Two nights before Christmas, there may not have been a single creature stirring in the state House. But a state senator, York County’s Scott Wagner, was readying a challenge to Gov. Tom Wolf in 2018.
The “Scott Wagner for Governor” committee was registered with the Department of State on Dec. 23, providing Mr. Wagner, a Harrisburg powerhouse despite still serving his first full term, a vehicle to receive and spend campaign dollars on a gubernatorial bid.
“I did file, and my campaign is imminent,” Mr. Wagner said Monday. “I will be formally announcing next week. We’ve got a large team assembled, we’re well-funded, and we expect to come out of the gate hard.”
That team includes campaign chairman John Kennedy, a former state legislator who and former chair of the Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania. The conservative advocacy group backs policies that include ending property taxation and the ability of public teachers to strike.
Mr. Wagner has openly discussed his intention to run, sometimes wryly. In a Dec. 22 blast email to supporters, for example, he wrote, “Stay tuned for a BIG announcement early next year. Hint Hint.”
A Wagner/Wolf campaign would pit two York County businessmen against each other: Mr. Wolf ran a family cabinet-making business, and Mr. Wagner owns Penn Waste, a municipal trash disposal firm.
Since taking office in 2015, Mr. Wagner has aggressively built goodwill among other Republicans: He personally loaned $100,000 to Washington County Sen. Camera Bartolotta in 2015, and last month the York Daily Record tabulated some $3.2 million in Wagner contributions to conservatives in the past decade.
“I can’t remember another first-term legislator who has had such influence,” said Charlie Gerow, a Republican consultant in Harrisburg. “He starts out with the wind at his back.”
Mr. Wagner has been a lightning rod at times. Last month he undermined a funding bill that would have averted layoffs of state unemployment workers. Mr. Wagner said the state had squandered additional funds in previous years; over 500 employees were furloughed.
Democratic spokesman Brandon Cwalina called Mr. Wagner “exactly what is wrong with Harrisburg," faulting him for “obstructing progress on issues important to the middle class,” a record Mr. Cwalina contrasted with Mr. Wolf’s increases in state education funding and other accomplishments.
On the Republican side, “I expect there will be other candidates who will try to raise questions about his electability,” said Mr. Gerow. “The question is how well he’ll handle those criticisms and put together an agenda.”
The names of potential GOP challengers include Butler Congressman Mike Kelly and state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman of Centre County. But so far, Mr. Wagner is the only Republican who has made his intentions clear.
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 3, 2017, 5:13 a.m.