HARRISBURG — Martha Rezeli and her husband, Anthony, were enjoying their annual visit to the Pennsylvania Farm Show when, without warning, they found themselves face to face with Josh Shapiro, days ahead of his gubernatorial inauguration.
Ms. Rezeli, a Monroe County Republican, standing only inches from Mr. Shapiro, blurted out exactly what she thought of him: “You are the best attorney general that this commonwealth has ever had; you’ve helped so many a friend.”
“And you are also the only Democrat I ever voted for,” she emphasized when Mr. Shapiro reached over and shook hands with her and her husband. The moment was brief but very real: a quality intimate moment that neither the Rezelis nor the commonwealth’s new governor considered part of some grandiose political narrative.
It was, as Ms. Rezli said afterward, “something he earned because he showed up in Monroe County.”
Indeed, Mr. Shapiro did show up — often — in the once-sleepy rural northeastern Pennsylvania county that is now home to many New York City expats. His visits mostly centered on the fentanyl crisis, but when a company scammed several local small businesses out of their money, he slapped them with a lawsuit.
Last Wednesday, Mr. Shapiro spent the day walking throughout the cavernous Farm Show Complex, the largest indoor agriculture event in America that has been showcasing the state’s top industry for over 100 years.
Mr. Shapiro, a Montgomery County native, is one of the rare Democrats in recent years to earn conservative rural votes in this state. Simply showing up was part of the reason, but he also addresses all voters’ sense of estrangement from power and influence. Mr. Shapiro is never afraid to walk into the town halls and take the hard questions about people’s fears of political, social and economic alienation.
Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based Washington County-raised Democrat, said Mr. Shapiro’s approach is the same as other statewide elected officials who understood that you have to leave Harrisburg — and not just go to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia — to really know the state: “Arlen Specter, Tom Ridge, Ed Rendell, Bob Casey Sr. all got out there and didn’t just press the flesh: They listened,” said Mr. Ceisler.
Former Specter chief of staff and 2016 Trump advisor David Urban, an Aliquippa native and current D.C. GOP strategist, said he recalls a conversation with the late Mr. Casey Sr. about coming to his hometown as both a candidate and a governor. “The first thing he asked me when we met was, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘Aliquippa.’ He said, ‘Oh, I remember campaigning during shift change at the gate at J&L Aliquippa. That was a scene: You’d have 5,000 people coming out the gate. That was the perfect opportunity for me to shake hands and hang out and get to know what was on their minds,’” recalled Mr. Urban.
“That has been a lost art in Pennsylvania statewide politics for a while, but voters liked that kind of connectivity, and I think that is what Shapiro understood — that he needed to be that Specter, or Rendell, or Ridge and show up and listen,” Mr. Urban said.
The top concerns here in the Ag community is the Avian Flu, which has wiped out millions of Pennsylvania chickens and forced the closure of several legacy poultry farms. It’s an epidemic that’s expected to become even more potent in the coming months. Ag producers are also frustrated by the state’s permitting process, which has been log-jammed for years, creating uncertainty about how farmers can move forward with a variety of projects.
In his last interview before being sworn in as governor, Mr. Shapiro talked to the Post-Gazette about those concerns, what his first week would hopefully look like, how he plans to keep himself grounded, and how he will approach governing with a Republican state Senate, a tangled mess of a state House.
Mr. Shapiro said voters sent him a clear message when they voted for him last November: “They want us to work together — Democrats and Republicans — to get things done. Beginning Wednesday, we’re going to get to work. My whole Cabinet, senior team, and I will be signing an executive order doing away with the college degree requirement for tens of thousands of state government jobs,” he said — and he did so, fulfilling a promise made during his campaign.
There are currently over 80,000 people who work for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania — one of the largest employers in the state — with most of those jobs requiring a college degree. Removing that requirement is an impetus for talented inner-city and rural constituents, who may have the skills and willpower needed to succeed, but lack an expensive diploma.
Voters here at the Farm Show also wanted to know how it’s possible to bring elected officials together — especially given that the state House is technically in the hands of the Republicans but will likely be in the hands of the Democrats after three special elections in February. And don’t forget that the newly elected state house speaker, Mark Rozzi, was a Democrat who has promised to lead the chamber as an independent.
Mr. Shapiro, at the moment, isn’t fretting about the challenge.
“It just starts by just treating people with respect and being willing to talk to them,” he said. “I’m willing to talk to folks in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. I want to treat them with respect. I want to hear what ideas they have. I want to try and incorporate their priorities in my budget. Typically, a governor will put forth their priorities and then the four caucuses will meet. I’d like to hear what they want and try and incorporate that in our initial budget — and work with them on the various bills that are important to them.”
Mr. Shapiro shrugs: “The number of Republican lawmakers who have said to me, ‘Hey, I heard you campaign and talk about this. . . . I have a bill on that issue. Could we work together?’ And my reaction is: ‘Of course, let’s get together and talk.’ And I think many of them are surprised, frankly, that we want to work together, but we’ve got to break the fever in Harrisburg and come together. The voters were very clear. They want us to come together, work together and get things done. And I’m prepared to do that.”
Farmers here want to know how Mr. Shapiro will handle permitting within the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, a process that often can take years. He said he recognizes that it’s a big issue and he will be taking it head on.
“Well, here’s how we’re going to address that,” he said. “One of the executive orders I’ll sign in the opening days of my administration will put a date certain on every permit, every application. If you apply for your barber license, you’ll know exactly how many days it’ll take. If you apply for a permit, you’ll know how many days it would take. In addition, I’ll be hiring a director of transformation in the governor’s office that will be the link between the various agencies, between Ag and DEP and DCED to get those big projects done. They’ll be the ones shepherding it through the process and moving it along quickly. We have got to learn as a commonwealth to get to ‘yes’ and to get there quickly, and that is what I’m focused on doing.”
As for the Avian Flu and the expectations it will worsen this spring, Mr. Shapiro has kept outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf’s Ag Secretary, Russell Redding, and trusts him to shepherd the state through the crisis even better than last year. “You can expect that in our administration. We’re going to improve communication between three agencies that have some public health and avian health oversight here. This is something we’ve got to get on top of very, very quickly. It’s something that’s impacting farmers, impacting consumers. It’s a real issue,” he said.
G. Terry Madonna, senior fellow in residence for political affairs at Millersville University, said Mr. Shapiro’s get-out-there approach is what voters liked. He says his biggest challenge will be the state legislature: “As long as he keeps taking issues on the road and explaining to people in real time what is happening, he’ll be successful in the mold of Specter, Rendell, Ridge and Casey Sr. . . . The best thing to do is to get out of Harrisburg as often as possible.”
North Side native Salena Zito is a national political reporter for The Washington Examiner, a New York Post columnist and co-author of “The Great Revolt”: zito.salena@gmail.com.
First Published: January 22, 2023, 5:52 p.m.