The man who introduced me to libertarianism, Walt Karwicki II, told me that when it comes to York County (PA) politics that three families have strong clout: the Wolfs, the Zimmermans and the Appells. Since then I have noticed that whenever anything major happens in York Co. at least one of these three families will be involved. For example, when I-83 was built the original plan was to replace the road known as the Susquehanna Trail. The Appells had a large farm in northern York Co., the Wolfs had a large farm in the south and former Governor George Leader had a farm just south of York city and all three agreed to sell part of their land for the highway. While seemingly magnanimous, all three stood to benefit. The surrounding farmland increased in value and large portions of this former farmland have been sold for industrial parks. Leaders former land is now a borough known as Leaders Heights. When York mayor Charlie Robertson ended his campaign for re-election a week after announcing it (his involvement in the shooting death of Lillie Belle Allen in the York race riots of 1969 having then recently come to light) the local newspapers announced that he had already acquired $600 in campaign contributions coming from three donors: Louis Appell, Harry Zimmerman and Thomas Wolf. Why do I bring this up? Because Thomas Wolf is currently running for Governor of Pennsylvania. A lifelong Democrat, Wolf is the epitome of the crony-capitalist.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 13:11:16 +0000