It wasn’t long ago that more than 11,000 Pennsylvanians sent letters to the Governor’s office, urging him to sign HB 2412 and end the shutdown of real estate in Pennsylvania. The memories of the confusion and the frustration of those events hang fresh in all our memories. However, those few weeks are only a glimpse of a much larger picture.
The fight to reopen real estate started long before COVID even existed. On election night in November of 2018, REALTOR® Todd Polinchock won a seat on the PA Legislature by less than one percent of the vote. Less than 2 years later, Polinchock would be the one to write and introduce HB 2412 to reopen real estate. While Governor Wolf may have vetoed the bill itself, he did so while implementing the content of the bill and reopening real estate on the very same day, leaving little doubt that it was Todd’s legislation that moved the needle.
RPAC had helped fund several direct mail pieces for Todd leading up to the election in 2018, and it was one of the closest races in Pennsylvania that year. This year, Todd’s first re-election campaign will likely be just as challenging as 2018 was, and I think it is very likely that RPAC will be putting in a similar effort this time around. In today’s hyper-partisan climate, non-partisan organizations like RPAC are one of the only ways to reach voters on both sides of the aisle and cut through the divisiveness that plagues todays political landscape.
When RPAC made the decision to support Polinchock leading up to election day in 2018, we had no clue that he would end up writing legislation that would be pivotal in ending a statewide shutdown of our entire industry. His race was one of the more important ones for us, but it was one of many that RPAC had been involved in that year. All we knew at that time was that it would be a great resource to have a REALTOR® like Todd in office.
Real estate should have never been shut down to begin with, but without RPAC and our involvement in several key races over the years, we would have likely remained closed until Berks County went green on June 26th. I have often said that RPAC is an investment in your business, but the last several months have demonstrated it in a way that cannot be put into words. How much was the ability to return to work on May 20th instead of June 26th worth to you? Was it worth a $15 investment in RPAC? Was it worth $1000?
All 203 seats in the PA House of Representatives are up for grabs this November. RPAC will undoubtedly be going to bat for Todd and the many other allies who were instrumental in re-opening our industry.
I don’t know what the next major issue will be, but the RPAC funds that we raise this year will be what helps tip the scale in our favor in the future. When you close your next sale, please take a moment to set a small portion of what you’ve earned for RPAC, and help protect your ability to continue to work in real estate in the future.