Governor Tom Wolf is about to have a little more muscle to back him up in his fight against the Republican-controlled state legislature.
With the budget due in just eight days, the pressure is mounting on Wolf to impose his own agenda, and the first-year governor has responded in force, creating a new political action committee, according to a report from Chris Brennan of the Inquirer.
Rebuilding Pennsylvania PAC will try to sell Wolf’s agenda across the state, while recruiting and supporting more progressive candidates for public office.
The Governor secured the seed money for the organization by selling his shares of the family business.
“He’s writing a personal check to get it off the ground,” Mike Mikus told Brennan. “We expect some contributions to come in as well.”
Mikus will be in charge of Rebuilding Pennsylvania, having run Wolf’s former Democratic opponent – and current Chief of Staff – Katie McGinty’s campaign last spring. After the primary, Mikus served under McGinty at Wolf’s Fresh Start PAC.
Wolf and Republican lawmakers have been at loggerheads since the Governor’s first budget proposal in March.
“The first year of a governor’s term is the most important, setting the tone for what is to come,” the Inquirer piece states, which has been especially true for the state’s last two chief executives.
For instance, Ed Rendell didn’t pass his first budget until late December after vetoing part of the budget passed by the legislature.
Additionally, Tom Corbett’s decision to make cuts to education funding set the stage for an unpopular tenure.
Wolf will hope the new PAC can boost his effectiveness in office, and with the most recent poll showing his approval rating inching to 47%, this could be a make or break moment for the new Governor.
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20 Responses
I wonder if the Governor knows that Mikus was fired from Bob O’Connor’s mayoral campaign for falsifying his voter registration address and just spent the last months, unsuccessfully, trying to oust all county and city wide Democratic incumbents in Allegheny County. Or maybe it just doesn’t matter to him. Either way, bad track record aside, just the type of fellow that you want on your side.
Just scroll down.
Or maybe something stronger, like an anti-psychotic. What in the world are you babbling about?
Says the one decrying Republican hate of women…
Oh no, I’m being judged by a bankrupt racist hypocrite.
That may be the first time that “intellectual” and PoliticsPA have been used in the same context. Take a breath, UR. Maybe a Xanax.
I despise your intellectual dishonesty montco. The indignation is appropriate.
Below are the contributors to Fresh Start in 2014. The total is just shy of $400K.
100 | NINA WALLS
100 | JOSEPH SBAFFONI
100 | WAYNE GARDNER
100 | CRAIG ZIMMERMAN
100 | CAROLYN RUTH
100 | ARTHUR HAYWOOD
100 | CHUCK KRITKO
100 | PHIL DUBROFF
150 | WILLIAM C WITHERUP
250 | STEPHIE-ANNA RAMALEY
321 | MICHAEL HARDOBY
321 | LOU BARLETTA JR
321 | MARY BETH DUGAN
321 | LARRY CAVALLO
321 | CRAIG NEAL
321 | THOMAS JOHNSON
321 | J. MICHAEL ONIFER
321 | JAMES GRECH
321 | CHARLES SHAYNAK
321 | JIMMY BROCK
321 | JAMES MCCAFFREY
321 | STEPHEN JOHNSON
321 | DAVID KHANI
500 | AMY HINES
500 | ANN WOLFF
500 | NICHOLAS DEIULIIS
500 | FIREPAC
1000 | DAVID HOLMBERG
1000 | JAMES CORBETT
1000 | MARY SODERBERG
1000 | THAD BURKLEY II
1000 | DANIEL GORDON
1500 | DOYLE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
2000 | IRWIN ABATE
2000 | AL BOVE
2000 | DAVID LEE
2000 | MICHAEL LEE
2000 | DEWAYNE RIDEOUT
2000 | PAUL RUSCHAK
2000 | PETER MAGNOTTA
2500 | SCOTT MIRKIN
2500 | HARVEY E CAUTHEN JR
2500 | ADAM WINSTANLEY
2500 | MARION MANN
3000 | ROBERT PUSATERI
5000 | JAMES MCDONALD
5000 | IRA WEISS
5000 | 1776 PAC
5000 | APSCUF/CAP-PA
5000 | PP VOTES
5126 | MARK PASQUERILLA
5344 | DOUGLAS FARNHAM
10000 | RAY BOLOGNA
10000 | IUOE LOCAL 542 POLITICAL ACTION FUND
15000 | AFSCME COUNCIL 13 POLITICAL & LEGISLATIVE
20000 | JAMIE MAGUIRE
25000 | KATIE MCGINTY FOR GOVERNOR
33528 | PENNSYLVANIA SEIU COPE
57759 | DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION–PA
72999 | TOM WOLF FOR GOVERNOR
75000 | LOCAL UNION #98 IBEW CMTE ON POLITICAL EDUCATION
It’s not sexist to say Katie McGinty is bad at her job and terrible for Tom Wolf.
How very self-assured and in-control you seem, UR.
Shut up montco. You’re a clown. Republicans are sexist/racist but Chris Martinez’s shtick is hilarious? You dems aren’t fooling anyone. We’ve been reading your guys’ hate for a long time on this site. Hypocrites.
Guys, don’t you know that only sexists criticize female public figures?! Obviously Kathleen Kane was set up and her staff keeps resigning because of the Old Boys Network! And the only reason Katie McGinty keeps making relations with the legislature worse is because they hate women!
Mikus has such a great track record, I imagine all of the Republicans in state government will quickly give up and allow Wolf to do whatever he wants. Who can fight back against a juggernaut with such a win-loss record?!
Man in power=Self-assured and in-control
Woman in power=Smug and arrogant.
Nice.
Peggy, you completely lost me when you say Kane is intelligent. I thought so when she first ran but she has clearly proven to be anything but smart.
McGinty is smart…but she just needs to be less smug and arrogant. That’s her biggest problem.
Montco PA is right on! Some Republicans don’t like women who have brains and can think for themselves – that is both Katie McGinty and Kathleen Kane. Why do they always have to slam them? Both are very intelligent and I for one am sick of their bashing.
It goes without saying that Republicans on PoliticsPA hate Democrats and anything even faintly progressive. But they REALLY hate Democratic women. Probably behind on their cootie shots.
He would be off lighting his money on fire. At least he could heat state buildings after the budget impasse reaches winter.
Here’s how to right the ship: Just Fire McGinty.
With Mikus calling the shots, you can bet this effort will consist of attack ads against Wolf’s opponents, not any selling of his agenda. The antagonized Republicans will dig in. Harrisburg becomes Washington. Taxpayers lose. In SWPA at least, Mikus’s act is wearing thin. He projects himself as PA’s David Axelord yet he constantly takes tasteless personal shots at and trolls anyone in either party who dares to cross the Wolf-McGinty-Fitzgerald network. It’s so unprofessional.
Wolf should stop taking advice from the McGinty and Mikus and Fitzgerald. Taxpayers don’t want this endless political jostling. They want governance. Build bridges with the moderate Republicans that are left and advance as much of your agenda as you can. Taxpayers will notice and elections will take care of themselves.
Why not call it:
Fresher Start
or
Fresh Re-Start
It’s nice that Wolf is putting some seed money in. How much money is left in the original “Fresh Start” and will any of it move to the new PAC?
Is the original Fresh Start dead?