Surprising Winners and Losers in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Race So Far

"Winner": Tom Corbett

The guv escaped the humiliation of losing an intra-Party challenge, a piece of luck due not to strength or incumbency but the fact that politicians are gutless. Truth is, a common-sense Republican (or well-funded businessman) with $3 million would have beaten Corbett in a primary. But par for the course, and oblivious to political suicide, GOP leaders exerted pressure on potential Corbett rivals not to challenge the governor.

However, Corbett lost big on his campaign commercial attacking leading Democrat Tom Wolf. It was a dumb move, as he should have stayed above the fray, allowing the Democrats to hammer their own. Airing the ad not only cemented Wolf’s legitimacy as frontrunner (ironically, the person Corbett least wants to oppose), but it also makes Corbett look desperate. Even worse, the ad was laughably bad. It all but accused Wolf, as Ed Rendell’s Secretary of Revenue, of single-handedly raising taxes that “led to 152,000 Pennsylvania voters losing their jobs and unemployment going up almost 50 percent.” Since when does a Revenue Secretary raise taxes and set policy?

And stating that “Tom Wolf’s record on jobs is a car wreck” has become yet another flat-tire for the Governor, as A. cabinet officials have no “record on jobs,” and B. Wolf actually created hundreds of jobs as a successful businessman. Does Corbett, a public official virtually his entire career, really want to compare notes on who created more jobs?

Lastly, the ad states, “Corbett created 150,000 new jobs,” — the height of hypocrisy. Corbett can’t have it both ways. First he correctly preached that government doesn’t create jobs; only the private sector does. But then he conveniently flip-flopped, touting the government’s job-creating and unemployment-lowering prowess.

Result: Corbett makes history, becoming the first incumbent governor to lose re-election, drowning by 18 to 20 points.