One of these four Democrats will challenge Corbett
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
What you need to know about the four Democratic candidates for governor.
State Treasurer Rob McCord got so excited wading through the minutiae of drug laws and gaming policy outside this week's final debate that an adviser had to quiet him down. McCord, a passionate man, cites his role in blocking Gov. Tom Corbett's bid to privatize the state lottery as evidence of his ability to stand up to power. (He likes to call himself the "Corbett slayer.") He also points to his work shoring up the state's college-savings plan as proof that he can work with Republican legislators. Despite McCord's union endorsements, he was quickly overwhelmed by Tom Wolf's television ads. In response, McCord launched a controversial attack on Wolf that some, including Sen. Bob Casey and former Gov. Ed Rendell, have characterized as offensive. The ad focuses on Wolf's one-time support for York Mayor Charles Robertson. Robertson was arrested in 2001 for his alleged involvement in the 1969 murder of African-American Lillie Belle Allen. Wolf, who chaired Robertson's re-election campaign, announced that he would back the mayor. But Wolf now says that he was instrumental in nudging Robertson out of the race. Robertson was later acquitted of the charges. McCord's ad was met by loud criticism from black leaders in York. But McCord, whose wife is African-American, has spoken emotionally in defense of the ad, saying that though "people have an allergic reaction when you bring up race issues," Wolf "failed a leadership test" by not quickly and forcefully responding to the allegations.
Katie McGinty grew up the second-youngest of 10 children in Northeast Philly, raised by a cop dad and a mom who worked as a restaurant hostess. In a race marked by only small distinctions between candidates, McGinty has distinguished herself by calling for the minimum wage to be raised to $10.10 for tipped workers — like restaurant wait staff. McGinty, who worked as an environmental policy adviser in the Clinton White House and served as Secretary of Environmental Protection under Gov. Ed Rendell, has experience with complicated environmental issues and pledges to manage Pennsylvania's natural resources (read: Marcellus Shale) in a manner that protects the environment while supporting economic growth. In Pennsylvania, McGinty's effort to control mercury emissions from the state's coal-fired power plants prompted conservative opposition. But in the Pacific Northwest, she led an effort to strike a balance between protecting endangered spotted owls and preserving logging jobs — and managed to anger both sides. Unlike Allyson Schwartz and Rob McCord, McGinty has refrained from aggressively attacking front-runner Tom Wolf. And she clearly enjoys staying above the fray and focusing on the pocketbook issues most important to Pennsylvanians. She strikes many as both likeable and capable. But she has been out-fundraised by heavyweight competitors and consistently polls in last place — at least since John Hanger dropped out. She faces long odds on Tuesday.
Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz sells herself as an experienced female politician who will take on the old-boys' club in Harrisburg, citing a record of getting things done in politics, like helping create the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Frontrunner Tom Wolf, she says, is untested. But the one-time frontrunner failed to find her political footing. Bafflingly, she waited until April to put ads on television — well after Wolf's shock-and-awe TV campaign catapulted him to a sizable lead. In public, Schwartz is stiff, and sounds like she's trying to convince herself as much as the voters. She also lacks a unified political base in the region. Some local leaders say she has exploited their political support; others say that she exaggerated her role in creating CHIP. Conservatives object to her opening a Philadelphia women's-health clinic that provided abortions, but critics on the left fault her, too: She backed the NSA spying on Americans and the Patriot Act, and co-chaired a Wall Street-aligned group called Third Way that infuriated progressives by calling Sen. Elizabeth Warren's economic populism "disastrous for Democrats." Schwartz has been reduced to attacking Wolf, including an effort to poke holes in his happy story — the centerpiece of his campaign — about returning to his family business, the Wolf Organization, to save workers' jobs. When Wolf sold the company, the buyers took out major debt to fund the purchase. But the company went into a tailspin after the economic crisis. Schwartz says that Wolf profited from that debt — debt that ultimately helped cause major layoffs.
Tom Wolf, former state Revenue Secretary under Gov. Ed Rendell, is the overwhelming favorite in Tuesday's primary. The wealthy owner of a York-based cabinet-manufacturing company, Wolf spent millions on a campaign that blanketed the airwaves with feel-good ads touting him as a savvy, pro-worker businessman who drives an old Jeep. It could become "an auction instead of an election," fellow candidate Rob McCord warned. Wolf would likely have remained a political unknown without his ad buys — but voters have liked what he had to say. Wolf, a Ph.D. in political science from MIT, is an intellectual who is curious about policy. On education, he stresses the moral and social purpose of government for the public good. "This is a shared responsibility, not a private good," he says. "Government is not a business." What, perhaps, is most notable about Wolf's platform is his support for regional cooperation and planning: Suburbs and cities must work together for their common benefit. He embraces the idea that fragmented and segregated regions not only fail isolated and impoverished ghettos, but also undermine regional economies. It's unclear whether the bruising primary will harm the ultimate Democratic nominee. McCord says that the tough vetting process will strengthen the party's candidate, and adds that one reason Pennsylvania ended up with Gov. Tom Corbett in 2010 is that he did not face a serious primary challenger. And "any of us," McCord says, "would be vastly, vastly better than Tom Corbett."
Read more of our primary coverage.
All photos: Mark Stehle
