Rohrer presses on seeking GOP bid for governor

Last in a series of profiles of Pennsylvania's gubernatorial candidates.

State Rep. Sam Rohrer is as conservative as they come.

The Republican candidate for governor believes in unalloyed gun rights. He sees zoning laws as an infringement on private property. He calls himself a strict defender of the 10th Amendment, which he says makes it unconstitutional for the federal government to get involved in schools or health care.

But Rohrer is not Glenn Beck; he is not angry.

He is not Rush Limbaugh; he does not mock opponents.

If you ask him for his views on a hot-button issue, he'll tell you. But he'd prefer to talk about the boring-but-important stuff - what the state must do to avoid a budget crisis year after year (cut expenses) and what it must do to address its collapsing employee pension systems (cut benefits).

Rohrer does not throw red meat. That may be why he has gained little attention in his long-shot bid on Tuesday to wrest the GOP gubernatorial nomination from the party's endorsed candidate, Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Yet, for many in the tea-party movement that has arisen to challenge the Republican status quo in 2010, Rohrer is the straight-talk candidate. Supporters see the mild-mannered legislator from the Reading suburbs as the antidote to the cautious, poll-driven politics they believe infect Corbett.

"I think he has great integrity; he gives me a great feeling of comfort," said Trish Hartline of Oley, owner of a bed-and-breakfast who turned out April 27 to hear Rohrer speak at Kutztown University.

"He's the only guy running who has integrity and the only one I can trust," said the Rev. Rick Goodman, a Baptist pastor from Macungie.

"There's fake, and there's real, and he's real," said Kutztown student Richard Sukley of Allentown, a member of the campus Republican club.

During his 17 years in Harrisburg, Rohrer has been identified with one issue: elimination of school property taxes.

He proposes to do away with the residential school tax - not municipal or county property taxes - by shifting the burden for school funding almost entirely to the state.

He would make up for the loss of property-tax revenue - which he estimates at $6 billion to $7 billion a year across the state - by collecting other revenue.

He would expand the sales tax to include many goods and services not currently taxed. The goods would include nonprescription drugs. The services would include having your toilet fixed by a plumber or having your IRS return done by an accountant.

He would also direct that royalties from the leasing of state lands for gas drilling go into a property-tax replacement fund.

To Rohrer, the mere idea of property taxes is loathsome. Not only does it hurt people on fixed income, he says, it is an assault on property rights.

"Let us own our homes in Pennsylvania," he told the Kutztown crowd, "because, right now, none of us owns our own house."

Property-tax elimination, though popular with voters, has never gotten far in the legislature. Near-total state funding of schools has not been seen as realistic.

John Woodward, Rohrer's Democratic foe in his 2008 reelection to the House, said that, for all of his trying, Rohrer has had no real impact in Harrisburg.

"My accomplishments in the General Assembly are exactly the same as Sam's - none," Woodward said.

But David Baldinger, leader of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Taxpayer Associations, said Rohrer had set the reform wheels in motion.

"Sam gets it," he said. "The residents are tapped out."

In 2001, legislators voted to give themselves a 50 percent increase in their retirement pensions - and to give 25 percent increases to teachers and other state employees.

Rohrer voted yes on the proposal.

In 2005, in the middle of the night, legislators voted to grant themselves a 16 percent pay hike.

Again, Rohrer voted yes.

To Corbett, these votes raise questions about the conservative credentials Rohrer holds so dear.

"Sam is the one saying he is a conservative and a man of conviction, yet he is the one who voted for the pension increase and the pay increase as well," Corbett said.

"How does that make him more conservative than me? I guess that is an issue the voters are going to have to answer."

At 54, Rohrer hardly has a line on his boyish face. He parts his hair and combs it slightly over his brow. At 5-foot-9, he looks trim in well-cut suits, usually with a blue tie.

Baldinger, a friend, cheerfully calls him a bit of a nerd.

"Sam is so serious about what he does," he said. "He loosens up a little bit when you are with him personally. But his beliefs are so strong, he just wants to elucidate them."

Rohrer was born in the Amish country of northeastern Ohio, the son of a union steelworker. The family owned a 50-acre farm on which it raised cattle and grew vegetables.

At 17, he was selected to attend Buckeye Boys State, a mock political convention for high-schoolers with an interest in politics. He won election to the Boys State legislature, where he introduced a bill to preserve farmland.

When he got home, he was asked to recite the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day in Bolivar, Ohio.

"I saw then that there is an ability for those who are in public office to give hope - that, in fact, it can be an honorable profession," he said.

As a student at Bob Jones University in South Carolina, he met his wife, Ruth Ann, who was from Media. They ended up living in Pennsylvania.

Rohrer took a job with Graco, a baby-stroller company in Chester County, and built the marketing department there. He made 24 trips to Asia, which he said opened his mind to the larger world.

In 1992, he ran for the state House and won.

Asked how he wanted to be viewed today, he replied: "As someone who tells the truth, as someone who won't promise more than he can deliver."

Nathan Rohrer, 31, eldest of Rohrer's six children, said his father knew it would be hard for him to beat Corbett, who has name recognition, millions more in campaign money, and the support of top party leaders.

"He's not living in a fantasy world," the son said.

Still, "we are amazed by the depth of support we see across the state," Nathan Rohrer said. "You'd like to see that show up in polling. But it has to mean something. It can't be of no significance."

So Rohrer presses on, a happy warrior.

Rohrer was considerably out of his element one night in February when he ventured into the golden light and dark shadows of Arch Street United Methodist Church for a debate hosted by 70 of Philadelphia's most leftist groups.

He emerged from the lion's den with scarcely a scratch.

Sitting between the four Democrats running for governor, Rohrer answered some questions that seldom come up at his meetings with conservatives amid the dairy fields and truck stops of the Pennsylvania heartland.

What would he do to help former prison inmates find housing and jobs?

"We have far too many people in jail who are there because of substance abuse or other reasons that they ought not to be in jail," he said to some applause.

What would he do to increase funding for public education?

Nothing, he said.

"The answer is not more money, unfortunately," he said, "because we don't have it."

His bluntness drew a hint of applause.

It was only when the debate turned to same-sex marriage that Rohrer got in trouble.

"I am not opposed personally to couples living together - however they want to construct themselves," he said. "I draw the line when it comes to the official recognition of what we call marriage."

There were hisses, boos.

But afterward, audience members clustered around Rohrer to shake his hand.

"I disagreed with some of his positions," said Oliver Anthony of the Pennsylvania. Prison Society. "But I appreciated his honesty and his candor. I respect that."

Age: 54. Born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.

Residence: Robeson Township, Berks County

Education: Tuscarawas Valley High School, Zoarville, Ohio, 1973. Bachelor's degree in business administration, Bob Jones University, 1977.

Professional experience: Bott Radio Network, 1977-79. Graco Children's Products, Elverson, 1978-1992; started in production scheduling and became director of marketing.

Political experience: State House of Representatives, representing portion of Berks County, 1993 to present.

Family: Wife, Ruth Ann; six children, three grandchildren.

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