Abington Native Mounts Campaign For U.S. Senate In Green Party

ABINGTON, PA — When voters step into the polls across Pennsylvania on Tuesday, they'll have more than just two choices for U.S. Senate.

Local conservationist and activist Neal Gale, an Abington resident, is running on the Green Party ticket.

Gale currently serves on the Abington Township Energy Advisory Council, and works on a program making green energy affordable for low-income families. His platform is based strongly on fighting climate change, but his campaign website dives deep into 20 different issues, ranging from trade, LGBTQ rights, and the free press to the opioid crisis and health care.

His platform describes a "Green New Deal" modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1930s project aimed to alleviating the Great Depression. Gale's model aims to "re-purpose" and transform the economy to better support clean and renewable energy.

"This is a non-partisan, non-political call for the restructuring of our existing economy, redefining its ultimate goals," Gale says. "We must re-evaluate the path we are currently on, driven by an economy powered by extracted, hydro-carbon-based fuels, to enrich the few at the expense of the many. All the while, as we now recognize, imperiling the ability of our planet to maintain its climatic equilibrium."

Gale is joined on the ballot by another third party candidate, Libertarian Dale Kerns. Which means voters will have two alternatives to the pair which have drawn the most attention in the race thus far: incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and his Republican challenger Lou Barletta.

Casey, a previous auditor general and candidate for governor, has held the seat since he was victorious over Rick Santorum in the 2006 election. He's challenged by Republican Lou Barletta, a state representative in the 11th District who drew widespread attention in 2010 as the mayor of Hazleton for an anti-immigration ordinance.

Cook Political Report calls the race "likely Democratic." Casey leads an average of polls by 16 points, per RealClearPolitics.

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Image via Gale Campaign