Eric Conner knows.


Of course, he has 25 of them.


Not to mention the actual license plates from two governors’ official vehicles. And some china from the governor’s mansion. And pens that two governors used to sign legislation.


That’s one benefit of having one of the largest collections of governor memorabilia in southcentral Pennsylvania. You tend to become a fount of governor trivia, too.


Conner, an almost-25-year-old Republican who lives in Lancaster, has been collecting all things governor for the last five years.


He began chasing political memorabilia at age 12, after finding some of his dad’s Nixon/Agnew buttons. Later, he specialized in Pennsylvania governors.


Conner used to work for the state House speaker’s office. These days, he is the event coordinator/marketing coordinator for the Amish Farm and House.


He doesn’t know exactly how much the collection is worth, but “it would not surprise me if I had several thousand pieces in my collection,” he said.


“... It’s not as valuable as collecting presidential memorabilia ... but some of these pieces can be expensive.”


When he started collecting, Conner, a member of American Political Items Collectors, found most of his prizes at flea markets, yard sales and shows. Now eBay, the online auction site, tends to suck up the best merchandise, so that’s where he does a lot of his looking.


“With the advent of eBay and the Internet,” he said, “you’re putting all the good stuff on eBay, and you’re just finding junk, if anything, at the flea markets.”


Conner has found Gov. John Fisher’s license plate from 1930 and Gov. Milton Shapp’s No. 1 plate (Shapp held office from 1971-79).


The official plates are separate from the commemorative plates, which inaugural committees can issue to a new governor’s family and friends. Conner has tracked down 25 of those.


“Most collectors don’t know these exist,” he said.


There are pieces of china from the governor’s mansion — “I got them legally,” Conner explained — two replicas of current Gov. Ed Rendell’s campaign bus and two autographed books by Gov. Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (1903-07).


“He actually was one of the young soldiers at Gettysburg,” Conner noted.


Conner has a pen Ridge used to sign Senate Bill 652, a piece of education legislation, in 2000, and a fountain pen that Gov. George Leader used to sign House Bill 561 in 1955.


Leader, Conner said, is 89 now.


The oldest item: an 1852 bill authorizing funds for building a governor’s mansion — not the current one, but an older one that later was damaged in a fire.


The newest: A campaign sign for Lynn Swann and Jim Matthews, the Republican ticket in 2006.


Conner even has “Rendell for District Attorney” balloons from the governor’s first public office. Rendell was amazed to learn they still existed.


“He said, ‘No one has these,’ ” Conner recounted. “I said, ‘You’re mistaken, sir!’ ”


So Rendell posed for a photo with Conner, holding the balloons.


“For some reason I have lots of Shapp’s things,” Conner mused. “He must have either been very [popular] — or no one wanted them.”


His favorite pieces are a 1915 ribbon from the Philadelphia Republican Club for Martin G. Brumbaugh (1915-19) and the official governor’s china.


Picking one is a little like asking a parent which child is his favorite.


Can he sell things too? “I can sell duplicates,” Conner said, “as long as I have one of them.”


His sentimental favorite is a paper napkin from President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inaugural, which he picked up for $2 or $3, because of the date embossed on it: Aug. 27, 1981. That’s Conner’s birthday.


Conner is always on the lookout for stuff he doesn’t have. One elusive prize is an Ivan Itkin button.


Doesn’t ring a bell? Itkin was the Democrats’ sacrificial lamb in 1996, when Ridge won his second term.


Buttons are getting harder to find, Conner noted, because they’re expensive to produce, and campaigns are switching to lapel stickers instead.


Anyone who might have one — or any other item for sale or trade — can e-mail Conner at ericconner827@yahoo.com.


Conner has one home-grown collectible, too.


In 1996, Gov. Tom Ridge was campaigning in the Lemon Street neighborhood during his re-election run and stopped in for a chat.


He sat in a wooden rocking chair in the living room.


“We’re going to call it the gubernatorial rocker,” Eric’s father, Dave, said.


“Or have it bronzed,” Eric added.


