History-making campaign for governor comes to vote
LITITZ, Pa. (AP) — Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and Democrat Tom Wolf shook hands and courted voters Tuesday in the final hours of a campaign that smashed the state’s spending record.
Wolf, a first-time candidate who ran his family business for nearly three decades, is trying to make Corbett the first governor in modern Pennsylvania political history to lose a re-election campaign.
Corbett, a former state and federal prosecutor, is seeking four more years as governor after being plagued with low approval ratings throughout his first term.
Wilbert Miller, a 75-year-old retiree from the Harrisburg area, said Corbett was an easy choice compared with Wolf, who supports increasing sales or income taxes to offset reductions to school property taxes.
“When somebody tells me ‘I’m going to raise your taxes,’ I’m not going to vote for him,” Miller said. “I’m happy. I’ve got more money in the bank than I had a couple years ago.”
Donald Garman, also 75 and retired, said he voted for Wolf partly because of cuts on Corbett’s watch to education and social services. Corbett has contended that the disappearance of federal aid should not count against him.
“We’ve just got to get the conservatives out of office,” he said. “Why vote for somebody who doesn’t help the poor?”
Corbett voted in his hometown of Shaler, in suburban Pittsburgh, before dropping in on area polling places.
Wolf started in Philadelphia, shaking hands and posing for pictures as he walked through a commuter rail station near City Hall. A local councilman encouraged people to step right up and “meet the next governor.”
After a few more stops he was heading 80 miles west to vote in his home of Mount Wolf, named after an ancestor.
“I get the sense people really want a change,” Wolf said.
Democrats’ deep dislike of Corbett helped drive Wolf’s campaign, although the governor also had to cope with GOP apathy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans.
The race was important enough to draw visits from some of the parties’ political stars, including the Obamas and former President Bill Clinton, and three potential presidential candidates: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former first lady Hillary Clinton.
Brett Hauber in Allentown said he cast his vote for Wolf, citing the Democrat’s support for a 5 percent state tax on natural gas drilling. Corbett has favored the existing system, which imposes a $50,000 impact fee per well and directs revenue into communities affected by drilling.
“For me, it’s a protest vote against Corbett,” said Hauber, a 45-year-old economist.
Monica Glenn, a stay-at-home mom with four children, said she voted for Corbett, in part, because of his increases in special education funding and support of charter schools. She also said he’ll tackle pension reform for state employees.
“It’s a huge problem in this state,” the 44-year-old Glenn said. “There’s such a disparity between the private sector and the public sector.”
With Wolf leading independent polls, the Corbett campaign pointed to a narrowing gap as evidence of momentum.
Overall campaign spending broke the $70 million mark and smashed Pennsylvania’s previous campaign spending record. Despite that, pollsters expected fewer than 50 percent of registered voters will cast ballots.
Many eyes were on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s liberal bastion and home to more than 1 million of the state’s 8.3 million voters.
Democrats hope for a 350,000- to 400,000-vote victory for Wolf in Philadelphia to more than offset any edge Corbett will get from more conservative voters in the rest of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia’s four suburban counties — Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery — with 1.6 million voters also will be a key bellwether.
Voters also were deciding Tuesday Pennsylvania’s 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. All but two incumbents were seeking re-election and no one expected the Republicans’ 13-seat majority to change. In the state Legislature, all 203 House seats and half of the 50 Senate seats were up for grabs. Republicans expected to pad majorities in both chambers.
Dolores DiPosi, an 85-year-old Democrat, ventured to a firehouse near downtown Pittsburgh to cast her straight-party ballot. Afterward, she pondered whether, in the current political climate, her exercise in civic duty even mattered.
“Nobody listens to you anyway and no one is going to give you what you want,” DiPosi said.
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Associated Press writers Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Sean Carlin in Philadelphia, Peter Jackson in Harrisburg and Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.