Legislators who hunt and fish are hard to come by, and the state House will soon lose a member who brought his love of the outdoors to the capitol in Harrisburg.
State Rep. Keith Gillespie, R-York, lost his primary bid to newcomer Joe D’Orsie in May. After this November’s general election, Gillespie will vacate the office he held for 20 years.
It is no secret that hunting issues were on the forefront for Gillespie during his time in Harrisburg. He was involved in numerous pieces of legislation that many hunters will recognize, such as changing the way big game harvests are reported by adding options for online and telephone reporting, and a bill passed in 2011 that removed the requirement to display a hunting license.
Gillespie did a lot on the hunting front during his tenure, but did he do enough?
Despite all of his work on hunting matters, some sportsmen have said Gillespie was noticeably silent regarding one of the most contentious issues when the Pennsylvania Game Commission changed the first day of deer season to a Saturday in 2019. Soon after the change, Gillespie and fellow state Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny, summoned several members of the PGC board to Harrisburg to discuss hunter concerns regarding the change. According to a release on Gillespie’s website, after meeting the PGC agreed to revisit the Saturday opener again in 2020.
The matter wasn’t revisited in 2020, however, and legislators, including Gillespie, were strangely silent in failing to remind the PGC of the agreement that had been struck.
Still, there’s no denying that Gillespie was extremely active on hunting issues during his time as a legislator. He accomplished a lot of good things for hunters and conservation, and it shouldn’t go overlooked. Gillespie was also a hunter himself, and perhaps that was his most important attribute for filling the role as majority chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee.
When it comes to legislators who actually hunt, there aren’t that many. Even some of the members on the Game and Fisheries Committee are non-hunters, and that’s why Gillespie’s departure is going to make things interesting.
I think it’s important the chair of any legislative committee should have real-world experience applicable to the role. The lead of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, for example, should at least have a farming background. That’s one reason why state Rep. Dan Moul is a good fit for that spot, since he grew up on a farm in Adams County.
The chair of the Finance Committee is state Rep. Michael Peifer, who is a certified public accountant.
Sadly, however, many House committees are led by legislators who have no professional experience in the area they oversee.
With Gillespie on the way out, it’s imperative the new chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee is someone who, at the very least, has purchased a hunting or fishing license at least once in their lifetime.
There are several current committee members who meet the criteria, but Berks County Republican Dave Maloney is clearly the best choice to serve as chair of the committee. He has served on the Game and Fisheries Committee during all of his terms in the House, dating back to 2010. Maloney has been vocal on hunting issues, has gotten involved in plenty of hunting-related legislation and, most importantly, is an avid hunter and angler.
Still, there’s an even more important reason, other than experience, that the new chair of the Game and Fisheries Committee actually hunt and fish. If any anti-hunting legislation is ever introduced, we know there’s an ally leading the committee that will fight to protect our passions.
Just as it’s imperative that commissioners on the PGC are hunters, the same can be said for the chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee. We’ve been fortunate to have a hunter – Gillespie – chair the committee since 2015, and it would make sense for Maloney to carry the torch.
