{"id":7943,"date":"2013-07-20T09:56:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T13:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=7943"},"modified":"2013-07-22T13:39:01","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T17:39:01","slug":"dont-write-corbett-off-just-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=7943","title":{"rendered":"Don’t write Corbett off just yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite doomsayers \u2014 and the work of local GOP legislators \u2014 Gov. may just have second act<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\n\"UTMikeColLogo\"<\/a>Undoubtedly, you\u2019ve seen the headlines (unless of course, you\u2019re a sensible person and have spent the last broiling week or so somewhere with beaches, cool (relatively speaking) breezes and chilled beverages) that Gov. Tom Corbett is likely doomed, will be pushed out of place by the Republican Party and it\u2019s a steaming mess in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n

With the departure of Steve Aichele as Corbett\u2019s Chief of Staff \u2014 and questions whether his wife, former Chester County Commissioner Carol Aichele, the Secretary of State, will be following him out the door \u2014 much of the talk about who might replace Corbett on the ticket centers around pols from or around Chester County.<\/p>\n

While it makes for good water cooler talk among political addicts and good copy for some publications, let me be kind enough to set you straight: Corbett isn\u2019t going anywhere. In fact, despite the polls, I still make him a favorite in the Nov., 2014 general election.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, it is a mess in Harrisburg \u2014 the failure of the legislature to get deals on the transportation bill and the liquor privatization bill are embarrassing, more on that in a minute \u2014 but things are never quite as they seem.<\/p>\n

Many of those floated to replace Corbett on the ticket (and those trial balloons would seem to be coming from overeager junior staff or wanna-be insiders), such as State Sen. Dominic Pileggi, and Congressmen Jim Gerlach and Pat Meehan are pretty silly if you stop and think about it.<\/p>\n

For Pileggi, the Senate Majority Leader who represents about half of the county, one could argue that becoming governor is a demotion \u2014 and while I think he\u2019s ambitious and would make a good governor, he\u2019s got a few issues to sort out in his back yard and he doesn\u2019t seem like the type to challenge a sitting governor. Gerlach, who represents much of Chester County, would also like to be governor, but not at Corbett\u2019s expense. Meehan? I get the sense he\u2019s pretty happy where he is right now \u2014 and with a largely new house district still getting used to him is busy enough.<\/p>\n

And make no mistake, Corbett will not go down without a fight. And he still has a base of strength and big vote counts in three southern Pennsylvania counties: Chester, Bucks and Delaware that should temper the impact of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

So ignore the doomsday stories: Corbett will be the GOP nominee for Governor. And, if you pressed me, I\u2019d say he wins a narrow victory over Allyson Schwartz in November, 2014.<\/p>\n

That win, of course, will be no thanks to some of our local Republican state legislators who played key roles in the destruction of the Governor\u2019s major policy plays last month. Pileggi, as Senate Majority Leader, was front and center in senate not moving forward on the liquor bill, while State Rep. Steve Barrar was among those in the house who torpedoed the transportation bill.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be polite and not mention that neither house of the legislature was willing to do much of anything about the public pension issue (all seemed to recognize that Rep. Chris Ross’ bill was a lot like deploying extra icebergs to save the Titanic), which is going so well that the state\u2019s bond rating was downgraded this week, and how down the road that will mean higher taxes, less service or both.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, as things often happen in Harrisburg, the transportation bill, which Senate Republicans wanted, and the liquor bill, which house Republicans wanted, all ended up being linked in what proved to be a death spiral for both bills, meaning we here in Chester County look forward to more drives to Delaware for decent booze, assuming that bridges don\u2019t collapse en route.<\/p>\n

This was strictly Republican-on-Republican political violence. The state legislature\u2019s Democrats never even needed to get out of their little clown cars, beyond the usual pontificating and harumphing.<\/p>\n

I have to ask: wasn\u2019t there a deal to be made here? The House Republicans \u2014 who seem to oppose all tax hikes except those that fund additional legislative accounts \u2014 didn\u2019t like the idea of a 5-cent or so a year gas tax hike over five years to pay for our crumbling bridges and roads, but signaled willingness to do something at a lower figure.<\/p>\n

