By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: At least two Republican state senators shed light this week on reasons for Gov. Tom Corbett’s paltry record of accomplishment. The Republican governor’s legislative victories have been very few and far in-between. Now we are beginning to know why.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls the situation “signs of conservative discontent . . . in what has often appeared a unified caucus of Republicans in the state Senate.”
Both Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, and Scott Wagner, R-York, publicly declared they will not support the re-election of Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, as the Senate’s majority leader. Legislative sessions last two years. The current one expires November 30.
White is a long time establishment Republican. Wagner was just elected to fill a vacancy, defeating another Republican backed by the Party.
Normally successive occupancies of leadership positions are self-determined and non-controversial. The current lineup of 27 Republicans and 23 Democrat members in Harrisburg could tighten a bit at the November 4 election.
Both rebelling Senators claim Pileggi used his leadership position to prevent advancement of Corbett’s legislative agenda. The list of stalled bills include reduced pension benefits for future state employees and teachers, limiting labor-union deductions from public employee paychecks and privatizing the sale of liquor and wine.
(A vote on the paycheck deductions rolled out at the end of last week and was soundly defeated, 28 to 20. Six Republican Senators – but not Pileggi – joined 22 Democrats. No word if Pileggi was forced to bring the bill to a vote. Now Corbett must explain why his own Party has already sidetracked part of his legislative platform. This vote is not a victory of the Democrats, but rather shows the muscle of Organized Labor.)
Doing away with state stores is another issue prevented from happening by the powerful labor unions. White and Wagner accuse Pileggi of doing labor’s bidding.
Corbett was first elected in 2010 and came into office with the supposed advantage of both legislative chambers in control of his own Party. Other Republican governors like Ohio and Wisconsin swept into office the same year have been able to advance conservative agendas.
Doing away with state stores is a particular failure of Corbett’s. Polls show a majority of voters of both major parties favor the purchase of liquor in grocery stores, but unions win out so far.
More recent polls contain evidence that Corbett’s base of support is hardening. Given the display of union power in the halls of the legislature, business leaders are attempting to salvage what they can out of the 2014 elections. Earlier it appeared they had resigned themselves to a whipping of some magnitude.
Bottom Line: Corbett will still lose, just not to the Democrats. In this election, the Democrats gain from Corbett’s failures. There is a difference.
