Published in the Butler Eagle, by John Boiarski

March 1, 2014

When voters elected Republican Tom Corbett governor in 2010, they did not send him to Harrisburg to make friends.

“You sent him to make a difference,” said his wife, Susan Corbett, who was the keynote speaker Friday at the Butler County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner at the Butler Country Club.

The governor was supposed to speak, but he had surgery on Thursday and was unable to attend.

As governor, Susan Corbett said he promised a smaller government, less taxes and more jobs.

She said her husband has greatly reduced the state budget and reduced state government to its smallest size in 50 years. Since coming to office, she said he helped create 151,000 new private sector jobs in the state.

“And he did it without raising taxes ... just as he promised,” Corbett said.

The governor is up for re-election, and seven Democrats are running in the May 20 primary for their party's nomination to challenge Corbett. But Susan Corbett said all of the Democrats have “baggage.”

Despite widely quoted poll numbers that say a Democrat would beat her husband, the first lady of Pennsylvania said the polls are not reliable.

“Remember, the only poll that counts is the poll on Election Day,” she said.

She noted that her husband has run for statewide office three times, had been underestimated each time and won each time.

She said that her husband has to be re-elected to avoid “tax and spend” policies.

“He still has a lot more that he wants to do,” Corbett said, pointing out that her husband has plans for education reform, for solving the state pension crisis, for liquor privatization and for private sector growth.

In talking about why her husband got into politics, Susan Corbett said when he first ran for public office for commissioner for Shaler Township, Allegheny County, he was circulating nominating petitions to get on the ballot. His wife found out he was running by talking to her dentist.

“He forgot to tell me,” she said.

When she challenged him that evening about his plans, he ripped the petition up. Later, they began discussing his idea of running for office, and she realized something.

“That he was doing it for the right reasons,” Corbett said.

She said they sat on the floor and taped the petition up. He won that election and started his political career.

When he ran for state attorney general, she said she really supported him. While in that office, from 2005 to 2011, he established an elder abuse unit and an Internet predator unit, and he took steps to prosecute pedophile Jerry Sandusky, a coach at Penn State, she said.

“In six years, he really changed the culture in Harrisburg,” Corbett said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, of Butler introduced Susan Corbett. He said her husband went to Harrisburg to run a state that had a lot of debt. He said the governor made the right decisions to help fix that.

“He's kept his word,” Kelly said.

(John Boiarski, "Susan Corbett says husband kept promises," 3/1/14)