The recent torching of the Pennsylvania governor’s home has lawmakers concerned that more than just a mansion and the First Family are in danger.
Additional details about the arsonist who torched the home of Pennsylvnia’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro continue to emerge.
The suspect, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, a mechanic from Harrisburg whose family says he has a history of mental illness, made a 911 call shortly after starting the blaze and confessed to igniting it.
During the call, Balmer refers to the Palestinians while making vague accusations that Gov. Shapiro, who is Jewish, is somehow complicit in the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Earlier that evening, the Shapiro family and guests celebrated the first day of Passover.
“Gov. Josh Shapiro needs to know that Cody Balmer will not take part in his plan for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” Balmer says in the recording, according to ABC News. “He needs to leave my family alone.”
Balmer does not appear to have any direct connection to the conflict in Gaza, making his assertions seem all the more specious.
“He needs to stop having my friends killed,” he continues in the 911 call. “Our people have been put through too much by that monster.”
Balmer’s reasoning for his admitted actions further raises the concerns of Pennsylvania lawmakers, past and present, about the governor’s safety and the future of our Democratic institutions.
Melissa Hart, a former Republican representative in Pennsylvania, said the arson illustrated “the failure of some in the United States to resolve conflict without violence.”
“This is not a good way for a Democracy to operate,” she told Postindustrial during a recent conversation.
Fellow former GOP Rep. Jim Gerlach echoed Hart’s sentiments while lamenting that the violence that has plagued our politics in recent years has also made some wary of participating in our Democratic processes as poll workers and candidates for office.
“Concerns are raised by a lot of people who don’t want to run for office,” Hart also noted.
Both former lawmakers are founding members of Democracy Defense Protect, a bipartisan group of former lawmakers from several swing states who work together to ensure that elections are free and fair and that American Democracy survives.
The group was created following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Among the former Democratic lawmakers aligned with the Pennsylvania branch of the project are former Gov. Ed Rendell, former Democratic State Rep. Keith McCall, and another former GOP congressman, Jim Gerlach.
You can listen to a previous conversation Postindustrial had with some of the project’s founding members here.
