Robb Austin - Legislative Career

Legislative Career

Austin was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. In 1978, at the age of 26, he defeated a three-term incumbent in the 39th Legislative District primary election by over a 2-1 margin. Austin received 5,116 votes to Democrat incumbent George Miscevich's 2,428. Austin went on to win the November 1978 general election with 12,055 votes to his Republican opponent's 3,196, in one of the largest pluralities in state legislative races that year. The Austin campaign emphasized door-to-door campaigning, local volunteers, and creative media advertising. Austin was an effective campaigner and burst onto the Pittsburgh political scene quickly. He was the first full-time legislator in the 39th District and the first to open and staff a legislative office in the Mon Valley district.

Prior to being elected to the state legislature, Austin had been a newspaper reporter for The McKeesport Daily News for five years. His election to the House of Representatives was Austin's first run for public office.

On March 28, 1979, Austin was one of a small group of freshman Democratic legislators who were invited to a budget breakfast briefing with Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh at the Governor's Mansion. During the breakfast, Governor Thornburgh was first notified about the nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island.

As a legislator, Austin spoke out against an early attempt to increase legislators' salaries and later was one of only two legislators (193-2) to vote against increasing legislators' travel allowance from 15-17 cents per mile. He sponsored legislation for strict reporting requirements for lobbyists; criticized the leadership of his own party for the hiring practices of former legislators; and provided Governor Thornburgh with the deciding vote which defined the authority of the state's first elected Attorney General over the objections of the leadership in his party.

Austin sponsored a resolution adopted by the House to include the treatment of sickle cell anemia in the state Health Plan of 1979, and authored a provision to the state's No Fault Divorce law which mandated that a spouse's pension be taken into account when the courts are determining property distribution. For his work on sickle cell anemia Austin was recognized by the Clairton Branch of the NAACP as its 1979 "Person of the Year."