Here's a sign of desperation:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Gov. Tom Corbett, down by double digits in most polls, is turning to Halloween and a core conservative issue — taxes — in hopes of spooking voters into giving him another term.
A new ad features ghouls, goblins, a werewolf, an evil clown and a masked-man waving a knife to drive home the message that Tom Wolf, Mr. Corbett’s Democratic rival, will raise income taxes.
“Tom Wolf, his higher taxes are so frightening it even scares people who scare people for a living,” the chainsaw-wielding narrator said. - New York Times, 10/24/14
Corbett isn't only desperate, he's delusional:
http://www.timesonline.com/...
During his speech, the governor said voters wouldn’t know how much of a tax increase they’d have with challenger Tom Wolf unless he’s elected, that his challenger would use taxes as a short-term fix and that despite critics’ skepticism in previous campaigns, he repeatedly prevailed.
“Never in any race that I have run was it predicted that I was gonna’ win,” Corbett said.
Multiple speakers said switching governors now doesn’t make sense. Beaver County Commissioner Dennis Nichols said you shouldn’t switch a quarterback in the fourth quarter of a game in which you're ahead. - Times Online, 10/26/14
And if you believe GOP pollsters, Corbett is closing the gap:
http://www.philly.com/...
A new survey shows Gov. Tom Corbett (R) trailing Democratic challenger Tom Wolf, 49 percent to 42 percent, the tightest margin between the two candidates in any public poll so far.
The poll, released Friday by the news website Keystone Report, was conducted by Magellan Strategies, a GOP-leaning research firm based in Baton Rouge, La. It suggests a much closer race than other recent surveys, and is in line with what Pennsylvania Republicans say they have been seeing in private polls.
In a memo released with its poll, Magellan said that Corbett’s improved standing with Republicans over the course of three polls it has conducted for Keystone Report is responsible for his somewhat closing the gap with Wolf.
In July, Magellan found he had the support of 64 percent of GOP likely voters. The latest survey found Corbett backed by 73 percent of his fellow Republicans. It also noted a slight uptick in negative views of Wolf. - Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/20/14
But here's why Corbett's claim is not only delusional:
http://www.philly.com/...
Except -- if he was seeking accuracy -- the last two races he ran in.
In 2008, running for reelection as state attorney general, it was widely expected Corbett would win thanks to his investigations of top lawmakers and their aides that led to dozens of successful prosecutions.
And not only did Corbett beat Democratic candidate John Morganelli by a comfortable six-point margin, he did so in a presidential year in which every other Democrat running statewide (President Obama, Rob McCord for treasurer and Jack Wagner for auditor general) won by double digits. And Corbett collected more votes that year than any Republican candidate in state history -- more than 3 million, more than presidential candidate John McCain.
Then, in his first race for governor in 2010, he not only was expected to win (an October 2010 F&M poll showed him with a 15-point advantage among likely voters over Democratic candidate Dan Onorato), he won handily, by nine points, on Election Day. - Philadelphia Daily News, 10/27/14
G. Terry Madonna, the well-known Franklin & Marshall pollster, says that Corbett is going to make history on November 4th and not the type of history that he's going to like:
http://www.pghcitypaper.com/...
"Tom Corbett is making history on November 4, one way or another. He'll either have to win reelection by overcoming the largest poll deficit in history two weeks before the election, or he'll be the first candidate to lose the governor's office for his party since the 1950s."
The foretelling of Corbett's potential demise has been in the cards for some time. In August 2013, Madonna's Franklin & Marshall poll showed that just 17 percent of respondents thought Corbett was doing a good job and just 20 percent thought he should be re-elected.
It was during Corbett's first budget that voters got a sense of his priorities. He cut $1 billion from education when he refused to use state money to replace expiring federal stimulus dollars — which accounted for half of the $1 billion lost — despite replacing lost stimulus dollars in other areas, like corrections. Corbett has put roughly $1.5 billion into education since then, but most of that went into pensions, leaving basic education — the money sent to classrooms — below the levels they were when he arrived, according to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.
But it wasn't education cuts alone that cost Corbett credibility with voters, Madonna says. There were several key policy reforms that Corbett didn't get done — pension reform, charter-school reform and liquor-store privatization, for example — that cost him.
