Irey Vaughan mounts bid for lieutenant governor
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango announced Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan as his running mate Tuesday at the City Mission in Washington.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango announced Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan as his running mate Tuesday at the City Mission in Washington.
Allegheny County Republican Paul Mango named longtime Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan as his running mate in his race for the party’s gubernatorial nomination on Tuesday during a visit to the county seat.
Among the few dozen people in attendance during the event in the City Mission’s Patriot House were local party leaders and Republican officials from neighboring counties.
“Our next governor needs to have business experience from outside government to take on Harrisburg and reform it and downsize it, not grow it or manipulate it for their own benefit,” Irey Vaughan, 55, of Nottingham Township, said during her remarks. “Paul Mango can.”
Mango and Irey Vaughan will not be on the ballot together in the primary election. In Pennsylvania, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in the primary, and team up for the general election.
Mango, 58, a health systems consultant and U.S. Army veteran from Pine Township, faces an uphill battle in the three-way GOP primary May 15. State Sen. Scott Wagner of York County beat him to get the endorsement of the state party on Saturday. Pittsburgh attorney Laura Ellsworth didn’t seek the state party endorsement.
Jeff Bartos, a Montgomery County businessman, got the state party endorsement for lieutenant governor.
Incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, is seeking re-election.
Following her remarks, Irey Vaughan elaborated on what she meant by “downsizing” the state government, saying she and Mango are putting together a plan, “and we’re working on everything from how we can make human services more efficient and effective, breaking down barriers, to the actual size of government and the Legislature.”
Irey Vaughan first took office as a commissioner in 1995. Tuesday’s announcement wasn’t her first foray into politics outside the county.
In 2012, she mounted an unsuccessful bid to unseat then-state treasurer Rob McCord, a Democrat. She similarly lost in 2006 when she ran against the late congressman John Murtha, who occupied the 12th District seat at the time.
“I’m running for lieutenant governor to do my part to ensure that my family, and every Pennsylvania family for generations to come, can live, work and raise their families in a climate of conservative family values, plentiful jobs, a low crime rate and with an opportunity to live a better life than my generation had,” Irey Vaughan said. “I choose to run with Paul Mango because we have shared values and a vision for our commonwealth.”
In his brief remarks, Mango referenced Wolf’s dicey relationship with Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, calling it a “failure of leadership.”
“They don’t talk. They don’t collaborate. They certainly don’t have a vision for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Mango added. “I just simply do not want that happening to me as your next governor.”