Wolf calls for people to work together as 2nd term begins
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf kicked off his second term Tuesday with a call for Pennsylvanians to work together to build a stronger, fairer and more prosperous future, and said progress in his first term is proof the state can overcome its challenges.
Wolf, 70, returns for a second term battle-tested and perhaps more pragmatic than the man who waged protracted budget fights before regaining voters’ confidence and sweeping to an easy re-election win in November.
To a great degree, Wolf pronounced his first term a success after delivering an inaugural address four years ago in which he called Pennsylvania a state at a “crossroads” with rickety finances, stagnant wages and a shrinking middle class where voters were cynical about government.
“My fellow Pennsylvanians, we’ve gone from a commonwealth at a crossroads to a commonwealth on a comeback,” Wolf said Tuesday in his 16-minute inaugural address to a crowd of hundreds in near-freezing temperatures.
The Democrat, no longer the outsider who spent $10 million of his own money in winning his first run for the governor’s office, still faces substantial Republican majorities that have proven hostile to large elements of his agenda.
But the theme of a divided government played neatly into Wolf’s remarks as he contended that working across the aisle shows the state is meeting challenges he cited four years ago. On Tuesday, Wolf contended that divided government is working — pre-kindergarten enrollment, high school graduation and employment are up, while the prison population, crime and the uninsured rate are down — and he urged Pennsylvanians to help renew faith in the state’s future.
“I ask you to choose hope over hopelessness, empathy over apathy,” Wolf said in his inaugural address. “I ask you to choose action over passivity. I ask you to take the future of our commonwealth into your own hands and help lead us forward.”
Still, the election left him with more Democratic allies in the Legislature than before, and he seems happy with his new lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, after a first term spent barely speaking with outgoing Lt. Gov. Mike Stack.
Fetterman, 49, was sworn in about two hours before Wolf, in the Senate chambers. Fetterman wore a black suit and tie, a contrast to the sleeveless work shirts, cargo shorts and boots the 6-foot-8, bald and goateed Fetterman was accustomed to wearing as mayor of Braddock.
