Ellsworth shows independent streak in GOP candidates’ forum
A little-known lawyer from Pittsburgh showed an independent streak as the four Republican candidates vying for the nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in November’s election stood together in their third forum Saturday night.
The hourlong forum at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh was broadcast live on TV and was the candidates’ first with a nonpartisan moderator.
Lawyer Laura Ellsworth of suburban Pittsburgh — a first-time candidate — stood out prominently from the group on several issues, including when she said she didn’t vote for President Donald Trump, she supports limits on campaign contributions and she would change how Pennsylvania draws congressional districts.
On a question about taking a no-tax pledge — something done by Wolf’s predecessor, Republican Tom Corbett — Ellsworth answered the question frankly.
“I think tax pledges are political gimmicks that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, with all due respect, and I think anyone who takes them is not being responsible to the citizens,” Ellsworth said.
Ellsworth and the other candidates — ex-health care systems consultant Paul Mango, state House Speaker Mike Turzai and state Sen. Scott Wagner — otherwise professed a desire to find savings or cut taxes. Mango perhaps came the closest to making a notax pledge.
“I’m not going to hold the line on taxes, my pledge to you is to ensure that we give you tax rebates,” Mango said.
All opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana and — save for Turzai — are in favor of Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law that passed in 2016. Turzai said Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana law was about “big marijuana” and political favoritism, not about taking care of people.
With the state Supreme Court considering a gerrymandering case seeking to throw out Pennsylvania’s map of congressional boundaries on grounds it unfairly helps Republicans, only Ellsworth objected to the politically charged process that created the existing map. She called for the creation of a bipartisan commission.
“I do not believe that our current system delivers the best results for Pennsylvania,” Ellsworth said. “I didn’t believe it when the Democrats controlled the process, I don’t believe it when the Republicans control the process.”
On the question about the Republican president, Mango, Wagner and Turzai were effusive about Trump’s job performance and said they voted for him. Ellsworth — who wrote in the name of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican — couched her response, saying she had been bothered by the “divisiveness” that she thought Trump would bring to the job.
However, she also said Trump had done more for military veterans than the three previous presidents combined, he made a brilliant pick in Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and he has done a lot for businesses and deregulation. Then she said, without elaborating, “I do not agree with everyone he does.”
Asked about money in politics, only Ellsworth took issue with Pennsylvania’s law that allows unlimited campaign donations.