Tom Corbett

WE DON'T generally comment on statements made by candidates in the midst of a campaign, but Tom Corbett made one last week that warrants an objection. At a campaign event, the Republican gubernatorial nominee blamed unemployment on the unemployed. The jobs are there, he said, explaining that he knows this because he's heard repeatedly from business owners across the state that they can't find workers to fill open positions. He exhorted those unlucky enough to be jobless: "Get off your duff and go to work.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett is being hypocritical in his embrace of the new federal health-care law. On his campaign website this week, Corbett said the reform approved by Democrats in Washington "offers great opportunity to extend coverage to thousands more people throughout Pennsylvania. " Of course, Corbett noted, the law advocated by President Obama first must survive "the current legal challenge of attorneys general from across the country. " Well, he omitted one small detail.

Former Bucks County congressman Pat Murphy is running again - for state attorney general. Murphy, a Democrat who lost his reelection bid last fall to Republican Mike Fitzpatrick, announced today that he will seek his party's nomination for state attorney general in 2012. "I've spent my entire life protecting American families, Murphy said in a prepared statement. "I'm running for attorney general because I want to continue that important work and make sure that the people of Pennsylvania have an advocate who will fight crime wherever it is - on the streets, in corporate boardrooms, or in Harrisburg.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett acknowledged today he goofed in saying jobless people do not want to return to work while they are still able to collect unemployment. In an interview on CBS3, Corbett said, "I regret that in that one statement, I may not have been clear or complete as I possibly could. " He said he was repeating a story he heard from "five, six, seven different people across the state of Pennsylvania that they weren't able to get workers. " "So there are some jobs out there," Corbett said.

TODAY, Pennsylvania enters the Tom Corbett era. The former state attorney general and Pittsburgh city councilman takes office during turbulent times, with a $4 billion hole in the state budget looming. Dealing with Pennsylvania's lingering fiscal problems is priority No. 1, but we're hopeful that Corbett can also make progress in an important area that has long stalled in Harrisburg: political reform. He made the most convincing argument for reform in decades . . . before even taking one action as governor.

MONTGOMERY County Commissioner Bruce Castor is mulling a challenge to Gov. Corbett in the 2014 Republican primary. Castor cites three reasons for thinking Corbett is vulnerable. * Corbett's role as state attorney general in the Penn State child- abuse scandal that sent former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to prison is about to get a close review by a Democrat, Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane. "It could get very uncomfortable for the governor in very short order," Castor said.

Legislation to toughen Pennsylvania's sex offender laws will be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett in Harrisburg this morning. By expanding reporting requirements for convicted sex offenders, Pennsylvania will become the 15th state in compliance with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. That federal law was named for the boy whose aduction and murder in 1981 led his father, John, to become the longtime host of the Fox TV show America's Most Wanted . The connection is why the legislation, which toughens the state's "Megan's Law," has been called "the Adam Walsh Bill.

When he was running for governor two years ago, Tom Corbett's position papers said he would provide "an open, transparent, accountable and trustworthy government. " So why did it take two weeks for the Corbett administration to acknowledge a $75,000 contract in the voter ID case, awarded to a Philadelphia law firm that had helped his campaign? Despite its public commitment to transparency, the administration is not answering questions about its contract with the law firm Drinker, Biddle & Reath.

HARRISBURG - In the heat of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Republican candidate Tom Corbett stirred controversy, and fodder for Democrats, by saying many jobless people "are just going to sit there" and not seek work until their unemployment benefits ran out. Now, midway through his first term and positioning himself to run for a second, Gov. Corbett is taking renewed heat for quoting employers as saying they "can't find anybody that ... has...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato renewed his attacks on Republican rival Tom Corbett on Wednesday, contending Corbett had first impugned the motives of some jobless Pennsylvanians more than three months ago. "Tom Corbett has said since March that he thinks Pennsylvanians would rather be unemployed than earning money for their families," Onorato said at a rally in Philadelphia that featured labor leaders and job-seekers. The City Hall event was part of a campaign swing as Onorato, trailing in a recent poll, tried to capitalize on Corbett's comments last week.