"He cut school funding and taxpayers in the majority of the state's 500 school districts saw property-tax hikes and layoffs and program cuts in their schools," Madonna says. "Then, he failed to deliver on other parts of his agenda.
"What makes it worse for him is that he couldn't get these things done and his own party has controlled the legislature. He hasn't been able to effectively communicate with them and that has led to a lot of disarray."
Corbett has also had his problems when it comes to social issues. Earlier this year, he may have made a bit of headway when he decided not to appeal a federal court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage or a state court's decision striking down the voter-ID law he had pushed for and signed in 2012. However, the consensus seems to be that Corbett more or less gave up on those issues rather than actually changing his mind.
He also got some favorable headlines on medical-marijuana legalization when, in an effort to hold off a planned sit-in by parents of children with debilitating epilepsy that could be helped by medical cannabis, he said he supported a limited pilot program at some in-state hospitals. However, that program was never established, and last week a senate-passed medical-marijuana bill died in a house committee.
And then there's the governor's track record on women's health. Corbett not only signed and supported a law that placed onerous, "medically unnecessary" restrictions on health centers that perform abortions, but also supported other legislation like one that required any woman who decided to have an abortion to go through a mandatory ultrasound. That led to the governor's statement that women who didn't want to watch could just "close their eyes."
Those policies and many others led Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania to do a weekly countdown of the "Top 10 reasons why Pennsylvania women can't afford four more years of Tom Corbett."
Madonna says Corbett's re-election struggles come at a time when Democratic President Barack Obama is also seeing sagging approval ratings. Ordinarily, that would be a time for Republicans to make up ground, not lose it. If the state's "eight-year rule" were going to be broken, this wouldn't ordinarily seem like the year. - Pittsburgh City Paper, 10/22/14
Corbett has an abysmal record as Governor but this is what's hurting him the most:
http://www.dailyitem.com/...
Penn State alumni still simmering over the university’s handling of the 2011 Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal and the firing of iconic Coach Joe Paterno are turning their attention to the governor’s race.
Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship — a group of more than 20,000 alumni who’ve been orchestrating the election of new trustees to replace those involved in the response to the scandal — is working to oust Gov. Tom Corbett, according to a spokeswoman for the group.
As governor, Corbett is a member of the Penn State trustees, along with four members of his administration. All are non-voting members.
But Maribeth Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the network, said its goal is the “removal, resignation and replacement of every single member of the Penn State Board of Trustees who was at the helm in November 2011.”
“Corbett fits the bill,” she said.
The only difference is, instead of campaigning to sway a trustees election, the group is now using social media to encourage people to vote in the general election to oust Corbett and drop him from the Penn State board. - The Daily Item, 10/19/14
And when you piss off the Penn State crowd, you piss off the base:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Normally, central Pennsylvania would be pro-Corbett, because he is anti-tax and pro-business and because... well, he is a Republican. Not this year. Many remain enraged over Mr. Corbett’s handling of the Sandusky case. It’s not about Mr. Sandusky himself, a serial abuser of boys, who will die in prison, but about the firing of the beloved head coach, Joe Paterno, and the casting of Penn State football into the pit of disgrace.
Mr. Corbett has been trying to pivot away from blame for Penn State’s travails, but pivoting is among the things he does not do well. After the Sandusky indictment, the governor used his position on Penn State’s board of trustees to recommend that they quickly agree to a brutal N.C.A.A. report on the case and accept severe penalties and sanctions. Then, about a year later, he sued the N.C.A.A. in federal court, saying it did not have the right to punish Penn State. The suit was dismissed.
Then there is same-sex marriage. The governor was dead set against it (and in one “Did he really say that?” TV interview compared it to incest). The state fought a lawsuit to overturn the state’s ban. When a federal judge ruled for same-sex marriage earlier this year, Mr. Corbett decided not to appeal it. Opponents were angered; advocates, stunned and delighted. Almost everyone else saw it as a bald attempt by the governor to pivot to the middle. - New York Times, 10/20/14
And not to mention, he's running away from his own record:
http://www.philly.com/...
Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett’s support for a controversial 2012 bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion continues to dog him: “You just have to close your eyes.”
