Erik Telford
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs
Erik Telford is the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the Commonwealth Foundation.
Erik is a senior public affairs and communications executive with more than 15 years of diverse experience across public policy, advocacy, and public affairs institutions. Before joining the Commonwealth Foundation, Erik served as the senior vice president at Stand Together Communications, the Koch network’s marketing and communications capability. Erik has also served as the president of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a state-based watchdog journalism organization. And at Americans for Prosperity, he was the executive director of RightOnline (an initiative he founded) and the director of membership and online strategy. He is currently on the board of the American Commitment Foundation.
In 2013, Campaigns & Elections Magazine honored Erik as an “Advocacy Innovator” and in 2011 as a “Rising Star in American Politics.” Politics Online named him one of the “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.”
Regulation
Pension Crisis Facts: What Are Our Options?
Pennsylvania needs pension reform that provides state workers with a sustainable retirement system that’s fair to new workers, existing employees and taxpayers. What are our options? The current system is…
Media
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The Economic Impact of Gov. Corbett’s Proposed Tax Reform
This policy brief utilizes PA-STAMP to estimate the impact of Gov. Corbett’s proposed tax reform package. Accordingly, by 2017-18, these reforms (compared with current policy) would result in: 1,259 additional…
Fact Sheet
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Your View: “Too Many Variables,” Politics Make Teacher Evaluations Unfair
How is performance to be measured? By test scores? By PVAAS? What if one classroom has a lopsided number of students with 504 plans or special education plans, and…
Media
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Cyber Schools Save the Best & Brightest
Avi Stein, a resident of Camp Hill, overcame learning disabilities and the challenges of mentoring four younger siblings to be one of only 20 Central Pennsylvania students honored with a…
Media
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Shield Pa. taxpayers from a ‘pension tsunami’
Media Hit
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Demanding More Dollars From Drillers
Pennsylvania’s new drilling impact fee has not deterred special interests from demanding more money from the state’s most prolific producers of new energy. Act 13 of 2012 imposed…
Media
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So what’s up with liquor privatization? Dead? Mostly dead?: The Sunday Brunch
Media Hit
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From Cyber School to West Point
Hannah Tuffy, 20, is one of the first cyber school students to be accepted at the prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The accomplished Scranton native credits her success…
Media
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Dead? Mostly Dead? What’s Happening with Privatization?
Have you heard that liquor privatization is dead? Or maybe just mostly dead? Well, as one of the great philosophers of our time (Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride)…
Media
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Facts Contradict Claims of Liquor Monopoly Supporters
I’ve received some email responses critical of my recent commentary on liquor privatization. These responses, unfortunately, echo many of faulty claims served up by supporters of the…
Media
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Liquor privatization advocate worried over slow motion senate
Media Hit
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Students Excel with School Choice
Hannah and Alyssa will tell you that the freedom to choose a school that works for them was essential to their academic success. They are just two of the…
Media
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Liquor Privatization Done Right
It's decades past time to get government out of our Prohibition-era liquor system. Pennsylvanians have suffered from the PLCB's conflicts of interest and taxpayer-funded boondoggles for far too long. Until…
Commentary
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Perpetual Problems Plague PLCB
As Yogi Berra once quipped, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” Another year and another audit of the PLCB released by the Auditor General’s Office found mismanagement at the state…
Media
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Anti-Privatization Study Dismantled
A study frequently cited by liquor privatization opponents is soundly debunked in an article by Trevor Butterworth, a statistics guru at Forbes.com. Butterworth dismantles the methodology of the…
Media
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Pension Crisis Facts: Are Pension Obligation Bonds Risk Free?
This is the third in a series of blog posts debunking the myths surrounding Pennsylvania’s pension crisis. Pennsylvania’s two main government worker pension systems, the Public School Employee Retirement System…
Media
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Beer distributor: Privatization good for business
Media Hit
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Privatization Great for Washington State
A year ago this June, the government liquor monopoly ended in Washington state. Critics of Pennsylvania’s plan to privatize state wine and spirits stores have pointed to Washington as an…
Media
Read More: Privatization Great for Washington StateEducation
Cyber Schools Save Kids from Bullying
Stephen Frank was a cheerful young student with an enthusiasm for learning and an interest in football. Not long into his first year of middle school at his traditional public…
Media
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