Governor Tom Corbett won over the “Dean” of the Pennsylvania conservative movement the old fashioned way.
President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, Frederick W. Anton III, told the 700 attending the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference last weekend in Camp Hill that Governor Corbett wasn’t his first choice in the 2010 primary election. But that the Governor’s record since the election has been exceedingly persuasive: restrained spending, a strong push to privatize liquor sales and distribution, and promotion of the economic benefits of the Marcellus Shale.
“He deserves our full support in 2014,” Anton said.
Governor Corbett endorsed the state’s conservatives as well. He was the first standing Governor to speak at the annual event. Just a few hours before he spoke, the Governor returned from a trade mission to South America where he said the talk centered on Pennsylvania’s burgeoning supply of energy and proximity to market. We remain hopeful that South America will want to trade with Pennsylvania because of our steadfast leadership principled by what’s best for economic growth.
“They would much rather do business with states that understand what it takes to create jobs and build economies than with a federal government that doesn’t,” Corbett said.
Governor Corbett has also earned the respect of conservatives as one of the nation’s leaders in fighting the implementation of Obamacare. As Attorney General, he sued to overturn the law. As Governor, he has declined to build a health care insurance “exchange” for the federal government and, in the absence of major concessions from the Department of Health and Human Services, he will not expand the Medicaid program. His efforts and those of other conservative leaders to broadcast the truth about Obamacare are working.
Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey said that the system is “unraveling before our very eyes.” Toomey added, “We need a market-based system that puts the patient, not a bureaucracy, at the center of medical decisions.”
Jim DeMint, President of The Heritage Foundation and former U.S. Senator from South Carolina, emphasized the importance of communicating the conservative message in a way that resonates to a larger audience. “We have to get beyond talking about our principles and show our successes,” DeMint said.
DeMint cited school choice as an example. “When you introduce competition among our schools you get to move kids out of dangerous schools with horrible records to schools where the kids can thrive. We have proof of that and we need to get those stories out,” DeMint said.
Each year, PMA is one of the primary sponsors of the two-day conference, which this year also included speeches by Steve Hayes of Fox News, Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports, and panels and workshops featuring other conservative leaders in the Congress, the General Assembly and the private sector.
“This event is one of the highlights of our year because it plays such a large part in helping to grow the conservative principles of free enterprise and limited government,” said PMA Executive Director David N. Taylor.