On Tuesday, a “tracker” from the Democratic PAC Fresh Start caught the Republican governor on tape denying he’d ever backed the legislation, designed to discourage abortions with images of the developing fetus.
“I never did,” he said, when asked if he still supports the idea. “I didn’t sign the bill.”
Corbett didn’t sign the bill because it stalled in the legislature; he did support it at the time, making his infamous remark at a news conference. (To be fair, the governor was arguing in response to a question that an ultrasound requirement would not unduly burden women because they would not be forced to look at an image. All the attention, however, went to his clunky phrase.)
Fresh Start, established in the summer to support Democratic governor nominee Tom Wolf, was quick to distribute a web video showing Tuesday’s “gotcha” moment along with b-roll of Corbett expressing his support for the ultrasound legislation in various forums. - Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/22/14
Not to mention even Republicans don't want to work with Corbett:
http://www.post-gazette.com/...
In a second term, Mr. Corbett said, he would work for an overhaul of the way Pennsylvania funds primary and secondary education, as well as continuing to push to reduce the cost and risk to the state of the retirement systems for state and public school workers.
But he has struggled to persuade the Republican majorities in the state House and Senate to support both pension reform and another conservative priority, the disbandment of the state’s business selling wine and liquor. Those efforts fell short in June, and Mr. Corbett, who maintained also that the General Assembly had passed too large a spending plan, ended his record of on-time June 30 budgets, eventually signing the document while vetoing a portion of the Legislature’s own budget.
As Chris Borick, a political scientist at Muhlenberg College, puts it, Mr. Corbett has struggled in his relationship with the Legislature as governor, after a time in which “his legislative relations as attorney general was to investigate the Legislature.”
Mr. Corbett says a second-term governor could be more forceful with lawmakers.
“There is a carrot and a stick,” he said. “I prefer, ‘Here’s a carrot, come on guys, it’s the right thing to do.’ And it hasn’t accomplished a whole lot, has it? There’s more freedom in a second term. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/19/14
Plus I have little doubt that this fact still pisses voters off:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
For at least the third year in a row, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett holds the distinction of being among the highest paid governors in the land.
A Washington Post report on gubernatorial salaries on Wednesday found Corbett's $187,818 annual compensation bested that of all other top states executives.
The data was reported in the nonpartisan Council of State Governments' 2014 Book of the States, which shared the information with The Washington Post.
Corbett, who is up for re-election in a few weeks, actually takes a salary reduction, refusing several cost-of-living adjustments during his time in office. His take-home pay is actually $175,000, a level unchanged since he took office in 2011.
That puts Corbett on par with fellow Republican, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ($175,000) and Virginia's Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) returns his salary - $181,950 - to the state.
As The Washington Post points out, Corbett's salary is more than 2.5 times the amount of allocated to Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), whose $70,000 salary ranks the lowest of any state governor. - The Patriot-News, 10/22/14
Pretty big salary for a guy governing a state who's economy is doing poorly:
http://www.philly.com/...
Corbett can’t dodge some pretty damning numbers. For example: The state has gone from producing 1,900 new jobs a month in 2012 to gaining more than 5,000 a month through July of this year, but it was adding 6,600 jobs a month back in 2010. In fact, numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics rank Pennsylvania 50th in the nation in job creation since January 2011. That’s a dramatic fall from December 2009 to December 2010, when the state ranked 10th in job creation. Job creation has not made up for job losses. Consequently, despite a lower unemployment rate of 5.7 percent compared with the January 2011 rate of 8.1 percent, Pennsylvania has about 20,000 fewer jobs than in December 2007.
Not only that, the Keystone Research Center says one out of eight employees in the state is underemployed, including many part-time workers who want full-time jobs. The center also reports an overall decline in hourly wages, which has Pennsylvania’s full-time workers taking home about $750 to $1,150 less per year than in 2010. That’s money that won’t be spent on goods and services to boost the economy. Despite his playing point man for the natural-gas industry, Corbett hasn’t delivered the goods in bringing jobs to Pennsylvania -- at least not in numbers large enough to make people feel good about the economy. And as we all know, elections are about the economy. - Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/22/14
And even Corbett's latest action isn't enough to save him:
http://www.phillymag.com/...
