GOP businessman launches campaign for U.S. Senate

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It’s becoming a familiar theme: A successful Republican businessman and self-described maverick decides to run for high elected office. Other than that, though, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Paul Addis doesn’t have much in common with President Donald Trump, whom he criticized during last year’s campaign.

“I didn’t believe he had the temperament, character, or the understanding of history to be the president,” said Mr. Addis, a retired Delaware County executive who announced his bid Wednesdasy to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. “I’m very worried that we are getting increasingly bogged down in Mr. Trump, as opposed to substantive ideas and workable reforms.”

Mr. Addis described himself as “a lifetime Republican [and] thoughtful conservative” who “believe[s] very passionately in helping the most unfortunate.” He offers a mix of familiar Republican proposals, like a distrust of government regulation and tax subsidies, with a willingness to consider heterodox ideas that include income-support payments to supplement earnings for the working poor.

By contrast, he said, Mr. Casey had been a rubber-stamp for former President Barack Obama, and had not “advanced the state of our state, nor of our country, in his two terms. I don’t know that he is ambitious with ideas, so I think it’s appropriate for a change.”

Mr. Addis has worked as a commodities and energy trader, served in the Coast Guard and on the board of Philadelphia’s library system. He has also held a highlevel post at American Electric Power, which he called “the largest burner of coal in North America” at the time. But although he supported Mr. Trump’s recent decision to withdraw from a global climate-change treaty, “I do accept the scientific analysis that man and fossil fuels contribute to global warming, which is a problem we need to deal with.” He said he favored an ambitious government program to research new energy technologies to capture carbon emissions.

Mr. Addis said he could sit comfortably alongside Pennsylvania’s current Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Among the positions they shared, he said, was Mr. Toomey’s efforts to expand background checks for firearms. That idea raises flags for some vocal gun owners, but Mr. Addis said: “I believe in the Second Amendment, but I believe that a universal background check would no

way retard it.”

Although the 2018 primary is nearly a year away, Mr. Addis joins a field that includes two Pittsburgharea state legislators, Rep. Rick Saccone of Elizabeth and Rep. Jim Christiana of Beaver. Two congressmen, Mike Kelly of Butler and Lou Barletta of Hazleton, are also pondering a run.

But in a race that so far lacks a clear front-runner, “it’s all about dollars,” said Terry Madonna, a veteran pollster at Franklin & Marshall College. “This is a TV state, and establishing a statewide presence is going to take upward of $10 million.”

Mr. Addis’ vocal position on Mr. Trump may prove a liability in the primary: A poll Mr. Madonna released last month showed twothirds of Republicans, and three-quarters of self-described conservatives, approving of the job Mr. Trump is doing. But the administration faces questions on ties to Russia and other issues, and Mr. Madonna said if support flags, it “could be a significant factor“in 2018. ”Midterms are essentially a referendum on the incumbent president.”

Mr. Addis said he was willing to spend some of his own money on his bid: “I will contribute meaningfully [though] not the lion’s share.” And although he allowed that he is “not wellknown,” he believed “people are yearning for fresh, thoughtful ideas and men and women of character. And even if I’m not successful, I believe if I have some ability to be heard, that’s useful to the country I love.”