The redraw of congressional districts, which starts next year, is done by legislation approved by the governor. A sitting, and especially first-term, governor has clout in saying where lines get drawn. That could help shape Congress.
In presidential politics, the candidate of the party of the sitting governor here carried the state in six of the last nine elections. Clearly, a governor can't always deliver; just as clearly, he's an asset.
So it's a big deal.
Yet polling, including a new poll yesterday by Quinnipiac University, suggests voters aren't tuned in or don't much care. This despite the major-party candidates have been running for more than a year, including in contested primaries back in May.
The poll shows 44 percent of voters don't know enough about Republican Tom Corbett to "form an opinion," and a majority, 52 percent, feel the same about Democrat Dan Onorato.
I suggest y'all start forming.
One of these two Pittsburghers runs the state after January and runs right into a no-money-for-nothin' budget cycle with a potential $5 billion deficit. What then?
Corbett, the twice-elected state attorney general, pledges no new taxes, government cost-cutting and reforms in Harrisburg.
He's the guy putting state lawmakers in the slammer. He's also the guy suing to stop President Obama's health care and the guy who recently suggested the unemployed won't look for work as long as they get government benefits for not working. (He since said he really didn't mean that, he just didn't speak clearly.)
Onorato, the twice-elected executive of Allegheny County, promises jobs, government efficiencies and reforms in Harrisburg.
He's called "Rendell Lite." His campaign pitch sounds like Ed's first run, as in "I did good things for Pittsburgh [Philly], so I can do good things for the state." And he hammers Corbett on the unemployment thing as either callous or clueless.
