Corbett: I've Already Done Everything The Other Candidates Say They Want To Do
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Chris Stigall spoke with Governor Tom Corbett on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about Tuesday's Democratic Gubernatorial Primary and some key legislative issues from his first term.
Corbett addressed how he feels watching the Democratic primary process, featuring four candidates campaign for his job.
"The things talked about that they would like to do, and I'm saying check, we've already started that process, check, we've started that process. I'm amazed that they just make these blanket statements with no facts behind it and that's what you get to do in a political campaign. As a Governor and an incumbent, we have a clear record and we can put facts behind where we're going."
He stressed the accomplishments his administration has achieved thus far.
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Governor Tom Corbett
"When I took office, we had a $4.2 billion deficit. Today we don't have that. We have more spending in education, K-12 and higher ed than any time in our history. We see the economy going forward. We went from 8.2 percent unemployment in December of '10 to, the report last week was, 5.7 percent. We're moving in the right direction."
Corbett touted the success so far in moving ahead with legislation to privatize alcohol sales in the commonwealth, but conceded that more work has to be done.
"We have a gotten a bill out of the House to the Senate, never happened before in the history of Pennsylvania since we've had the LCB, so you can't say we haven't tried. It's been stalled in the Senate and we can certainly use help from the citizens of Pennsylvania to let the Senate [know]…If it were up to just me, it would've been done a long time ago. We need the Senate. This should be a bi-partisan issue."
Corbett explained his rationale in not challenging a court ruling halting the implementation of a voter identification law is to handle the matter through the legislative process.
"The court made it clear that it is [the] legislation [that] needed to be tweaked in order to get it implemented to ever get it past any of the courts and we felt it was time to go back and talk with the legislature. How do we tweak the implementation? The concept of photo ID at the time of voting was not found unconstitutional."
Corbett also declined to comment on a resolution in the state House of Representatives to impeach Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
