LAKE WALLENPAUPACK, PA — The candidates for the 139th District seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives offered voters the chance to learn more about their beliefs and positions during a September 19 debate ahead of a general election rematch.

Jeff Olsommer, who is running on the Republican and the Independent lines, defeated Democrat Robin Schooley Skibber in a special election for the seat held this past April. The two candidates will vie against one another again in November’s general election. The seat was left vacant in February with the resignation of Republican and former Wayne County Commissioner Joe Adams. 

The League of Women Voters of Pike County hosted the debate, with Amy Widestorm moderating. Widestorm is the executive director of the League of Women Voters Pennsylvania. 

Olsommer has run Olsommer Clarke Insurance Group for 25 years, and served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Sterling Township, Wayne County for eight years. He is also chairman of the Sterling United Methodist Church Trustees and is president of the Southern Wayne Regional Chamber of Commerce. 

“I have 35 years of private sector experience,” Olsommer said in his opening statement. “I know what it’s like to have to get up in the morning and have to go to work.”

Skibber currently works as a registered dietitian, having retired in 2023 from over 20 years of service as the executive director of the Pike Area Agency on Aging. She served on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Senior Food Policy Council and as the president of the Blooming Grove Fire Department Auxiliary. 

“I believe this is a great community… I want to humbly ask for you to send me to Harrisburg, because I’ll have your back,” said Skibber. 

Housing

The candidates were asked what they thought were the contributing factors to a lack of affordable housing, as well as what the solutions would be. Both identified it as a problem, and each had experience with the issue in different realms. 

Olsommer named a long list of contributing factors: “cost of materials, inflation, interest rates, lack of infrastructure, and not to mention sewage issues [and] local zoning issues.”

From his time as a Sterling Township supervisor, he said he understood that each township had different ordinances and zoning which affected their ability to improve their housing stocks. 

Olsommer said he supported low-interest loans for developers of multi-unit senior housing, which could help move seniors out of homes they’re having trouble maintaining and leaving those homes open for other residents. He also supported a package of 12 bills introduced by House Republicans, including remedies such as fast-tracked permits for home builders and pre-tax savings accounts for new homebuyers. 

“This is a subject near and dear to my heart,” said Skibber. 

She said that she was part of the Pocono Housing Symposium, which brought together Pike County Commissioners, developers and other community representatives to talk about housing issues. That symposium resulted in a shared housing program, “where somebody can come live with another person and have their own agreement and keep people in their homes, help them pay their taxes and also perhaps exchange services,” she said. 

Skibber said as well that there are a lot of people in the 139th district who are living in homes that were meant to be vacation homes, and that many of the district’s seniors need assistance maintaining their homes or transitioning into an affordable source of housing. 

Education

The candidates split again when asked if they supported the increased funding included for Pennsylvania’s schools in the latest state budget. 

“I voted no on education, and it was simple,” said Olsommer. He said that the majority of the education funding included went to under-performing school —75 percent of the budget went to three school districts “performing at a seventh-grade level” by his tally—and that “shoveling” more money at these school districts wouldn’t fix Pennsylvania’s education problems. 

“Those schools are letting our kids down… Why can’t we sit down and talk this through and figure out what this problem is about?” he said. 

He said as well that the four schools in the 139th District “saw almost zero if any” of the budget’s increase in educational spending, and attributed that to the schools performing in the top 20 percent. 

Skibber said she supported the budget prepared by Shapiro. She pointed to several specifics programs supported by that budget, including mental health services, career technology centers and special education funding. 

There were reasons why schools might be underperforming at this time, she said—they had spent years being under-funded, and they had suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The teachers and the students that have come through the last five years have had nothing normal about their whole curriculum,” Skibber said. 

Both candidates expressed concern about cyber schools, opposing how much money they were taking from local school districts and calling for state oversight. 

Cultural issues

The debate also touched on some of the cultural issues that matter to voters across the nation, including reproductive health, gun control and transgender athletes. 

Skibber emphasized during the debate that she was pro-choice. “I believe a woman’s reproductive health and her access to abortion is between her, her health care provider and her loved ones.”

Olsomer said he didn’t support a ban on abortion, but said that he wanted to fight for the sanctity of life. There were 35,000 abortions in Pennsylvania in 2022, he said; “What I would like to see is some kind of programs by the state that offer support for these women that have to make these terrible decisions.”

He also said that he wanted to fight for Pennsylvania’s Second Amendment rights. 

In response to a question about red flag laws, he said he was concerned about due process and the possibility of abuse of the system. “They sound like a great idea, until you’re upset with your neighbor and you call and report your neighbor and the next thing you know, their guns are being confiscated.”

Skibber said she supported red flag laws, as well as universal background checks and “all the safety measures that could prevent gun violence.”

She believed there is “little chance for people to be frivolous about accusations” for red flag laws, and that “I would err on the side of safety rather than protecting someone’s gun ownership.”

Candidates were also asked about how they would vote on cultural flashpoints, taken broadly—everything from book bans in schools to participation in sports. 

Skibber said that many of those issues—including taking books out of schools, and who can love whom—“should not be anything the government gets involved in. I think those are private decisions.”

Olsommer agreed that he did not support book bans, but said he was concerned about “the transgenders in sports… I just think women have fought long and hard for their right to be where they’re at,” he said. 

Skibber said that wasn’t an issue. “The amount of rules and policies that have been written across the country about transgenders in sports are more than there are actually any transgender sports people.”

The final word

In her closing statement, Skibber said that government can be a good partner. “I believe when something is needed in your community, you swallow, roll up your sleeves, and work on the problem.”

She said she thought the community should be bringing its fair share of taxes back, and that government resources should be used in investments in the community’s education, human services and agriculture. 

“There are some things that I’d like to accomplish while I am in the state house,” said Olsommer. 

He said he’d like to try and reduce taxes, support first responders and improve the education system, and fight for second amendment rights and for the sanctity of life. “And most importantly, I’d like to work for the people of the 139th,” he said.