator’s (incumbent) voting record and leadership on animal bills. Endorsement priority is always given to an incumbent with a good record . This means that even when an current legislator’s challenger submits a great survey, the incumbent with a proven track record will secure our endorsement. 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 are perceived as tougher and may face opposition. Courageous positions on contentious legislation are weighted more heavily. 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. And we take note of favorable animal topics and positions on a candidate’s campaign materials and their social media. If two non-incumbent candidates are equally qualified based on survey results, we will generally recommend both. In districts where we don’t know enough about the candidate or neither candidate is particular strong on humane issues, we make no recommendation (that presents an opportunity for you, the voter, to query your candidates on animal issues and ask them to complete our survey). 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.
This year has been a particularly challenging one as we struggle through an unprecedented pandemic that basically shut down all priority animal bills that should have received a vote and therefore we had to reach back several legislative seasons for scorecards. We had a terrific response this year to our endorsement survey and the number of committed, humane oriented candidates was inspiring, but also gave us a daunting task of comparing them against some of our strong incumbent supporters and steady yes votes who we always count on.
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 2020 Endorsed Candidates!
*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.
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