By Julian Routh | News Editor
Former President Bill Clinton stumped for Democrat Tom Wolf in South Side Monday, urging Pittsburghers to vote blue in the gubernatorial election Nov. 4.
As more than 1,000 Wolf supporters looked on at the IBEW Union Hall, Clinton praised Wolf’s intentions to restore the current administration’s cuts to education, improve access to college and enhance job training.
“If you live the life I have, you want every kid to have the same chances without regard to their race, their income or their zip code,” Clinton said.
On Election Day, Wolf, 65, of York, will try to unseat Republican incumbent Tom Corbett, 65, of Shaler. According to a poll released Wednesday by Franklin and Marshall College, Wolf has an 18-point advantage among registered voters over Corbett, Pennsylvania’s former attorney general.
Clinton said a candidate like Wolf is “too good to be true.” Wolf, a first-time candidate, runs a family-owned cabinet manufacturing business in York County.
“[Wolf] understands the relationship of your lives to what’s going on in the country today and what’s going on in the world today,” Clinton said. “That’s worth something in a governor.”
First Lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made appearances for Wolf this month, and President Barack Obama will headline a campaign event in Philadelphia this weekend.
Corbett has also gained support in Pittsburgh from political celebrities. In July, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stopped by Primanti’s in the Strip District to campaign for Corbett.
Corbett, speaking at a luncheon in Harrisburg this week, bashed Wolf’s undisclosed tax plan, saying Wolf “wants you to elect him before he tells you how much it is going to cost you,” according to the Tribune-Review.
There is so much interest in the gubernatorial race from national party representatives because “the governor of Pennsylvania can make this state an economic leader in America again,” Clinton said.
If elected, Wolf has said he plans to boost education funding by $1 billion, impose a 5 percent severance tax on natural gas extraction and raise the state income tax on higher earners. He is also a vocal supporter of gay marriage and a woman’s right to abortion.
Corbett, who took over as governor in Jan. 2011, claims that approximately 180,000 private-sector jobs have been added during his tenure, and that the state’s unemployment rate has fallen.
Clinton said “great things will happen” if Wolf is elected on Tuesday.
