FLIPPABLE: Steve Santarsiero for PA-SD10
Steve Santarsiero considers public service a calling. After witnessing the September 11th attacks from the window of his law office in Newark, New Jersey, he decided to seek a new career in teaching as a way to serve the community. After a couple years of night classes at Holy Family University, Steve received his state certification and was hired as a social studies teacher at Bensalem High School. At BHS he worked hard to give the next generation a strong foundation in history and civics to help them succeed and participate fully as citizens of our country.
At about that same time, Steve became a leader in a grassroots movement to stop a big box shopping mall in Lower Makefield. That experience led him to run for township supervisor. He was elected in 2003. As a supervisor he worked with both Republicans and Democrats alike. He led efforts to make government more open and transparent, to solve traffic problems, and to preserve open space and the environment.
In 2008, Steve ran for the State House in the Yardley-Newtown area of Bucks County. He won the race, becoming the first Democrat to hold the seat. In Harrisburg he was a reformer, writing the bill that would ultimately get adopted as new House rules on keeping politics and government service separate; refusing perks like per diems and a state car; and not collecting his pay during prolonged budget impasses in 2009 and 2015-16. Steve was also a leader on education, infrastructure investment, environmental protection, women’s health issues and gun violence prevention.
Back home in Bucks County, Steve led the effort to get PECO to improve the resiliency of its electric grid, vastly reducing the number of power outages in the area. He also worked to bring jobs into his district and successfully lobbied the New Jersey Legislature to grandfather current employees when it passed a new law requiring all public sector workers in the Garden State to live in New Jersey, thereby saving the jobs of thousands of Bucks residents who worked across the Delaware.
Steve left the House at the end of his fourth term in late 2016.
In 2017, Attorney General Josh Shapiro appointed Steve the first Chief Deputy Attorney General for Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania. In that role, Steve oversaw the prosecution of environmental crimes and led Pennsylvania’s efforts to fight the Trump Administration over proposed rollbacks of important environmental protections.
Steve left the Attorney General’s office in January 2018 to run for the PA Senate here in the 10th District. He is currently a partner in a private law practice in Bucks County.
Steve and his wife Ronni have lived in the same house in Lower Makefield for over 22 years. They have three children, Nancy (20), Billy (18) and Johnny (14). The newest member of their family is Theo, a Golden Retriever puppy, who plans to be active on the campaign trail this year.
Steve coached youth baseball for 10 years in the Pennsbury Athletic Association. He is the chair of One Bucks, a grassroots group of clergy and lay people dedicated to speaking out against acts of hate. Steve is a member of the Board of the Pennsbury Scholarship Foundation and he and Ronni are active in their synagogue, Congregation Kol Emet in Lower Makefield.
Steve is a graduate of Tufts University where he received his B.A. He received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his M.Ed. from Holy Family University.
https://www.steveforpasenate.com
