Education, safety to play a role in Gov. race

Despite the gubernatorial election being months away, candidates and political experts are busily trying to determine which issues will resonate with the electorate and bring home votes.

And so far, they say that jobs, safety and education are the concerns on which the public is hoping the state's next governor will focus his or her full attention.

"Those are the three big ones that I don't think any candidate can run for governor and not have a comprehensive set of policies to deal with," said Millersville University Political Science Department Chairman Terry Madonna. Madonna also directs the Keystone Poll, a statewide issue tracking survey.

With the nation in recession, the academic and fiscal deficits of a large number of public schools and a country still trying to define safety after Sept. 11, all of the candidates appear to have embraced these topics within their respective parties.

"We're very comfortable with the issues that are on the table right now," said Dan Fee, deputy campaign manager for Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.

In next May's Democratic primary, Rendell will face Pennsylvania Auditor General Robert Casey, Jr. The Republican candidates are state Treasurer Barbara Hafer and state Attorney General Michael Fisher.

Casey and Fisher are expected to be endorsed by their respective parties next month.

Experts say that it is not unusual for all of the candidates in a race to unanimously embrace broad campaign concerns such as these.

"Everybody wants good schools, good jobs, well-prepared citizens and a healthy climate for investment," said David Thornburgh, executive director for Philadelphia office of the Pennsylvania Economy League, a statewide "think and do" tank.

"You won't find, at this level, politicians disagreeing violently about the ends -- they'll disagree violently about the means," Thornburgh added.

Spokesmen for all of the campaigns say that the candidates have already started explaining in detail their stances on these issues.

But Penn Political Science Department Chairman Jack Nagel said that primaries are never really about issues anyway. Instead, they are more the battleground between the parties.

Nagel said that by the time the general election rolls around next November, voters may look beyond the issues when electing their leader if little separates the candidates.

"The fine-print in policy proposals is hard for the voters to follow, so I think then it becomes a matter of personal loyalties," Nagel said.

However, few would argue that the outcome of this race is nothing short of a turning point for the state's future.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge "grew dramatically in office... and so he's created some momentum," said Maxwell King, executive director of the Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh. "It is critical that we not lose that sense of momentum."

But keeping the state on a roll for the next four years will mean tackling some tough issues that have doggedly resisted remedies.

Pennsylvania has consistently ranked among the bottom states in recent years in private sector job growth, with 251,000 residents having fled the state during the 1990s. The state also has a poorly trained work force, according to data from the Pennsylvania Economy League.

And this has occurred despite Ridge's many efforts to bring the state into the "New Economy" by developing promising industries like the life sciences and by reducing business taxes.

"Pennsylvania continues to plod along from a growth perspective," Thornburgh said. "We've seen some success in the last 10 years, but in other areas we haven't really succeeded in moving the needle."

Regional issues will come into play as well during this election. Many say that the critical issues specifically faced by the Philadelphia region that need state attention include combatting suburban sprawl, finding funding for a much needed convention center expansion and ensuring adequate levels of welfare funding.

"I want to make sure that the next governor of Pennsylvania takes the needs of the urban areas of the state very, very seriously," King said, explaining how while the state's urban areas have improved in recent years, much remains to be done.

To try to keep the gubernatorial candidates speaking on the relevant topics and not let the campaign dissolve into horse race politics, the Pennsylvania Economy League will be rolling out a campaign called "Issues PA" at the end of January. The program will involve hosting televised candidate debates and maintaining a web site where voters can research a candidate's stance. The goal is to create a well-informed voting public.

Other public policy groups, like Greater Philadelphia First, also plan to meet with the candidates to keep the state's -- and Philadelphia's -- issues at the forefront.

Karen Miller, executive director for the Pennsylvania Economy League's Harrisburg office, said that it amounted to providing the candidates with "cover."

"These are good people and experienced people and they know the challenges that are facing Pennsylvania... but some of [the choices] are going to involve risk," Miller said. "The campaigns will be telling their candidates to stay away from [the risky choices], but we're going to say, 'Hey, you've got to deal with these things.'"

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