Daylin Leach

Daylin Leach
Daylin Leach
Member of the Pennsylvania Senate
from the 17th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2009
Preceded by Connie Williams
Constituency Parts of Delaware and Montgomery Counties
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
from the 149th district
In office
January 7, 2003[1] – November 30, 2008
Preceded by Wallis Brooks
Succeeded by Tim Briggs
Constituency Part of Montgomery County
Personal details
Born June 23, 1961 (1961-06-23) (age 50)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Jennifer Anne Mirak
Children Brennan Alice, Justin Robert
Residence Wayne, Pennsylvania
Alma mater Temple University
University of Houston Law Center
Profession Attorney
Religion Reform Judaism
Signature

Daylin Leach (born June 23, 1961) is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate who has represented the 17th senatorial district since 2009. He was previously a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 149th district from 2003 to 2009.

Contents

Biography

Leach graduated from Parkland High School in 1979, and received a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 1983 and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1986. He practiced law for 16 years, focusing on family and education law. He taught constitutional law, legal ethics and First Amendment law as an adjunct professor at Cedar Crest College and Muhlenberg College.

Leach served as president of the Pennsylvania Young Democrats in the early 1990s and on the Allentown Zoning Board from 1990 to 1994. He previously co-hosted a weekly political TV debate show. He has described his political views as "progressive for the most part."[2]

Political career

2002 election

Leach first ran for the 149th legislative district in a special election on February 12, 2002 following the resignation of Democrat Connie Williams. Leach narrowly lost that election to Republican Wallis Brooks.[3] In the November 2002 rematch of their February special election, the Brooks campaign sent dozens of direct mail advertisements, including one accusing Leach of defending child molesters as an attorney.[4] On the Saturday before the election, one was sent to voters accusing Leach, a practicing Jew who lost family in the Holocaust, of being anti-Semitic.[4] The mailer carried a bold headline of "Anti-Semitism, Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial. They are not 'a big joke.'"[4] The incendiary charges stemmed from Leach's 1999 defense of an in absentia client from Texas who was sued in Allentown, Pennsylvania for comments allegedly made in an Internet chat room.[4][5] Following the dismissal, the plaintiff took to the internet and posted diatribes denouncing Leach and the Texas man as anti-Semites that were unearthed by a Brooks researcher and used in the mailer.[4] "She had to know I was Jewish, because it had come up in a debate. But since I have a non-Jewish surname, she apparently thought she could get away with this," Leach said.[4] The campaign immediately convinced a local Jewish newspaper to denounce the mailer and reproduced the article on a flyer with a profile of Leach, emphasizing his Jewish roots and activism, on the reverse.[4] By election day, 70 volunteers had hand-delivered the literature to most district households.[4] Leach won the election by over 1,000 votes.

In 2003, the political website PoliticsPA named him to "The Best of the Freshman Class" list, saying that he "has all the ingredients of a rising star" and that he "makes the job look fun."[6]

Feud with Philadelphia Inquirer

In August 2005, Daylin Leach published an op-ed article in the Philadelphia Inquirer blasting the paper's coverage of the 2005 Pennsylvania General Assembly pay raise controversy.[7] In what the Philadelphia City Paper called "the paper's first round against Leach," Inquirer columnist John Grogan responded by accusing Leach of "funny math."[8] In response, Leach "struck back" against the Inquirer with a satirical email to associates under the pseudonym "Dutch Larooo" skewering Inquirer reporter Mario F. Cattabiani.[9][10]

On September 1, 2005, Mario F. Cattabiani published a front page article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that "exposed" Daylin Leach's long-standing and satirical blog "leachvent.com."[10][11] The Philadelphia City Paper blasted the Inquirer for allowing Cattabiani to "answer his attacker" though a trumped-up news article, noting that "thousands of insiders have laughed at Leach's satire for years," but the Inquirer acted as though it had been "recently discovered."[10] The Philadelphia City Paper noted that Cattabiani's article incorrectly characterized Leach's website as a "blog" rather than satire and had focused on Leach's pseudonym's "impure thoughts," while ignoring the "satirical attack" on his Cattabiani's reporting.[10] The next day, Leach removed his website, allowing Cattabiani to "regurgitates the same spicy bits" in two subsequent front page stories.[10][12][13] John Grogan jumped in declaring that Leach had "dug his own political grave."[10][14] The Philadelphia City Paper criticized this fury of negative articles about Leach by noting that "hidden behind the newspaper's florid obsession with Leach's naughty bits, is the state rep's pointed satire of their mediocre coverage — a criticism that the newspaper never addresses...The Inquirer savaged this young legislator because his satire was hitting its mark: Them."[10]

