Well, the first of three debates between Governor Tom Corbett and former Revenue Secretary Tom Wolf is in the books.
Of course, beneath all the policy discussions there is one question every journalist, pundit and voter (yes you too) is dying to know.
Who won?
The general consensus seems to be that the incumbent was more fiery and on-message. On the other hand, Wolf was more mellow and measured.
Now, you can paint this two different ways (and the campaigns certainly have). You can say “Prosecutor Tom Corbett” mopped the floor with “Professor Tom Wolf” or you can say Wolf provided a breath of fresh air by proving he truly is not a politician but rather an expert at getting things done.
What matters most to us, however, is what you thought.
So, dear readers, who do you think won the first gubernatorial debate?
Who Won the First Gubernatorial Debate?
- Tom Corbett (73%)
- Tom Wolf (27%)
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28 Responses
I don’t see where the debates make much difference. Wolf is headed for a landslide victory and the voters have already, for the most part, made up their minds to replace Corbett. Wolf just has to be breathing to win this one.
Both ducked key questions.
Corbett declined to answer whether his famed no-new-taxes pledge extends to a potential second term.
All he said was his record “speaks for itself.”
For many voters that’s the problem.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20140924_Corbett-Wolf_debate_followed_predictable_script.html#MKjb4J2wzu51RzTM.99
Oh Kathleen…. Wolf did say something….. :
Wolf said the state has seen real cutbacks in education, which caused tens of thousands of educators to lose their jobs, school districts to increase class sizes and property taxes to rise.
“We can talk about statistics all we want,” Wolf said, continuing to argue that education has been cut. He said the state needs to do better.”
“We need a fresh start,” Wolf said. “I think we need to go in a different direction. I think we need a new governor.”
Wolf spoke a lot; yet, he said nothing. This is but one more bored self-entitled millionaire who believes his wealth can buy office and power.
Mr. Aloysius E. Stuhl:
FIRST, Thank You for your Service to our Great Country.
Since you are a rightfully proud, and concerned Vet, perhaps you may wish to be concerned with the fact the fact that for as long as Governor Corbett refused to accept the Medicaid Expansion, 47,000+ PA Vets have been without Health Care Insurance, and these Vets are not those who served in, or during, the Vietnam era, but rather pretty much those Vets who have served from Desert Storm forward to now.
Also, as a Vet, I never thought of, or considered, the Peace Corp as an alternative, or option, to military service.
mister Harvey, I am pretty good with lerning the English langwig and I got the names of the candydates right didn’t I? but I will try to chek my words bettar thanbk you, chris
Chris Martinez: I will take your opinion much more seriously if you learn to write proper English and learn the correct names of the two candidates for Governor.
Mr. A.E. Stuhl: I served during the Vietnam War, and there wasn’t a soldier in my squad, platoon or company who gave a the Peace Corps a passing thought. We certainly didn’t think of them as draft dodgers. Most of us thought the campus protesters had a point. What in God’s name are you talking about?
Aloysius E. Stuhl-
For a lot of people whose villages got burned by US troops, they would have preferred more had joined the Peace Corps instead.
Mike-
Corbett has acted “responsibly”? Cutting education, downgraded debt rating, and letting polluters poison the drinking water. Maybe you meant “irresponsibly”?
Chick-
You claim Corbett was left with a mess? Well, turning it into a bigger mess isn’t going to get him reelected.
As for the tax crybabies… grow up. The state provides services. Services costs money. The state needs revenue. Taxes are a form of revenue. Paying interest on debt, costs more long term than raising taxes to pay our bills. The state’s 3% tax could easily be increased to 4% for every dollar over $50,000 or $100,000 without hurting anyone. (The first $50,000 or $100,000 still taxed at 3%).
I picked those numbers arbitrarily as an example of how a tax increase would not crush anyone. However, the ideal rate and cut-off numbers are just a question of looking at the tax base distribution, how much money you need to raise, and then calculating the values.
As for the poll: There should be a third choice
“Doesn’t matter”
Unless Wolf plans to eat a baby panda during the next debate, nothing either of them says is going to change the outcome.
The only people who “won” the debate are the campaign hacks who get paid huge fees to prepare their candidates for a show no one watches or cares about, and certainly no one in the history of politics has based their vote on (well, almost no one, but certainly less and less). Where was this, on PCN? Really?
For those of us who served our country during the Vietnam War the name Peace Corp was synonymous with draft dodger!
