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FRIDAY LEFTOVERS: Corbett vs. Gerlach heats up

The war of words between Republican gubernatorial rivals Tom Corbett and Jim Gerlach continued this week.

Showing that Gerlach isn’t the only one who can garner support from those who have served in the House, Corbett rolled out an endorsement former Congressman Bob Walker, who represented the 16th District for two decades.

“I believe that Tom is not only the Republican candidate with the best chance of helping our party take back the Governor’s office, but I also believe he is the best candidate to restore fiscal discipline in Harrisburg and turn around Pennsylvania’s struggling economy,” Walker said in a campaign statement. “I am impressed with Tom’s plan to move quickly to do something about Pennsylvania’s ridiculous WAMs, and to cut back on the number of cars handed out to state employees.  The saving from these two changes alone would be quite dramatic.”

But real action continued to be on the Bonusgate front, where Gerlach claimed that one of Corbett’s supporters actually said he should resign from office to avoid politicizing the corruption probe he’s been leading.

Well, that’s not really what Allegheny County GOP Jim Roddey said, but it’s easy to see why the Gerlach people would seize on it. Referring to U.S. Attorney Mary Buchanan, who is considering a run against Congressman Jason Altmire (D-4), Roddey told the The Post-Gazette that there’s no problem with her exploring a run while still holding the office, but that she should only step down after declaring her candidacy.

Roddey was one of those GOP leaders who wrote to former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan urging him to clear the gubernatorial field for Corbett, so something tells us he wasn’t thinking about Corbett when he said that.

Still, expect to hear more of this from the Gerlach folks.

October 9, 2009 at 10:26 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Jim Gerlach, Tom Corbett

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