NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

Tom Wolf wins in Pennsylvania as Democrats take back governorship from Republicans

An impor­tant guber­na­to­r­i­al race is now being called in Penn­syl­va­nia for the Democ­rats. Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Tom Wolf is the pro­ject­ed win­ner, defeat­ing incum­bent Repub­li­can Tom Corbett.

Very few bal­lots have been tab­u­lat­ed and report­ed so far, but appar­ent­ly Wolf’s mar­gin of vic­to­ry is sig­nif­i­cant enough that mass media feel com­fort­able call­ing it.

Polling showed that Wolf was ahead by dou­ble dig­it mar­gins through­out the race. Cor­bett is the first incum­bent Penn­syl­va­nia gov­er­nor to lose reelec­tion in decades.

Wolf, who has nev­er held office, will become the Com­mon­wealth’s forty-sev­enth gov­er­nor. He spent over $10 mil­lion of his own mon­ey get­ting through PA’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry, and then end­ed up cruis­ing to vic­to­ry over Corbett.

Wolf post­ed a mes­sage of thanks to his sup­port­ers pri­or to tak­ing the stage at his elec­tion night par­ty in York. Here’s what he sent out:

I’m about to go on stage in my home­town of York, but I want­ed to thank you first. As I trav­elled all across Penn­syl­va­nia dur­ing this cam­paign, I was amazed at the ded­i­ca­tion, ener­gy, and enthu­si­asm put forth by sup­port­ers like you to encour­age oth­ers to par­tic­i­pate in our democ­ra­cy. You made this cam­paign about more than elect­ing me — you made it about peo­ple com­ing togeth­er to improve our schools, our neigh­bor­hoods, and our state.

Through­out my life, I’ve found that the only way to get things done right is to lis­ten, to treat peo­ple fair­ly, and to include every­one in the process. It’s that kind of col­lab­o­ra­tion that allowed me to turn my for­mer busi­ness around, and it’s the approach we need to take to bring about the bright future this great com­mon­wealth deserves.

Gov­er­nor Tom Cor­bett, Lt. Gov­er­nor Jim Caw­ley, and their many sup­port­ers deserve our respect and admi­ra­tion for run­ning a cam­paign focused on the issues. While we may dis­agree on ide­ol­o­gy, we all agree that Penn­syl­va­ni­a’s best days are ahead of us.

I hope you keep your pas­sion for Penn­syl­va­nia alive by con­tin­u­ing to con­nect with res­i­dents all across our com­mon­wealth. In the days and weeks ahead, I urge you to reach out to your neigh­bors — espe­cial­ly those who did­n’t sup­port this cam­paign — and ask them what you can do togeth­er to improve your community.

The con­ver­sa­tions you have may sur­prise you.

If we’re going to fund a world-class pub­lic edu­ca­tion sys­tem, cre­ate fam­i­ly-sus­tain­ing jobs, bring about fair­ness and equal­i­ty under the law, pro­vide access to afford­able health care, build safe com­mu­ni­ties, and keep Penn­syl­va­nia beau­ti­ful, it’s going to take all of us doing our part.

Democ­ra­cy requires healthy debates, but our duty to Penn­syl­va­nia requires that we lis­ten, that we roll up our sleeves, and that we come togeth­er to do what is right.

As your gov­er­nor, I’ll be there work­ing with you — and I can’t wait to see what we do togeth­er to help give Penn­syl­va­nia a fresh start.

Wolf will like­ly be tak­ing office with a Leg­is­la­ture con­trolled by the Repub­li­can Party.

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