This week, while eyes were drawn to Republican Governors scrambling for a place at the GOP Primary table, the new Democratic governor of Pennsylvana quietly - and decisively - started pushing a very Progressive agenda.
It's been just a few weeks since Tom Wolf was elected Pennsylvania governor. But in that short amount of time he's managed to:
1) Place a moratorium on the Death penalty;
2) Proposes a tax on shale gas extraction (5%) to fund education;
3) Expanded State Medicare to cover an additional hundreds of thousands of needy Pennsylvanians;
4) Paid suprise visits to legislaters to encourage bipartisanship... and getting favorable responses from both sides of the aisle;
5) Lit the fires in Harrisburg for raising the minimum wage.
6) Renamed, and seemingly revitalized overnight, a moribund PA efficiency department.
It's staggering how quickly, quietly and powerfully Wolf has stept in to take control of the agenda in Harrisburg. He's carving a big space in which local Democrats can effectively play small-ball politicts (voter registration, candidate recruitment, organization, etc.) I hope our leaders recognize this.
I've been scanning the papers for any negative reviews of his actions so far; I guess he's still in the Honeymoon phase. But with the DNC Convention coming to Philadelphia, the future surely looks bright for Governor Wolf; and hopefully for the Democratic Party in the state as well.
UPDATE (9:30PM):
Oh yeah; he's also placed a moratorium on drilling in PA State parks, is pushing for legislation in support of medical cannabis, and publically supports support of LGBT equality. So we've got that going for us...