Pa. candidates vying for attention

Election 2008 Hopefuls worry din of presidential campaign obscuring state row office races

HARRISBURG — Competing for attention against the battle for the White House, candidates for three statewide offices are raising millions of dollars and campaigning across Pennsylvania in the hope that voters will consider their messages by Election Day.

The offices of attorney general, treasurer and auditor general — each carrying a four-year term and an annual salary that is currently $141,565 — are up for grabs in the Nov. 4 election. So are most of the 253 seats in the General Assembly.

But more than one candidate complained that the din of the presidential campaign is making it difficult to interest voters in relatively obscure state races.

“Most people don’t even know we have a state treasurer,” lamented Tom Ellis, the Republican nominee for that post. “You’ve got to educate (voters) and then you’ve got to get them to pay attention.”

The treasurer’s office, which is responsible for investing billions of state dollars, is the only one of the three “row offices” in which the incumbent is not running. Treasurer Robin Wiessmann agreed not to seek a full term when she was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when Bob Casey was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Ellis, 49, a Philadelphia bond lawyer and former Montgomery County commissioner, faces Rob McCord, a venture capitalist who advertised heavily on TV and spent a whopping $3 million to win a four-way Democratic primary race in April.

Ellis, who was unopposed in the primary, said he hopes his campaign will have several hundred thousand dollars on hand when the next campaign finance reports are filed in late September. He is touting his experience as a public finance lawyer and an elected official.

If elected, Ellis said he would press for new incentives to encourage parents to participate in state-sponsored college savings plans. He said he also would press the trustees of the state workers’ and teachers’ pension funds, which have about $100 billion in combined assets, to ban investments in countries that sponsor terrorism or harbor terrorists. By law, the treasurer serves on the boards of both pension funds.

McCord, 49, a newcomer to elective politics who also lives in Montgomery County, said his business experience makes him the better man for the job. He said he would use the state’s investing power to help create “green-collar jobs” in the energy field and work to enhance retirement security for Pennsylvanians, especially women.

In tough economic times, Pennsylvanians want “fresh leadership,” he said. “They’re not looking for career pols.”

McCord sank $1 million of his own money into his primary campaign and raised much of the rest from wealthy friends and business associates. He still had $345,000 on hand in mid-May, but declined this week to discuss how much he has raised since then.

The most prominent row-office race is the contest for attorney general — the state’s chief legal and law enforcement officer — between Republican incumbent Tom Corbett, who is seeking a second term, and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, the Democratic nominee.

Corbett, 59, is widely viewed as having the advantage because he already holds the office and because of his ongoing investigation into whether millions of public dollars that legislative leaders awarded in staff bonuses in 2005 and 2006 were actually illegal payments for campaign work.

In July, a dozen people connected to the House Democratic caucus were charged with crimes. Corbett has said investigators are scrutinizing both parties’ caucuses in both houses and that additional arrests are anticipated.

Corbett faces an aggressive challenge from Morganelli, a feisty prosecutor who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 2000 and 2004. Morganelli had $619,000 in the bank in May and says he hopes to reach $1 million in the coming weeks.

Morganelli, 52, who would be the first Democrat in the attorney’s office since the post became an elective office nearly three decades ago, charged that the unbroken GOP tenure has weakened functions such as consumer protection and enforcement of environmental laws.

“In order to have real reform in Harrisburg ... it’s time to change the party in Harrisburg,” he said.

Corbett, who had $1.1 million on hand in May and said he has since raised at least $300,000, cites accomplishments that include the arrests of scores of Internet sex predators and hundreds of arrests by an anti-drug task force that also involves federal and local law-enforcement agencies.

“I think we have a very strong record,” said Corbett, a former U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania who also was appointed by then-Gov. Tom Ridge to fill in as state attorney general from 1995 to 1997.

The contest for auditor general — state government’s fiscal watchdog — pits Democratic incumbent Jack Wagner, 60, a former state senator from Pittsburgh, against Republican nominee Chet Beiler, a Lancaster County businessman who has not previously run for elective office.

As examples of his accomplishments, Wagner points to an audit that called for shrinking the Legislature’s presence on the board of Pennsylvania’s student-loan agency and another that revealed the state Agriculture Department was behind on inspecting the accuracy of gasoline pumps around the state.

“We think we’ve addressed some very pertinent issues that the public wants us to address,” said Wagner, who hopes to have $500,000 on hand by his next report.

Beiler, 45, whose company makes gazebos, said his “real-world business experience” makes him the better candidate. He said his campaign hopes his report will show “a couple hundred thousand” dollars on hand.

In the Legislature, most of the suspense is in the House, where all 203 seats are up for grabs. Democrats control the chamber by a one-vote margin.

In the Senate, where only half of the 50 seats are at stake in this year’s election, Republicans outnumber Democrats by eight votes.

Campaign strategists for both sides expressed confidence that their party would wind up in the majority.

Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Twp., who is directing the House Democrats’ campaign effort, played down the effect of the corruption investigation. He said individual legislators will be judged on their own merits and Democratic initiatives on issues such as health care and energy will resonate with voters.

Eachus’ GOP counterpart, Rep. Mike Turzai, said the investigation has drawn attention to the failing of Democratic leadership and that the GOP has strong candidates in crucial districts across the state.