Budget battle is campaign issue

MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press

HARRSIBURG — The ink was still wet last week on the budget bill passed by Republicans in the state House of Representatives when the state Democratic Party pounced.

The budget plan, with its cuts to education, health care and a variety of other state programs, is likely to change considerably as it grinds through the Republican state Senate in the coming weeks. Republican Gov. Tom Corbett will undoubtedly have a lot to say about its final form as well.

That didn’t stop the Democratic Party from announcing an immediate barrage of phone calls, emails and online ads to target 25 House Republicans in swing districts, saying the vote has endangered political futures. They vowed to keep reminding voters of higher college tuition, ballooning nursing home costs and fewer kindergarten classes, even with the next legislative election still 17 months away.

Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, called the vote a potential gold mine for campaign material. He said candidates should not take much comfort in the thought that most people going into a voting booth in November 2012 might have difficulty remembering that their state lawmaker voted in May 2011 to cut state support for local schools or other programs.

“His opponent’s mail and TV vendors will remember, as I know, because I’ve been in numerous competitive elections,” Leach said. “Even votes that I didn’t cast, or policies I didn’t support, were used against me, years after the fact.”

House Republican leaders were able to persuade their members, with only two defections, to vote for the $27.3 billion plan, with all its pain, without a deal in place with the Senate and Corbett on the budget’s final form.

By next year’s election voters will be able to chew over a much broader record, said Rep. Dave Reed, R-Indiana, campaign chairman of his caucus.

“Ultimately, the best thing we can do, election-wise for next year, is to govern correctly this year,” Reed said. “If we get the policy right, the politics will take care of itself.”

The House Democratic Campaign Committee said the party is targeting 25 districts in 22 counties, including many Republicans won in November as they swept back into the majority with a 112-91 margin. With two nationally prominent Democrats at the top of the ticket next year, President and Sen. Bob Casey, and a Democratic pickup of a congressional seat in New York last week, Democrats are feeling more optimistic.

“Democrats do struggle to turn out our voters in nonpresidential years,” said committee executive director Fiona Conroy, noting that Casey won 24 of the 25 targeted districts five years ago in beating Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. “We view these seats as being Casey territory, and he’s on the ballot again.”

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said the governor sees an opportunity in the current budget debate to create an economic climate in which businesses will thrive, adding jobs and leading new companies to relocate in Pennsylvania.

Will that happen?

“It’s hard to say,” Harley said. “Next year may be a very difficult budget year as well. We’ve got to get our spending under control, and there’s a lot of economic challenges the state is still facing for next year.”

The window to pass politically sensitive legislation will not be open for very long. If school vouchers or a Marcellus Shale extraction tax don’t pass this year, leaders may be reluctant to take them up in fall 2012.

Reed said House Republicans want to make difficult and unpopular decisions while there is time for the policies to yield positive results such as lower unemployment or a budget surplus that could restore education funding.

“Folks may look back six months or a year from now and say, ‘Thank goodness folks made those decisions, because we’re better off for it today,”’ Reed said.

“I didn’t spend two years helping to run our campaign committee just to win on Nov. 2. I spent that time because I was interested in helping our state by governing responsibly.”