Wolf, Corbett cross state in final-day push

LITITZ, PA. » Democrat Tom Wolf and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett headed across Pennsylvania on Monday greeting supporters in their final day of campaigning before voters decide who will govern the state for the next four years.

Wolf, a first-time candidate who ran his family business for nearly three decades, is trying to make Corbett the first governor in modern Pennsylvania political history to lose a re-election campaign. Corbett, a conservative former state and federal prosecutor, is seeking four more years as governor after being plagued with low approval ratings throughout his first term.

In particular, Corbett has struggled to defend budget-balancing cuts in aid to public schools in 2011 at the same time he cut business taxes and opposed calls for higher taxes on the thriving natural gas industry. Democrats’ dislike of Corbett has largely driven Wolf’s campaign, although the governor also had to cope with GOP apathy in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans.

With Wolf still ahead in independent polls, the Corbett campaign has pointed to a narrowing gap as evidence of momentum. In recent weeks, Corbett’s campaign has accused Wolf of planning a massive middle-class tax increase to fulfill his spending promises and being a political clone of President Barack Obama. Wolf, in turn, has accused Corbett of delivering devastating funding cuts to public schools and mismanaging the state’s economic and fiscal affairs.

In Lancaster’s Penn Square on Monday, supporters greeted Wolf and chanted, “Goodbye Corbett, farewell Corbett, the Wolf is at your door.” They finished with a howl as a Corbett campaign truck passed by, bearing the message, “the Wolf and Obama Higher

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who is seeking a second term, speaks during a campaign rally Monday at the American Helicopter Museum in West Goshen.