Thread: Barletta address Republican crowd

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Barletta address Republican crowd
BY KIMM R. MONTONE
STAFF WRITER
kmontone@republicanherald.com

02/23/2007
Hazleton Mayor Lou J. Barletta delivered a message of unity Thursday night at the 49th annual Lincoln Day Dinner at Pine View Acres.


Barletta was the guest speaker at the $35-a-plate Republican fund-raiser that symbolizes the start of the party’s spring campaign.

Barletta, who received international attention for his anti-illegal immigration legislation in 2006, drew a standing ovation from the more than 100 people in the audience, a mix of party members and politicians, former and current.

Evoking memories of the late Republican Pres. Ronald Reagan, Barletta spoke about his conviction in drafting the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, an ordinance that cites landlords who rent to and businesses that hire undocumented citizens.

He told the audience a story about how Hazleton began to change in 2006 with incidents like homicides, gun shots fired into a playground and drug dealers peddling their wares from the business district.

When Hazleton police linked the crimes to undocumented citizens, Barletta said it was those incidents that led him to draft the ordinance.

At the start of 2006, he said the city was on the verge of losing its “high quality of life, tranquil neighborhoods and safe downtown.”

Barletta said there were increased reports of graffiti, vandalism and petty theft, as well as business closings.

He said that it was not to attract national and international media attention, draft a model ordinance for other municipalities or to boost his own political career that spurred him to act, but to eliminate part of the city’s criminal element.

“By the second half of 2006, Hazleton began to change. Our streets began to change. It took the courage of my convictions to write the Illegal Immigration Relief Act.”

The illegal immigration act and an English as the official language law had resulted in several lawsuits against the city from the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“Hazleton is not backing down and I am not backing down,” Barletta said. “I am going to take Hazleton’s battle to the highest court in the land.”

Barletta is currently seeking a third term as mayor.

“As a business owner I admired how Reagan governed. Reagan empowered people and that’s how I thought government should be run,” he said. “The great communicator brought hope and optimism.”

At the end of the speech, he encouraged Republicans to put aside their differences.

“My fellow Republicans, it is time to come together,” he said.

The event also featured Pennsylvania Supreme Court candidate Michael Krancer, the chief judge on the state environmental hearing board.

He told the audience, if elected, he would “interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.”

“Control of the court is at stake and at the end of the day, most Pennsylvanians want that controlled by Republicans, conservative Republicans,” said Krancer.

If only all politicians were like Mayor Lou our country wouldn't be in the mess its in now!