A footnote to the very significant PA election...
Over four years ago I wrote a post detailing how I had been invited to a small gathering to discuss issues with someone who was thinking of running for Governor. Tom Wolf is a close friend of a patient of mine and there were about eight of us at my patient's gracious home in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. Mr. Wolf came around to each of us, we had a nice chat as to who we were, etc., and then he gave what could best be described as a stump speech. Afterwards he asked each of us individually what we thought. My reply was as follows: I think PA could do with a thoughtful, progressive, business-oriented governor in these times and there is a kindness/fatherliness which you possess which is a great asset. There are two things which caused me to raise my eyebrows: first is that you told a sort of funny joke that Governor Rendell had chosen you for his cabinet because you were the only Democrat in York County who owned a tie. Although amusing, it denigrates rural Democrats. Secondly, you kept referring to your Peace Corps years: many in our backwards state think that if you were in the Peace Corps, you were a draft dodger during Vietnam - that's a fact of life here even though one thing had nothing to do with the other. It is OK for Republicans to avoid the draft, quite another thing for Democrats to do so.
So when he announced, I noticed that those two facets of his speech were missing. The day after the successful election, I received a huge plant from a Florist with the Governor-elect's and his wife's name with the nicest note.
But I thought that he would never be re-elected: that Harrisburg Rethugs would chew him up and spit him out. I was wrong: he won somewhat overwhelmingly over a candidate who might be best described as a Donald Trump without the "class" and "brains" if that's even possible. I'm extremely pleased about this. He is a decent man and a moral man without the sanctimony.
Senator Casey of course won: him I know as well: his campaign for his first term was run out of the building in which I practice and have had many elevator/lobby conversations with him. Although a member of the Lucky Sperm Club, his last name is magical here in PA.
Just a word or two after a successful election day here...
= new reply since forum marked as read
I certainly EXPECTED him to be re-elected because Philly was going to make it so. Plus his family is an old one in York County and his selection of John Fetterman, sortof a younger "kindred spirit" (in terms of public service) was a good one.
But what I think sealed the fate for the GOP was this disgrace -
It was a more violent equivalent to this nonsense that we recall from 6 years ago -
One of the underlying things with this election is the Clergy abuse cases I think, and when you have your Democrats at the top of the state government really making that a focus this year (not unlike what happened with the Sandusky case in 2014, which helped to boot Corbett and bring Wolf into office), he was bound to get back in.
And as a sidenote - PA Democrats picked up 11 new state House seats and 5 new state Senate seats, so that is amazing given how gerrymandered the state legislative map is!
I still thought he would mainly because Corbett was pretty much toast with the Sandusky thing. And believe it or not - and maybe it was just me - but there was something just "folksy liberal" about Wolf that given all the rancor that was building up in the state after the Voter ID fiasco, that sortof cut through his somewhat "dry", quiet, studious persona. He literally had the street cred for "business" (appealing to suburban/COC types) and kept a public relationship with the then-mayor of York, Kim Bracey, who was the first black mayor of that city, his hometown -
In 2014 when he first ran - this ad really hooked me and probably quite a few people!
with that Turd's Eye comment. After his plan failed in the next election I sent him a note, basically saying "Suck it!"
Funny, never did hear back from him............
True story but over here in the east, I just never really heard of the guy or about any of those Republicans from the west. It could be because we had both Casey (the father) and Rendell sortof "buffering" the city from that stuff, and both Thornburgh and Ridge weren't teabagger crazies like you see the GOP norm being nowadays.
But the 2010 election basically killed our slim majority (we lost 13 seats in the state House back then) and of course their winning the entire legislative branch and Governorship meant they could redraw the lines, and it all went downhill after that. 
PA is lucky to have both of them, and now John Fetterman, too! 
