Trash-hauling millionaire Wagner GOP pick to challenge Wolf
HARRISBURG, Pa. — State senator and waste-hauling millionaire Scott Wagner won Tuesday’s three-way Republican primary contest to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, capping a personal spending spree that helped make Wagner the front-runner and the GOP’s endorsed candidate.
Wagner defeated two first-time candidates from the Pittsburgh area, Paul Mango and Laura Ellsworth, surviving weeks of Mango’s attack ads that painted Wagner as sleazy, greedy and a “deadbeat dad.” Along the way, Wagner pumped more than $10 million of his own cash into his campaign.
Embracing the idea he’s the garbage man coming to clean up a profligate state government that chokes the economy with regulations and taxes, Wagner told the crowd at his election night party in York, “The trucks are empty, and they’re ready to go.” He accused Wolf of being “for sale” to moneyed campaign interests that have given him millions of dollars, such as labour unions.
“The people of Pennsylvania can and should have a governor who’s on their side, someone who’s a lot like them, and I’m a lot like all of you,” Wagner said.