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WILKES-BARRE — Gov. Tom Wolf says public officials were fighting back tears Saturday during a press conference following the Tree of Life Synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
“We all were,” Wolf added quietly during a visit to the Times Leader editorial board on Thursday.
Wolf came to the newspaper to talk about issues at stake in next week’s general election, in which the incumbent Democrat faces a challenge from Republican Scott Wagner.
Due to scheduling conflicts, Wagner will not be visiting with this paper prior to the Nov. 6 election, but he did provide written responses to our issues questions. Together with Wolf’s in-person responses, they will be the subject of a story in this Sunday’s election preview edition.
In light of the Pittsburgh slayings and other national incidents in recent weeks, Wolf on Thursday also shared his thoughts on civility in politics, discussed here.
‘Words have consequences’
Members of the board asked Wolf to talk about Wagner’s recent campaign ad, delivered as a message to Wolf, in which Wagner said “I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes.”
“We need to dial down the rhetoric,” Wolf said. “Words do have consequences.”
The governor admitted he was not surprised by the ad, noting he has known Wagner, a fellow resident of York County, for many years.
“I thought, ‘Come on Scott, cut it out.’ I sort of laughed it off,” Wolf said. “And then Pittsburgh happened.”
“I think seeing that kind of behavior coming from people running for the highest office in the state leads to people feeling that they have the license to go out and shoot innocent people in a synagogue in Squirrel Hill,” Wolf added. “That’s just not right.”
Wolf said he believes in “common sense gun reform,” citing five key steps and acknowledging some fall under federal jurisdiction:
• Taking guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, something designed to happen under House Bill 2060, which was passed and signed by the governor in October.
• Universal background checks.
• A ban on “bump stocks.”
• A ban military-style weapons.
• In Pennsylvania, “we need to close the gun show loophole,” he said.
Leadership style
Wolf, who came to office in 2015 after defeating first-term Republican Tom Corbett in 2014, explained his leadership style in blunt, self-effacing terms.
“I’m accused of being boring, which I readily acknowledge,” he said.
“We have come together, and we don’t agree on everything, but we have some areas of overlap, so let’s focus on those,” the governor added.
His first year was a contentious one, with Wolf in 2015 vetoing the budget submitted to him by the GOP-controlled legislature on the grounds that it was not balanced.
The stalemate, with several back-and-forth volleys, lasted 267 days; a budget finally took effect in March 2016 after Wolf said he would neither sign a $30 billion budget bill nor veto it.
But, Wolf argues, he fought both for civility amid disagreements and for policies that he believes have been successful — this summer the state ended the fiscal year with a budget surplus, enabling officials to make a deposit into its “rainy day” reserve fund, he pointed out.
And, Wolf added, the state has forged ahead with liquor-sales modernization and a pension system overhaul that will include some use of 401(k)-style plans, as are common in the private sector.
“We actually do have pension reform. That got the approving notices of the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post,” he said. “Now when was the last time those two papers agreed on anything?”
Wolf said he did not regret vetoing legislation that would have privatized liquor sales in the state, but feels allowing expanded sales in supermarkets has been a success.
“As someone who grew up in Pennsylvania, being able to buy wine and beer in the grocery store is a big deal,” he said.
The governor insists that these accomplishments would not have been possible without bipartisan cooperation.
“We have done fundamental things … in a way which I think you are supposed to do them in a democracy — one in which we have an overwhelmingly Republican senate and a Republican house,” he said.
Lack of debates?
Wagner has criticized Wolf for agreeing to only one televised debate. That Oct. 1 encounter in Hershey, moderated by game show host Alex Trebek, drew jeers for Trebek’s heavy-handed style and lengthy, confusing monologues.
“The point of five months and two weeks, I think it is, between the primary and the general election is that it should be a time you spend out with the public, engaging … making yourself accessible to reporters and to the public at large,” Wolf said. “I have done all those things.”
“The goal should not be how many debates you do, how many editorial board reviews you do, it’s how well informed are the voters when they get to the polls on Nov. 6,” he added.
“I think that as a result of all the things both of us have done, the voters are going to have a pretty clear idea what the distinctions are between the two of us when they go to vote, and that should be the goal in a democracy,” Wolf said.
