I don’t live in PA, but I did notice Gov. Corbett was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down in the polls and is not likely to get re-elected. I also noticed that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is making a strong comeback (so is Sen. Pat Roberts).
What exactly is going on in PA and why is Corbett so far down?
Well for one, he raised our gasoline taxes at the height of the prices. Two, he has the Philly media beating him down every minute of every day as an enemy of “education” (AKA union shakedowns). He doesn’t campaign 24/7 like the Obamas of the world. Frankly, his personality is just damned boring and he doesn’t have good PR. No fight.
“What exactly is going on in PA and why is Corbett so far down?”
He’s awful. It’s a simple as that. Republicans are not very enthusiastic to get out and vote for him. He’s been a HUGE disappointment. He always seemed to back down in the face of adversity. The libs are hellbent on getting him out as he attempted to desecrate their altar of education spending (i.e. enriching the teachers unions).
Wolf will be worse. He’s a Rendell lackey. Wolf’s primary campaign message is to tax energy producers and give that money to school districts. No property tax relief or anything like that ... literally tax energy companies and give that money to schools. It certainly resonates with the ridiculous.
Wolf’s election will break a cycle PA has had for many many years. We’ve always had a two term D governor followed by a two term R governor for decades ... that appears to be coming to an end though most PA governors are RINOs in every sense of the word.
I think it’s mostly local issues. One thing that those of you from out of state are probably unaware of is his role in the Jerry Sandusky case. He was the AG when the initial allegations against Sandusky came out, and it was perceived in some quarters that he delayed prosecution for political reasons. Sandusky’s charity was a donor to Corbett’s first gubernatorial campaign, and the allegations were that he delayed prosecuting the case until after the election. These allegations were found (by PA’s current democratic AG) to be unfounded, but I still think it sticks with the LIV’s.
In any case, Corbett is widely seen as an ineffective governor and a RINO to boot. Probably the most egregious example is his promotion of a back door increase in the gasoline tax. (He removed a cap that limited the amount of the wholesale gasoline tax). He doesn’t really have much support among GOP voters, so it’s not surprising that he’s almost certainly going to lose next month.
The libs hate Corbett. Most of it has to do with school funding. The teachers unions are rabidly anti-Corbett. The government employee union hate him too because if he's re-elected he'll privatize the liquor stores, which are currently staffed by 60k per year retail clerks.
Corbett still has a chance. He needs to hammer home that Wolfe is going to tax the heck out of the fracking industry which is about the only bright spot in the PA economy. One plus we have going for us is that the governor's race is in the off election years. We can hope the African American Philadelphia vote won't bother getting to the polls.