References

  1. ^ "SESSION OF 2003 - 187TH OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - No. 1". Legislative Journal. Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 2003-01-07. http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/HJ/2003/0/20030107.pdf. 
  2. ^ Facebook page
  3. ^ "2002 Special Election for the 149th Legislative District". Commonwealth of PA - Elections Information. Pennsylvania Department of State. 2004. http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=133&OfficeID=13. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Beiler, David; Joshua Runyan (2006-05-01). "The mail-zilla: attack of the monster direct mail mistakes.". Campaigns & Elections. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-146699001.html. 
  5. ^ Levy, Faygie; Joshua Runyan (October 2002). "When Even the Mudslinging Gets Dirty". The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7214/is_200210/ai_n29900571/. 
  6. ^ "The Best of the Freshman Class". PoliticsPA. The Publius Group. 2003. Archived from the original on 2003-01-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20030119090934/http://www.politicspa.com/features/freshmen.htm. 
  7. ^ Leach, Daylin (August 15, 2005). "Pay raise issue treated unfairly; The vote wasn't nearly as nefarious as it's being painted by the media". The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia). 
  8. ^ Grogan, John (August 23, 2005). "Keep shaming legislative greed". The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia). 
  9. ^ Emails archived at Bruce Schimmel's personal website
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Schimmel, Bruce (September 22–28, 2005). "You Need Daylin Leach". Philadelphia City Paper (Philadelphia: Philadelphia City Paper). Archived from the original on 2009-09-07. http://www.webcitation.org/5jcnHhM1h. 
  11. ^ Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Cattabiani, Mario (September 2, 2005). "Off-color humor blog goes off-line;State Rep. Daylin Leach posted a note saying: "I was trying to make people laugh and think, not upset them."". The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia). 
  13. ^ Cattabiani, Mario (September 3, 2005). "Blog by legislator to remain off-line;State Rep. Daylin Leach said the Web site was being pulled "permanently." He had vowed Thursday to put it back online.". The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia). 
  14. ^ Grogan, John (September 5, 2005). "This blogger dug his political grave". The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia). 

External links

Media related to Daylin Leach at Wikimedia Commons

Pennsylvania State Senate
Preceded by
Constance Williams		 Member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 17th District
2009 – present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Preceded by
Wallis Brooks		 Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 149th District
2003 – 2009		 Succeeded by
Tim Briggs
v · d · eMembers of the Pennsylvania State Senate
President of the Senate: Jim Cawley (R) • President pro tempore: Joseph Scarnati (R) • Majority Leader: Dominic Pileggi (R) • Minority Leader: Jay Costa (D)
   
  1.    Larry Farnese (D)
  2.    Tina Tartaglione (D)
  3.    Shirley Kitchen (D)
  4.    LeAnna Washington (D)
  5.    Mike Stack (D)
  6.    Tommy Tomlinson (R)
  7.    Vincent Hughes (D)
  8.    Anthony Williams (D)
  9.    Dominic Pileggi (R)
  10.    Chuck McIlhinney (R)
  1.    Judy Schwank (D)
  2.    Stewart Greenleaf (R)
  3.    Lloyd Smucker (R)
  4.    John Yudichak (D)
  5.    Jeffrey Piccola (R)
  6.    Pat Browne (R)
  7.    Daylin Leach (D)
  8.    Lisa Boscola (D)
  9.    Andy Dinniman (D)
  10.    Lisa Baker (R)
  1.    Mary Jo White (R)
  2.    John Blake (D)
  3.    Gene Yaw (R)
  4.    Bob Mensch (R)
  5.    Joseph Scarnati (R)
  6.    Ted Erickson (R)
  7.    John Gordner (R)
  8.    Mike Waugh (R)
  9.    Dave Argall (R)
  10.    John Eichelberger (R)
  1.    Pat Vance (R)
  2.    Rich Kasunic (D)
  3.    Rich Alloway (R)
  4.    Jake Corman (R)
  5.    John Wozniak (D)
  6.    Mike Brubaker (R)
  7.    John Pippy (R)
  8.    Jim Ferlo (D)
  9.    Kim Ward (R)
  10.    Jane Orie (R)
  1.    Don White (R)
  2.    Wayne Fontana (D)
  3.    Jay Costa (D)
  4.    John Rafferty (R)
  5.    Jim Brewster (D)
  6.    Tim Solobay (D)
  7.    Elder Vogel (R)
  8.    Mike Folmer (R)
  9.    Jane Earll (R)
  10.    Bob Robbins (R)
   Republican (30) •    Democratic (20) • Pennsylvania General Assembly • Pennsylvania House of Representatives • Pennsylvania State Senate

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