Lawrence Roberts (politician)

For other people named Lawrence Roberts, see Lawrence Roberts (disambiguation).
Lawrence Roberts
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
from the 51st district
In office
January 5, 1993[1] – November 30, 2006[2]
Preceded byFred Taylor
Succeeded byTimothy S. Mahoney
Personal details
Born (1941-11-18) November 18, 1941 (age 82)[3]
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, United States
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseNataliya
OccupationLegislator-Arbitrator/Mediator

Lawrence "Larry" Roberts is a former Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Roberts attended Uniontown High School, graduating in 1959.[4] He attended the Community College of the Air Force and Bowie State College before earning a master's at Central Michigan University in 1981.[4]

Roberts was first elected to represent the 51st legislative district in 1992.[4] The Herald-Standard newspaper sued in 2000 to gain access to Roberts's cellular and long-distance phone records, citing the fact that the calls were paid for with state money.[5] The suit was dismissed, but in 2003 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to reconsider whether a Herald-Standard reporter's civil rights were violated when Roberts showed the sought-after phone records to another reporter, but not to the original reporter.[5] The full case was dismissed in 2006.[5]

He retired prior to the 2006 election. Activists had targeted him because of his support for the controversial 2005 legislative pay raise[6] Roberts accepted the optional "unvouchered expense account" money, which were used by the legislature to "skirt a [constitutional] prohibition on midterm raises."[7]

  1. ^ "SESSION OF 1993 – 177TH OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY – No. 1" (PDF). Legislative Journal. Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 1993-01-05.
  2. ^ Per Article II, Section 2 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the legislative session ended on November 30, 2006
  3. ^ "The Pennsylvania Manual". 1997.
  4. ^ a b c "Lawrence Roberts (Democrat)". Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Archived from the original on 2004-06-03. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  5. ^ a b c The Associated Press (2006-11-30). "Pa. Paper's Phone-Records Suit Dismissed". FOXNews.com. FOX News Network, LLC. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  6. ^ Kroeger, Judy (2006-02-20). "'Vote 'em all out'". Daily Courier. The Tribune-Review Publishing Co. Archived from the original on 2012-09-13. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  7. ^ Barnes, Tom; Tracie Mauriello (2006-09-15). "Pa. Supreme Court decides judges can keep controversial pay raises". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. PG Publishing Co., Inc. Retrieved 2009-01-22.