With the liquor bill as a carrot, there should have been the basis for a deal \u2014 a smaller, transportation package, say in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion, in exchange for most of what the House wanted on liquor privatization.<\/p>\n

But\u2026.nope. Neither side seemed willing to engage in…wait for it\u2026politics. So, therefore we can all look forward to new weight restrictions on bridges, more car-shredding potholes and pavement ripples and be stuck drowning our sorrows in overpriced, bottom-shelf liquor.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it seems pretty likely that as Pileggi and Barrar enjoy their summer \u201cgrip and grin\u201d tour, they\u2019ll shrug and blame the other house, the other guy or the governor. Don\u2019t let them off the hook \u2014 press them on why their work didn\u2019t get done.<\/p>\n

Electoral politics in the area being what they are, neither of these guys are going to lose an election, so the only way to get them to reform their ways is to give them grief and a lot of it, or this petty, intra-party behavior will continue.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

You have to love gerrymandering. In order to make the remaining Chester County State House districts more solidly Republican, the completely objective (and yes, even I spurted coffee on my computer screen when I wrote that) redistricting panel drew up a sacrificial state house district for Chester County that would lean strongly Democratic: the 74th, in the Coatesville area.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the funny thing: the Republicans have a winning candidate in Harry Lewis \u2014 who I\u2019ve now been told by many, many sources is running. Lewis \u2014 the recently retired chairman of the Brandywine Health Foundation and a former educator, coach and administrator in the school district is known and liked by \u2014 well \u2014 virtually everyone in the Coatesville School District towns.<\/p>\n

Match that up with a governor\u2019s race at the top of the ticket \u2014 and as I noted above, despite rumors and backbiting, the GOP rank-and-file will fall into line by next spring and be back on the Corbett bandwagon \u2014 and the Republican Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort should be in top form \u2014 much as it surprised many by delivering for Mitt Romney in 2012. If that happens, take Lewis and give the points.<\/p>\n

And the Democrats\u2019 GOTV? Well, let\u2019s just say it is to politics what Honey Boo Boo is to raising the level of cultural discourse in our country: a smoldering apocalypse.<\/p>\n

So that leaves a real problem: if Democrats lose a house seat that was created for them to win, what happens? Who gets the blame? The candidate? Likely. Whatever poor wretched soul who manages the race (and sees their political career permanently ended as he or she is vilified)? Yeah. But the issues the Democrats face in this county run deeper: to be blunt, they\u2019re really bad at organizing, message and well, politics in general.<\/p>\n

Watching the Democrats in action is like watching Michael Vick with the ball, the Eagles down a touchdown in the fourth quarter and driving. You know he\u2019s going to throw that third interception and blow the game. That sense seriously hurts the party’s ability to raise money, as sensible folks don’t like to feel like they’re wasting their donations.<\/p>\n

And maybe, if the local Democrats weren\u2019t so inept, a wide range of Republicans behaving badly (and man, I can\u2019t wait to see how our local threesome of Congresscritters vote on immigration reform) would not be able to do so with utter impunity.<\/p>\n

No check, no balance. Last time I checked, there seem to be a lot of unbalanced people in local politics.<\/p>\n

Stay cool and dry, folks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite doomsayers \u2014 and the work of local GOP legislators \u2014 Gov. may just have second act By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times Undoubtedly, you\u2019ve seen the headlines (unless of course, you\u2019re a sensible person and have spent the last broiling week or so somewhere with beaches, cool (relatively speaking) breezes and chilled beverages) that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,4],"tags":[2901,2902,483,1285,2903,1130,2904,2906,2905],"class_list":["post-7943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","category-featured","tag-allyson-schwartz","tag-carol-aichele","tag-gov-tom-corbett","tag-jim-gerlach","tag-pat-meehan","tag-rep-chris-ross","tag-state-rep-steve-barrar","tag-state-sen-dominic-pileggi","tag-steve-aichele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}