Q.  How's the race for the governor's house going? Can you give a realistic prediction of how you will do in November?

A.  At this point, poll numbers are so varied that it is not possible to predict. The campaign has over 6,000 active volunteers, many of whom are Republican committee people — though many are also Democratic committee people. I think the election is winnable. It will be difficult, but winnable. We have more volunteers working for us than the governor does, and the Democrat, Ivan Itkin — a state representative from Pittsburgh — has no campaign.

Q.  What do Gov. Tom Ridge and the Republican establishment think of your current race?

A.  They are divided. There are some Republicans who are actively supporting me, there are some who don't care, and there are some who are very worried. I don't know what the governor thinks. The governor has done an emergency fund-raising mailing which he sent to supporters by overnight mail, asking for more money for television ads because we are currently running ads in all four major markets in Pennsylvania.

Q.  Have you received any public support from high-profile Republicans in politics or business?

A.  Yes. When we did the petition drive, we had to collect signatures, and signing a petition for an elective position is like an endorsement. We had Democrat and Republican state representatives, county commissioners, school board members, and committee people both circulating and signing petitions.

Q.  Do the Democrats consider you a blessing, a chance for them to regain the governorship?

A.  Some say they do, others are saying that Peg Luksik attracts as many Democrat as Republican votes, so the answer would probably be no. It's the kind of division in both parties that we expected to see, between people who actually look at what's happening and those who try to pretend there is no significant change under way.

Q.  How do the lobbyists and the big Pennsylvania corporations view your candidacy? Do they see you as a fly in the ointment, a minor irritant, or a major problem who threatens the smooth running of business as usual?

A.  They are beginning to see me as someone who is going to change business as usual. I don't do deals for dollars. It isn't, "I'll give you this money if you agree to do this." I base my positions on what I believe in, and I don't change them for money. The whole campaign is being run for average people. If I win, that will mean a major shift in the political landscape because, then, a few special interests won't have influence anymore.

So the alarmed groups would be the teachers' unions, trial lawyers, the gamblers, the "pro-choice" establishment. The power groups traditionally associated with Pennsylvania — such as the trade unions and manufacturers — just aren't the power they were in the past — at least at this time. They are still there, they just don't pack the wallop the way they used to.

Q.  After two campaigns, how do you describe your supporters? How broad a base of support do you have?

A.  The base is bigger now than it was before. We are actively supported by pro-life people across the state, who have now been joined by Second Amendment folks, farmers, and parental rights organizations, small businessmen, in some areas by the environmental groups, and people who just want to be done with status quo politics.

There are a lot of geographic issues that pop up: In Pittsburgh, for example, the proposed stadiums were voted down in referendums, but the politicians are pushing them through anyway, and so people are really upset about that. A number of local issues like that pull people into the campaign.

The People's Priorities

Q.  When you go among the voters, what are the issues that concern them most?

A.  The first issue that always comes up, no matter where I am or what I am there to talk about, is abortion. The first question people ask, if they don't know me, is "Where are you on abortion?," because some people don't know. When I tell them, they say, hooray, yippee. It cuts about 80% positive, which is great.

Taxes are the second most-often raised question. Pennsylvania has one of the highest inheritance tax rates in the nation, and property taxes are a burning issue in a lot of areas. Communities are maxed out, so the assessments have to change. Senior citizens on fixed incomes are facing 50% higher taxes in some areas.

Guns are probably the third issue. Pennsylvania probably has the largest number of gun owners per capita in the country, and the state is trying to restrict gun ownership. Gov. Ridge has passed laws restricting ownership, so it is both a state and a national interest here.

Q.  Do you believe the polls which indicate that Americans don't care about Bill Clinton's perjury and obstruction of justice are accurate? If so, how do you explain that?

A.  No, I do not. People are absolutely outraged. What I hear on the campaign trail is that he is a disgrace and that he should resign. Does everybody say that? No. Some people say it's his private life and he can do what he wants; then, there are some people who say, "I'm appalled, but let's stop talking about it."

Q.  Do you believe that most voters or potential voters view the Republican and Democrat Parties as the right and left wing of the same bird of prey?

A.  Yes. What people across the state are saying is there is no difference between the two parties; what the politicians care about is power and they don't care about me. What this election will tell is how widespread this feeling is. I really don't know if it is a majority feeling yet.

Q.  You are a pro-life Catholic running against a pro-abortion Catholic Gov. Ridge. Has there been any support from prominent Catholic ecclesiastics or politicians in the state for your candidacy?

A.  No. We don't put the bishops on the spot. It would be nice to see some support, because it is confusing to Catholics when clergy and bishops give the appearance of supporting pro-abortion politicians such as Ridge.

Q.  Are Catholic voters in Pennsylvania generally satisfied with Gov. Ridge?

A.  No, but most of them don't know where he stands on issues like abortion, which is just starting to surface as an issue. In 1994, he said he would support the Abortion Control Act, the state's abortion law. A lot of people thought that meant he was pro-life. He's not, and he hasn't supported the Abortion Control Act, and because of that, we have the new abortion clinic in State College.

Facing The Educrats

Q.  The Wanderer first interviewed you in 1990, when you were leading the fight against so-called school reform. Can you give us an update on what happened with the Pennsylvania School Reform Legislation?

