Round Two: Drucker Looks Ahead to November Rematch with Kampf

Paul Drucker is counting on buyer’s remorse.

After losing his 157th district seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to Warren Kampf by shy of 1,000 votes in 2010, the attorney-turned-Tredyffrin-supervisor-turned-state legislator is angling to wrest the office back from the Republican in what figures to be one of this fall’s most hotly contested races.

And the Democrat thinks a reversal of fortunes might be in order.

“[Kampf] has a record now that he didn’t have then,” Drucker told Patch on Wednesday afternoon, a few hours before a campaign kickoff event he hosted that night at his Bridge Street headquarters.

“I’ll be able to contrast to the voters what I represent from what he represents.”

According to the candidate—who held the office he’s pursuing from 2008 to 2010 after winning a contentious general election battle with Guy Ciarrocchi—the contrast starts here: Kampf’s record on education, women’s health, the environment, and infrastructure.

“These are issues where there are major differences between me and my opponent. These aren’t shades of grey—these are black and white issues,” Drucker said, emphatically.

“[Kampf] talks about jobs,” he went on, “’Jobs, jobs jobs.’ But he didn’t support the transportation bill. And to me the greatest job program that we have is education, but he supports a budget with draconian education cuts.”

Drucker also chided his opponent for his votes in support of natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale—a position he called “intellectually bankrupt.” He charged Kampf and fellow state Republicans with under-taxing the extraction and not going to sufficient lengths to ensure it produced local jobs.

“It’s the lowest [natural gas extraction] tax in the country,” he said.

Putting his election forecaster cap back on—albeit one with a large “D” on it—Drucker said the dynamics of this election figure to favor him in a way 2010’s didn’t.

“Because it’s a presidential election, there should be a better turnout,” Drucker surmised. “And that better turnout should be to my advantage.”