Buck throws his hat into the race

Cocalico High School teacher Chris Buck announces he’ll run for 99th District House of Representative seat

Chris Buck, a social studies teacher at Cocalico High School, grew up in a working-class family, where he says he learned the values of honest and hard work. He’ll take those same values with him if he wins the 99th District House of Representative seat.

Buck is the first to announce that he will run for the position and is hoping to get the endorsement of the Republican party. The seat is currently Gordon Denlinger’s, who recently announced his candidacy for Senator Mike Brubaker’s seat, who is not seeking reelection.

“Politics has interested me since high school. Since then it has always been in the back of my mind, but I was waiting for the right time and opportunity to come along,” explained Buck of his decision to run. “With Representative Denlinger &tstr; a man I greatly respect as a person and politician &tstr; currently seeking the senate seat, I prayed with my wife about seeking his soon-vacant seat. We both felt strongly that this is something I needed to pursue, and that I could bring needed experience as an educator to the legislature, as education is something that is vital to everyone in the community.”

Buck attended both Owen J. Roberts High School in Chester County and Conestoga Christian School in Lancaster County. He graduated from Millersville in 2004 cum laude and from Gratz College with a masters in education and is in his ninth teaching year at Cocalico. Buck currently resides in New Holland with his wife, Emily, and two children, Liam and Cora, and one on the way. If elected to the position of representative, he would have to resign as a teacher. But if Buck gains the endorsement of the Republican party and is elected, he plans to remain involved and connected with the education programs.

“Education is one of my priorities,” continued Buck. “For a parent, after health, I’m not sure there is a bigger concern for their child’s future.”

Some of Buck’s other goals include property tax reform, improvements to the new teacher evaluation system, stopping the expansion of the federal government’s powers at the expense of the state’s powers, protecting traditional and Christian values, and protecting small businesses.

Since announcing he will run for representative, Buck has garnered a lot of support from friends, family and former students. But most importantly, his wife is behind him 100 percent.

“I want my children, my nephews and nieces, to grow up in the America I love,” added Buck. “And while our nation is by no means perfect, I believe that many of the values and ideologies that made America great are being threatened. If I can help preserve the integrity of our community and state, by any degree, then I have a responsibility to do so.”

5 Comments

1. 

   JT

   January 8, 2014 at 9:07 pm

   Chris would make a great Representative. Certainly big shoes to fill. Rep Denlinger did a great job and I believe will represent us well in the Senate!

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2. 

   Eric Jensen

   January 9, 2014 at 5:57 am

   I fully support Chris Buck. He is a good man and will do a great job. I wish him all of the best!

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3. 

   Karen

   January 9, 2014 at 6:46 am

   Seeking a leader to develop county based administration for all public schools in that area.

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4. 

   cheree

   January 9, 2014 at 8:24 am

   this is exciting Chris!

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5. 

   Gary Schreckengost

   January 14, 2014 at 6:59 pm

   I sent this personal message to Mr. Buck…and then I saw that Ephrata was moving ahead with the Winter’s Monument against the family’s wishes…and then I saw this. This is what I wrote to Mr. Buck. But let me preface it by saying that this article is vague. What exactly are “the values and ideologies that made America great are being threatened. If I can help preserve the integrity of our community and state, by any degree, then I have a responsibility to do so.” Below is what I wrote to him…so for the four or so people who read this, chew on this:

   Mr. Buck:

   I read in the funnies that you’re running for office. Interesting views….normal for the immigrants around here.

   On 2nd Amendment Rights, i.e., the stuff proclaimed in the PA Constitution. So you believe that citizens can own any weapon? Really? So I can go to Shyda’s and purchase an IED, an RPG, Ricin, a 1 Megaton bomb, and heroin? I can have the same access to the same arms that were sent against me and my men in Fallujah? i.e., kidnapped, raped, and drugged up kids (on heroin) armed with suicide vests, RPG, PPKs? I can have that? You can have that? Really? Because if you don’t, then I don’t know what supposed rights are being trammeled by “the guv’mint.” I’ll bet that you never even went to basic training or even put yourself on the line. Listen, if you ever want to take on the guv’mint, give me a call; I’ll be it personified.

   And while we’re on that, I always find it tedious that the ones who talk the toughest about their “2nd Amendment Rights” never actually defended anything. Or have you? To you, I’m sure, it’s all academic. Did you enlist after 9-11 to help defend yourself or were you a “taker” and relied upon somebody else to do it for you? Were your taxes even raised? Or, did you simply put a “support the troops” on your car to assuage your conscience? Do you intend to actually fight the guv’mint like the Whiskey Boys? If you want to play with real weapons, then enlist in the Army or Marine Corps Reserve, as you know that the militia was federalized under the Constitution of 1787. Granted, individual citizens have retained the power to maintain arms via the federal and state constitutions, but we can clearly state what the reasonable limits are. Back then, citizens were the Army. Today, you are not, by your choice.

   NCLB, Common Core, etc., are actually from your whacked party, BTW. It’s their end state to destroy public education, corporatize it, and cheapen it even more. No more Cocalico football games because you’ll have ten small academies competing for students. The easier the grade–the more students. Or, these academies will be radicalized…only teaching a particular point of view, like our niche media of today.

   (He spoke about “losing rights” in the paper): I don’t know what rights you’re losing. No idea. You are? Really? So I can run a check point on you and do what I want, like we did in Iraq to the Iraqis? I’d LOVE to do it here—but only to Chicken Hawks like yourself (if you did serve and received a Combat Infantryman’s Badge, then I apologize—but my guess is that you stayed home like 99.9% of your local party members and watched it on Fox).

   As a “traditionalist,” why was the indigenous population forcibly removed from Ah’gook Wal’ak Unk (Cocalico) to make way for the “traditionalist” Mennonites, etc.? Were they less than? Are the Mennonites truly superior to the Len’api people? Really? Most that I know don’t feel this way. What “tradition” are you trying to uphold exactly? Declaring a war, staying home, and not paying for it? Return of a hierarchical society? What?

   So with even greater economic disparity, big business needs even more of a break? Really? Your Southern paradigm is disgusting…where the Big House now has access to wage slaves backed by white peckerwoods like yourself (difference is, though, the Boys of 1861 actually took up a rifle-musket). Because of your party and the South, which now runs said party (historic irony, Thad Stevens is rolling in his grave), it’s a race to the bottom. While corporate profits soar, the average person is forced to suck it. I’m not sure you’re really going to do well in the world that’s coming in 20 years under this glide path.

   As for the superior morality of your party. Brother, you should have seen what they did in Iraq. Look no further than the contractors and disbanding the Iraqi Army. Oh, and turning a blind eye to the “free” (and immoral) market while a few stole from the many and then collapsed the whole thing…while some of us were off fighting our guts out overseas.

   You won’t win because you are, in your base’s view, the enemy (a public school teacher, which is hilarious)… but a useful idiot inside Mammon. They like Denlinger because he’s like most of the people who vote…but just know that not all are like you, nor many…simply the majority of voters in your hyper-Gerrymandered district.

   No need to answer, but you people are just, sometimes, too hard to take. I know that as a teacher, you’re far more objective…so I’m not questioning your professionalism…I’m just questioning your views, which are purely academic.

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