Not coincidentally, Ridge is Conner’s favorite governor.


When he attended Ridge’s 1999 inaugural, he even got four governors — Ridge, Raymond Shafer (1967-71), Bill Scranton Jr. (1963-67) and Dick Thornburgh (1979-87) — to sign his program, which might be a one-of-a-kind piece.


Conner might be a Republican, but like most collectors of political memorabilia, he’s nonpartisan when it comes to his things.


“I collect everybody,” he said. “Winners, losers, third parties.”


And as a student of governors, he’s not partisan in assessing the state of the 2006 race for governor.


“Historically speaking, every governor is going to be re-elected,” Conner said. “At this point I think Rendell’s going to win. I think he’s going to win — 55-56 percent.”


Among Conner’s pieces is a button: Rendell in 2008.


Not necessarily for president, though. Hillary and Ed?


“I don’t think that’s out of the question!” Conner said.


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Counting every vote, again


What’s going on at the county elections office is akin to making a list and checking it twice.


Or three times.


The elections staff is performing a voluntary recount on 5 percent of the votes cast in the May 16 primary.


Although that’s above and beyond what’s required by law, the recount is intended to assuage any lingering concerns about the county’s switch this year to new voting machines.


Mary Stehman, head of the elections bureau, said that in doing the official recanvass late last month, “we performed an extensive recount using total tapes, return sheets and ‘mobile ballot boxes.’ All voted paper ballots (provisional, federal write-in, absentee and district ballots voted) were reviewed and all write-in votes were resolved.”


The county also committed to recounting 5 percent of the ballots as a check on the Hart InterCivic machines, bought earlier this year for $3.2 million to fulfill a federal mandate on replacing lever machines in 2006. Federal aid paid for about $2.4 million of that.


Those familiar with the process said 12 precincts were chosen at random for the recount. Stehman said the recount began last week, “using a recount procedure secured from Hart.”


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Money matters, part III


Continuing to catch up on campaign finance reports as they hit the state’s Web site, www.dos.state.pa.us:


The numbers keep piling up in the 36th state Senate district race: Heidi Wheaton, who lost her bid to upset endorsed Republican Mike Brubaker in the primary, racked up another $100,262 in expenses in the filing period from May 2 to June 5.


That means Wheaton spent upward of $312,000 in the primary.


Brubaker chimed in with $296,553, making the 36th the first $600,000 primary in county history.


Wheaton had raised $212,928 before the last filing period, which showed her bringing in $101,185 in contributions.


But with the exception of $100 from Stanley Wilk of Ephrata and $1,000 from the Pat Toomey Republican Majority Fund, all of Wheaton’s money was her own.


Her biggest expenses were $73,228 to Barry Bruce & Co. for placing broadcast ads; $11,817 for postage; and $2,338 for ads on WDAC-FM radio.


Wheaton also listed $10,375 to The Polling Co. in Washington, D.C., on May 5 and June 5 for polls and research — although her consultant, Jeff Coleman, had said at an April fundraiser that Wheaton wasn’t doing any polling.


In other races, John Bear, the endorsed Republican who beat state Rep. Roy Baldwin in the 97th House district, brought in $13,931 in the latest reporting period, spent $33,791 and had $219 left for his fall campaign against Democrat Tim Callahan.


Baldwin raised a total of $136,456 in the primary; Bear, $42,059.


Bear reported a $10,000 loan from real estate investor George Zimmerman of Lititz; $1,500 from David Ober, owner of Rockvale Square Outlets; and $1,000 from Dan Osborne, manager of Amish Country Gazebos.


Bear’s major expense was $27,216 to Murray Perksie Associates of Princeton, N.J., for consulting.


In the Lebanon County-based 48th Senate district, Mike Folmer, the underdog who trounced Senate Majority Leader Chip Brightbill, reported starting with $12,645, raising $5,574, spending $12,320 and ending the spring with $5,899 — as opposed to Brightbill’s total $1 million-plus raised.


