PA 'Going in the Wrong Direction,' Pawlowski Says

Pennsylvania is "going in the wrong direction" under Gov. Tom Corbett, Allentown mayor and candidate for governor Ed Pawlowski told Easton Democrats Wednesday.

"Our roads and bridges are crumbling. Our schools are failing," Pawlowski said, stopping at Champ's Corner as part of a seven day, 20 county tour. "Quite honestly, we have this total gridlock in our state capital."

Pawlowski talked about the need to improve schools, tax/regulate the gas drilling industry, and keeps jobs in the state.

He talked about how Allentown's hockey arena project was benefitting other parts of the state. For example, the arena will require steel from Erie, and concrete from Berks County.

For Easton Democrat, Mary Ann Kinchen—who got Pawlowski to autograph a campaign sign—the hockey arena will be Allentown's answer to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem.

"That's jobs," she said. "Republicans can say what they want."

Pawlowski announced his candidacy last week on MSNBC, but he's building name recognition western Pennsylvania, said campaign spokesman Mike Fleck.

"We were out there doing this for two years, in case he decided to run," Fleck said. "We visited Clarion the other day for the third time in a year and a half."

Pawlowski has gotten several endorsements, many of them from eastern Pennsylvania, including Easton Mayor Sal Panto, Bethlehem Mayor-elect Bob Donchez, and state Representatives Mike Schlossberg and Dan McNeil.

He is joined in the race by U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, former DEP secretaries John Hanger and Kathleen McGinty, businessman and pastor Max Myers, Lebanon County Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz and businessman/former Department of Revenue Secretary Thomas Wolf.