Who's that knocking on your door?

I had a conversation the other day with Richard Gokey, the Republican candidate for the 130th state House District. Gokey tells me he's knocked on at least 8,000 doors in the sprawling district in eastern and southern Berks County and he hopes to reach 11,000 or 12,000 households by the time of the Nov. 4 election.

Gokey, an Amity Township Supervisor, is attempting to unseat freshman state Rep. David Kessler, who ran on a reform platform in 2006, but has failed to live up to most of his promises.

The 130th District was in Republican hands for 20 years under state Rep. Dennis Leh, who was a victim of the backlash over the 2005 legislative pay raise. Kessler won by default when the Berks County Republican Party couldn't get its act together and back a strong candidate.

Gokey even entered enemy territory in Oley, where Kessler is a township supervisor, and was pleasantly surprised that Oley residents are also not happy with Kessler.

Gokey said he is encouraged by the response he's getting from district residents, who are not happy that Kessler has not been a strong proponent of property tax reform and has rubber-stamped the runaway spending of Gov. Ed Rendell.

Residents are also upset that Kessler is spending thousands of dollars in taxpayer dollars to run "Public Service Announcements" on television. Reformers say the PSAs are nothing more than glorified campaign ads paid by taxpayers.

Learn more about Gokey at his campaign Web site.