Residents hold ‘Reopen Wayne County’ demonstration in Honesdale

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HONESDALE, PA — More than 400 Facebook users marked themselves as either “interested” in or “going” to the “Reopen Wayne County” protest scheduled for Saturday, March 23. Under a gray and rainy sky, a group of roughly 30 people showed up to the event in Honesdale’s central park.

The demonstration took place one day after Gov. Tom Wolf shifted Wayne County from the red to yellow phase of reopening. “Our message needs to be that we won’t forget what happened,” said Russ Fine, one of the event’s speakers and founder of the conservative media group, Project 56. Fine was critical of the governor, whom he referred to as “King Wolf,” for mandating the closure of certain businesses throughout this pandemic. Fine said that Wolf’s actions proved the importance of voting; he called the governor’s leadership “tyrannical.”

The next two speakers were both political candidates, Mike Marsicano and Harry Haas. Marsicano and Haas are two of the six Republicans facing one another in the June 2 primary—the winner will go on to face Rep. Matt Cartwright in this year’s general election.

“I’m not for entitlement and I’m sure as hell not for that [governor] and that health secretary,” Marsicano said, referring to PA Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine.

Haas said that “people in Wayne County just want to be left alone," and that he opposed Wolf, but that the problem went beyond the governor.

“We’re fighting more than just against Tom Wolf, we’re fighting against this leftist ideology,” Haas said, adding that leftists “don’t understand what it means to be an American,” and “certainly don’t represent people that come from Wayne County.”

Under Wolf's orders, Wayne County moved to the yellow phase on Friday, May 22. The neighboring Pike County is scheduled to do the same on Friday, May 29.

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wayne county, reopen, protest, honesdale, central park, covid-19, pandemic, gov tom wolf, marsicano, haas, june 2, primary

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