The candidates for governor could not be further apart.
I know Doug Mastriano and Josh Shapiro. And I recognize the popularity of Doug in south-central Pennsylvania and Josh in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
I first met Doug when he was running to be state senator. He faced a number of Republican competitors over whom he eked out a primary victory. Then in the general election, he won decisively over his Democratic opponent.
I was invited to attend a tour of Gettysburg Battlefield with Doug as tour guide. This turned out to be really cool as Doug is an expert on the battle and made the tour come alive. I was impressed with Doug’s side notes and Biblical annotations. I came back with a positive feeling about the guy.
When Doug decided to run for governor, he again had to compete in a contested Republican primary. This time he won against stalwarts Lou Barletta, Jake Corman and Charlie Gerow. I advised Doug to be inclusive in his approach, as being governor entails hearing differing viewpoints.
However, Doug has become tightly associated with Donald Trump and is a lead defender of Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. Doug even appeared at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, and as a result was subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the deadly attack.
Doug is fully transparent about his positions. He calls abortion his top issue. He twice introduced legislation to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. He is all or nothing on this issue and does not support exceptions for rape, incest or parental health. He wants to put in prison young girls who are raped and impregnated who seek an abortion as a result.
Doug wants to eliminate taxes and regulations on natural-gas drillers. He already introduced legislation that allows new leases for natural gas exploration in state parks and forests. If you think about it, that is a nightmare come true for those who picnic at Caledonia State Park and hunt deer and turkey in Michaux State Forest. You’d think Doug would protect Caledonia and Michaux, not push to ruin them with gas drilling, fracking, groundwater pollution and commercial gas development.
Doug’s idea on education is to reduce per-student public school funding from $19,000 to $10,000 a year. The reduction would be used to fund what Doug calls “education opportunity accounts.” Parents who can afford to send their kids to private schools could then use these funds to reduce their costs. Public schools would no longer have adequate funds to operate and would have to raise property taxes by a lot to continue to educate those who cannot afford to attend private schools.
Doug wants to repeal Act 77 that allows casting your ballot by mail. He says that as governor he would also appoint the person who oversees elections, so that if he does not like the outcome of an election he would be in a position to challenge the results. That means your vote could become meaningless if Doug does not like an election’s outcome.
Doug introduced a bill that bans enforcement of federal gun laws in Pennsylvania, and he wants permitless concealed carry. He says the NRA is too soft on the Second Amendment.
And, Doug voted against raising the minimum wage to $9.50.
Doug has attracted support from local people. This includes more than $100,000 from the Martin family of Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, the maker of my favorite potato rolls. Others supporting Doug include car dealership owners Clayton Black and Steven L. Latta with $50,000; Adams County’s Peter Sneeringer with $29,000; David Abel, owner of Palmyra-based DAS Cos. Inc., with $25,000; and $25,000 from Ola Yoder, owner of Kountry Lane Standardbreds in Nappanee, Indiana, which raises and sells racehorses.
Doug considers himself a hard-right conservative. But Pennsylvania is a big state. And many voters are not conservative and not turned on by heavy-handed proposals.
That’s why there is support for Josh Shapiro. Pennsylvania is three states in one: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and everything else. To win a state-wide election you have to win two of the three. As Pennsylvania attorney general, Josh has experience assembling coalitions of people necessary to win state-wide office.
You can see this in fundraising. Doug struggled to raise $4.7 million in campaign funds between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19. Josh raised $49.7 million.
Doug received 591,044 votes out of 1,348,477 Republican votes cast in the primary. The harsh reality is that the Republican party might or might not coalesce around Doug. The FiveThirtyEight poll has Doug with 40.8%, trailing Josh with 51.2%, which in political terms is a tsunami.
Josh is at polar opposites from Doug.
Josh believes women, not the government, should control their own bodies. He supports allowing abortions up to 24 weeks into pregnancy, longer if the life of the pregnant person is in danger.
Josh is for expanding automatic voter registration and continuing the present methodologies to allow voting by mail.
Josh has campaigned as a strong supporter of public schools. He wants less reliance on standardized tests and more on vocational, technical, and computer training in classrooms.
Josh believes in blending Pennsylvania’s energy-producing industries with climate action goals. This means allowing natural-gas drilling, but not in our state parks like Caledonia and state game lands like Michaux.
Josh does not want to take our guns. Rather he supports responsible gun ownership and police efforts to curtail crime. He recommends universal background checks, closing a loophole that allows people to buy unserialized homemade firearms, and temporary confiscation of firearms from people deemed by a judge to be a risk to themselves or others.
Josh is anti-tax. He wants to eliminate the state’s 11% sales tax on cellphone service. He wants to expand Pennsylvania’s Property Tax and Rent Rebate program by using surplus state dollars to pay for the tax plan. And Josh supports further reducing the state’s corporate net income tax. Finally, Josh wants to send a $250 gas tax refund for every personal passenger car registered in Pennsylvania.
But, unlike Doug, Josh supports raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour.
Winning an election is about how many friends you can make, not how many feathers you can ruffle. No matter how right you are, if people don’t vote for you, it just doesn’t matter.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials, promo and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].
