Trebek has answers, questions in debate
It was a surreal moment in the middle of a surreal news cycle. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Scott Wagner, sat on stage, their faces frozen and their hands clasped. And Alex Trebek, the “Jeopardy!” host and the moderator of Monday night’s debate, let loose, joking that the only thing with a lower approval rating than the Pennsylvania legislature was the Catholic Church.
Polite laughter from the audience quickly turned to boos. Trebek looked out at the crowd watching the two candidates face off at an upscale hotel in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
“Don’t go there,” he said, wagging a finger. “I was born and raised in the Catholic Church, and I’m just as ticked off as everybody else is over what has happened with the church.”
He went on, unfazed by the ticking clock and the fact that the debate was nearly halfway over.
“When I was a young teenager I attended a Catholic boarding school run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Two-hundred and fifty students, other boys and I, spent three years sharing the same accommodations 24/7 with 44 priests, and not once in those three years was there any sexual misbehavior. Now, boys are pretty sharp, we talk, we would have known. So I believe that there are Catholic priests out there who are able to minister to their congregations without preying — that’s P-R-E-Y — on the young people.”
The comments on WNEPTV’s live feed were merciless. “Where is this going?” said one. “When do we get to hear from the candidates?” added another. A third viewer put it succinctly: “Alex, shut up.”
Trebek, who lives in California and is originally from Canada, wasn’t an obvious choice to moderate the forum. Initially joking that he had been drunk when he accepted the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s request, he later explained that he had agreed on the condition that he could do things his way — by having a “conversation,” not a traditional debate.
Trebek’s celebrity might have attracted some viewers who wouldn’t ordinarily spend their Monday night watching a political forum. But to the frustration of people who had tuned in to watch the candidates duke it out over key issues, his frequent soliloquies and long-winded questions took up a significant chunk of the 45-minute debate.
Trebek prefaced one question by informing viewers that California has 40 state senators and 80 state assembly members, adding up to one legislator for every 325,000 citizens — a piece of trivia not particularly germane to the Pennsylvania governor’s race. He began another by describing a drive that he took from Lansdale, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, several years ago. He lectured the candidates about civility and the pitfalls of negative campaigning. And he counseled viewers to research the issues and vote accordingly.
What he didn’t do, John L. Micek, the opinion editor at the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, wrote later in an editorial, was give the candidates much of a chance to speak.
Trebek, who has donated to Republican candidates but was a critic of President Donald Trump in 2016 and considers himself to be politically independent, also didn’t hesitate to share his thoughts on Pennsylvania politics. He accused lawmakers of “shortchanging education in this state for decades,” and he argued with Wagner, the Republican candidate, about the state’s pension obligations. With just minutes left on the clock, he began arguing with the audience about whether a severance tax on natural gas could benefit the state’s economy.
“The severance tax would bring in a lot of money,” Trebek said, over a chorus of disagreement. “No? No, it would not? Who says no, it would not? You have the impact fee now which has brought in $1.2 billion in the last 7 years, and you’re telling me a 6 percent severance tax would not bring in money?”
Jill Greene, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, told the Reading Eagle: “Mr. Trebek is to be commended for his obviously rigorous preparation for this event, but he is not running for Pennsylvania’s governor.”