Pennsylvania State House District 139

Azzollini

Dominique Azzollini is a first-time candidate who works in the real estate industry. “I’m going to run because I think that our representatives should be working hard to legislate in our favor, especially when it comes to housing and health care and our environment,” she said. 

“Regardless of who elects you and who doesn’t elect you, you work for everybody to make everybody’s lives better, and knowing that you can work to make people’s lives better and we are actually creating legislation around education, around transportation, around health care, those are the things that our elected officials are supposed to be working on, and right now, unfortunately, we don’t have that,” she said. 

Azzollini said that more needs to be done on the state level to help with housing affordability. She said there needs to be a larger first-time homebuyers program to help cut down on housing costs. 

The number of first-time homebuyers she’s worked with has dropped drastically, she said. Instead, most of her clients are multiple-time homeowners or retirees from out of state who want to take advantage of the area’s comparatively more affordable homes and lower taxes. “They’re coming here to buy houses, but that means the people who already live here and are looking for housing are being priced out of the area.”

“We need to be able to build housing, and there are multiple ways that we can do that,” she said. “One of the ways that we can do that is, we need to cut red tape around all of the municipalities and the zoning. Pennsylvania having our municipal planning code, that means our municipalities decide zoning and all of that, but we still have the ability at the state level to say, ‘Hey, let’s work on reforming those; let’s change those a little bit.’”

Regarding data centers, Azzollini said, “I truly believe that we need to regulate data centers as much as we possibly can, based on water consumption, electricity consumption, make sure that our consumers aren’t given a huge bill based on how much power these data centers are using.”

“It’s extremely important that we recognize that our area, our economy is based on eco-tourism, right? So [personal feelings aside], it makes absolutely no sense to allow them to be here,” she said. 

Azzollini said that Pennsylvania “absolutely” needs to close the adequacy gap in the state’s education system. She said the state also needs to take a look at its current school-choice regulations; it needs to ensure that someone using school-choice vouchers is in school and is living in the district they say they are, she said. 

“We don’t have strict enough policies when it comes to these school-choice vouchers,” she said. “Somebody who’s paying school taxes in North Pocono district, they’re paying so much, but we can’t ensure that their school is being funded adequately because there’s money being pulled out from those schools, from those taxes, to be given to anybody who wants to use a school-choice voucher and move over to a private school,” she continued. “If you want to put your kids in private school, you should be able to fund that yourself; it should not be taken out of the taxpayer pocket.”

Azzollini highlighted three policy areas she thought the state should pursue to improve health care. She said that students need positions available and incentives to train to be doctors in state, rather than having to go to New York or New Jersey; medical liability law needs to be reformed, so medical liability insurance costs can come down; and nurse practitioners need the ability to practice in-state as physicians. 

Azzollini said that she is excited to represent the people of Pike and Wayne counties in Harrisburg. 

“I’m excited to legislate,” she said. “There are so many ways that we can bring down housing costs, there are so many ways that we can bring down health care costs and there are so many ways that we can stop data centers, we just have to choose and vote for the right people that will put those policies in place.”

Olsommer

Rep. Jeff Olsommer first took office in 2024, succeeding Joe Adams in the role. Olsommer said his experience in a family-owned insurance business and in local government gives him “a firsthand understanding of the challenges facing small businesses, working families, seniors and municipalities.”

“I want to continue giving rural Pennsylvania a strong voice in Harrisburg by advancing common-sense, fiscally responsible solutions and ensuring our communities receive the attention and resources they deserve… If re-elected, I will continue working to improve rural health care, expand career and technical education, support volunteer fire and emergency services, address affordability, protect local decision making and ensure rural communities receive their fair share of state resources,” he said. 

Olsommer points to his first piece of legislation, a bill strengthening Pennsylvania’s guardianship system, as a keystone achievement of his inaugural term. “This issue is personal to me, and protecting vulnerable citizens is a responsibility I take seriously,” he said. Additionally, he said his office brought more than $23 million back to the district, and he worked to advance the cause of the Wayne-Pike Career and Technical Center. 

On data centers, Olsommer emphasized the need for “a thoughtful and measured approach,” one that centers local control. He noted that not every development is right for every community, and communities need to balance economic opportunities and natural, rural resources. 

“My strongest position [on data centers] is protecting local control,” he said. “Having served in township government, I firmly believe decisions regarding zoning and land development belong with our locally elected officials, not politicians and bureaucrats in Harrisburg… I believe the state’s role should focus on ensuring adequate infrastructure and environmental protections are in place, and that residential and small-business customers are not burdened with the costs associated with these developments.”

On education funding, Olsommer said that, “Every child deserves a quality education, and Pennsylvania’s funding system must be fair, responsible and mindful of local property taxpayers. Rural districts face higher transportation costs, smaller student populations, aging facilities and limited tax bases, and the funding formula should reflect those challenges.” Additionally, he said he supports parental choice and believes cyber charters should remain available, while also supporting “common-sense standards that protect taxpayers and educational quality without unnecessarily limiting families’ options.”

Olsommer said that “affordability is one of the biggest concerns I hear in Wayne and Pike counties,” with households (especially seniors on fixed incomes) struggling to pay for groceries, electricity, heating fuel, insurance, housing and health care. He said that expanding rural health care is a priority, as well as property tax relief, affordable housing and the use of natural gas resources to support affordable energy. 

“Harrisburg should control spending, avoid unnecessary tax increases and reduce regulations that raise the cost of doing business and essential services… Government should make life more affordable, not add to the financial burden on the people we represent,” he said.