Published: September 10, 2009

Group tells Sen. Browne, two others not to bow to 'right- wing conservative ideology.'

State Sen. Pat Browne is a target of an ad campaign aimed at ending Pennsylvania's three-month-old budget stalemate.

An ad placed in today's Morning Call by a wing of the Service Employees International Union calls on Browne, R-Lehigh, to resist cuts in programs serving children or veterans.

The ad calls on Browne to ''put the people of the Lehigh Valley first'' by ''rejecting the right-wing conservative ideology of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, which is alive and well in central and western Pennsylvania.''

The ad also calls on Browne to ''say no to outside extremists and stop budget cuts that hurt Lehigh County.''

Union officials said they were referring to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson; Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre; Education Committee Chairman Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin; and Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Blair, vocal social conservatives.

The union, which represents 15,000 workers affected by the cuts, says it's targeting Browne and two other moderate Republicans: Sens. Edwin B. Erickson, R-Chester, and John Rafferty, R-Montgomery, in the hope of getting them to break with their leadership on cuts to those programs.

''Our schools and kids are more important than any political agenda,'' said George Ricchezza, leader of the Philadelphia-based branch of the union.

Browne said the Republican majority Senate had not singled out the programs.

''We're trying to accommodate spending priorities within the revenue capacity that we have this year,'' said Browne, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Browne said he's supported early childhood education programs in the past and plans to continue supporting them. But ''if we make bad decisions now, we won't have the resources to pay for any of this.''

Gov. Ed Rendell vetoed funding for early-childhood, subsidized day care and Head Start and scores of other state programs last month when he signed an $11 billion ''bridge'' budget into law.

Rendell has said the move was partly intended to force lawmakers to reach a settlement on a completed budget. He opposes the cuts included in a Republican budget proposal, which he says will cripple those social service programs.

Budgetless since July 1, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation without an approved spending plan for 2009-10.