last word
A PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE SEAT IS SOUGHT BY
Gwen Stoltz
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
G wen Stoltz, 47, is a married
mother of three children: a
14-year-old son and two
daughters, 12 and eight. The Plumstead
Township resident is also a contract
medical writer for physicians and edu-
cational organizations.

She likes her life and could easily just
live it.

Instead, she wants to do more.

The daughter of a Jewish single
mother is running for the seat repre-
senting District 143 in the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives.

With support from the Bucks
County Democratic Committee, Stoltz
is the presumptive candidate for the
November general election. Her likely
task? Beating the incumbent represen-
tative from 143, Republican Shelby Labs.

PA 143 includes the townships of
Plumstead, Bedminster, Hilltown, New
Britain and Tinicum, as well as the bor-
oughs of Dublin, Perkasie, Sellersville
and Silverdale. The territory of more
than 65,000 residents can go either way,
according to Bill Ritter, the Democratic
Party chair for the area.

Stoltz wants to flip the seat because
she claims that Labs is not responsive
to constituents.

“I have heard from people who say
they feel let down by her constituent
services,” Stoltz said. “That’s a huge
part of being a state rep.”
Pennsylvania is one of 10 U.S. states
with a full-time legislature. If Stoltz
wins, she will take on a job that pays
more than $90,000 a year but requires
her to be in Harrisburg, the state capi-
tal, for extended periods.

Stoltz is putting a requirement on
herself to be available to constituents.

The office of her home region’s state
senator, Steve Santarsiero, upholds a
promise to get back to callers within
24 hours.

Stoltz may stretch that to 48 hours,
but she will require her office to main-
tain a similar standard. She plans to
28 hire people who get back to people,
she said.

All of that will be a lot of work. But
Stoltz said she is ready for it.

“The people in the district are feeling
let down,” she said. “That’s why I’m
running.” Stoltz’s family is used to balancing
work and home lives, too, the mom
explains. Her husband, Frank Stoltz, is an esti-
mator in the construction industry, so
they understand what it takes to man-
age a two-income family with three
kids. He’s also supportive and willing
to pick up the slack when Gwen is away.

APRIL 21, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Earlier in her career, Stoltz worked on
a contract for the federal Environmental
Protection Agency. The agreement cov-
ered land in Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Delaware and West Virginia. Stoltz
could not span that many states with-
out taking on some distant overnights.

Politics will be similar, she said.

“We’ll balance it like any other job,”
she added, saying it’s worth the balanc-
ing act.

Ritter believes the seat is winna-
ble. After the 2020 U.S. Census,
Pennsylvania redistricted, and 143 is
no longer a Republican district, he
explained. If you combine Democrats and inde-
pendents in those Bucks County towns,
they outnumber Republicans, he said.

To win, Stoltz needs to turn out the
base and convince enough nonparti-
sans to support her.

As of mid-April, the candidate seems
capable of doing that, Ritter said. He
called her “indefatigable” in the way
she campaigns.

“She’s been out there at the doors
nonstop, talking to voters,” he said.

“The best way to convince somebody to
come out to vote for your candidate is
to do it in person.”
Once voters answer their doors, too,
they meet a woman who understands
their concerns, according to Ritter.

Stoltz grew up in Bucks County and is
raising her children there. The issues
she cares about, like supporting small
businesses, working moms and the
environment, are issues she sees from
a resident’s perspective.

As Det Ansinn, Stoltz’s brother-in-
law and the chair of her campaign,
explained it, she didn’t have to talk to a
bunch of consultants to formulate her
positions. “When my wife and I knocked on
doors to get petition signatures, we
were startled by how many people
knew her already,” Ansinn said. “She’s
a part of the community.”
Stoltz, a longtime party activist,
decided to run last summer after call-
ing fellow voters and asking what they
thought. Her neighbors were excited,
and they remain excited.

The candidate needed 300 signatures
to get on the ballot; she collected more
than 1,000. She also had to raise money
since she wasn’t self-funding her cam-
paign; she raised more than $70,000.

And while the candidate didn’t grow
up religious, her Jewish grandmother
made sure she never forgot her identity.

It’s a lesson Stoltz carries with her on
the trail.

“I get excited about trying to address
problems,” she said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com



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