At the site where Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed in 1981, Gov. Tom Corbett today signed a bill today that would let crime victims sue convicts for seeking publicity or money. The bill is a direct response to Mumia Abu-Jamal, giving a graduation speech at Goddard College earlier this month.
Even people with only a cursory understanding of the legal system can guess this bill is on incredibly shaky footing — two lawyer friends of mine called it “laughably unconstitutional” — and will end up in the courts sooner rather than later. Last week Joel Mathis called the bill’s language “so broad as to be meaningless” and “a violation of the First Amendment.” Andy Hoover, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, agreed.
“I have no hesitancy in endorsing a change in our crime victims act that provides for injunctive relief on behalf of the victims of violent crime,” Corbett said of the bill earlier this month. Today, he said the law "empowers victims to stand up and say 'no more.'"
Abu-Jamal actually commented on the constitutionality of the bill himself: "These are people who took an oath of office to protect and defend and uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Constitution of the United States blatantly acting unconstitutionally in office." - Philly Mag, 10/21/14
And his campaign's been called out on this embarrassing moment:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett removed a Photoshopped picture from his campaign website featuring an African-American woman after it emerged the woman’s image was taken from a stock photo.
The picture was featured as the footer on Corbett’s reelection campaign website.
He faces Democrat Tom Wolf in the race.
But in mid-October, BuzzFeed reported that the image of the woman, who appears prominently on Corbett’s left, was taken from a stock photo.
Corbett’s camp then said that all the individuals in the picture were Photoshopped into the montage. - New York Daily News, 10/23/14
Now despite Corbett's terrible numbers, Wolf is still taking this race very seriously and has been hitting the campaign trail hard:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/...
With two weeks until Election Day, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf toured Bethlehem's Main Street on Tuesday.
Chocolate Lab owner Arlene Brockel told Wolf he had her vote. She said she launched her business 12 years ago after she was laid off from B. Braun Medical because of an outsourcing incentive from then-President George W. Bush.
"I'm a product of outsourcing ... it was the best thing that ever happened to me," Brockel told Wolf. "You have our vote no problem."
Hand Cut Crystal owner Joanne Smida told Wolf she was still undecided.
"I'm on the fence, so it's good you came in," she said.
Smida also shared with Wolf the fact that she's experienced ups and downs in her 20 years in business.
"It's challenging – the economy dipped and we try to keep up our presence on the street," she said. "But it's beautiful here – how could you not love it here, especially around Christmas."
Wolf, who owns a York, Pennsylvania-based kitchen cabinet company, said he wants to invest in education and infrastructure to help small business grow in the state.
"I know what it's like to build a business," he said.
Wolf is leading Republican Gov. Tom Corbett in the polls, and a man he met on Main Street told him he has the election locked up.
"(Corbett) is the best thing you have going for you," he told Wolf. "I don't think I have to wish you good luck."
Wolf said he is taking nothing for granted considering it's his first election.
"I've never done this before, so I say I'm working right up to Nov. 4," he said. "The key is turnout ... because I really do need people to come out and vote."
Corbett spokesman Billy Pitman said Wolf's small business tour was "ironic" considering he's seeking to raise the state income tax.
"It affects small business owners, it affects middle-class families," Pitman said in a later telephone interview.
Wolf spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan countered that Wolf is seeking a progressive income tax plan that would only raise income taxes on people making more than $90,000 a year as an individual or $180,000 as a married couple. Wolf's plan would reduce taxes on those making $70,000 a year as an individual or $140,000 a year as a married couple, Sheridan said. - The Express-Times, 10/21/14
Wolf's been out on the campaign trail talking about what he plans to do for Pennsylvania:
http://articles.philly.com/...
If elected governor, Tom Wolf plans to end the asset test, a measure that ties federal food stamp benefits to people's bank accounts and car ownership.
The Democrat would also work to reestablish General Assistance (GA), which used to pay $205 a month to people who were both poor and disabled.
Both moves would reverse initiatives by Gov. Corbett, who saw the asset test as a way to cut down on fraud and waste, and GA as an unnecessary institution from the 1930s whose elimination has saved the state $150 million a year. The Republican governor added the asset test and discarded GA in 2012.
