Laura Ellsworth
A Pittsburgh lawyer says she will get the job done
As dark clouds crept over the Lernerville Speedway in Sarver on a damp Friday night in April, Laura Ellsworth wished away the storm. The opening night of the racetrack’s 51st season had already been derailed by weather once, and on this night, the Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate’s name and campaign logo would be featured prominently on a sprint car.
All of a sudden, the 59year-old pointed at the sky above the dirt racetrack. “Rainbow!” she shouted, putting her arm around owner John Tomson’s 11year-old daughter, Alexis.
A double rainbow, to be precise.
The race would go on, as planned.
Ms. Ellsworth considers her candidacy a rainbow amid chaos. In the primary fight for the Republican nomination to take on incumbent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, she has stayed on message — traveling from one end of the state to the other in an RV — while her opponents, state Sen. Scott Wagner of York and health care consultant Paul Mango, trade barbs and attack ads over the airwaves.
The vitriol of the other candidates may have drowned out some of her message of private sector experience and civic engagement, which, if successful, would make her the first female governor in state history. But on May 15, she thinks the voters will go for the candidate who hasn’t been “as loud as the other two,” and the one with far less money in her campaign’s coffers.
“They are exhausted by the yelling and the noise and the shouting and the finger pointing and they’re just looking for somebody who will get stuff done for them,” Ms. Ellsworth said.
Ms. Ellsworth, of Ohio Township, points to her near-40 years in practice as a Pittsburgh-area lawyer to build her private sector clout. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, she moved to Pittsburgh to attend law school in 1980 after graduating from Princeton and started her career at Buchanan Ingersoll. In 1992, she took a job at the international law firm Jones Day, where she climbed the ranks and eventually became the head of the firm’s Pittsburgh office and its first partner-in-charge of global community service initiatives.
But her civic engagement is what she says separates her. She served in leadership roles in several of Pittsburgh’s economic development organizations — the boards of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, among others — which she said gave her handson participation in driving Pittsburgh’s revitalization.
“These were the engines of the economic renaissance of Pittsburgh,” Ms. Ellsworth said. “It started with the private sector. The private sector are the ones who did the planning and the number crunching, and brought the resources to really get our arms around these issues. Then we partnered with the public sector to actually get things done.”
She hopes to replicate “the magic formula of Pittsburgh” statewide, aiming to encourage and spur private sector development, then bring politicians to the table to drive it forward. Pennsylvania has the “basic ingredients,” the workforce and the know-how, but lacks a leader who understands how to bring them together, she said.
On the opioid addiction crisis, she said she’ll focus on empowering federal authorities and state and local law enforcement to work together, and is in favor of mandatory treatment for users after the second time they’re revived with the anti-overdose drug Narcan. On taxes, she called no-tax pledges “political gimmicks,” and said she’ll sell the state store system and use the proceeds to pay down the pension obligations.
“It will get [government] out of the liquor store business and it will give consumers a better selection, service and price,” she said. “It will bring your property taxes down, and it will shore up pension for the people who are relying on it. It will solve three problems at once.”
Ms. Ellsworth, once a small-time donor to the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, runs to the left of her Republican primary opponents on issues of the electoral process. She has called for a bipartisan citizens commission for redistricting, and said in a debate in September that she doesn’t believe “our current system delivers the best result for Pennsylvania.”
Unlike Mr. Wagner and Mr. Mango, she is a proponent for limits on campaign finance — and laments that there is no ceiling on gubernatorial campaign contributions, though that could be driven by the circumstances of the race. Mr. Mango and Mr. Wagner have poured millions into their own campaigns, and have about $2.2 million and $1.6 million on hand, respectively, while Ms. Ellsworth has about $412,000 for the final stretch.
Ms. Ellsworth — who has a lighthearted story for almost everything — tells one about her financial disadvantage. Once when she was on the trail, shaking hands with voters on the ground at Penn State University, a biplane with “Vote for Scott Wagner” flew overhead.
To Republican strategist Mike Barley, that could be Ms. Ellsworth’s biggest problem.
“She’s certainly an alternative for people that are sick of the back and forth, but the problem you have is people have to know who she is,” said Mr. Barley, a consultant for Long Nyquist and Associates. “At the end of the day, they’re not seeing a whole lot from her.”
Her first television ad went up Wednesday, just 13 days before the primary. It was the same day former Gov. Tom Corbett indicated he’d be voting for her. A week earlier, former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina endorsed Ms. Ellsworth, calling her an “exemplary leader.”
A cherished endorsement, though, came from the racetrack. After traipsing through the gravel outskirts of the track to meet and hug attendees, she climbed up on the flag stand to give the official prayer before the event; watching her was Bill Beck, the speedway’s official chaplain. When she finished, he took the microphone.
“She prayed from her heart, and that’s the type of people we need in government,” Mr. Beck said. Ms. Ellsworth embraced him, then the race began.