{"id":15321,"date":"2018-05-07T08:16:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T12:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=15321"},"modified":"2018-05-07T08:16:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T12:16:54","slug":"endorsement-ellsworth-for-gop-gov-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=15321","title":{"rendered":"Endorsement: Ellsworth for GOP Gov. nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7164\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/LauraEllsworth.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7164\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7164\" src=\"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/LauraEllsworth-350x298.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7164\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laura Ellsworth<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">This year\u2019s Republican primary for Governor has been an unprecedented mess, one that is bad for the commonwealth and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Candidates Paul Mango and Scott Wagner have waged a scorched-Earth battle \u2014 essentially handing Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf more than enough material to rout either \u2014 in a deeply personal and juvenile campaign for governor.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Both have plastered the airwaves with cheap shots, half-truths and worse about each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">While attempting to reveal the worst about each other, what both have done is demonstrate that neither has judgment or temperament to serve as governor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Meanwhile, all too often ignored by the media, which is focused on the food fight, a third candidate has offered substance over style, maturity over daycare-level vitriol and a solid grasp of policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That candidate is Laura Ellsworth, a Pittsburgh-area attorney.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">With Wagner or Mango at the top of the ticket, Republicans will go down to a significant defeat in the gubernatorial race and suffer long-term damage among moderate, educated voters, such as those found here in Chester County.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But if voters were to choose Ellsworth \u2014 and defy the party leadership which has gone all in with Wagner \u2014 Pennsylvania could look forward to an intelligent policy debate between Wolf and Ellsworth. Yes, as with all campaigns, it will get rough at times, but there would be substance, discussion and real debate about the future of Pennsylvania \u2014 badly needed for a state that is among the worst managed in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A vote for Mango or Wagner could consign the Republican Party to oblivion, whereas supporting Ellsworth would allow the party to put forward a candidate in the tradition of Tom Ridge and Richard Thornburgh \u2014 both of whom get high marks as among the best ever to serve as our commonwealth\u2019s governor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you dislike divisive, nasty pointless politics, you have only one sensible choice on the May 15 ballot: <em>The Times<\/em> endorses Laura Ellsworth for the Republican nomination for governor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s Republican primary for Governor has been an unprecedented mess, one that is bad for the commonwealth and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania. Candidates Paul Mango and Scott Wagner have waged a scorched-Earth battle \u2014 essentially handing Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf more than enough material to rout either \u2014 in a deeply personal and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1670,3162,942,6983,690],"class_list":["post-15321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-endorsement","tag-featured","tag-governor","tag-laura-ellsworth","tag-republican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15322,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321\/revisions\/15322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}