The LuLac Edition #2765, November 2nd, 2014

WHY TOM WOLF

Usually off year elections are not what the experts call a "change election". 2014 started out that way. A Republican incumbent, albeit an embattled one thought to be in the driver's seat. Sure Mr. Corbett was down in the polls but so was Dick Thornburgh in 1982. Plus there was this business of the cycle. Since 1954 Democrats and Republicans have been exchanging the Governor's seat with exceeding cooperation and politeness. But then all that changed when an unconventional candidate from York entered the race with three other Democrats.
He was so unconventional that many of the political heavyweights in the state politely gave him the courtesy of a meeting but supported someone else. Then people began to get to know this unconventional candidate named Tom Wolf.
First his TV ads in the winter of '14 were cheerful, positive and hopeful.
Second was his performance facing off against his Democratic foes. The voters saw a candidate that knew business, created and saved jobs (twice) but still had the passion for the working man.
Third was the man himself. Tom Wolf has done what no candidate since John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan has done. He has inspired people. He has made hard bitten polls who lost their cynicism make an effort to get him elected. When asked why they literally gush over Wolf, many have said he is "The real deal". A guy who seems to be able to fix what's broken. A reasonable calm man.  Wolf, they say has a vision. He is not a lawyer, prosecutor, or politician. He is a businessman who made millions after he sold his company. After it was going down the tubes he bought it back and made it solvent. He saved jobs. Not only is this a contrast to greedy millionaires but it is something unheard of in 21st century America. Perhaps former Scranton Mayor Jim McNulty said it best, "He is a Democratic version of Bill Scranton". So you know, William Warren Scranton was a millionaire Governor in the 60s who literally transformed this state. People have that same vibe about Wolf.
This state is at a crossroads. Are we going to be content to be the same glacially slow Commonwealth that is still content living the lyrics of Billy Joel's song "Allentown"? Are we saps for being the only state that doesn't tax gas drillers? Do we want to continue to lead instead of follow? I certainly don't.
Pennsylvania people are a different breed especially in LuLac land. When it’s Lent, you can’t get near Long John Silver’s on a Friday night. We’ll wait in line at an ice cream stand in the summer for an hour but won’t dare go near a Dairy Queen when it’s February. Some of us are proud to think like our parents and grandparents. Some of us vote Republican even though there is ample evidence that the GOP philosophy is against working Pennsylvanians. IT IS TIME TO START THINKING OUT OF THE BOX! It is time to be, dare I say it, “unconventional”.
Voters of my generation remember when a political race was a crusade, a cause. The candidate we chose inspired us, made us better people.
Politics in this state and this country is all about the present. Look at the gridlock in our own Commonwealth with three branches of our government run by one party. It is time to think of the future.
Wolf, 65 has many young supporters. Not to be crass but they still have time to make mistakes in voting either by not voting at all or picking the wrong candidate. The people in the age demographic that I’m in and many of my readers have essentially lived a majority of their lives. The vote we make is one where we hope the future of this state will be better for those who come after us. This election needs to be about the future. Not just the future of any possible Wolf administration but the future of those among us who aren’t voting yet. Many people who I have talked to at Wolf events have said the same thing. The 40 something attorney who still talks enthusiastically about how Wolf has energized him. “Now I know how people felt about Bobby Kennedy” he told me. The waitress at The Kirby who told me that even though she was a lifelong Republican she was voting for Wolf because he represented a better set of ideals. Tom Corbett she told me was not her kind of Republican. She was picking Wolf as early as April and added, “Wolf reminds me of that rich fella from Scranton who became Governor before you were born". (I was flattered!) The couple who has two teenage children wondering if the education they got in our public schools was going to be adequate for their kids to get into college. Then there was the secretary of modest means who set aside money to come to Wolf events because she believes there needs to be tax equity. All of those people are voting for the future.
Mrs. LuLac and I have already voted. We’re voting because we know elections have consequences. We know good decisions need to be made, not just for the life of any Wolf administration but twenty years down the road when little guys like this pictured below will have to live with our decision of Tuesday, November 4th, 2014. 

As a Pennsylvanian, I, for one, have voted for the future, mine and his. You should too!

 Tom Wolf getting to know James Daniel Corcoran IV. His generation is counting on us.