Oct 26, 2014 4 min read

With the election just over a week away, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf headed for Southwestern Pennsylvania, including stops in Waynesburg Saturday and in Washington Sunday afternoon.

Wolf apologized to his supporters gathered at his local campaign office on East Wheeling Street for his tardy arrival. He was scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m., but it was almost 3 p.m. when his campaign bus pulled in across the street from the headquarters.

“I apologize, but we ran into Steeler traffic trying to get here,” Wolf said, noting those gathered likely wanted to get home in time to watch the late afternoon game. “And, my wife and I went to church.”

During both stops, Wolf said, while his ads indicate Pennsylvania has dropped from 9th to 47th in job creation, statistics now show the state to be last among all 50 states.

“We have so much to build on,” he said. “I want us to be No. 1 in everything and create a future that we all deserve.”

Wolf said he is supporting a five percent severance tax on natural gas extraction in the state for the benefit of not just this area but for all Pennsylvanians.

“We want to make sure Pennsylvania works for everybody,” Wolf emphasized. “If not, it won’t (work) for anybody.”

In Waynesburg, Wolf spoke to about 40 supporters crowded into a store front on High Street across from the Greene County Courthouse.

Six people, one dressed in a wolf animal costume, greeted Wolf’s bus, standing on the courthouse sidewalk waving Tom Corbett signs.

Wolf also spoke about making education a priority and about reinstating the idea of fairness in regard to working people and society in general.

“In a democracy that has a free market economy that we want to function optimally to create good jobs, you have to start with a robust, really good education system,” he said. “We’ve always had that commitment, but somehow in the last four years we’ve stepped away from it.”

Throwing money at a problem does not always lead to the best solution, Wolf said. “But we’ve got to start with the idea that education is a number one priority.”

In the last 40 years, Wolf said, we’ve also stepped away from the idea of fairness. Democrats have supported labor and family-sustaining jobs, “because it’s the right thing to do but also because it’s the smart thing to do.”

The building products company he operated, The Wolf Organization Inc., offered its employees profit sharing, he said. “I didn’t do that because I was a saint, I did it because it was smart. Treating your workers fairly creates a better, more successful business.”

These ideas, however, were lost during the last 40 years.

“This austerity, this stiff your workers, this letting the one percent go wild that was going to lead to a really strong robust economy – wasn’t that the promise – it hasn’t worked out for us.”

The state also is broke and recently had to take out a loan, not to build a bridge or create jobs, “but just to keep the lights on,” he said.

“These folks who over the last 40 years told us we’re going to run this in a business-like way, we’re going to make this place better. Well, we’ve hollowed out education, we haven’t followed through on anything in terms of job creation, in fact we’re worse, and we’re broke, ” he said. “What am I missing here?”

Pennsylvanian has many great opportunities for strategic investment, he said, citing the importance of state’s resources including its location as an important transportation hub, its supply of fresh water and hardwood and its natural beauty. It was his mention of coal as part of that future that drew the applause.

The state must take advantage of these opportunities. “Let’s do it,” he said. “But it’s going to take something we haven’t had in the governor’s office for the last three-and-half-years, leadership,” he said.

Wolf noted in his introductions many people are already referring to him his governor.

“The polls don’t matter,” Wolf told the group in Washington. “It is just what happens on Nov. 4. People need to come out and vote.”