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.”
Health Care
Reality Check: We’re Overspending
Bad revenue collections and updated projections highlight a big problem in the state budget: We are spending more than we are collecting. The problem is much worse than a recent…
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How Cyber School Saved Rachel
In second grade, Rachel Coleman vividly remembers classmates teasing her about her high test scores and ability to learn at a sixth-grade level. “You’ll never get a husband!” girls taunted…
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LETTER: Lost jobs, lost revenue if liquor privatization is OK’d
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Variety of groups inject money into fight over privatizing liquor sales
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Private liquor spells doom for PA, groups say
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Corbett’s Wise Medicaid Stance
While advocates of expanding the welfare state are using new studies to push Gov. Tom Corbett to expand Medicaid, his position of resisting the “free money” argument is wise given…
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State FOP chief: Crime would spike without state control of liquor sales
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Social Impacts of Liquor Privatization
Submitted Testimony of the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives to the Senate Law & Justice Committee, April 30, 2013 The Commonwealth Foundation would like to thank…
Testimony
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Consensus: Liquor Privatization No Threat to Safety
A recent Philadelphia Inquirer piece tries to give both sides of the debate over liquor privatization. But one key fact ingored was that the Community Preventive Services Task Force…
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Student Pleads to Preserve Cyber Schools
Applause to Brianna Shinn, a ninth-grade student who wrote a letter to the editor of the Bucks County Courier Times. Brianna is thriving at Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School and…
Media
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Sobering Facts on Liquor Privatization
Sen. Daylin Leach’s editorial on liquor store privatization repeatedly misstates facts. Here is my letter to the editor in the Delaware County Times to set the record straight:…
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Don’t commit Medicaid-assisted suicide in Pennsylvania
Topics on this page MedicaidPennsylvania…
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Eliminating prevailing wage will make government more efficient: As I See It
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The liquor privatization battle moves to the Senate
Topics on this page United States Senate…
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Penn State Loophole Closed, Taxpayers Get Accountability
More accountability is in the works for Pennsylvania universities. Earlier this week, the House State Government Committee considered legislation requiring Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities to comply with the Right-to-Know Law.
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PA lawmakers crafting new tax loophole for private aircraft
Topics on this page Pennsylvania…
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States Fix Medicaid
That's why leaders in statehouses across the country should do the right thing and follow Pennsylvania's lead. Instead of waiting for dollars and dictates from D.C. to expand a broken…
Commentary
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PLCB Boondoggles
Getting government out of the booze business would eliminate conflicts of interest, stop government from freezing out Pennsylvania wineries, reduce opportunities for cronyism, eliminate taxpayer-funded boondoggles and allow the PLCB…
Fact Sheet
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Pennsylvania’s Pension Crisis: Myths and Facts
Pennsylvania’s two main government worker pension systems, the Public School Employee Retirement System (PSERS) and the State Employee Retirement System (SERS), are dramatically underfunded. Together these funds owe more than…
Fact Sheet
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