Leading up to Gov. Tom Corbett’s expected re-election announcement, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party is launching a “Promises Made, Promises Broken” campaign aimed at highlighting what they called the Republican governor’s failures.
“From taxes to state parks, the governor has broken campaign promises, we intend to hold him accountable,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn.
The campaign is in anticipation of Corbett’s re-election campaign which is expected to have a “Promises Made, Promises Kept” theme.
“In 2010, when Tom Corbett was running for governor, he pledged to make Pennsylvania first in job creation,” Burn said. “The fact is that we’ve dropped to 46th in the nation for job creation.”
That’s according to rankings compiled by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, the same report ranked Pennsylvnia 9th in job growth. But the governor’s campaign said that isn’t the whole story.
“The governor’s agenda has created more jobs than 48 other states last month, over 19,000 new jobs and has added over 130,000 since he took office,” said Corbett campaign manager Mike Barley.
Pennsylvania was ranked second in the nation for job growth in June, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
“The governor has kept his promises to reduce the size of government, keep taxes low and create jobs, and it’s amazing to me how the Democratic Party and their candidates continue to root against the economic recovery going on in Pennsylvania,” Barley said.
But Democrats aren’t convinced, and politicos from across the country have said Corbett is the most vulnerable governor in the nation right now. As for the “Promises Made, Promises Broken” campaign, Tuesday’s announcement was only the beginning.
“You’re going to see item-by-item, in the weeks and months ahead, exactly what we’re talking about with specificity,” Burn said. “It’s not just going to be about the cataclysmic fall in job creation. That’s just one, but there’s more coming.”
