Tom Wolf begins second term as Pennsylvania governor

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 politician 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 outside the Capitol’s East Wing.

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 in the Legislature 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. A somber 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 the down-on-its-luck steel town of Braddock.

Chief Justice Thomas Saylor of the state Supreme Court administered Wolf’s oath of office, using a 19th century Bible from Wolf’s family.

During his remarks, Wolf said his toughest day in office during his first term was Oct. 27, when a gunman killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

A survivor of that attack, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, delivered an invocation before Wolf’s swearing-in.

Myers, who said he has stopped using the word “hate” in the wake of the attack, asked that God grant Wolf “the recognition that the vast majority of people are good people, and that their goodness will always overcome others who use the h-word in speech and deed.”

Wolf on Tuesday gave no insight into his second-term initiatives, although he previously has said he plans to push for policies to fight climate change, improve public education, fix inequities in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system and make voting easier and more secure.

From all appearances, Wolf has emerged from his first term with a more realistic outlook about what is politically possible. In his first year, he fought — and lost — a record nine-month budget stalemate over his proposal for a multibillion-dollar tax increase.

But Wolf has since emphasized the benefits of fiscal austerity, restoring trust in government, and achieving bipartisan agreement.

Since that first budget fight, Wolf indeed changed, said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.

“I have found him to certainly always reach over, always have a conversation, always listen and have an understanding,” Scarnati said in an interview Tuesday.

Marcus Williams, a retired boilermaker, made the two-hour drive from Philadelphia with his ex-wife to sit on the cold, metal stands to support Wolf, who he called a “level-headed” man who can broker compromises to satisfy a politically moderate American majority.

The mild-mannered Wolf spent most of his adulthood running a family building supply company in York County and was prominent in civic affairs in York. He was a longtime donor to Democratic political causes and served as then-Gov. Ed Rendell’s revenue secretary during 2007-08.

Wolf attended Dartmouth College before earning a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fetterman, 49, made his name as Braddock’s mayor and became a minor media darling for his efforts to help revive it. Fetterman beat Stack in the Democratic primary last year and was elected with Wolf in November.