Nov 4, 2014 3 min read

LITITZ (AP) – Voters are heading to the polls to decide between Democrat Tom Wolf and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett in an election that will make history and settle who will govern Pennsylvania for the next four years after 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.

Polls are open until 8 p.m.

Democrats’ deep dislike of Corbett has 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.

Both candidates are spending part of Tuesday trying to encourage people to vote. Corbett will vote in his home of Shaler, in suburban Pittsburgh, before dropping in on area polling places. Wolf will start in Philadelphia, campaigning at a commuter train station, the “Clothespin” sculpture across from City Hall and a couple restaurants before heading 80 miles west to vote in his home of Mount Wolf, named after an ancestor.

With Wolf leading independent polls, the Corbett campaign has pointed to a narrowing gap as evidence of momentum. In recent weeks, Corbett’s campaign has accused Wolf of planning a massive middle-class tax increase to fulfill his spending promises and being a political clone of President Barack Obama. Wolf has accused Corbett of delivering devastating funding cuts to public schools and mismanaging the state’s economic and fiscal affairs. Wolf says he would increase income taxes on the wealthy to deliver a middle-class tax cut; Corbett contends that the disappearance of federal aid should not count against him as a cut in education funding.

Overall campaign spending has broken the $70 million mark and smashed Pennsylvania’s previous campaign spending record. Despite that, pollsters expect fewer than 50 percent of registered voters will cast ballots.

Many eyes will be 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 are also deciding Tuesday who should occupy Pennsylvania’s 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years. All but two incumbents are seeking re-election and no one expects the Republicans’ 13-seat majority to change. In the state Legislature, all 203 House seats and half of the 50 Senate seats are up for grabs. Republicans expect to pad their majorities in both chambers.