DUNMORE -- For a third straight day, State Rep Kevin Haggerty (D-Dunmore) has been an "unexcused" no-show at the state Capitol.
His Democratic colleagues in Harrisburg have begun marking his absences as “unexcused,” and if Haggerty hits five unexcused absences in a row, he could be held in contempt of the House.
Joe Sabia of Eynon has spent the past couple months taking the Democratic lawmaker who represents the 112th District to task at meetings and on social media.
“To make $87,000 plus a year to represent us, he thumbed his nose at us and said, 'You know what? I'm not going to go [to work],” said Sabia. “Because he took the easy way out, he's using his children and his divorce as an excuse to stay home and not work.”
At Haggerty's office in the Dunmore Community Center, the room was open but empty.
Staff for the community center would only say that Haggerty had been in the office that morning but left.
State Rep. Mike Schlossberg (D-Allentown) of Lehigh County was the one to mark Haggerty's third absence as unexcused.
In a statement, Schlossberg said, “The people of the 112th District have been without a voice in Harrisburg since July, and while we are all sympathetic towards the representative's family situation, balancing work and family life are a requirement of any public official.”
In Haggerty's hometown of Dunmore, people agree.
“You know, I don't think he should get paid if he's not doing the job that he's supposed to be doing,” said Pat Conway.
Posted on Haggerty's Facebook page at 6:30 yesterday morning, he continued to push a bill that would eliminate school property taxes. Then he went on to post a quote from the movie character Rocky Balboa.
Part of that reads "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place”.
“I want to know how as a constituent we can fire him because this is absurd what he's doing to our district, we're a joke down in Harrisburg,” said Sabia.
Today the State House broke for Christmas and will not reconvene until January 22. That means whatever happens to Haggerty won't be determined until next year.