Governor’s race needs more debates

Someone once said, you can run but you can’t hide. That person obviously never ran for governor.

Scott Wagner is learning something the opponents of the Mariner East 2 pipeline discovered a long time ago.

Gov. Tom Wolf is a tough guy to pin down.

For months residents concerned about safety issues connected to the pipeline that will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile liquid gases through densely populated neighborhoods have wanted the governor to come to Delaware or Chester county to talk with them, and visit the sites where the pipeline will traverse in close proximity to their homes, schools and senior centers.

Now, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Wagner is finding the governor an equally elusive target.

Wagner, a former firebrand conservative state senator and self-made trash-hauling magnate, wanted a series of debates as he attempts to keep Wolf from a second term in the governor’s mansion. Wolf has agreed to just one.

In recent years, most governor’s races in Pennsylvania have featured three faceoffs, comprising the two ends of the state, the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh markets, and one in the central region.

Instead, Wolf agreed to do only one face-to-face meeting with Wagner.

There is a good reason why Wolf is taking this path.

Well, actually it’s good politically. It’s not so great for voters seeking to make the critical choice over who should be the state’s chief executive for the next four years.

Just about every poll shows Wolf with a double-digit lead over his Republican counterpart.

While Wagner has been crisscrossing the state, making 600 campaign stops, Wolf is taking a decidedly low-key approach to his re-election campaign.

He’s far ahead in the polls, and the all-important fundraising category as well, outspending Wagner when it comes to saturating the market with radio and TV spots. He has nothing to gain by doing more debates with Wagner, and instead could only see Wagner gain a toe-hold in the race.

The two sides agreed to just one head-to-head meeting, and even there Wagner found himself outnumbered.

The debate hosted by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry will go down in the annals of Pennsylvania politics not for anything that either of the candidates did, but instead for the moderator.

Someone clearly thought having Alex Trebek, the familiar host of the insanely popular TV game show “Jeopardy!” was a good idea.

We’ll take debacles for $100, Alex.

Wagner has again called for more debates. Wolf, not surprisingly, is just fine with things remaining as they are – with him far ahead in the polls.

Pennsylvania faces serious issues. In this region alone, people remain extremely concerned about the pipeline issue.

Across the state, Pennsylvania continues to lag when it comes to training workers for the high-tech skills needed to develop the state economy. The opioid crisis continues to exact a horrific toll on Pennsylvania communities and families. The Legislature has made little or no progress in taking the exploding pension crisis that continues to tick like time bomb inside the state’s budget. Several families are suing the state over an educating funding formula that continues to penalize students in less well-to-do areas for no other reason than their zip code.

None of which has moved the governor to change his position. Wolf has indicated he has no intention of scheduling more debates.

That might be the path to an easy re-election.

But it doesn’t do much to enlighten voters, or to help them make an informed decision by seeing each candidate respond to serious questions.

Wolf has effectively been able to paint the conservative Wagner as an extremist who consistently led the charges against something most of the state seems to agree with the governor on, that being the notion of slapping a severance tax on the state’s natural gas industry.

A re-election campaign for the most part becomes a referendum on the past four years, and Wolf makes the argument that Pennsylvania is better off than it was four years ago.

We’d just like to see him make that argument on the stage next to Wagner.

Someone once said, you can run but you can’t hide.

That person obviously never ran for governor.