So lets say you're an extremely vulnerable Tea Party Governor like Tom Corbett (R. PA) who is trailing your opponent, Tom Wolf (D. PA), by over twenty points. Not only do Democratic and Independent voters hate you but even Republican voters are willing to let you lose because you've just done a God awful job running the state. So your only hope is to win back your Penn State-loving, central PA base. Here's Corbett's latest attempt:
http://www.mcall.com/...
Gov. Tom Corbett denounced the national Common Core math and reading standards Monday, but stopped short of saying he wanted to toss out Pennsylvania's own version of them.
His announcement came as the state and school districts have spent millions developing standards, coming up with a curriculum and standardized tests to match the goals, and training teachers.
It also led to head-scratching from school officials and anger from some lawmakers who were caught off guard by Corbett's comments.
"Districts do not have the money or the time to invest in the constantly changing political debate on standards," Easton Area Superintendent John Reinhart said. "Someone should decide what they want us to teach in our schools and let us go about the business of teaching it."
For years, the Corbett administration has been extolling and defending its plans to use its own version of the standards, which the Legislature approved last year and schools have been implementing.
But in his announcement, Corbett said he ordered his Education Department to hold a new public review of the math and reading standards.
Corbett claimed the standards are a federal intrusion into schools, although the movement was started by governors and business leaders in 2008. He likened Common Core to the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. - Morning Call, 9/8/14
Normally this would be the type of move that would help turn out the base for someone like Corbett but timing is everything:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
Critics of new reading and math standards in Pennsylvania schools said Tuesday that Gov. Tom Corbett's call for public hearings a year after they were approved appears motivated by a desire to bolster conservatives' support for his sagging re-election campaign.
But the state standards' detractors also said the hearings may help their campaign to dismantle the national Common Core standards, which they say have eroded local control over schools and which have encountered serious pushback in many other states.
In his battle against Democratic challenger Tom Wolf, Corbett "is down 20 points in the polls. This is going to be kind of a swing-for-the-fence" move for Corbett, said Ryan Bannister, a leader of the group called Pennsylvanians Against Common Core.
Still, if Corbett takes steps to show that "we truly are going to dismantle this, I think that truly would sway a lot of voters," said Bannister, a computer expert from Harrisburg.
"It's a political move," said Peg Luksik, a conservative activist from Johnstown who is working to stop Common Core, referring to the hearings. "Realistically speaking, the election will have come and gone before the board takes any action." - The Patriot-News, 9/9/14
And Wolf's campaign is calling bull shit:
http://cumberlink.com/...
A Wolf campaign spokesman said Corbett should "stop playing political games with education."
Monday's "decision is just another political ploy and even Tom Corbett's fellow Republicans have said they are 'disappointed' and criticized this decision as 'incongruous,'" said the spokesman, Jeffrey Sheridan.
Corbett did not mention the election campaign or advocate any changes in the Pennsylvania Core standards in Monday's announcement.
Instead, acting Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq will ask the state Board of Education on Thursday to schedule hearings for what Corbett's office called "a straightforward review of what Pennsylvania students should know and perform at each grade level."
The hearings will focus on "eligible content," or tasks that reflect knowledge required by the standards — rounding to the third decimal place, for example, or finding a synonym of a word — rather than the arcane standards themselves, department spokesman Tim Eller said. - The Sentinel, 9/9/14
By the way, Wolf scored another big endorsement:
http://www.philly.com/...
Pennsylvania Working Families, a new liberal group with ties to organized labor, on Tuesday endorsed Democrat Tom Wolf for governor, saying he would increase state education funding and push for an increase in the minimum wage.
“We believe Tom Wolf can and will restore our great commonwealth,” said Chris Woods, executive vice president for District 1119C, of the health-care workers’ union.
The group is targeting its voter-outreach around the minimum-wage issue. Wolf has said he supports hiking the wage to $10.10 an hour, while Gov. Corbett has expressed concern that an increase would slow hiring and hurt the economy.
“We are going door to door in swing (state) senate districts building support for the minimum wage increase,” said Kati Sipp, director of PA Working Families. “That means that regardless of who controls the Senate, we'll be able to show that support for minimum wage cuts across party lines, so that our next governor Tom Wolf can be sure of getting a vote on it and other key issues for working Pennsylvanians.” Sipp said.
Jesse Bacon, communications director for PA Working Families, portrayed his group’s grassroots-based endorsement of Wolf as a contrast to the big money Corbett is receiving from national Republicans. (The Republican Governors Association last week announced it would send $3.5 million to Corbett, on top of the $1.8 million it has already transferred to his campaign.) - Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/9/14
Common Core is the last straw Corbett can grasp onto because his own Education adviser proved he's a huge hypocrite on his big campaign issue, pension reform:
http://www.mcall.com/...
As part of his re-election campaign, Gov. Tom Corbett has been barnstorming communities and urging lawmakers to change the state pension systems to control spiraling debts he says hurt taxpayers.
But Corbett's decision to retain former Education Secretary Ron Tomalis as an adviser the past 15 months likely will increase the long-term debt by tens of thousands of dollars and provide Tomalis nearly $7,000 more each year in pension payments.
Tomalis' pension would have been based on a 2 percent multiplier if Corbett had dismissed him in spring 2013, when the governor named a new education secretary. But Corbett kept Tomalis as a higher education adviser, qualifying him for a 2.5 percent multiplier for all his years of employment. Tomalis earlier worked nearly seven years under Gov. Tom Ridge, according to State Employees' Retirement System records obtained under the Right-to-Know Law.
