Laura Ellsworth is looking to make history as Pennsylvania’s first female governor. But she wouldn’t be the first woman to lead the Commonwealth.
That credit belongs to Hannah Callowhill Penn, the wife of William Penn, who successfully ran Pennsylvania for years in the 18th century after her husband suffered an incapacitating stroke and later died.
The several hundred people who attended Ms. Ellsworth’s first campaign rally Thursday night at the Heinz History Center learned about Hannah Penn. They also learned about the candidate who said she would run the state like a business.
Ms. Ellsworth, a Republican who has decades of experience in the private sector and is an attorney with Jones Day, said she has the knowledge and experience to mitigate the political polarization in Harrisburg, grow Pennsylvania’s economy, and make the state a world leader in energy production.
“I’ve worked on these issues, whether it is pension or tax reform, infrastructure development, education,” Ms. Ellsworth said before addressing the crowd at her rally. “All of the things that are important to people — the opiate crisis, social service funding issues — all of those things I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with people in the community, and we’ve made a real difference.”
Former Pennsylvania first lady Sue Corbett introduced Ms. Ellsworth at the rally, praising the 59-year-old from Ohio Township for her ability to meet goals.
“What I find particularly remarkable about this person is that she’s not just a name on the multitude of boards and and committees,” Mrs. Corbett said. “Laura gets things done. And isn’t that what we really want and expect of our leaders?”
Ms. Ellsworth will have to beat state Sen. Scott Wagner and businessman Paul Mango in the May primary to have a shot at supplanting Gov. Tom Wolf in November.
She called Mr. Wagner a career politician who won’t bring any real change to Harrisburg, and said Mr. Mango lacks experience in dealing with many of the issues Pennsylvania faces. She also criticized the way Mr. Wolf has been running the state since he took office.
Ms. Ellsworth said every successful business has two pillars: a business plan and a sound budget. “Pennsylvania has neither,” she said.
“So the first thing I would do is develop a 10-year business plan for the state,” she said, adding that she would create “a map of Pennsylvania and what we intend it to look like 10 years from now. What I see in my mind’s eye is I see multiple energy sources, all different kinds of energy sources.
“I see transmission lines, I see manufacturing sites that want to use the energy, I see a workforce system feeding into that, I see infrastructure and development,” she said. “These are all the dots I see in Pennsylvania; they’re all waiting there for someone to connect them.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352.
First Published: March 9, 2018, 8:04 p.m.
Updated: March 9, 2018, 8:04 p.m.