4 GOP gubernatorial hopefuls state their cases
HARRISBURG — The four announced GOP candidates for governor of Pennsylvania worked to distinguish themselves at their second public forum together Thursday night, avoiding direct attacks on each other or clashes on highprofile issues as they vie for the state party committee’s endorsement in the race.
The hour-long forum at the American Legion hall in Hollidaysburg featured rapid-fire, oneminute answers to 10 questions posed by the Blair County Republican Party’s chairwoman, and gave the candidates little opportunity to challenge each other.
The candidates — state Sen. Scott Wagner of York County, and state House Speaker Mike Turzai, lawyer Laura Ellsworth and exhealth care systems consultant Paul Mango, all of suburban Pittsburgh — met a little over a month before state party committee members meet to decide whether to endorse in the race.
The primary election is May 15. The four are seeking the nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s bid for a second term in November’s election. It appears that Mr. Wolf will have no significant primary challenger, if any.
Mr. Turzai leaned heavily on his record leading the House, while the others cast themselves as outsiders, although Mr. Wagner — who runs a waste-hauling firm he founded — said he won’t have a learning curve after four years in the Senate.
In the forum, Mr. Turzai repeatedly pointed to battles with Mr. Wolf in which the Turzai-led House Republicans provided the staunchest resistance in the Capitol to billions of dollars of budget-balancing tax increases — including on Marcellus Shale natural gas production — sought by the governor.
“We’ve been taking on Tom Wolf and we’ve been beating him,” Mr. Turzai said. At other times, such as on handling the opioid epidemic, Mr. Turzai highlighted his accomplishments by pointing to legislationsigned by Mr. Wolf, such as limits on emergency room painkiller prescriptions. On gun rights, Mr.