By Uncle Irvin

 

It's rather unusual for Uncle Irvin to endorse who should be Governor of Pennsylvania. But this year, the incumbent Governor Tom Corbett is issue-related to local candidates to the General Assembly.

Corbett, who is not charismatic or a great public speaker, has one thing going for him, as far as Uncle Irvin is concerned. Corbett ran and was elected on a platform of needed reforms, including state pension reform, privatization of state liquor and wine sales, and a program to fix Pennsylvania's broken-down roads and bridges. Corbett even attempted to privatize the state lottery to save tens of millions of dollars for senior citizen prescriptions.

The state's worthless Senate and House of Representatives, who loathe reform, gave Corbett only one plank in his needed platform; raising the gas tax to provide the sorely need revenue the state needs to fix roads and bridges.

The “new” GOP State Representative, or retread candidate Chris Ross, voted to only raise the gas tax to fix roads and bridges, while incumbent John Lawrence voted against fixing roads and bridges, even in his own district.

Both Ross and Lawrence, and for that matter, the GOP-controlled General Assembly, including State Senator Dominic Pileggi, failed to support needed reforms. Incumbent Democrat Andy Dinniman was also not heard from on essential reforms in pension and liquor sales.

Since Governor Corbett tried his best to deliver on the platform that a majority of Pennsylvanians support, he deserves to be re-elected.

On the other hand, local members of the General Assembly -- Senators Pileggi and Dinniman and State Representatives Ross and Lawrence -- have done nothing to advance pension reform and liquor/wine privatization. They do not deserve to be re-elected on Nov. 4. My recommendation is to vote for NO incumbents, except Corbett.

That's what I'm going to do, but I am not optimistic about any of my recommendations winning. The electorate in our country -- and that includes Pennsylvanians -- is not enlightened enough to do what's right, and that's why Pennsylvania and the nation are in such a mess.