Tom Corbitt has been the adult/ parent and of course is as popular as any other parent who insists that the “kids” act responsibly. So, do we really want the indulgent parent, like Ed Rendell, now Tom Wolf who promises to give us whatever we want? Is it really for free and no one needs pay for it?
WE CAN’T GO BACK TO THE RENDELL YEARS. Tom Wolf is a RENDELL clone !!!!! Governor Corbett was left with a mess when he took office. People need to do their research. The Governor has been fiscally responsible and sees the writing on the wall especially when it comes to spending. We are on the brink of a fiscal catastrophe like other states, cities, etc because of state pensions. Wolf is all talk with no plan whatsoever
Corbett hasn’t been the best governor but he sure would be better than Obama as our gov. Wolf will kill jobs with his tax policies. Someone needs to ask him about his very confusing story on his draft story, I’m sure his answer would be like every answer he had last night, “I don’t know”
I get tired of people falling into the campaign rhetoric trap. We’ve been talking for months about what the Governor hasn’t done. But have we forgotten why we hired him? In 2010 we were on the brink of insolvency. We were staring down the pike of becoming the next California, with more than $4 billion in debt and a legislature that enjoyed making pack mules of us. The mandate back then had nothing to do with liquor privatization, paycheck protection, Common Core or any of the other issues that have grown so exponentially during the Governor’s first term. And on those issues, he’s taken them further than any Governor to date. But the mandate in 2010 was for Tom Corbett to solve the giant crisis that had us near bankruptcy and to eliminate the culture of tax and spend that got us there. He did that and it was one GIANT promise kept. A tremendous accomplishment. How quickly we forget.
I hope my friends who are voting for Tom Wolf “because he drives a jeep” were listening closely. I heard no plan from him except “raise taxes.” And any candidate that has to lie to get in isn’t to be trusted with my vote! Why doesn’t Wolf release his taxes, (as promised), and now that he has been exposed as lying about Gov. Corbett’s education spending, why doesn’t he apologize and correct his false statements?
john wolfe aint give no numbers of what he want to spend for schools and learning and stuf like that but guevnor corbit gived lotsa numbers and he says what he want to do for kids and he gonna win a nuther 4 yrs iun a land slide.
I watched it twice and though Wolf had much more specific that Corbett.
What a waste of time. All they did was recite their campaign ads, and who hasn’t already had their fill of that! Wish I could get that 45 mins of my life back.
ANY SIGHTINGS OF RON TOMALIS AND ACTING GOVERNOR BRABENDER? CAN’T WAIT UNTIL WOLF IS SWORN IN AND WE HAVE HOME RULE BY AN OFFICIAL WHO WAS ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE AND IS FOR THE PEOPLE!
If you think taxes aren’t going up in PA next year no matter who wins you are smoking something. Gov. Corbett has created quite a mess. No way I vote for him and I did the last time.
I was in audence and saw it up close and there aint no dout guevnor corbit was the winner and john wolfe was not the winner and the goevnor is gonna get to be the winner and win in land slide the way it work in penna anyways,
Corbett and the Republicans has a
chance in the spring to pass an
extraction tax, but they are owned
by the Drillers.. Natural Gas Production
had increased by 700% by July of this
year, Over 1.9 trillion cubic feet. Corbett’s
impact fee has gone from 204 million,
203 million to 224 million last year.
Pennsylvanian know we are loosing out
on $billions every year while the impact
fee goes to ZERO on each well after
15 years !! Republicans should tell
the voters when their Property Tax
gets to ZERO..
Corbett knew the numbers, which is more than can be said about Wolf.
Jon Geeting is right that Wolf’s job was simply not screw up, which has been his year long campaign strategy.
It is why he doesn’t supply any details on his plans.
As long as no one knows for sure that their taxes are going up, he doesn’t risk losing their votes.
As long as he doesn’t actually say what he plans to spend on education, he doesn’t have to worry about explaining how he is going to pay for it or people upset he may not be spending more.
You know, stuff that would risk losing votes.
Is there a “none of the above” option?
it wasn’t even close. Corbett made Wolf look like the fool he is.
wolf did not do too badly until he kept failing to provide ANY kind of a plan when asked for one!
Wolf, easily. All Tom Wolf had to do was not screw up and the race doesn’t change. Doesn’t matter how stampy and animated Tom Corbett gets. Flailing doesn’t move votes.