Election: Pennsylvania Governor
Republican Scott Wagner is challenging incumbent Tom Wolf for the position of governor of Pennsylvania. The governor’s salary is $194,850 and the term is four years.
Tom Wolf
Democrat
What are your top three priorities in office?
Investing in our Kids and Schools: I have made clear my strong commitment to education in Pennsylvania by fully restoring education funding cuts made in the previous administration, providing unprecedented support to high-quality pre-K programs, and ensuring students are college and career ready by expanding opportunities for career and technical education. Grow Jobs and Support Workers: I have eliminated burdensome taxes on businesses like the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax and I am working to grow the economy by moving forward on large projects. I have and will continue to invest in manufacturing, apprenticeships, and workforce development initiatives. Protect Our Seniors and Access to Health Care: I took immediate action to provide health insurance to more than 720,000 Pennsylvanians by expanding Medicaid, and under my administration the commonwealth’s uninsured rate is the lowest it has ever been. I have also increased opportunities for seniors to age in their homes.
Do you support reforming our congressional and legislative redistricting process to implement an independent citizen’s redistricting commission? Why or why not?
I have long supported a independent citizen’s redistricting commission. We must eliminate partisan politics from the legislative redistricting process by enacting legislation to end gerrymandering by establishing an independent, bipartisan commission to create future electoral maps. I also stood up to the House State Government Committee Republican majority’s last-minute move to gut and replace House Bill 722, which was intended to create an independent redistricting commission, with a redistricting process that is more politically driven. To rebuild trust in Harrisburg, we must have fair and accessible elections for all citizens from our rural communities to our big cities.
Which voting modernization reforms (such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, same day voter registration, additional funding for voting technology upgrades) would you support to ensure that our elections are accessible, efficient, and secure?
Yes, I have long advocated for voting modernization. Upon coming into office, I launched online voter registration and now more than a million Pennsylvanians have used it. I also launched a voter information texting initiative and a program to get high school seniors to register to vote. I also directed the Pennsylvania Department of State to require new voting machines to have a voter-verifiable paper ballot or paper record of votes cast. I recently launched a 21st century voting reform plan that includes same day voter registration, automatic voter registration, modernization of absentee ballots, campaign finance reform, and gerrymandering reform.
Scott R Wagner
Republican
What are your top three priorities in office?
Overhauling governmental impositions is a top priority. On day one, I will employ zero-based budgeting, introducing a transparent budget process that will make sense for taxpayers and investing in what works to end wasteful and ineffective spending. With over 153,000 regulations and a regulatory authority out of control, meaningful regulation reform must be implemented, such as my current proposal to count, cap, and reduce. Second, I have been all over Pennsylvania and I have heard my mission loud and clear, I will eliminate property taxes as Governor. Many of our children are receiving an outstanding education, but the reality is that too many students are graduating from high school without the necessary skills to be successful in college or the workforce. We must retool and redesign our education system to ensure today’s students are adequately prepared to be tomorrow’s adults. Without a major overhaul, we will continue to do a great disservice to our children and their educators.
Do you support reforming our congressional and legislative redistricting process to implement an independent citizen’s redistricting commission? Why or why not?
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to overstep its bounds and override the legislature by drawing its own maps did a great disservice to the citizens of Pennsylvania. In light of this travesty, I would support an independent citizens redistricting commission to ensure that Pennsylvanians will have access to fair and equal elections when it comes time to work on maps after the 2020 census.
Which voting modernization reforms (such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, same day voter registration, additional funding for voting technology upgrades) would you support to ensure that our elections are accessible, efficient, and secure?
Pennsylvania is among only 13 states that do not use paper ballots or have paper backup systems for electronic voting machines. I support the decision of the Department of State to require counties to replace their voting machines with systems that have paper trails. Pennsylvania has received $13.5 million in federal funding and the state is also required to provide a 5 percent match to this money. Thus, Pennsylvania has $14.15 million to help counties fund the purchase of these new voting machines. It is critical that state government make sure that counties have adequate funds available to ensure that they can meet their responsibility as it relates to voting systems.
