The 2014 general election will be held on Nov. 4, but other than the governor’s race all the key races in western Pennsylvania have little to no competition. Most of the competitive races were in the Primaries.
However, the Pennsylvania governor’s seat is up for grabs and it could be the first time in a long, long time in the history of the state that an incumbent is defeated.
Democrat Tom Wolf is actually ahead of incumbent Republican Tom Corbett in the polls. But just as they say in sports, anything can happen, that’s why they play the game. Well in this critical election anything can happen because polls have been wrong before.
This was a tough choice because Corbett on the whole has been fair when it comes to the Black community but we feel Wolf would be much more proactive in helping the Black community move forward.
In an Editorial Board meeting during the Spring, Wolfe made it clear that diversity would be a priority in his administration, and instead of holding someone else accountable for it, the buck would stop with him, because as the head, he would work directly with the person he put in charge. “Because that’s how important diversity is to me,” he said.
He said that as a successful businessman he understood how important it is for people of all races and backgrounds to have equal access to and be a part of business as well as government.
Even though we didn’t see either candidate hold meetings in the Black communities to directly address the urban problems in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, Wolf does have the complete support of local state representatives Ed Gainey and Jake Wheatley.
However the main concern we have with the Corbett administration are the deep cuts in education. We believe education is the key ingredient to bridging the gap between poverty and the middle class. Many people lost jobs but even worse the quality of education in our school systems, especially in the urban communities, declined because of these deep cuts.
Wolf says he will replace this money with taxes from the natural gas exploration companies. He says education and growing business, thus creating jobs will be his top priorities.
W also have a serious concern with the Democratic Party as a whole nationally and the Pennsylvania leadership in particular. Because the Republican Party has been moving so far to the right the Democrats have been taking Blacks for granted. One example is spending little to no money with the Black press or Black media at all. Hopefully this is not an indication of how they are going to treat us when they get into office.
With this endorsement we want to make it absolutely clear to Tom Wolf, and the Democratic Party that this is not a rubber stamp. We will be looking very closely at your efforts in diversity, and inclusion of Blacks at every level of government, from the individuals to the communities.
And to the Republican Party we ask, when are you going to start reaching out to include the Black community’s concerns?
