Daylin Leach
Daylin Leach (born June 23, 1961) is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate who has represented the 17th senatorial district since 2009. He was previously a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 149th district from 2003 to 2009. On April 2, 2013, he announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district. Leach has been called a "longtime champion" of marijuana legalization.
In 2014, he traveled to Colorado to witness its cannabis regulatory system. He said of his trip, which included cannabis consumption via a sample vaporizer pen: "I took a couple of hits. I definitely felt something... It's less than I would have smoked when I was in high school, but I didn't want to do anything else, maybe because I'm getting older or I haven't done it for a long time and I'm a lightweight.'" Leach insisted taxpayer money was not used to purchase the marijuana, and he said he would discuss his findings with Pennsyvania lawmakers and cannabis activists.
Following his trip, Leach wrote for York Daily Record: "In Colorado, we met hardworking people doing honest labor, and happy citizens responsibly living their lives in a prosperous and healthy state... The tragedy is that all of these people, every one of them would be criminals in Pennsylvania. We would arrest them, prosecute them, incarcerate some of them and ruin all of their lives. We'd kill their business and deny sick people medicine they need... That is the true insanity of prohibition, and the primary reason it is on its way to the ash-heap of history.'"
Contents
Early life, education, and early career
Leach was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Parkland High School in 1979 in Allentown, PA. He received a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 1983 and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1986.
He practiced law for 16 years, focusing on family and education law. He taught constitutional law, legal ethics and First Amendment law as an adjunct professor at Cedar Crest College and Muhlenberg College. Leach served as president of the Pennsylvania Young Democrats in the early 1990s and on the Allentown Zoning Board from 1990 to 1994. He previously[when?] co-hosted a weekly political TV debate program entitled Lehigh Valley Firing Line.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Elections
2002
Leach first ran for the 149th legislative district in a special election on February 12, 2002 following the resignation of Democrat Connie Williams. Leach was the Democratic nominee and lost to Republican Wallis Brooks 48%-44%, a difference of 273 votes.
In the November 2002 rematch of their February special election, the Brooks campaign sent dozens of direct mail advertisements, including one accusing Leach of defending child molesters as an attorney. On the Saturday before the election, one was sent to voters accusing Leach of being anti-Semitic. The mailer carried a headline of "Anti-Semitism, Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial. They are not 'a big joke.'" The charges stemmed from Leach's 1999 defense of an in absentia client from Texas who was sued in Allentown, Pennsylvania for alleged comments in an Internet chat room. Following the dismissal, the plaintiff posted on the Internet, denouncing Leach and the Texas man as anti-Semites. The posts were unearthed by a Brooks researcher and used in the mailer. "She had to know I was Jewish, because it had come up in a debate. But since I have a non-Jewish surname, she apparently thought she could get away with this," Leach said. The campaign immediately convinced a local Jewish newspaper to denounce the mailer and reproduced the article on a flyer with a profile of Leach, emphasizing his Jewish roots and activism, on the reverse. By election day, 70 volunteers had hand-delivered the literature to most district households. On November 5, 2002, Leach defeated Brooks 53%-47%, a difference of 1,170 votes.
2004
Leach won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican Brad Murphy 62%-38%.
2006
Leach won re-election to a third term, defeating Republican Monica Treichel 67%-33%.
Tenure
In 2003, the political website PoliticsPA named him to "The Best of the Freshman Class" list, saying that he "has all the ingredients of a rising star" and that he "makes the job look fun."
In August 2005, Daylin Leach published an op-ed article in the Philadelphia Inquirer criticizing the paper's coverage of the 2005 Pennsylvania General Assembly pay raise controversy. In what the Philadelphia City Paper called "the paper's first round against Leach," Inquirer columnist John Grogan responded by accusing Leach of "funny math." In response, Leach "struck back" against the Inquirer with a satirical email to associates under the pseudonym "Dutch Larooo" criticizing Inquirer reporter Mario F. Cattabiani.
On September 1, 2005, Mario F. Cattabiani published a front page article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that "exposed" Daylin Leach's long-standing and satirical blog "leachvent.com." The Philadelphia City Paper criticized the Inquirer for allowing Cattabiani to "answer his attacker" through a news article, noting that "thousands of insiders have laughed at Leach's satire for years," but the Inquirer acted as though it had been "recently discovered." The Philadelphia City Paper wrote that Cattabiani's article incorrectly characterized Leach's website as a "blog" rather than satire and had focused on Leach's pseudonym's "impure thoughts," while ignoring the "satirical attack" on his Cattabiani's reporting. The next day, Leach removed his website. John Grogan wrote that Leach had "dug his own political grave." The Philadelphia City Paper criticized these negative articles about Leach by stating that "hidden behind the newspaper's florid obsession with Leach's naughty bits, is the state rep's pointed satire of their mediocre coverage — a criticism that the newspaper never addresses...The Inquirer savaged this young legislator because his satire was hitting its mark: Them."
Notable work in the House includes proposed bills that would allow hybrid cars into the state fleet, that give state funding for breast and ovarian cancer screening for low-income women, that would address redistricting reform, that would eliminate state's lethal use of paralytic drugs, and that would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims.[20]
Committee assignments
- State Government
Pennsylvania Senate
Election
2008
When Connie Williams of Pennsylvania's 17th senate district decided to retire, Leach decided to enter the election. He was the Democratic nominee and defeated Republican Lance Rogers, a Montgomery County Commissioner, 62%-38%.
2012
Leach won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican nominee Charles Gehret 63%-37%.
Tenure
Daylin was awarded the 2008 Humane Legislator Award by the Humane Society, the 2011 Legislative Leadership Award by GVF Transportation, and the 2011 Friend of Education Award by the Lower Merion Education Association.
In January 2013, he proposed legislation that would legalize recreational use of marijuana in Pennsylvania for people 21 years or older, called the "Regulate Marijuana Act." The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board would regulate marijuana. In defending it, Leach argued “We would never, in a rational society, starting from scratch, have the policy we have now.”
Committee assignments
- Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure
- Education
- Environmental Resources & Energy
- Judiciary (Chair)
- Policy
2014 congressional election
On April 1, 2013, Main Line Times reported that Leach will run for the Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, which is expected to be open as incumbent Democrat Allyson Schwartz is expected to run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2014. However, while the majority of Upper Merion Township is within the boundaries of the 13th Congressional district, Leach's home in Wayne, Upper Merion Township is within the state's 7th Congressional district.