That higher multiplier could boost Tomalis' annual pension to $34,592, about $6,918 or 25 percent higher than under the lower multiplier, according to a Morning Call analysis of SERS records. That estimate is based on SERS records showing Tomalis has 9.89 years of service and his average salary over his final three years is $139,906. His pension payment could change if he opts for a lump sum withdrawal of his retirement savings.
Tomalis' higher pension is spelled out by state law, but that doesn't make it fair, said David Fillman, executive director of Pennsylvania Public Employees Council 13. Corbett is telling taxpayers that unions are blocking pension reform bills, Fillman said, while allowing one of his own staffers to take a higher pension. - The Morning Call, 8/15/14
By the way, Tomalis is back in the press:
http://triblive.com/...
Commonwealth Court on Wednesday is scheduled to hear arguments in a case in which Penn State University is resisting the release of emails from investigators for Louis Freeh to former Education Secretary Ron Tomalis while Tomalis was a university trustee.
Ryan Bagwell, a Penn State alumnus, is seeking the records from the Department of Education through an appeal of a Right to Know Law request.
The university hired Freeh, a former FBI director, to conduct an internal investigation of its response to former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's arrest in November 2011 on child molestation charges.
Freeh's report claimed that Penn State leaders worried more about publicity than about the welfare of child victims of Sandusky, who is serving a 30- to 60-year prison term. Three ex-administrators face trial for an alleged cover-up.
Tomalis stepped down as Education Secretary last year but remained on the state payroll as a $139,000 adviser to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. He resigned last month amid controversy over how much work he did in his extended role. - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/8/14
The truth is Corbett is just desperate to keep the press to stop focusing on his awful record, his corrupt administration and all his scandals like this one to recently surface:
http://triblive.com/...
Gov. Tom Corbett on Thursday denied any knowledge of whether members of his staff at the Attorney General's Office circulated pornographic emails in the workplace. Neither would he tolerate them, he said, nor allow a “glass ceiling” culture as alleged in a federal complaint.
“If somebody would have told me when I was attorney general that they were sending inappropriate emails, if I would've seen it, it would've stopped it like that,” Corbett said, snapping his fingers.
A Tribune-Review records request for emails containing pornographic content allegedly circulated among high-ranking attorney general employees during Corbett's tenure is held up under a stay from Cambria County Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III, who oversees a statewide grand jury.
The allegedly inappropriate messages were contained in reconstruction of more than 20 million emails during an investigation into Corbett's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case at Penn State University. Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat elected in 2013, ordered the investigation.
A complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled on Tuesday makes a one-sentence statement that criminal law executives in the attorney general's office had a reputation for sending “racy” images and making derogatory comments.
The complaint details a “glass ceiling” culture for women in the office under Corbett and his appointed successor, Attorney General Linda Kelly — an assertion Corbett denied. - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/4/14
Corbett is toast but of course the RGA, run by Corbett's BFF, Governor Chris "Bridgegate" Christie (R. NJ), is still spending a lot of money to try and save his ass but really, the RGA is pissing away their money:
http://www.pghcitypaper.com/...
With Election Day less than eight weeks away, Republican governor Tom Corbett has been ramping up his attack ads on challenger Tom Wolf in an effort to cut into the Democrat's double-digit lead.
Corbett has been hitting the York County businessman with allegations that Wolf's cabinet-making company takes advantage of tax loopholes, as well as claims that he backs President Obama's position on issues like gun control and environmental regulations on the coal industry.
Wolf's campaign has denounced the accusations; spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan calls the negative tack an act of "desperation" that relies on "discredited lies."
"Tom Wolf is a successful businessman from York County who supports the Second Amendment," Sheridan counters. "Tom knows that coal is a vital part of Pennsylvania's energy portfolio."
But in any case, the ads seem to have made little dent in the polls. A recent Franklin & Marshall College poll has Corbett trailing Wolf 49 percent to 24 percent, while a Robert Morris University poll last week had Corbett down 55.5 percent to 24.7 percent. Another poll from the conservative Harper Polling showed Corbett trailing Wolf by 11 points, 52 percent to 41 percent.
"I don't think it's a bad strategy for Corbett to tie Wolf to Obama, who is very unpopular," says professor Phillip Harold, the RMU pollster. "But I'm not sure how effective it can be because the polling data tells us that this race is not about national issues: It's a referendum on the incumbent. ... What we heard were our poll respondents volunteering information about what they didn't like about Tom Corbett." - Pittsburgh City Paper, 9/10/14
By the way, Seniors (who vote in every election) really don't like Corbett and Wolf has a big name on the campaign trail helping him win them over:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
Tom Wolf, Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania governor, campaigned in a "Senior Votes Count" rally today at The Manor at Oakridge in Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County.
Wolf's mother, Cornelia Wolf, took the microphone to speak about her son at the rally.
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, of Sha Na Na, also made an appearance at the rally, playing songs on the piano and signing autographs. - The Patriot-News, 9/8/14
But we have to make sure our base and voters come out to the polls to defeat Corbett. Click here to get involved and donate to Wolf's campaign, State Senator Mike Stack's (D. PA) Lt. Governor campaign and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party so we can take back the State Senate:
http://www.wolfforpa.com/
http://www.stackforpa.com/
http://www.padems.com/