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“Congresswoman, Air Force veteran, and entrepreneur Chrissy Houlahan has spent her time in Congress working with both parties to lower health care costs and deliver essential aid to small businesses and schools in Pennsylvania. In contrast, Guy Ciarrocchi is an extreme failed political operative who has spent his career fighting to ban abortion and oppose marriage equality.” – DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney
To: Interested Parties
From: James Singer, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: May 19, 2022
Subject: The Case Against Guy Ciarrocchi
Congresswoman and Air Force veteran Chrissy Houlahan has served our country and the people of Pennsylvania’s 6th with distinction. Rated one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, Houlahan has fought to improve supply chains to fight inflation, passed aid for small business and middle class tax cuts for families, secured essential aid to schools, and delivered infrastructure investments to repair roads, bridges, and high speed internet.
In contrast, Guy Ciarrocchi is a right-wing extremist, MAGA Republican far out of the mainstream. He’s spent his career on a crusade against rights for women and the LGBTQ community and worked hard to force his far-right beliefs on others. Make no mistake, Pennsylvania’s 6th cannot afford Guy Ciarrocchi as their congressman.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Ciarrocchi Criticized The Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act, Saying It Was More About “Social Experiments” Than Real Infrastructure. CIARROCCHI: “You make sure we restructure this so-called infrastructure bill that is spending more – see, the so-called infrastructure bill is not about building pipelines or cell towers or roads or rail. It’s about a lot of other social experiments. We need to restructure that bill and get it focused on things that improve our life and get money and investment.” [Delaware Valley Journal, Guy Ciarrocchi Interview, 3/9/22] (AUDIO)
December 2021: Ciarrocchi Said Roe v. Wade Was “Bad Law” Based On “Very, Very Outdated Science.” “GOP gubernatorial candidate Guy Ciarrocchi, who is on hiatus from his job as the president of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce said, ‘I am pro-life. But, whether or not one agrees with Roe v Wade, we should all be saddened to know that millions of babies have died—30,000 each year in our state. The decision focused on a baby’s viability in 1973. At a minimum, we should all agree that viability is now much, much earlier due to scientific advances. So, Roe is now not only bad law, it’s based on very, very outdated science. It is time for Roe to be replaced.’” [Delaware Valley Journal, 12/1/21]
November 2003: Ciarrocchi Said A Court Decision Overturning Massachusetts’s State Ban On Same-Sex Marriage Was “Bad Moral Decision” Because It Would Make The Term Marriage “Meaningless.” “For Haddonfield resident Diane Marini, yesterday’s Massachusetts high-court decision overturning the state ban on same-sex civil marriage could carry her closer to her dream: to legally marry her partner of 12 years, Marilyn Maneely. ‘We’ve raised five kids together, but we as a couple have no rights,’ said Marini, who with Maneely is among seven gay couples suing for similar legal recognition in New Jersey. […] Guy Ciarrocchi, director of the Philadelphia Archdiocese Office for Public Affairs, saw it as ‘a bad legal decision and a bad moral decision.’ ‘It’s bad legally,’ he said, ‘because it continues down a dangerous path of allowing courts to decide important legal issues rather than legislatures. And it’s bad as a moral decision because if every relationship the participants believe is special is deemed marriage, at some point the term marriage becomes meaningless.’” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/19/03]
2009-2011: Ciarrocchi Was Executive Director Of The Pennsylvania Coalition Of Public Charter Schools. [LinkedIn, “Guy Ciarrocchi,” Accessed 3/29/22]
The Pennsylvania Coalition Of Public Charter Schools Was “The State’s Largest And Most Active Charter Organization.” “Founded in 2005, the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS) represents charter schools throughout the Keystone State. As the state’s largest and most active charter organization, PCPCS advocates for both brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools. Our work spans across the state including regional training events, school tours, legislative engagement, and media relations.” [Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, Accessed 4/7/22]
Guy Ciarrocchi has spent his career putting his own right wing extremism over the wellbeing of Pennsylvania families.
RECORD OF FAILURE, WRONG FOR PENNSYLVANIA
For 30 years, Guy Ciarrocchi has been running for office unsuccessfully over and over again – recently dropping out of the gubernatorial race to run in this district. He has been referred to as a “protege” of extremist former Senator Rick Santorum.
Ciarrocchi opposed helping Pennsylvania families during the pandemic. Ciarrocchi dismissed giving additional direct relief funds for restaurants and other business owners in Pennsylvania at the height of the pandemic.
Ciarrocchi opposed affordable health care. Ciarrocchi was chief of staff for former Congressman Jim Gerlach, who voted against protecting those with pre-existing conditions and co-sponsored numerous bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which protected Pennsylvanians with pre-existing conditions.
Ciarrocchi voted to quintuple working families’ taxes. Ciarrocchi voted to raise taxes on working Pennsylvanians in Tredyffrin Township by 520% ($1.1 million).
Ciarrocchi opposed bipartisan solutions. Ciarrocchi opposed the bipartisan infrastructure bill that would help rebuild the more than 3,300 bridges and 7,540 miles of highway in poor condition in Pennsylvania that cost Pennsylvania drivers $620 per-year. In total, Ciarrocchi opposed more than $18 billion dollars to improve Pennsylvania roads, bridges, high speed internet access, and clean water access.
Anti-public education: Ciarrocchi led a pro-charter organization that wanted to siphon money from public education.
At a time when reproductive rights hang in the balance, Ciarrocchi is a threat to PA women. He has called for Roe v. Wade to be “replaced” and in a previous electoral run was endorsed by anti-abortion radicals who supported banning all forms of contraception.
Ciarrocchi has long been an opponent of LGBTQ rights. Under his leadership as “chief lobbyist,” the Archdiocese of Philadelphia opposed “validation of [homesexual] lifestyle] and lobbied against expanding LGBT rights, including health insurance benefits for domestic partners of public workers. He also vehemently opposed same sex marriages, saying the legalization of which would make marriage between men and women “meaningless.”
PATH TO VICTORY
With its strong bases of Democratic voters in Chester County and Reading, PA-06 is growing increasingly out of reach of Republicans. At 46.2% college educated (among residents ages 25 and over), PA-06 is the most highly-educated district in Pennsylvania, and it trended more Democratic than any other district in the commonwealth between 2012 and 2020 presidential elections — President Biden’s 57.4% of the major-party vote in the new version of the district was a 5.9-point improvement over President Obama’s vote share in 2012. In 2020, Congresswoman Houlahan was re-elected by a double-digit margin with 56.1% of the vote, and she will face a very similar electorate in 2022 — 98.3% of voters in the new version of the district lived in the old PA-06.
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