Attacks Heating Up in Race for Pennsylvania Governor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqQNGvskGM

This is the new ad from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, bashing challenger Tom Wolf over how his company moved to Delaware. Problem is the Wolf Company says it pays its corporate taxes in Pennsylvania and that it does not take advantage of the “Delaware loophole” that lets companies avoid it. About 70 percent of Pennsylvania companies take advantage of this loophole.

The other part of Corbett’s ad is kind of weird, too. Part of it’s fine: Tom Wolf was Secretary of Revenue under Ed Rendell and testified on behalf of the proposed tax increases (but they failed). But he didn’t make tax policy as revenue secretary. It’s kind of like blaming the head of the IRS for high federal taxes.

Corbett’s sticking with this secretary attack line, though: His campaign calls Wolf “millionaire secretary” in almost every press release. (I don’t know what this is trying to get at. Are we supposed to believe Wolf is a secretary in the administrative assistant sense? The Mad Men sense?) I have to say, though, “WOLF UPS THE ANTE ON HIS FLAGRANT HYPOCRISY” is a great headline.

Meanwhile, Wolf has a tax plan he hasn’t released yet because he’s “still working out the mathematics.” An independent ad hits Corbett on teachers, while another new Corbett ad hits Wolf on pensions.