Folmer’s numbers don’t include the cost of anti-Brightbill ads run by the state Club for Growth, though.


Jim McDonald, who lost to Rep. Katie True in the 41st House district, listed no contributions, expenses of $346 and a negative ending balance of $2,127 in his report, which closed out his campaign committee.


On the Democrats’ side, Ginny DiIlio, running against Rep. Gordon Denlinger in the 99th House district, reported $389 in contributions, no expenses and $1,989 going into the fall campaign. Denlinger had $14,479.


And Lee Heffner, the Clean Sweep-endorsed Democrat in the 37th House district, raised $259, spent $278 and has $32.70 left for his campaign against Rep. Tom Creighton, who has $5,937.


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Campaign trails


lJason Leisey, the Democratic candidate in the 36th Senate District, responded to the campaign finance reports with a statement calling himself the reform candidate in the race and reaffirming his commitment not to take special-interest money.


The statement said Brubaker is “taking money from the architects of last year’s middle-of-the-night pay grab,” including $2,500 each from ousted Sen. Brightbill and Senate President Pro Tem Bob Jubelirer.


“My report shows no money from government special interests or from the politicians responsible for the mess we have in Harrisburg,” Leisey said. “My opponent, unfortunately, can’t say that. ... I respect my opponent, but how can you change the atmosphere of corruption and greed if you’re taking money from the people responsible for the corruption and greed in the first place?”


lRepublican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann, whose “Reform One” bus tour of the state was postponed early last week by flooding across the state, hit the road Saturday, making one of his stops in Nottingham.


After starting in Philadelphia, Swann and running mate Jim Matthews were scheduled to be at Freedom Fest in Nottingham by 7:30 p.m.


For details on the seven-day, 19-county bus tour, check out www.swannforgovernor.com.


lU.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has named Erica Clayton Wright, from East Hempfield Township, as his campaign’s western Pennsylvania spokeswoman.


Wright previously was Santorum’s communications director in Washington. She is a graduate of Sweet Briar College and Lancaster Country Day School.


lLee Heffner, the Democratic opponent for Rep. Creighton, recently criticized Creighton for focusing more on illegal immigrants than on the state budget. Creighton has co-sponsored a bill to end some benefits to illegal aliens and penalize businesses that hire them.


“Illegal immigration is a problem, but Mexicans are not exactly scheming to jump the border so they can enter Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,” Heffner said. “The failure to pass a budget, however, will pose grave consequences to all Pennsylvanians.”


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Delegation doings


lState Rep. Gib C. Armstrong, R-100th District, said last week that his bill to create a tax credit for emergency service volunteers who pay for their own equipment passed unanimously in the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee as part of a package of five bills to improve emergency services.


Volunteers could claim an annual credit up to $500 on state income tax.


The package, including Armstrong’s House Bill 1448, will go to the House floor at a future date.


lAnother piece of legislation, establishing procedures for finding missing children in state buildings, was voted out of the House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee last week, its author, Rep. Tom Creighton, reported.


House Bill 1403, the “Code Adam” bill, requires the Department of General Services to establish procedures for each state facility for locating a lost or missing child.


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Errata


Not all the hatchets in the city GOP have been buried.


Although former city councilman Luis Mendoza and former mayor Charlie Smithgall were listed on a press release as slated to attend a unity press conference for 96th District House candidate Patrick Snyder, as reported here last week, it turns out that Smithgall canceled at the last minute.


And Mendoza said he agreed to attend on the condition that Smithgall appear separately.


Mendoza ran for mayor against Smithgall in last year’s primary; the bad blood between the two goes back even before that, though.


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Political potpourri


Frank Fryburg has been elected the new chairman of the Manheim Township Republican Committee, as GOP area committees begin their every-two-years reorganization.


Tim Nissly is the new vice chairman, while Betsy Armellino was re-elected secretary and Craig Stedman was re-elected treasurer.


Considering how contentious Manheim Township politics can be, they really needed Solomon.





Helen Colwell Adams is the Sunday News political writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-4962. blog comments powered by Disqus