Lawrence Roberts (politician)

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.