Anthony Hardy Williams (his Web site says his initials also stand for "Always Hard Working") was elected to the House in 1988. Ten years later, he won the Senate seat held by his father, has been re-elected since, mostly with no opposition, and faces re-election this year.
He intends to file nominating papers for governor and Senate because "my first job is as state Senator and I hadn't planned on running for governor."
It's a risky strategy. Pols are suspect. Pols hedging bets are super-suspect. But it worked for him before. He filed for and won both a House and a Senate seat in 1998, then left the former to serve in the latter.
Williams says he's serious about the governor's race because Philly's Tom Knox got out and other candidates - Allegheny County exec Dan Onorato, state Auditor General Jack Wagner, Montco Commissioner Joe Hoeffel and (at least for now) Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty - aren't really talking about issues Williams wants his party to push.
"We've got to talk about chronic unemployment, poverty becoming part of Pennsylvania, about education being done in more competitive ways, about job training being done differently and about cutting taxes," Williams says.
This, if you notice, goes beyond normal Democratic spiels. He's talking about school choice, cutting taxes and bypassing government job training in favor of subsidizing businesses to train workers themselves.
When I ask if this stance is in any way tied to the passing of his father, who was known for speaking past party lines, he says, "no doubt that's part of it . . . I think he's someplace laughing about it . . . [but] speaking the truth about issues, yeah, that's his voice."
