The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association (PMA) recently received the STAR Achievement Award from the Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC) for its efforts to engage businesses and their employees in key elections in November.
PMA was recognized for its voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts as part of the larger Pennsylvania Prosperity Project (P2). BIPAC CEO Jim Gerlach praised PMA’s work on a project that targeted key elections as well its “Donut Forget to Vote” initiative.
“PMA did a superlative job in grasping the importance of engaging and informing employers and employees on critical elections,” Gerlach said. “This includes working effectively across the Commonwealth to increase the business community’s awareness of important races and the candidates’ positions on pro-prosperity issues. PMA is a terrific state partner and we’re proud to have them part of our national network.”
PMA is one of twenty-five state partners BIPAC partners with on P2, which aims to keep employees informed of the positions of elected officials on business issues. This election cycle, BIPAC targeted five congressional races in Pennsylvania.
“Working with BIPAC, our goal is to elect candidates who support a pro-growth agenda,” PMA President & CEO David N. Taylor said. “This means continuing to work for government restraint in size and spending, enacting pro-growth business tax relief, ending lawsuit abuse, and improving the regulatory climate.”
PMA engaged with employers and employees through regional and local business groups and chambers, targeted websites and communications, social media and personal visits to host political seminars.
“For some groups, we would do a rundown of all the federal races in Pennsylvania, focus on the ones in their area, and then cover of all the state General Assembly races in their area as well,” Carl A. Marrara, PMA’s vice president of government affairs, said. “For workplace events, we would either deliver donuts to them along with candidate comparisons on key business issues and ask the employer to give the employee a donut with a ‘Donut Forget to Vote’ business card with important election day information along with a candidate comparison.”
PMA partnered with various groups including the Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber, Beaver County Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers’ Association of South-Central Pennsylvania, and the Northeast PA Manufacturers and Employers Association of Schuylkill County, along with numerous businesses including M&S Centerless Grinding in Bucks County, SSB Bank in Allegheny County and the Pennsylvania Steel Company in York County.
Taylor said now that the political season is over, the organization will be shifting its focus to policy areas that need to be addressed to make Pennsylvania more economically competitive.