By Charlie Deitch

Pittsburgh Current Editor/Publisher

charlie@pittsburghcurrent.com

With the Nov. 6 primary just days away, Pa. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler County) really wants you to know that his Democratic opponent, Daniel Smith Jr. is gay.

Yes, I know that we already know that because Smith is open about who he is. Metcalfe has recently sent out a series of mailers to voters that lack any real political discourse. There’s only one reason that Metcalfe sent these mailers: He hopes that Smith being gay will sway voters to steer clear of his Democratic challenger.

That means that he sees his constituents as the same kind of backwoods, mouth-breathing, small-minded homophobic bottom feeders that he is. Instead of talking about issues, he insults Daniel Smith’s husband by referring to him as, “The man he calls his ‘husband.” Metcalfe told KDKA’s John Delano that he used the word husband in quotes because he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He went on to say that “most people” think marriage is between a man and a woman and they will make a decision based on that fact.

He goes on to talk about Smith’s support from “liberal gay activist groups and unions” including the AFL-CIO, the PSEA, Equality Pa, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, state Rep. Brian Sims and others. He even included a social media photo of Smith at the “Pittsburgh Gay Pride Parade.” Well, perhaps if Metcalfe had concentrated on his district instead of belittling and screwing over people across the state, it wouldn’t have been so easy for Smith to raise money from practically everywhere, including $1,000 from an unnamed “Hollywood Liberal.”

At this stage though, most people have on some reasonable level, if not entirely, accepted same-sex marriage. There are too many other problems going on in the state and in Metcalfe’s own district for people to worry about who Daniel Smith is married to.

One of those problems is sitting in 20- to 30-minute traffic jams on Freedom Road in Cranberry when all you want to do is get to work or zip up to the goddamned Olive Garden. But the road is a major traffic problem and according to just about every elected official in Cranberry Township, Metcalfe has refused to work with township supervisors to bring taxpayer money back to the district. Cranberry Township Supervisor John Skorupan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past summer: “I just don’t want to deal with him,” Mr. Skorupan said. “There’s no advantage for us dealing with him anymore. We’ll do it on our own. Thank you very much.”

And that’s what Daryl Metcalfe’s mailers don’t tell you about Daniel Smith. He’s been campaigning since the primary, talking to local officials and knocking on the doors to Republican homes. And while Metcalfe is busy telling them that Smith is married to a man, Smith is telling voters that when he gets to Harrisburg, he’s working on local issues and bringing local dollars back to the state. Hell, he’s tired of sitting on Freedom Road at 3 o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon like everyone else. Once most of voters hear those plans and the fact that Smith is a gun owner, they likely don’t care about his private life.

Yet, all Metcalfe wants to talk about is “homosexuality,” that’s his word, by the way. He has claimed many times that he is not, in fact, a “homosexual” and even once called state Rep. Sims a “lying homosexual.” He’s fixated on the sexuality of other people. Remember when he declared his undying heterosexuality and yelled at a house colleague for touching him on the arm?

We do. In fact, while looking at the video today, we noticed that Metcalfe actually said, “don’t stop touching me.” Now, the obvious answer is that he started to say one thing and then switched mid-sentence. Whatever the reason, we realized it could easily be turned into a groovy-type dance hit. Is it ridiculous? Of course it is, but not any more ridiculous than Metcalfe thinking he can ignore his constituents’ needs and win simply by calling a guy “gay.”