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Pennsylvania has a new governor, and his name is Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York, Pa., who will take office in January of 2015. With approximately 55 percent of Pennsylvania’s popular vote (nearly 1.9 million votes), Wolf topped Republican incumbent Tom Corbett’s 45 percent (just shy of 1.6 million votes).
Of course, Philadelphia had a great deal to do with that victory, and it’s not an insignificant triumph. Nationally, Republican gubernatorial candidates fared very well, but Pennsylvania has proven an anomaly. In Philadelphia County, with 97.57 percent of precincts reporting as of press time, almost 88 percent of voters went for Wolf, with about 12 percent voting for the GOP candidate (Wolf claimed more than 325,000 votes to Corbett’s 44,000).
GOP gubernatorial candidates came out on top in Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Wisconsin, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Maine.
Wolf himself is a 65-year-old graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of London, and completed a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the chairman of The Wolf Industry, Inc., a building-product company that specializes in kitchen cabinetry, and previously had served as an Ed Rendell-nominated Secretary of Revenue of Pennsylvania.
“Wolf brings a fresh perspective since he’s never been in an elected position before,” Diane Bowman, the Deputy Executive Director of the PA Democratic Party, said yesterday. “We set history again and it came out of Central PA,” she added, noting the significance of a Democratic candidate dethroning a GOP incumbent.
Bowman says it’s Wolf’s background in fiscal matters that make him well-suited to serve as governor.
“[Wolf] is in the standpoint of a businessman. You can’t go into your red and you have to worry about your credit,” she said, later adding “I think it’s a great message for the state of Pennsylvania, and I think he’s going to do well.”
Wolf supporters showed solidarity on election day outside of Queen Village’s Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, 700 S. Fourth St., where politicos, union hands and curious locals gathered to show support for the Democratic newcomer.
One eager Dem named Stewart Melrose was eager to share a sort of fight song he’d composed: “Well Halloween came early and is stayin’ a bit late / With Gov. Corbett and his big oil gang playing tricks ‘til election date. / So, if you want more tricks, then Corbett’s gang are your picks, / But if you want a real honest treat, then Wolf and his Democratic team can’t be beat!”
Ellen Kaplan has been the policy director of the Committee of Seventy, a bi-partisan elections watchdog organization that’s over a century old. She shared some interesting facts.
“I was just looking at voter registration stats. For this election… there are a little over 1,000,000 voters and 800,000 of them are Democrats,” she said.
She noted that City Council’s party affiliations are overwhelmingly Democratic, so is the District Attorney, the sheriff, the comptroller and the register of wills.
“These are all Dems,” Kaplan said. “That just tells you something about this town.”
With this election being a mid-term one lacking a senatorial or presidential candidate, some Democratic organizers were worried that turnout would be low. And it was. Considering there are nearly one million registered voters in Philadelphia, and yet there weren’t even 400,000 votes cast in the gubernatorial race, the cause for concern seems justified.
Before Tuesday’s election, Stephen St. Vincent, Young Involved Philadelphia (YIP)’s Advocacy vice-chair, said “From what I’ve seen in the news [the Governor race] has been decided for quite some time. It’s just going to be an issue of turnout.”
YIP does outreach to engage millennial voters and inform young citizens about the important issues, candidates and getting the vote out.
“In 2010 it was not good. The Millennial turnout was not there. But in ’12, for the Obama [re-]election, millennial turnout was through the roof,” St. Vincent explained.
He also helped break down the three ballot measures, which are essentially amendments to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter that was established in 1951, that all passed yesterday. The first officially established an Office of Sustainability, an office Mayor Nutter’s administration created in 2008, rendering a City Hall-led effort to go green permanent (Yes – 66 percent, no – 34 percent). The second addressed prisons, and would establish a new Department of Prisons by separating prison maintenance from the Department of Human Services (Yes – 65 percent, no – 35 percent). And lastly, a City bond question of should the City borrow a little more than $137 million for things like transit, streets, municipal buildings and parks and economic development (Yes – 66 percent, no – 34 percent). An average of 231,250 votes were cast for each ballot measure.
“You’ll note that every election there are ballot questions of ‘Should the Charter be amended to A,B and C,” Kaplan said. “We just chip away at this 60-year-old charter, and eventually we’ll get it right.
Think of it as a rearranging and restructuring of the City’s bureaucratic affairs.
Of note in South Philly, 1st District Congressman Rep. Robert Brady (D) won big against Megan Rath with nearly 85 percent of the total votes (almost 100,000). Many other races went uncontested and were essentially pre-established by last year’s primaries. Also, state Rep. and South Philadelphia native Jordan Harris, representing the 186th Legislative District, ran unopposed.
The big issues, then, were primarily the Governor vote and the ballot questions. And of course, the way certain national issues were highlighted by the mid-term ballots: Alaska, South Dakota, Arkansas and Nebraska approved minimum wage hikes; Washington State tightened restrictions on access to guns with mandatory background checks; California reduced sentencing for non-violent crimes; and Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia legalized marijuana.
Will any of this effect the ’15 mayoral race? Maybe a little.
“Maybe in terms of who are going to be the major political players that have influence on Philadelphia politics in general,” St. Vincent said.
As for the big gubernatorial election, Bowman said from Harrisburg, maybe some of it had to do with the “perfect weather. It was textbook, to be honest with you,” adding “[Wolf] did a great job, the ground crew did a great job, the campaign did a great job. Everything was moving in the right direction.”
Contact Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
Mayor Michael A. Nutter chats with Democratic political consultant, Eleanor M. Dezzi, inside the crowded Queen Village politico lunch destination.
Staff Photo By Bill Chenevert
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