'A pressure cooker': Pa. governor aims to contain GOP revolt

'A pressure cooker': Pa. governor aims to contain GOP revolt

SeattlePI.com

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — By many accounts, Gov. Tom Wolf has helped mitigate Pennsylvania's coronavirus outbreak and avoided the full-blown disasters seen elsewhere. His success in the next challenge — containing the growing resistance to his efforts — is to be determined.

The Democrat at the helm in one of the premier battlegrounds in November's presidential election is struggling to fight a Republican revolt over his stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. Egged on by state GOP lawmakers, counties have threatened to defy his orders while at least a few business owners have reopened despite his warnings.

The mild-mannered Wolf has had to decide how far to go in enforcing the orders, mindful of criticism that he is nothing short of a tyrant.

The chief instigator behind the Republican strategy, President Donald Trump, is set to visit the state Thursday. Ahead of the trip, Trump stoked the conflict, tweeting that Pennsylvanians “want their freedom now.”

Behind the rhetoric is a political fight as much over people's well-being and public health — federal health officials are aligned with Wolf's cautious approach — as it is over who will be blamed for the state's economic devastation if it is not repaired by Election Day.

Around 2 million Pennsylvania residents have lost their jobs since mid-March, with food and milk giveaways drawing mileslong lines. Meanwhile, some have gone two months without money because of the state’s problem-plagued online unemployment benefits portal.

Republicans in the state, like their counterparts in swing states Michigan and Wisconsin, say they are sticking up for desperate people. But they are also jockeying to ensure that Democratic governors, rather than Trump, take the blame.

“Tom Wolf is going to be as much on the...

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