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The politically savvy and self-described “scrappy” Katie McGinty deserves a shot at serving in the U.S. Senate.
McGinty, 52, combines a mom’s sensibility, a lawyer’s intellect and an innate likability with an impressive background in public service. She chaired the White House Council on Environmental Quality for much of the 1990s and, between 2003 and 2008, headed Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Most recently, the Chester County resident worked as chief of staff in Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration; she resigned after less than a year to run her current campaign.
However, McGinty emphasizes, “I’m not just a creature of government.” She cites, for instance, the “humbling experience of starting my own business.”
The ever-ambitious McGinty, who told us she aspires to serve on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, receives the Times Leader Opinion Board’s endorsement in the Democratic primary. Voting will be held Tuesday.
Four candidates are vying to become the Democratic Party’s nominee to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Zionsville, in November’s general election. The victor of that contest will represent Pennsylvania in conjunction with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Scranton.
If elected, McGinty said, she looks forward to championing causes with Casey including the push for universal pre-kindergarten education.
She also supports the senior senator’s efforts to safeguard water from the potential impacts of natural gas drilling, revising legislation to close the so-called “Halliburton loophole.” “But I would go further,” she said, to ban the industry’s injection of wastewater into the earth. Seismologists say the practice has led to an uptick in small earthquakes in states such as Oklahoma and Texas.
Senate hopeful Joe Sestak, a former two-term congressman, differs on this issue; he favors a moratorium on the natural gas-extraction technique known as fracking.
Sestak, 64, is seeking a rematch with Toomey, to whom he lost the 2010 election by about two percentage points. Sestak is highly credentialed (a retired three-star admiral, having been the first director of the Navy’s “Deep Blue” anti-terrorism unit) and extremely committed (crisscrossing the state on foot to meet with potential voters, hear their issues and raise his profile).
Fellow contender John Fetterman, 46, the mayor of Braddock, a borough in western Pennsylvania, also comes across as the genuine article with strong convictions. His platform springs from concerns about fairness and a desire to see vitality restored to the state’s economically depressed communities.
Joe Vodvarka, 72, a resident of Allegheny County, didn’t mount an aggressive campaign or schedule a meeting with the Times Leader’s Opinion Board because of a court challenge by Sestak to his nominating petitions. On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court ruled in Vodvarka’s favor, permitting his name to appear on the ballot.
If McGinty, whom the Democratic establishment has showered with endorsements and campaign funding, succeeds in getting elected, she would help to tilt the gender scale in the male-dominated Senate. More important, she could use her extensive party contacts to get things done for Pennsylvania residents.