The two programs have figured prominently in the lives of poor people. But they traditionally do not figure prominently in gubernatorial campaigns.
While advocates for the poor applaud Wolf's intent, political experts say his views on asset tests and GA won't change voters' minds: Those who agree with Wolf's views on the programs are already in his corner.
Wolf has not said a great deal in public about the asset test. But in a July statement to ACT-UP Philadelphia, a nonpartisan group committed to ending AIDS, Wolf called the asset test "another example of how [Corbett] has embraced policies intended to hurt our most vulnerable residents." - Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/25/14
And he's been gaining major newspaper endorsements:
http://www.pennlive.com/...
To be successful, Wolf must somehow find a way to to get his agenda enacted into law. He can start by surrounding himself, as Abraham Lincoln did, with a team of rivals that has the diverse talent and experience to see that work completed.
During the 11 months of the campaign, Wolf has offered sound ideas about where he wants to take the Commonwealth. But as the experience with Corbett has shown, actually getting there can be a difficult, if not insurmountable challenge.
But as a Democratic governor, he has the advantage of being a bulwark against legislative excess.
A Wolf administration, for instance, could have been expected to stand in opposition to recently signed legislation allowing the National Rifle Association to sue municipalities that enact gun ordinances that are tougher than existing state law.
Six years after the great economic crash, Pennsylvania is still nowhere near its full potential. Too many people are still struggling to recover, wondering whether the American Dream -- a good job, a comfortable place to live and a good education for their children – is beyond their reach.
The state needs to get on a different path, one that will produce a widely shared prosperity. Pennsylvania needs a leader who will pursue opportunity for all, instead of relying on corporate tax cuts and business favors whose supposed benefits never seem to trickle down.
That leader is Tom Wolf. - The Patriot-News, 10/24/14
http://thetimes-tribune.com/...
Mr. Corbett’s lone major policy achievement is a large one: a badly needed transportation program. But even that took three years, and due to his no-tax pledge, it included a silly semantics argument on whether its principal funding device is a tax increase or the lifting of a statutory cap on a tax.
Mr. Wolf would press hard for a fair gas extraction tax and, given recent comments even by Republican legislative leaders, he would have a very good chance of achieving one.
He also would cut in Pennsylvania on the very good deal that is the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Doing so would better fund health care, create about 40,000 jobs in that key Pennsylvania industry, expand access to care for about 300,000 low-income workers and stimulate related economic activity.
Mr. Wolf has not gone into deep detail about important policy matters. He has suggested a progressive income tax to replace the 3.07 percent flat rate, but has declined to be specific about a rate range. While saying that pension reform is urgent, he has not proposed an aggressive program. And it is crucial that a gas severance tax not be funneled into education without reforms to ensure accountability.
But the biggest issue is the most basic one. Mr. Corbett has focused on a narrow constituency while Mr. Wolf recognizes that he would serve the very broad one that is the commonwealth. Pennsylvanians should give him that chance. - Scranton Times-Tribune, 10/26/14
And the big names have been hitting the trail for Wolf urging voters to come out to the polls:
http://www.wtae.com/...
Former President Bill Clinton is rallying supporters of the Democrat running for governor, Tom Wolf, calling him in some ways, the best candidate for governor in the United States.
Clinton appeared Monday to address several hundred Wolf supporters at a Pittsburgh union hall as the first-time candidate tries to knock off Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
Clinton says that when he first read about Wolf, he thought that Wolf was "too good to be true." He calls Wolf "a real person who led a real life." - WTAE, 10/27/14
Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama have already stumped for Wolf and President Obama will be joining him on the campaign trail next week. Wolf will win this race but lets see if his coat tails are long enough to help down ballot Democrats take back the State Senate and maybe win some congressional races. Click here to donate and get involved with Wolf's campaign, State Senator Mike Stack's (D. PA) Lt. Governor campaign, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party so we can take back the State Senate and to Manan Trivedi (D. PA-06) and Kevin Strouse's (D. PA-08) campaigns:
http://www.wolfforpa.com/
http://www.stackforpa.com/
http://www.padems.com/
http://www.trivediforcongress.com/...
http://www.kevinstrouse.com/