On Thursday, Oct. 21, the West Chester College Democrats hosted a local politics forum featuring some candidates running for office in and around the West Chester area. Both students and candidates were engaged while discussing things like equality, veterans’ affairs and economics.
Mayor Carolyn Comitta, Hans Mol Van, Mike Parrish and Susan Rzucidlo were in attendance. The candidates joined students to talk about the APSCUF strike, their platforms and thoughts on the national election in a question-and-answer type forum.
“With all the talk of the presidential election in the news, young people tend to forget about state and local government elections,“ said sophmore Katherine Mash, public relations director of the College Democrats. “This forum provided students with the information needed to make an iformed decision aobut who they believe can really effect change.”
Rzucidlo is running for the Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives to represent the 158th district, which includes parts of campus that lie in West Goshen.
“You don’t have to make laws to make things better,” Rzucidlo said, as she talked about developing better relationships between police and citizens without putting things into legislation.
Mol Van is running for the 157th district. He is the youngest candidate running in Pennsylvania at 27 years old and put an emphasis on how he was proud to be a millennial involved in government.
He is a high school music teacher and is sponsored by APSCUF. When asked, he listed his most important issues as education, renewable energy and equality.
Comitta is the current mayor of West Chester and is running for the 156th district, which includes all of WCU’s North campus.
She, along with Mol Van, is a WCU alumni. She was elected as mayor in 2010 and was excited to be engaged with students and insisted that “the future is yours.”
Parrish is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 6th district. Parrish served as an Army Aviator for 14 years and continues to serve as Colonel today. He recieved a Master’s in aeronautical and astronautical from Stanford University and an MBA with honors from the Wharton School of Buisness at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is passionate about involvement “from the White House to the State House.”
He states some of his important platform issues as infrastructure and renewable energy.
If you are not sure where you are registered to vote this November, visit iwillvote.com to find your polling place and update any last minute details before Election Day.
Elizabeth Gibson is a second-year student majoring in political science. She can be reached at EG850161@wcupa.edu.