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As Deputy General Counsel to Governor Tom Ridge, Eric was responsible for two important areas—healthcare and the environment. He worked with hundreds of well-meaning public servants to help achieve their goals of making sure that
Pennsylvania has clean air and water, as guaranteed by our constitution.
And when unscrupulous businesses put profits before people, it is the role of AG to use the laws to stand up for everyday
Pennsylvanians. Do we need to protect the ability for people to have jobs that may impact the environment? Of course, but there must be a balance and polluters, like criminals of all kinds, must be held accountable.
In healthcare, Eric was tasked with being the liaison for the Governor for the Academic Medical Centers of Pennsylvania. These large hospital systems and educational institutions creates thousands of jobs and develop and deliver lifesaving care to millions of Pennsylvania.
But access to that world class healthcare for our disadvantaged communities is equally important. Eric
led the effort to create Health Choice, Pennsylvania’s original public managed care program. This program, unique at its time, aligns the incentives so that keeping members healthier will create a better outcome for patients and for the taxpayers who are supporting these program.
And that effort from 25 years ago has grown into a career of helping to ensure healthcare access for low income Pennsylvanians. As Attorney General, Eric will work to make sure that those incentives stay aligned so that vulnerable Pennsylvanians can live their best and healthiest lives.
Eric successfully negotiated an agreement with Planned Parenthood to help them obtain funding from Pennsylvania’s General Assembly. The Governor wanted to provide financial support but members of the General Assembly objected to financial support for family planning and threatened to block all funding.
Eric achieved a compromise agreeable to both sides, a model for practical problem solving more
needed in our hyper partisan times than ever.
The politics of reproductive freedom continues to this day. Until the Dobbs case, the Casey decision was the law of the land which protected the right to choose but allowed reasonable restrictions. Of course, the Supreme Court ended this federal right to choose and left this important decision to each state. Eric believes the Casey decision represented a compromise that most Pennsylvanians would find reasonable about this very personal issue.
As AG, he will support efforts to help Pennsylvania protect reproductive
freedom in a manner that has the broadest acceptance.
As a community leader, Eric led one of the largest temples in Pennsylvania, Main Line Reform with over one thousand families. And as often happens, events shape leadership. At the beginning of his term, Eric led the effort to investigate the actions of a member of the clergy who had acted improperly as it related to adult female congregants and employees.
This led to the clergy’s suspension and then ultimate termination. More importantly, Eric led the efforts for the congregation to heal from this very difficult chapter. Leaders are revealed during difficult times and Eric understood the harm that sexual abuse can cause to a community and its members and insisted that Main Line Reform openly face it to help people more quickly heal.
Eric’s commitment to leadership and his willingness to make a difference in his community was recognized at a very early age.
After 4 years of student leadership roles at Colgate University, Eric was the second person ever to serve as a Young Alumni Trustee. This experience, while Eric pursued his law degree, gave Eric invaluable experience in working with leaders of national stature. Eric has continued support of Colgate as a Colgate volunteer and as a lead donor to support the Colgate Club baseball team.
This is also consistent with Eric’s support of youth sports as a coach and a co-founder of a local youth baseball team. Eric has been recognized as a community leader through his services on the Board of Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital and its Foundation. Informed by his own family history where his father was a patient three times in his lifetime, Eric was proud to support the growth of the hospital and its endowment.
In a similar spirit, Eric was asked to serve as a Trustee of the Endowment Corporation of Jewish Federation of Philadelphia. This Board reviewed the management of the 300 million dollar permanent endowment and oversaw the grant making process to worthy organizations in the Philadelphia region and beyond.
Currently, for the last 12 years, Eric has served as a member of the governing board of the Early Head Start program of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This program headquartered in West Philadelphia focuses on children ages 0-3 and their parents to provide support services to help those low income families develop their social support, nutritional support, health and education.
Recognizing his long career in healthcare and community service, Governor Shapiro appointed Eric as a member of his transition team. Specifically, Eric was appointed to the Health and Human Service Committee and its Healthcare subcommittee. Meeting with other leaders from across the Commonwealth, Eric shared his experience to help Governor Shapiro begin his administration from a place of knowledge.
the last decade has taught us that every vote counts and what once seemed impossible in politics is possible.
the Forward Party stands for the proposition that our two party system has failed to help the
people. The polarization of American politics demonstrates that solving real problems are impossible because compromise is seen as capitulation. Trying to solve a problem means working with your opponents, whether from your left or your right, to find common sense solutions.
Eric is stepping forward to help establish the Forward party as an official party in Pennsylvania. So, every vote that’s counted to elect Eric, helps Pennsylvania be a safer and better place and recognizes the efforts of the Forward Party to support and elect other candidates who will try to adopt common sense solutions.
When you receive your ballot for the November election, you will have two very important decisions you need to make first. Who will be President? And who will you send to the United States Senate to support or oppose the goals of the President you have selected?
But once you have made those critical decisions, you will have an opportunity to send a message that you want Pennsylvania to move forward and support the idea of an independent attorney general whose sole motivation is help make Pennsylvania a safer place.
We have reached an inflection point on crime in our Commonwealth. Gun violence is an epidemic in our communities. We must find ways, consistent with constitutional rights, to reduce the number of illegal weapons on our streets. We must also find ways to take weapons of war off our streets. We know that much of the deadliest violence is caused by the presence of assault weapons. And although Eric appreciates the long history of sportsmen and hunting in Pennsylvania, until we find a way reduce the use of these weapons to kill people, we must set them aside for now.
With years of experience in the healthcare world, wearing different hats in both the private and public spheres, Eric brings a unique perspective. As Attorney General, he will be responsible for overseeing mergers of nonprofit health care systems and the conversion of nonprofit health care systems into for profit companies. He is very concerned with what he has seen over the last few years as small distressed hospitals are acquired by for profit companies who seem more interest in acquiring valuable real estate assets than being committed to providing access to millions of Pennsylvanians. Your Attorney General must be committed to make sure that when these transitions take place, health care access and jobs are protected.
Eric played an important role in the Commonwealth working with the Department of Environmental Protection. Seeking to find the right balance between protecting our environment and allowing Pennsylvania’s industries to be competitive with other states and nations. But with the clear signs that the climate is changing, as AG, Eric will need to tilt the balance ever so slightly in favor of our environment. If we do not get this right, there will be no Pennsylvania to protect for our children and grandchildren
Eric had a unique opportunity to be on the front line of another important issue for Pennsylvanians. The ability to retire with dignity and not to be taken advantage of unscrupulous financial salesmen who put their financial interest ahead of their clients. We have seen in Pennsylvania a number of financial schemes that sought to take advantage of our seniors and others seeking a secure retirement. With a unique perspective, Eric can work to uncover dishonest individuals and companies and seek to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.
Eric has worked to elect the right people regardless of label. But so many people because they are not registered to a party like Eric is now, cannot participate in making sure the best candidates are available. The result of closed primaries is candidates that cater to the extreme voices in their party. It’s time for Pennsylvania to have open primaries so that all voters. Rank Choice voting would also allow voters to express their wishes that will build consensus in the actions of their elected officials. Finally, we need to have legislative districts that fairly represent the people who live in those districts. We need to end gerrymandering and try to have competitive districts so that elected officials have to represent their entire population not just extremes of one party.
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