The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau - Episode 7 - 10/22/2023

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is the new, statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations. On this episode, Laura discusses issues related to farming, farmland preservation, food banks and food insecurity in the Keystone State with the Secretary of the PA Department of Agriculture, Russell Redding.  Then, we focus in on the issue of Open Primaries in Pennsylvania.  Currently, the Commonwealth  is one of only seven states in the nation that still has closed primary elections, meaning only registered Democrat or Republican voters can participate.  For years, groups like Ballot PA have been working to change that, and make Pennsylvania an open primary state.  We speak with David Thornburgh, who heads Ballot PA for the latest news on this front.