A.  We beat the legislation, and then the State Board of Education, which is an appointed body, implemented the reform through the regulatory process.

Every time that the new education reform bill — outcome-based education — came up in the legislature, legislators voted against it because, clearly, the people did not want it. It was the most opposed legislation in the history of Pennsylvania. And we really did have legislators who said they had thousands of phone calls urging them to vote against it.

But the State Board of Education, which is appointed by the governor, implemented it anyway. Later, the secretary of education told the public that the state had to implement this program to receive Goals 2000 money from the federal government.

This is still a burning issue here, because we continue to move forward with the "reform" and people are angry about what they see happening to their schools. Gov. Ridge attempted to head the issue off, by doing a big public relations campaign this summer as part of his re-election campaign. He claimed OBE was dead in Pennsylvania. The reality is that OBE is alive and well.

Ridge is signing federal contracts, taking federal money and he couldn't get his school-to-work legislation passed last year, so he used executive orders to begin the process.

Q.  If you should be elected governor, what will be your first policies with regard to the education establishment?

A.  The first thing that has to be done at this point is to legally remove us from the federal contracts. All these contracts have to be renewed every year, and if they are not, they end.

The second thing of utmost importance is to select the right people to run the agencies. At this point, it is not just the education department that runs education; all the departments are interlinked. You have the departments of labor, health and welfare all involved in running the schools because Ridge moved to make the schools one-stop-shopping centers for health care, social services, job training, and so on.

So all your appointments become critical.

Zero-Based Budgeting

Q.  As governor, what will be your other priorities? What, realistically, can be accomplished?

A.  Through the budget, a lot can be accomplished. I believe in zero-based budgeting. Instead of looking at last year's numbers as ground zero, you actually take the budget down to zero, and look at every dollar spent.

If your business has problems, and you bring in a troubleshooter, this is what the troubleshooter does. Instead of saying: We were really efficient when we spent that money, zero-based budgeting asks: Should we spend that money at all?

I think we could eliminate a lot of things. One small humorous issue is road maps. Every time we have a new governor, we throw out all the road maps with the old governor's picture on them. Why? The roads haven't changed. Road maps end up being paid political advertisements.

The bigger example I use is education. We had a national assessment test in which it was discovered that 39% of fourth graders are illiterate. Ridge responded with a plan to spend $100 million to improve literacy at the local level. That is a typical politician's response.

Now if you move to a business approach, the first thing you say is 39% of the delivery system isn't working. Before we spend a nickel, we have to find out why it isn't working, where it isn't working, and how. No self-respecting businessman would say I'm going to spend more money.

And yet, no politician is asking the specific questions: Who isn't reading and why? The way Ridge's program works is that he's offering to match local spending: The local district puts up two dollars for each one dollar it gets from the state. That means that the rich districts will get more money than the poor districts. Does that mean the nonreaders are in the rich districts? If the nonreaders are in the rich district, then money is not the problem, and so money is not the solution.

But if the nonreaders are in the poor districts, then why are we putting the money in the rich districts? Why don't the politicians and bureaucrats ask those commonsense questions?

Q.  You are affiliated with Howard Phillips Taxpayers Party. Are you receiving any support from national figures associated with Phillips? Are there any prominent figures backing your campaign or campaigning for you?

A.  Phillips himself is supporting the campaign, and Paul Weyrich has come to Pennsylvania to say he backs us. Joe Sobran has been here and supported me. But we really haven't sought to line up a roster of dignitaries.

Free-Trade Disaster Area

Q.  Howard Phillips is a major crusader against the New World Order, free trade, international agreements, the United Nations, and the rest of the foreign policy agenda of the Wall Street and Washington elites.

Do these issues affect Pennsylvanians? Is there any reaction against, say, free-trade policies in Pennsylvania? Has the Pennsylvania economy flourished since the early '80s and the downsizing of the iron and steel industry and affiliated industries? Has the state successfully moved into the new global economy?

A.  These are all big issues in Pennsylvania. Free trade has affected us negatively. The manufacturing jobs are leaving the state. We're seeing the huge industries moving to China, Mexico, and Korea and paying slave wages. Nationally, personal bankruptcies are increasing at a higher rate than ever before, and Pennsylvania has the highest rate of bankruptcies in the nation. The steel industry is largely gone, and now farming is going down, as the family farms are replaced by huge pig and chicken farms.

What is surfacing as a pattern is this: Dad used to have a fairly high-paying manufacturing job. That's gone. Now mom and dad are both working, for less income than what dad used to make by himself. So the family uses plastic to try to feed and clothe the kids. So many families are at the end of their credit, can't pay their mortgages, can't feed and clothe their kids.

Q.  Do you expect to see national Republican leaders coming into Pennsylvania to support Gov. Ridge, to ensure that he remains on the radar screen as a national figure?

A.  No. It's just speculation, but what we're seeing is that Sen. Rick Santorum is traveling nationally. If Ridge doesn't win, then Santorum will be the focus of national attention.

Q.  If you should defeat, or cause the defeat of, Gov. Ridge, do you think that will send a message to the Republican leadership? If so, what do you think the leaders will or should learn?

A.  That you walk away from social morality at your risk. The message they should learn is that you can't have sound fiscal policy without sound social morality. The people are learning this; it's a question of how long it will take the politicians to learn this.