By Dick Morris
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: The race for Governor of Pennsylvania has begun. If February’s campaign kickoff is an example, perhaps the script will not be as boring as pundits believe.
After all, these same political experts call Republican incumbent Tom Corbett “America’s most vulnerable incumbent.” Even if you might agree with his whacks at public education and other otherwise notable achievements, Corbett’s manner, timing and mouth have rendered too many of his deeds “dubious.”
Not that he didn’t have the opportunity to do better. With decent majorities in the state House and Senate, Corbett should have a record of accomplishment similar to GOP Governors in Michigan and Wisconsin. Corbett has proposed reforms in pension funding, labor unions, public education and privatization of any section of the government where people who benefit write large campaign checks.
Last week the Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley wrote it best: “The GOP’s moderates and tea party wing have often tangled over the size and scope of reforms while Corbett sat on the sidelines.”
Last week’s Quinnipiac (“KWIN-uh-pe-ack”) University poll showed voters do not think Corbett deserves re-election by a 55-34 margin. He trails at least five opponents (all comparatively unknown and running in the Democrat primary) by larger margins than the five percent President Obama carried the state in 2012.
Several polls show Corbett with a negative approval rating.
Apparently, Corbett’s defeat in November will happen regardless. His vulnerability apparently outweighs the competence of America’s most incompetent political opposition party.
Democrats hold a million vote plurality in the Keystone State. Corbett parlayed a promise to “never raise taxes” into a victory against a lackluster Democrat opponent in 2010. Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature. All three appellate courts have more GOP elected judges than Democrats.
Will Corbett repeat incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Rick Santorum’s 18-point wipeout loss to Bob Casey Jr. in 2006?
Corbett picked up his party’s unanimous endorsement by voice vote at its state committee meeting recently. The threat of a Tea Party opponent never materialized. His budget for 2014-15 is all about “too-little, too-late,” much of it underwritten by inflated revenue expectations. Moderate Republican lawmakers have thumbed their noses at Corbett’s attempts to post for sale signs on every government function imaginable.
Corbett continues to oppose an extraction tax on oil and gas drillings. PA has no extraction tax, Texas does. PA does have a personal income tax and Texas does not. That analogy would win an argument anywhere else.
Finally, if justice can prevail, Corbett deserves to lose. He and Dick Thornburgh (in 1978) — with no private sector or government management experience — parlayed selective prosecution of Democrat officeholders into successful runs for governors. Both claimed to be “white hat” prosecutors and promised to clean up Harrisburg. Neither ever made an attempt. Corbett has never mentioned political reform since the day he took office.
BOTTEM LINE: Gov. Corbett should need a miracle to get re-elected. Next week’s column pokes at ways Democrats can still lose.
